Pushing yourself/ Finding that next level

[Don Stevenson]

All the advice so far has been good but one thing that I think is worth mentioning in regards to motivation is the need for a focus in training.

Any fitness program is good but a lot of the time people end up going round incircles or performing at a sub optimal level because they don't have a single driving force behind their training.

Despite being a strength coach and having a good reason to stay fit I found that my training was pretty ordinary last year because I didn't have a single focus. Sure I had arbitrary goals for certain lifts but I was easily distracted both during workouts when things got tough and in between workouts when i need to prioritise my schedule.

This year I've entered a strongman comp and i've got a laser like focus on what I need to do. I don't think i've missed a workout since early December and the quality of my training has gone through the roof. I'm hitting PRs every week or so and when the going gets tough I'm even more motivated to train.

One of my clients has been in the same boat too. Trained at a pretty decent level of fitness but wasn't pushing himself until his daughter was born and he realised that he now needs to be fit and healthy for the next 20+ years. He's now pushing himself much harder and sorting out some of the lifestyle issues like work and diet that were holding him back.

Short version - enter a competition, set a single specific goal or find a great reason to train and get at it.

[Steven Low]

Please take at least 2 rest days a week. As people have said... more quality, less quantity.

Diet looks to be okay. Do need more fat though probably.

[Michael Drew]

Originally Posted by Steven Low

Please take at least 2 rest days a week. As people have said... more quality, less quantity.

Diet looks to be okay. Do need more fat though probably.

Steve I took off today just for you guys. Steven I am working on the fat. I think I am around ~150 grams per day. Also working on getting a little more protein I am around 150 grams right now.

[Peter Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by Michael Drew

Performance wise is difficult to measure, I haven't really repeated any workouts yet. How else can I measure my performance?

Even if you're not repeating workouts yet, you're almost certainly repeating exercises. That's a good way to judge. If weights go up on your lifts, if times go down, if you can handle more reps in a row without a break, etc. you're making progress. It's easier when you are doing a linear improvement routine like Starting Strength - you are adding weight to the bar each workout, so you know it's going up or not. But even in a varied program like Crossfit you can track improvements in performance.

I didn't do crossfit for that long - maybe a few months? But even so a lot of workouts repeated themselves, and pieces came back over and over - squats, pullups, pushups, thrusters. I could judge my progress not only by times for workouts but also by how many thrusters I could do without a break, or how short my rest times were when I did take a break, etc. When strength-based workouts came up, I could tell if I improved by how much weight I could lift. If it didn't at least stay the same as the last time, I knew something was off.

Just some things to consider - you can always find some kind of performance metric. If you're training at a crossfit facility, talk to the coach there and see if you can't work some out together.

***

Oh yeah, and the advice on rest is spot-on.