(a day late! it's a busy time of year!)
It’s that time of year.
Cookies. Chocolate covered everything. Schedules so completely out of whack that even the most dedicated lifter might find it difficult to say if it’s “Shoulder Day” or “Leg Day.”
Last week, I returned to the gym after almost a month off. I was travelling for three weeks, and even though I had access to a gym for most of my trip, it was still difficult to stay on schedule, to keep my routine amidst the off-kilterness that being in foreign country can bring. During my trip, I pined for the gym. Longed for it. Wanted nothing more than to strap on my Oly shoes, cinch my belt tight and get to squatting. Or deads. Or hell, I rationalized with myself while sitting in German café enjoying a coffee, I’d settle for bench right now. (For the record, bench is likely my worst compound lift. It’s just so darn hard) That said, I did what I could while I was travelling – lots of plyo work, too many burpees than I care to remember and enough tuck jumps to make me think I could reach the moon. I wasn’t lifting, but I was doing something, and hoped it would be enough to help me maintain what I work so hard for day in and day out.
When I finally returned to the States, I was eager to get back to the gym. Sunday night, jet lagged and confused about what time it really was versus what time my body felt like it was, I packed my gym back with care and set it by my door. Prepped my coffee and my pre-workout food, and imagined how great it was going to feel to attack upper body with the vengeance of a woman three weeks out from the gym. I could almost feel the pure power that comes from pressing and pulling, and man was I hyped.
Monday morning at 5am found me waiting for the doors of my gym to be unlocked. I made a bee line for the first bench I saw and promptly loaded it with my working weight … from three weeks ago. Turned up my tunes and set my mind right; went to press the weight and NOTHING HAPPENED. I glanced left to right, thinking maybe I’d accidentally loaded too much. Nope, the weight was right. So what was wrong?
Much to my dismay, the three weeks off from real lifting meant that for three weeks my muscles weren’t being activated in the ways they are accustomed. My working weight from the beginning of November was in no way my working weight for the beginning of December. I am a stubborn broad, and didn’t want to accept this truth, so I tried again. Nothing.
I had to accept that in order to make it through my first day back, I had to deload. A lot.
I grumbled, I fussed, but still I stripped the bar, knowing that trying to get up a weight that I’m not ready for will only cause injury. It was deflating, and a bruise on my ego.
Either way, I made it through the sweat, admittedly at much lower weights than I was used to. That 30 pound dumbbell shoulder press that used to be so easy? See ya later. I had to go down by ten. My reverse flies that were finally starting to move up in weight? Nope. Back to the beginnings.
It would have been super easy for me to get discouraged after my first day back and to throw in the towel, rationalizing because it’s the Holiday Season, I can just go ahead and take another month off. I could have made the excuse that there are likely to be so many delectable goodies all around me for the next four weeks that any lifting in the gym would be for naught, so I may as well take a good long rest. You know, be like a bear, go hibernate, feed, sleep.
But where would that get me? I’d be worse off than I was last week.
I realized a few things.
One – I needed to get over myself and swallow my pride. So what if I’d pr’d on pretty much every single lift before my break? My weights weren’t going to be where they were.
Two – the only way to get back to it was to get back to it. I spent the rest of Monday carefully reviewing my lift logs (yes, I’m that much of a nerd) to figure out how best to approach the rest of the week, and how to do so safely without injury.
Three – My lifts were not going to get any better if I wasn’t fueling my body properly. When we take breaks from the gym, it’s easy to get into a pattern of eating semi-clean, giving ourselves leeway for an extra apple or a piece of cheese, or whatever it is. But we all know that proper nutrition is as much a piece of the fitness pie as is adequate rest.
Four – Coming back off a break was going to be hard. Harder than lifting had been in a while.
I regrouped. Took a look at my meal plan for the week and found places where I needed to up my carbs (before my lifts) and increase my protein (after my lifts) … and I tearfully said goodbye to a few of the treats I’d been allowing myself while on holiday, namely muesli. And was back at the gym at 5am on Tuesday, waiting for the doors to be unlocked again. This time though, I walked in with a different mindset. Instead of trying to immediately pick up where I left off, I resolved to make the sweat the best I could make it for that particular day. I knew what my weights needed to be for all of my lifts. More than that, I knew that if I couldn’t get those numbers, I shouldn’t lose my hat. When I struggled on my dips, I reminded myself I’d been gone for three weeks. And when one of the other early morning regulars asked me where I’d been for the last month, I didn’t let it shame me.
So I worked my program every single day, carefully recording my numbers and monitoring my split. As my first week back, I wanted to make sure I got as close to perfect as I could on well, everything. Kept my calories right and made sure that my form was on point. It was a little sad walking past the big plates, having to load my bars with almost thirty percent less weight than what I’m used to, but I knew that a deload would be the only way to get back. By the end of last week, I was sore everywhere. I’m talking I-couldn’t-take-a-step sore. And it felt wonderful!
This is such a personal journey for all of us. We each have reasons why we get up every day and go sweat. For most of us, it’s to get stronger, to feel better and to stay healthy. Some regular lifters like the aesthetics that come from picking up heavy stuff. It’s easy to get discouraged when the results we’re used to seeing don’t materialize. But it’s even more important to remember that this isn’t just a one-stop sort of lifestyle. We all come back to the gym over and over to perfect our form, to up our weights, to get better, stronger, faster. So a few days – or a few weeks off – can be deflating. It’s hard to get back to the bar especially when we’re used to lifting a certain weight and feeling a certain way. But we have to remember that we all started somewhere. And really, aren’t we really just competing with ourselves?
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