Some quick thoughts about progress. You don’t ALWAYS have to be making progress to be “making progress.” What I mean by that is our bodies move through cycles of highs and lows, as should your training. If you go hard all the time, your body is going to hit a point where it will force you to take a step back – it may be that week where your workouts aren’t as strong, you’re not sleeping as well, SOMETHING in your game becomes off, even though you’re trying 100%. Sometimes, it’s interpreted as a “plateau” when really, your body is just craving a little downtime so it can power up for another cycle of intensity.
This is why “deloading” weeks are important – and we will be doing it next week.
What is this deloading that I speak of? Deloading is kind of like “active recovery” – you’re still working, just at a slightly lower intensity to give your body a break without completely taking a break from working out. It’s like fine-tuning the major skills that you put into place by doing them with a little more intent, and a little less speed. Deloading does not mean taking a vacation from working out – stepping completely away from your fitness routine for an extended period of time does not give you a lot of benefit (unless you’re injured or combating severe illness). So, no, we’re not going to be deloading out on the beach working on our tans, we’ll still be working.
So next week will be our first DELOAD week – it will still be great, but trust me, the benefits it will reap huge rewards later on in your training.
Happy Friday!