Everybody knows those days when they are on their way to the gym or the weight room and everything in their mind and body is telling them to take a rest day. Everybody has those days where it makes perfect sense to rearrange your programming and just do recovery or rest. Anybody who has been involved in sports for any amount of time knows what those days feel like. So often we want to listen to our bodies and give into our mental weakness and cover it up by calling it “smart training.” I have heard so many coaches and athletes advocated taking a “rest day” when they were planning on lifting and concealing it by calling it smart training. The reality is that they just didn’t want to go to war with the barbell that day.
Yesterday was one of those days for me. The transition from one phase of my training into the next created a little bit of soreness, whole lot of fatigue, and a mental state where training with the last thing I wanted to do. However I’ve been in those shoes multiple times for multiple years. What I found is that on those days is when my body often exceeds my expectations. I literally don’t give my Creator enough credit. How can my body, created by a omnipotent God, not be able to withstand a little bit of a beating and come roaring back the next day? My body is capable of more than I give it credit for. I hit the gym knowing that my mind was playing games with me and that I was just as capable of big lifts as any other day. Turns out it was a good day.
I can’t advise strongly enough to train when your program says the train and rest only when it says to rest. Routine is your friend in the sport of weightlifting. Routine is consistent. Routine creates the breadth of time you need to be good at the sport. Ignore your mind, ignore the little aches and pains and the extra soreness you have today and hit the gym running. Your body is capable of more than you give it credit for.