Today I went in for a squat session and it felt like a disaster.  It was hard to get deep on the squats.  I also had a lot of trouble staying tight while squatting.  I was supposed to move the weights fast today, they did not move fast for most of my sets.  For the most part everything I did in the gym today was a disaster.   Staring this series of disasters in the face, I left the gym without a care in the world.  I could call today’s workout a bad workout, but I’ll just call it a workout.

Even if my workout felt like garbage that is just some sort of perspective.  Does this perspective reflect reality?  I would say no.  A lot of things happened in today’s workout.

I felt like total garbage and had no energy.

I felt like I moved slow in sets that I am trying to call speed work.

I really couldn’t get tight on my squats, I was all bloated and hardly could breath.

I was cutting my squats a little short and not hitting the depth I wanted to.

I had a plan for the workout and I hit all the numbers that were part of the plan.

I completed the whole workout.

I didn’t hurt myself and I did everything in a safe manner.

If I look at my training log for today, everything looks pretty good on the sheet of paper.  What I did checks out.

The things that were a disaster were largely things I felt.  The not getting tight on the squats, that is a legitimate problem I will address.  Otherwise, my workout felt like garbage.  It didn’t feel like garbage in a “this is injuring me way”  it felt like garbage in a “this sucks kind of way.”  I’m not going to react to a workout sucking, sometimes they suck.

Having an emotional reaction would be a mistake.  Getting emotional and worrying about a workout, that would tire me out.  I have other places to put that energy.  In this case having some sort of reaction to the workout would be a major mistake.  I would be reacting to feelings and not objective reality.

Objectively this workout was a good workout.  Numbers were hit and progress was made.  That is all you can want from a workout.  I got everything I could want but for some weird reason I felt like everything was a disaster.  I could have done a lot of things to react to this feeling, but I didn’t.

If I wasn’t paying attention I might have done a lot of things that would have taken up my time.   I could have been in a bad mood all day because my workout felt awful.  I could have taken a few hours of time and written a workout program to “fix” what I thought were problems.  Instead of that I stayed settled, and that is the path forward.

I am constantly on the search for new ways to get stronger, healthier and more awesome.  Here are some of the best things I have found lately.

Strength and Conditioning

Upper back training for the deadlift.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8syHJ34EhY

Strengthening the hamstrings and avoiding hamstring injuries in sports activities.   https://www.elitefts.com/education/never-pull-a-hamstring-again/

I liked this video on rotational rows.  My training really lacks any rotational training so I have been trying to stick a little bit of it in there for general health.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngzBBg7rkOE

This is a good video on glute training frequency.  Even if you’re not really into glute training this video is a good watch.  His process for evaluating frequency can apply to all body parts and is a great way to think about training.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWyIb-kVh3w