Education is how we can bring sense to emotionality. Those feelings are important and real, but context can make things make more sense and seem a bit less scary.
* V. IMP to note: this study was done on young men, women are different … but worth a consideration and giving some ease to ze mind.
Ogasawara et al. did a training study over 24 weeks.
2 groups: one that trained continuously for 24 weeks. The other performed 3 cycles of 6 weeks on/ 3 weeks off.
The group that continuously trained had a decrease in muscle mass and strength after 6 weeks.
The group that cycled their training had an improvement in overall strength and muscle at the end of the study, more so than the continuous group.
In other words: you okay, my strong friend.
You have a lot of stuff to think about right now. What I want you to relieve yourself of is the fear of losing your gains.
(P.S this is why we periodise training. To enhance what you’re doing in the gym, you need to rest.)
Right now, if you’re unable to be in the gym, you can move into maintenance mode. We don’t hang out here enough and it’s a brilliant place to be. It means you can turn the volume down a bit on training and turn that frequency up on other things that don’t get as much attention in normal times:
starting a new online course
the housework
quality time with your loved ones
playing board games (CLUEDO always. Monopoly can GTFO).
I want you to ask yourself this question: why do you go to the gym?
Like, really?
For me, it is because I friggin love the heck out of moving, lifting, doing hard things.
Now how can you take that same feeling to what you’re doing at home but it look a bit different?
The essence is still there.
You will not lose your gains.
You will not lose strength.
You will not lose muscle.
But you’ll gain:
A new perspective for your fitness
A new appreciation for your body and movement by trying different things
Resiliency for navigating this change in a proactive way
Stimulation in your body and mind by focussing on different things
I reckon those are RAD GAINS.
Do you agree? What else are you gaining at this time?
I've created The Bold Collective: outside of the gym edition to help you still have intention and purpose to your training in this unsettling time. To find a new rhythm in this time, a new normal go here to get on the waitlist for The Bold Collective: outside of the gym edition.