There have times when as I begin to feel like I’ve hit a plateau or my training just isn’t going very well. Not only does my progression seem to stall or even feel like it is not where it should be, but I will also feel not as motivated to go train. The only thing that will usually seem to help after feeling like this for a few weeks is either a few days off or a change to my training program. What I have learned through rough experience is that this may have been caused a lot of times due to built up fatigue. Ever since I started paying closer attention to how much volume was contained in my training plans and keeping better track of when I need to take a deload/extra rest days, I have not felt that run down feeling to the extent that I used to. The problem was when I would feel like this, I was letting fatigue sneak up on me and not fully recovering from my training sessions. A few of my friends that lift also continuously run into the same problem as well if they aren’t careful. Once they either took the necessary rest period or lowered their volume for a bit, they were right back at it 100%.
I personally enjoy going into the gym and wouldn’t have a problem following a 7 day split. I enjoy the atmosphere, the people, and training itself. When I first started training I would actually only take rest days when I couldn’t make it into the gym and it wasn’t a wonder I why I would always feel so beat up. Then once I started taking more frequent rest days, I would still often times go train 6 times a week on a regular basis and yet again always find myself ending up in that plateaued-beat up state. I also like to train with a little higher volume which accelerates the run-down feeling each time. Then as I began to talk with more experienced lifters and research more myself I started training 5 days a week and taking a consistent 2 days off each week for most of my training blocks. Like I’ve said in many other posts, my rest days are usually floating, but I will always make sure to take them each week. I also never used to do any sort of deload, but have started implementing them over the past year. Rather than perform a traditional deload week I will actually just take a full 3-5 days off from training. This extended rest period allows for me to fully recover and not get that burnt out feeling.
If you ever begin to get that run down or unmotivated feeling it may be a sign to pay closer attention to how much fatigue you are building up. It not only affects our performance in the gym, but can also affect how we feel about training as well. A rigorous training program can cause you to feel beat down if not executed the right way. Depending on what you have going on outside of the gym may also drastically increase your fatigue as well. A laborious job or a newborn that keeps you up all night can greatly affect your fatigue levels. Therefore there are no blanket changes that can cover every situation. What is important is that you realize you can’t always power through it and that to continue to make progress, you have to take some sort of action. Sometimes you may be able to just use auto-regulation and make small necessary changes on the fly, then other times it will be more beneficial to totally change your workout style for the period of time you know will cause problems with your training, or you may just simply need to take a deload week/few days off.
Even though we may not realize too much fatigue has built up on us until we start to feel run down or hit a hard plateau, we should do our best to foresee any potential issues. If we stay mindful of how much fatigue we are accumulating, we can correct for it in advance before it becomes a problem. Correcting the problem before it happens leads to more gainz and definitely reduces frustration. We can do this by making sure to take our allotted rest days, doing some version of a deload every 4-12 weeks, and keep track of our volume in the gym.
Even as I post this article, I’m actually currently facing a little of this myself. I’ve been doing a mental toughness challenge, 75Hard, and part of it has you doing two 45 minute workouts a day. The workout can be as simple as a walk, but because I love going to the gym, I bumped my weight training frequency up to 6 times a week. About a month at that type of frequency really has me feeling beat up. So it was nice to go back to that type of training for a month, but now to make sure I still progress, I need to formulate a new training split.
One thing I want to mention is, sometimes you do have to push a little bit no matter how you feel. There’s going to be random days where you feel unmotivated to train, sleepy, or a little extra sore. I’m not saying use it as an excuse to not do anything or skip workouts, but rather pay attention to how often you get those feelings. If it’s a constant thing, you need to take ACTION. On a lot of my rest days I will have them be active rest days in where I still take time out of my day to stretch, foam roll, or still take a light walk to stay active.