Stuck In A Rut

I haven’t talked much about training lately and for good reason. The reason is my training has been almost non-existent, and it’s time to talk a little bit about just why that is.

Next, the car repairs took far longer than expected, which threw things out of whack even more.

By the time we had the car back, I had gotten into another routine based around not training. I didn’t mean to, but I had.

I’ve tried to lift since then, making it about a week or two at a pop, but last week was a major wakeup call for me.

You see, I’m weak as hell again.

Horribly weak. I’m not even kidding.

After two months of not training, I lost pretty much everything I’d done. Further, because of my calorie restrictions, I don’t have the energy to do a whole hell of a lot of heavy lifting, either. I’m in a bad spot, to say the least.

So that means it’s time to take a step back and revisit what I’m doing.

Training body parts once per week isn’t enough. I need to go back to something different, something that lets me training things far more often.

Further, because of where I’m at and what my goals are at this particular moment, I need to make sure there’s a good bit of cardio into my plan.

Then, there’s a third part of this that has to be accounted for. In particular, I need to come up with a plan that will also work for my wife. Luckily, at this point in my training, that’s not all that difficult. After all, I’m essentially back to square one myself, so that means she and I can training together, at least to some degree.

I’ve written a lot about needing to be strong, and I’d hit some major goals along the way, but now I need to do it all over again.

So what is my plan?

First, I need to either find or build a total body routine I can do 2-3 times per week at a minimum. I’m leaning toward twice a week. That’s only because I want to dedicate a day per week to do things like farmer’s walks and sled pulls, which tend to work a lot of the body too.

Next, it’s time to start walking again. On gym days, the treadmill is fine, but on days when I’m not at the gym, I need to hit the road and walk.

Over time, I need to add weight to these walks. I’ll go from just walking to rucking, which I’ve seen far too many people get good results from. Plus, rucking has a mechanism for progressive overload, which is good.

My diet is, more or less, doing its job, so I have that working for me, but I’ll also need to find time to get some sprints in. It’s well past time that I start sprinting hither and yon at least once per week. High-intensity interval training has some great fat-burning properties, though not as great as many like to claim. Regardless, it’s also good for cardiovascular conditioning and it’ll help if you…you know…need to run fast.

I’ve kind of been stuck in a rut. It’s time to get my ass unstuck.

Let’s face it, sometimes life gets in the way. I have more free time than most of you reading this, truth be told, and if it can get in the way of me getting to the gym, it’s bound to trip up some other folks too.

The trick is to push past those ruts, past those times when life gets in the way, and keep your eye on the prize. When you get off-track, get your ass back on the track.

“Oh, it’s not that easy,” someone will say.

Like hell it’s not.

I can get how it can be difficult for a period of time, but at some point that all rests on you. You’re hurt? Train around it. You’re sick? See a doctor, get better, and get back to work. Been gone for more than two months? Start over and build it all back.

There are no excuses. You either do it or you don’t. Hiccups happen, but it’s what you do when you hit them that determines whether you’re a barbarian or prey.

Author: Tom

Tom is a husband, father, novelist, opinion writer, and former Navy Corpsman currently living in Georgia. He's also someone who has lost almost 60 pounds in a safe, sustainable way, so he knows what he's talking about. View all posts by Tom