10 ways to get out of a slump and ready to train
Everybody, including professional athletes have days when they don’t feel like training. For whatever reason you might not be in the mood to train when the time comes. You maybe tired after a long day’s work or there maybe a greater temptation to sit inside in the warmth in front of the television. All these natural feelings can easily be overcome and after completing your training session you’ll wonder why you had those feelings in the first place.
Here’s a list of ten things you can do to get yourself ready for training. You don’t need to do all ten but they are all worth exploring:-
1. Read something inspirational. Get a book that’ll pump you up. Something on physical training works best for me. Read about how hard others train and you’ll get in the mood.
2. Watch something inspirational. It doesn’t have to be a full movie! You can just go on YouTube and find videos of others training hard or doing something inspirational; just a short clip will work.
If you find a good one, bookmark it and use it again and again. Here are some great examples:-
Unlikely hero:
The dad of all dads; now you have no excuses:
Usain Bolt – Impossible to Possible
Two of the greatest sporting feats you will ever see. In Berlin, Bolt broke both his own World Records set in Bejing just one year before, each by the same massive margin of 0.11 secs. Astonishing
100m World Record in 9:58
200m World Record 19:19
3. Listen to something inspirational. Music can evoke emotional states. Listen to a song that’ll get you ready to train. I almost never listen to music while I’m training but before hand is a different matter.
4. Warm-up dynamically. I covered this is an earlier article with the Medicine Ball Blaster. This primes the body physically and neurologically. After this, you will feel your body is primed and ready to take on the main work-out, when beforehand it may have been feeling sluggish.
5. Deep breathing. Take a moment to stand still and breathe deeply. Use your mind and get into the ‘ready to train hard’ state. There are many ways to do it but I find breathing in through the nose slowly and then exhaling forcefully through the mouth works great. You can also use the Eischens Yoga sequence as shown in a previous newsletter.
6. Keep your training sessions short, but intense. When you know it’ll be over quickly it’s easier to get started. If your workouts only last 20-30 minutes it’s a lot easier to get through it all than if you have hour or longer sessions. (Which are normally a waist since you are not training hard)
7. Have a power nap. Depending on when you train you could benefit from a bit of sleep in the early afternoon. Just 15 minutes will do it. Anything longer and you’ll go into REM sleep and will probably wake up more tired than before. Most people don’t get enough sleep as it is, so this could be the energy booster you need.
8. Picture yourself having finished your workout. This is so important.
How are you going to feel when you finish the workout having made gains as oppose to not doing anything? Compare that to how bad or guilty you’d feel later for ditching the workout for the day. Which feeling would you rather want?
9. Accountability. You are of course accountable for what you’re supposed to do. But think about having to tell someone else you admire in the fitness world that you skipped your work out because you ‘didn’t quite feel like it’. Excuses; we all have them, search for the reasons, not the excuses.
10. Just get on with it. Get started. If you begin the first exercise and do it you are well on the way to completing the workout. Well begun is half done as the old saying goes.
These ideas are sure to help you if you’re not feeling up to a workout on any given day. But in reality they should make up part of your pre-workout routine every time you train. They’ll give you an added edge to make you train harder every time.
Just the other day I completed a hard high level workout of Kettlebell snatches and I had a late night, going to bed feeling jaded. I had almost convinced myself that the following day I was going to skip the following day’s work-out. However, I watched a short video of the guys and the girls at Monkey Bar Gym using the new Jungle Gym XT and I knew I had to train. What’s more I had a great training session and even achieved a PB which was a complete surprise. In fact I was so inspired by my work-out that I wrote this article. After all, what would I have written to you today if I had cancelled the workout?