Play Something

Anyone who knows what it feels like to train for a sport and be focused day in and day out on your goals for that sport knows how hard that can be mentally. There are no new tricks or revolutionary training methods for success. Consistency, effort, dedication and time are the key ingredients to elite level success regardless of your chosen sport. However, we all know that day in and day out of this type of training can almost drive you crazy. In fact, I am of the opinion that it takes a little lunacy to train that way for enough time to be really good at a sport.
For this reason I believe it is important to have other passions. If all I ever did was lift eventually burnout would happen. That’s why it’s important to spend time out of the gym doing other things. If you’ve watched the YouTube film series of the Polish weightlifting techniques you’ll notice that they often play basketball and volleyball as part of their training. I play golf and volleyball and football for the same reasons. It helps me develop GPP and more importantly clear my mind.
You will meet no coach or lifter who doesn’t believe in the importance of consistent, constant, regular training. However, to ensure you are able to train for the extended period of time that it takes to be elite, do yourself a favor and find something to play. Something where you enjoy and hopefully something you’re good at.