6 Reasons Your Workout Was Crap
Do you ever really think about your performance in the gym? Or do you just tend to go through the motions without really giving it much thought (or spending too much time thinking about other things?)
Well if you're not then you should, because our performance in the gym can tell us a lot about what's happening with our bodies and whether we are working with or against ourselves in every day life.
We've all had shitty workouts, it happens to the best of us. But instead of just leaving frustrated and in a bad mood it's a perfect opportunity to reflect on what is going on in our life to make us feel that way. My top 6 (menstrual cycle excluded because I've talked about this a lot in other posts) are below:
1. Lack of Concentration
Sometimes a crappy workout can be as simple as not giving it your all, being in the right mindset or just concentrating enough. If your mind is elsewhere 90% of your workout and you are not focused in the task in hand of course you won't feel like you smashed it by the end. Put the mind in the muscle.
2. Poor Nutrition
There is no doubt that when you are in maintenance or a surplus of food your performance tends to go through the roof. You have more energy, hopefully a little more muscle and generally highly motivated. Being in a deficient however OR making poor dietary choices (be that low nutrient food or food which your body finds inflammatory) won't be proving your body with the fuel it needs to perform optimally.
3. Poor Sleep
Always something I find most people under estimate the importance of. Just one or worse several crappy nights sleep will be detrimental to your workout and have you not feeling your best. We notice this just in our every day lives so why would training be any different?
4. You've Plateaued
If you have been doing the same exercises time and time again you will either be adapted to that stimulus and probably just lacking motivation, or if you have applied a progressive overload to those exercises without deloading of changing another variable within your workout you will inevitable hit a wall and plateau, unable to progress any further until something else changes.
5. Dehydrated
Again, something I always find is underestimated is the importance of being well hydrated during workouts. Even slight dehydration can cause reduced concentration and energy, increased perception of exertion, greater fatigue and negative mood changes. A sure fire way to have a shitty workout.
6. Stress
Never under estimate the affect stress has on the body. Nor under estimate where stress can come from. Physical and mental fatigue affect the same region of your brain so if you are mentally fatigued, you’ll likely be physically fatigued as well. We all know the feeling.
So next time you have a shitty workout before you walk out the gym take a second to reflect on why and see if it's something that can be rectified (which it normally is). Chances are not only with this leave your next session feeling a lot better, but life in general will improve too.