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Peaks and Valleys of Training

Oh, hello.

Remember me?

It’s Tony.

You know, the guy who used to joke about having pecs that could cut diamonds1 and who also wrote a ton of content on this site?

Well, as you can see 1) I’m still alive, and 2) the website has had a bit of a facelift since I’ve last posted anything. I’m still getting used to it myself. Looks pretty legit, right? RIGHT???

To update you on my life:

  1. I opened a brand spankin new 5500 sq. foot gym here in Boston with my wife, Dr. Lisa Lewis, called Core Collective.2
  2. Julian is now in the 2nd grade.
  3. The best movie I’ve seen so far this year is Sing, Sing.
  4. I’m still jacked.
  5. That’s pretty much it.

Although, if I am being honest, on that last point (the still being jacked part), I’ve been a little more “jacked up” than “jacked.”

I.e, the Cambridge Dictionary definition:

Having strong, well-developed muscles, especially as a result of working out

The fitness industry is likely one of the most fake and fickle industries out there. No where will you find more photoshopped images, self-aggrandizing, and exercises NO-ONE actually performs once the publish button has been pressed.

All of it in an effort to accrue maximum “likes,” comments, and/or potentially more clicks on that industrial strength diarrhea inducer detox tea affiliate link. More to the point, social media tends to be a facade of everyone’s best life. Decadent looking dinner plates on tables. Cat pics. Our best feats and accomplishments. Our best angles under good lighting.

I’m not judging or bemoaning anything. I do it too…to a degree.

Which segues into the inspiration behind my first piece of writing since the last solar eclipse.

Training (and by extension…Progress) Comes in Peaks and Valleys

Lift heavy things

This past March, while walking from my car to the gym, I slipped on a patch of black ice and did what can only be described as the “World’s Fastest and Most Un-Graceful Sissy Squat.”Both of my knees slammed into the pavement and I felt a slight pop in my right.

Needless to say it didn’t feel great. Thankfully, when all was said and done, I didn’t suffer a catastrophic injury, having ruled out any ligament tears or obvious structural damage. However, in the month’s since it’s been an on-going nuisance working around things in order to train and workout the way I am accustomed to.

While I have still been consistent with my training…

#findyourtrainablemenu
#trainablemenu

…to say that I haven’t been frustrated would be an understatement. I’d say that from March of this past year to roughly two weeks ago, it’s been the worst stretch of training in my adult life. My desire to train was less than exemplary, there’s no question I was going through the motions, and not surprisingly all of my lifts took a bit of a hit.

And that’s kinda what I want to highlight.

I want to keep it real and remind people that there are always going to be inevitable speed bumps, road blocks, and general windows of clusterfuckery that will affect your training.

Progress is never going to be linear.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

There will always be peaks AND valleys

Now, what causes those valleys to occur can be anyone’s guess:

  1. Injury
  2. Work and family obligations
  3. Vacation
  4. Season four of Slow Horses started.
  5. Explosive diarrhea
  6. It’s a Tuesday

The important thing to keep in mind is that, 1) despite what social media will lead you to believe, even those coaches/trainers/influencers you look up to the most have setbacks in their training (trust me) and 2) setbacks are normal and will undoubtedly happen.

There are a handful of strategies I’d encourage you to try when this happens.

1. Again, I can’t reiterate this enough…it’s normal

It won’t last forever, it will pass

    2. Reframe and Prioritize a New Lift or Body Part

    If your knees are cranky and you can’t hit your lower body as aggressively as you’d like, it might be an opportune time to prioritize your bench or overhead press or, I don’t know, your kipping pull-ups.

    Except, there’s never an opportune time to prioritize kipping pull-ups because they’re absurd.

    Photo by Alora Griffiths on Unsplash

    3. Find Your Trainable Menu

    Pigging back on the above, focus on what you CAN do rather than what you CAN’T do. I have never had a client who was working around an injury show up for a session and not feel better by the end of it because they did something.

    4. Choose One Lift, Do That, and Leave

    I actually like this approach a lot when I am feeling beat up (or traveling). Psychologically speaking there’s something to it. I know that if my intention is to train one lift hard and that’s all I plan to do for that particular training session it helps set me up for success. As an example it may look something like this:

    A. Barbell Romanian Deadlift – Work up to 1×5 @ RPE 8

    B. Accumulate 15 total reps at 90% of top set above.

    C. Wu-Tang is for the children.

    Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

    Of course there are a plethora of other scenarios and options to choose from, but those are the ones that come up at the top of my head. I hope they help.

    1. But I wasn’t really joking ↩︎
    2. It’s pretty legit. Half of the space is dedicated toward appointment only personal training. The other half has dedicated “wellness” offices for physical therapy (Ripple Boston), chiropractic services (Stephen Laski), pelvic floor therapy (Dr. Mariam Taha), nutritional services (Cristine Seitz), and mental health therapy. Of note, 2% of the space is sequestered off for freestyle rap battles, Jason Bourne fight scene reenactments, and the occasional hug. Just because. ↩︎