Why we don’t always practice what we preach

As a trainer/coach we tell our clients several things to help them become better at what they do. Phrases like:

• Bad days happen, live to fight another day
• Warming up properly sets up your entire lifting day better
• Nutrition is a key component of success with training
• 8 hours of sleep a night is critical for recovery

I’ve used them, and many more, in my career working with athletes and clients.

The reality of it can sometimes be this for myself:

• I get pissed off to no end when I have a bad workout and it ruins half my day
• I have rushed through warming up when pressed for time and it affected my session
• I hate food prep and I will get lazy and eat out too often
• 5-6 hours a night is the norm for me because of my busy schedule

Let’s take today for example.

I am in the middle of preparing for my first competition in four years, Relentless Detroit. It will be held November 6-8 and this is a meet that is held to benefit children with life threatening illnesses.

This is important to me, not just for the competition, but for the meaning behind it.

You can see the link to donate to your left in the sidebar, any little bit helps.

I have been focused, training hard, eating better, trying to sleep better and training with a singular goal of doing my best on the platform for myself and for these kids.

I have fallen in love with strength training again after taking a long time off due to various injuries and setbacks.

With that resurgence re-enters what I have been known for during my entire athletic career; being insanely hard on myself.

Today’s workout didn’t go as planned. My hips were tight and I didn’t take enough time to loosen them up. Subsequently it affected the weight on the bar and the speed which the bar moved.

If I was my client I would tell myself to chill out, lighten the weight and do what you can; after all one workout in the scheme of things isn’t going to destroy you, but pushing yourself beyond what you should be doing on a particular day can have lasting repercussions if you tweak something or get hurt.

Let’s face it, we are hard on ourselves or we wouldn’t push it like we do, wouldn’t we?

So instead of taking my own advice with a bad day, I decided to do the opposite.

I was angry, pissed, self-critical and today ended up being a wasted day mentally. It is rare that I do that, but I did it today.

Next time I have one of those days where nothing goes right, I can’t get loose and the bar feels like its moving in slow-motion; I need to step back, lighten it up and get my work in regardless.

I have to coach myself the same way I coach others, and that is often the hardest thing we can do.

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