Just go, even if you feel like crap today…just go!
Let me give you, the reader at home, a little breakdown of how today went. I woke up at my normal time with a headache that had me wondering if my Fiancé gave me the sweet chin music in the middle of the night (picture above for reference). My knees hurt on every step up and down the stairs. Most likely from the night before, I played about 90% of an indoor soccer game and my knees get a little angrier after doing that than they used to. I had two options;
1.) I get ready and go to the gym as planned, do what I can to try and loosen up my neck/shoulders as well as my knees. Then give it what I can.
2.) Say “I have a headache” then “dam my knees hurt today!” and finish by saying “I’m not going to go today”.
I knew from the past that sometimes when I feel that way if I do some extra rolling, stretching, lacrosse ball stuff, I can still salvage a pretty decent training. Not to mention how important it is to just keep that “appointment”.
Turned out that even with some stretching and rolling I couldn’t get my knees to loosen up enough that they weren’t cranky going through any type of squatting motion (they’ll be good in a couple of days). Also after loosening up my neck and shoulders with a lacrosse ball the headache went away, but after doing some bench press found it came back. That solidified to me its tension based and the push motion probably wasn’t going to help. Having done alot of pulling motion yesterday, that was off the table. So I did some extra mobility stuff, then I left the gym.
In total I did about 3 bodyweight squats, 5 goblet squats (when the pain wouldn’t subside I cut my losses), and a few deadlifts, but my body really wasn’t having that today either.
However that stuff wasn’t the important part…the important part is that I still went, I still kept that appointment with myself.
You may ask “why is that so important? Looks to me like it was a big waste of time and you could have been productive if you didn’t go at all”. The reason why its so important is for every 1 day when I wake up, go through the motions and my body says “no way dude, slow it down for today”, there are 5 days I wake up feeling similar, but am able to loosen up enough to make it a full training session.
THAT is why its so important, I am keeping that time to myself, its for me, its for my health, my wellness, my mind. It also keeps me from slipping into a cycle of negative feedback. I’m always happy I at least gave it a shot, and that also means that the next time I wake up feeling that way I can continue to build on “well I felt like crap last time but I still went”. The truth is you never truly know what type of day its going to be until you at least try, and I guarantee the days you kick yourself over are the days you didn’t.
Whether its to break the cycle, whether its because you need to keep that importance of putting yourself first, trying is always better than assuming and not trying. Trust me, you’ll be happy you did!
Coach Adam
