"...have you tried turning it off and then back on again?"
You can hear the tech support guy's tired voice intone over the phone the first step of every technology troubleshooting process ever. He's said it so many times to so many people, many of them inexperienced enough with technology that turning it off might require a few steps, that the phrase has lost its meaning to him. It's a wonderful thing to keep in mind that it's almost always possible to reset the system. It seems like that is part of the natural process of things in life, although sometimes it can be forced upon you if you are not diligently keeping tabs on what's important. Because everything in the world falls apart when energy is not being spent to keep it together and we have limited energy and attention to keep it all moving, we'll be faced with the need to reset a variety of things at various times. So what does that look like?
As a husband and a dad, I need constant resets in family life. It's easy to take the people who are always around you for granted. So I need to reset my attention and where I spend my energy to make sure that I'm working on keeping family a priority both in day-to-day life and in the big 30,000 foot level decisions we make. Otherwise people tend to drift apart due to the universal principle I mentioned above, everything tends towards falling apart. In this case I like to reset by unplugging from the nonessential parts of life, focusing on my family, and then plugging in the other stuff little by little.
As a business owner and as an employee I need constant resets. If you aren't diligent in what you are doing as your trade, it's pretty easy to get in a rut and start mailing it in. Once things get stale, you aren't doing your best work, no innovation is likely, and someone who is still hungry and having fun will be vying for your spot. My favorite reset from working is camping, but we all need some kind of break to turn it off so we can turn it back on again. Recreation is literally re-creating yourself through play and various pursuits you enjoy so that you can return to work refreshed with some new perspectives and ideas to keep things moving forward in new and interesting ways.
As a lifter I need regular resets. If you continuously load your body with more and more work, you will eventually either bench press a school bus or you will break. While I've seen a few guys who looked like a bus was not out of the question, it's more likely that you'll develop tendinitis or tear a muscle or some other malady if you never reset your training to give your body a rest. If you don't respect your body and always ask more and more of it, it will let you know that that is unacceptable. You can't treat your friends and loved ones like that or you won't have many left hanging around you. While an injury can be a huge set back, sometimes it's your body's way of forcing a reset. If it happens to you, take the time to consider why it happened. Are you pressing towards your goals with too much haste, not allowing for things like recovery and rest? Are your goals even realistic? Have things been hurting for awhile, but you're ignoring it or treating it with your daily regimen of vitamin I (ibuprofen)? Maybe it will go away is a five word phrase that leads to failure.
Since this is mostly a training blog, let's think of a few ways your training could be in need of a reset.
1. You've stopped making progress. This is the clearest sign you need to rethink things and take a new angle on your training. If something you were doing was working and now it is not, you need to assess and make adjustments. Dan John famously said that everything works... for about six weeks. When you stop getting stronger, it's time to reset. That could mean changing exercises or doing the same exercises with different implements for a little while. More likely just changing the load, sets, and reps will do the trick. The newer you are as a lifter, the less variety you need in your training to keep making progress. The simplest reset is just to knock about 10% of the weight off the bar and then build back up. It seems like your going backwards, but the reset gives your body some much needed recovery and allows you to train long term rather than burning out in a few months.
2. Your technique is falling apart. It's pretty common for technique to suffer as you approach 100% effort on a lift. While some small changes in technique might be okay, big changes under a load can lead to injury. The easiest example for this is squatting. When I have a lifter who is making great progress in bar weight but they stop squatting all the way to proper depth because they are afraid they'll be stapled to the floor at the bottom, it's time for a reset. In this fashion a trainee can unload the bar some, get a little rest, and practice the exercise for more reps with less load on their body. As they progress back up in weight the rest and the skill practice lead to new personal records.
3. You've lost interest. Let's face it... squatting every week for your whole life might be a little boring for some people. It's probably the best way to be really strong and durable, but only if you do it. So if your program is so boring that you're avoiding the gym, it could be time to step back and reassess what you're doing and why you're doing it. Then you can reset by setting up a new program that adds in a little variety or perhaps add a training partner for a better training environment. This one also requires a critical eye for program hopping. If you're making progress on your current program, don't hop around looking for shortcuts. There aren't any.
4. You're injured. It happens, and when it happens if forces you to reset. This could be a car accident that was an acute and totally unexpected injury, but more often for trainees it's something that was totally avoidable. You've been ignoring all of the warning signals and pushing your body to failure. You haven't been eating enough of the right foods or sleeping enough or drinking enough water. That knee has been aching for months, but you haven't stopped to try to figure out why. When something finally breaks, your body is forcing you to slow down and reset your training. Early injuries in lifting tend to be smaller than when you're strong enough to move weights that will really break your body when your technique is sloppy or you're over-trained. Listen to your body and respect it by taking advantage of the above resets and you can probably avoid this type of reset.
Resets are a natural part of life and required to continue making progress. While it seems like a step back, a simple adjustment to the way you think about resets will make them a constant companion and friend. Rather than thinking of it as losing ground, think of it as an artist who upon finishing a part of his masterpiece steps back to see how it fits with the whole. If it adds something to the piece, it stays. If not, it gets reworked to bring everything together. Stand back, take in the whole picture, and reset what is necessary.
You can hear the tech support guy's tired voice intone over the phone the first step of every technology troubleshooting process ever. He's said it so many times to so many people, many of them inexperienced enough with technology that turning it off might require a few steps, that the phrase has lost its meaning to him. It's a wonderful thing to keep in mind that it's almost always possible to reset the system. It seems like that is part of the natural process of things in life, although sometimes it can be forced upon you if you are not diligently keeping tabs on what's important. Because everything in the world falls apart when energy is not being spent to keep it together and we have limited energy and attention to keep it all moving, we'll be faced with the need to reset a variety of things at various times. So what does that look like?
As a husband and a dad, I need constant resets in family life. It's easy to take the people who are always around you for granted. So I need to reset my attention and where I spend my energy to make sure that I'm working on keeping family a priority both in day-to-day life and in the big 30,000 foot level decisions we make. Otherwise people tend to drift apart due to the universal principle I mentioned above, everything tends towards falling apart. In this case I like to reset by unplugging from the nonessential parts of life, focusing on my family, and then plugging in the other stuff little by little.
As a business owner and as an employee I need constant resets. If you aren't diligent in what you are doing as your trade, it's pretty easy to get in a rut and start mailing it in. Once things get stale, you aren't doing your best work, no innovation is likely, and someone who is still hungry and having fun will be vying for your spot. My favorite reset from working is camping, but we all need some kind of break to turn it off so we can turn it back on again. Recreation is literally re-creating yourself through play and various pursuits you enjoy so that you can return to work refreshed with some new perspectives and ideas to keep things moving forward in new and interesting ways.
As a lifter I need regular resets. If you continuously load your body with more and more work, you will eventually either bench press a school bus or you will break. While I've seen a few guys who looked like a bus was not out of the question, it's more likely that you'll develop tendinitis or tear a muscle or some other malady if you never reset your training to give your body a rest. If you don't respect your body and always ask more and more of it, it will let you know that that is unacceptable. You can't treat your friends and loved ones like that or you won't have many left hanging around you. While an injury can be a huge set back, sometimes it's your body's way of forcing a reset. If it happens to you, take the time to consider why it happened. Are you pressing towards your goals with too much haste, not allowing for things like recovery and rest? Are your goals even realistic? Have things been hurting for awhile, but you're ignoring it or treating it with your daily regimen of vitamin I (ibuprofen)? Maybe it will go away is a five word phrase that leads to failure.
Since this is mostly a training blog, let's think of a few ways your training could be in need of a reset.
1. You've stopped making progress. This is the clearest sign you need to rethink things and take a new angle on your training. If something you were doing was working and now it is not, you need to assess and make adjustments. Dan John famously said that everything works... for about six weeks. When you stop getting stronger, it's time to reset. That could mean changing exercises or doing the same exercises with different implements for a little while. More likely just changing the load, sets, and reps will do the trick. The newer you are as a lifter, the less variety you need in your training to keep making progress. The simplest reset is just to knock about 10% of the weight off the bar and then build back up. It seems like your going backwards, but the reset gives your body some much needed recovery and allows you to train long term rather than burning out in a few months.
2. Your technique is falling apart. It's pretty common for technique to suffer as you approach 100% effort on a lift. While some small changes in technique might be okay, big changes under a load can lead to injury. The easiest example for this is squatting. When I have a lifter who is making great progress in bar weight but they stop squatting all the way to proper depth because they are afraid they'll be stapled to the floor at the bottom, it's time for a reset. In this fashion a trainee can unload the bar some, get a little rest, and practice the exercise for more reps with less load on their body. As they progress back up in weight the rest and the skill practice lead to new personal records.
3. You've lost interest. Let's face it... squatting every week for your whole life might be a little boring for some people. It's probably the best way to be really strong and durable, but only if you do it. So if your program is so boring that you're avoiding the gym, it could be time to step back and reassess what you're doing and why you're doing it. Then you can reset by setting up a new program that adds in a little variety or perhaps add a training partner for a better training environment. This one also requires a critical eye for program hopping. If you're making progress on your current program, don't hop around looking for shortcuts. There aren't any.
4. You're injured. It happens, and when it happens if forces you to reset. This could be a car accident that was an acute and totally unexpected injury, but more often for trainees it's something that was totally avoidable. You've been ignoring all of the warning signals and pushing your body to failure. You haven't been eating enough of the right foods or sleeping enough or drinking enough water. That knee has been aching for months, but you haven't stopped to try to figure out why. When something finally breaks, your body is forcing you to slow down and reset your training. Early injuries in lifting tend to be smaller than when you're strong enough to move weights that will really break your body when your technique is sloppy or you're over-trained. Listen to your body and respect it by taking advantage of the above resets and you can probably avoid this type of reset.
Resets are a natural part of life and required to continue making progress. While it seems like a step back, a simple adjustment to the way you think about resets will make them a constant companion and friend. Rather than thinking of it as losing ground, think of it as an artist who upon finishing a part of his masterpiece steps back to see how it fits with the whole. If it adds something to the piece, it stays. If not, it gets reworked to bring everything together. Stand back, take in the whole picture, and reset what is necessary.
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