If you’ve been training for any length of time, you’ve likely experienced days (or perhaps weeks) when you’ve felt a bit “off” during your workout.
Maybe a muscle or joint feels “tweaked” or particularly tight or stiff. Perhaps you don’t feel as strong as normal. Or you might feel like your energy reserves are non-existent.
Whatever the case, experiencing what most would call a “bad training day”—BTD, throughout the rest of this tip—is normal and common.
And while it’s also normal and common to experience annoyance, anger, or (and?) frustration when we have a BTD, there are a number of steps that we can take to still make the best use of our training time and prevent those days from negatively affecting the rest of our day.
Here are a few:
Choose a lighter weight
Many people tend to think that using a lighter weight is less effective if they’re generally capable of lifting a heavier weight. That can certainly be true if the only weight that’s ever lifted is relatively light (for you).
However, lighter weights mixed in with moderate and heavier weights—either within a single session or in their own individual sessions throughout the week or month—can provide a variety of benefits including enabling us to devote more attention to technique, preventing burnout, and promoting strength improvements from neurological adaptations that occur with consistent training.
Of course, lighter weights also just feel “less awful” when we’re having a BTD. And feeling less awful while getting in some work is often (although not always) better than skipping a day of training altogether.
Refine your technique
As mentioned above, using a lighter weight enables us to devote more attention to our technique.
If you’re thinking, “OK, Ryan, but so what? I already know how to squat/bench/swing/press”, that’s fine. So do I. 😉 But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t parts of each lift that both of us can’t improve upon.
Now it’s true that being able to do a “perfect” squat (or any other exercise) isn’t the goal of training. The goal is experiencing a physical adaptation such as getting stronger or improving conditioning. However, improving technique reduces the risk of injury and increases the weight we’re capable of moving, both of which affect our long-term success.
So when we have a BTD, refining our technique not only gives us something to focus on and feel positive about in the moment but also sets us up for experiencing better results in the future.
Take a nap, eat more, or do something to de-stress
A day or two of too little food, too little sleep, or too much stress isn’t a major cause for concern. In cases like that, the previous two options are probably your best bet if you’re having a BTD.
However, if a “day or two” actually becomes a “week or two” or a “month or two”, the previous two solutions are not what you need. For that matter, exercising period is not what you need.
Instead, set your morning alarm a little later and catch some needed shut-eye. Or add an extra portion of steak or a baked potato to your dinner. Or go for a relaxing stroll through the park that’s three blocks from your house.
Just don’t go to the gym! (Unless the only thing you’re planning to do is to sit in the sauna.)
Are you likely to feel a bit anxious that you’re not getting in a workout? Yeah, probably. But I promise that you’ll feel significantly better when you do get back to the gym if you’ve first given your body a little extra “fuel” for recovery.
Review or re-cast the plan
If you don’t feel like you’ve had too much stress, too little sleep, or not enough food but are still regularly having BTDs, then you’ll likely benefit from reviewing your training plan and doing some re-casting. Because chances are good that you’ve just been training too hard, too regularly.
Re-casting is the process of adjusting the program—reducing the sets, reps, and/or weight; increasing the rest; or possibly just repeating the previous week or two—when the observation is made that you’re not adapting the way you thought you would.
Not adapting as expected, like BTDs in general, is also more common than you might think, and re-casting a plan can reduce burnout while still promoting progress.
If you’ve been training at TNT, this is exactly what we did on the get-up program that we just finished. If you haven’t been training at TNT, I reduced the total number of reps in each of the last two weeks of a six-week program, and numerous PRs were still set on the final week.
So, don’t consider re-casting a plan as a failure; treat it as a simple re-alignment. Because that’s what it is, and you’ll still see progress!
Putting it into practice
Everyone has a BTD occasionally, and it’s totally OK to feel frustrated when it happens.
Just don’t “should” on yourself when it does. (e.g. I should be able to lift this. I should have made more progress by now. I shouldn’t have to rest this much.)
Instead, recognize the day for what it is. Then try one or more of the steps above. It’ll give you something positive to focus on, and you might just discover that it wasn’t such a bad training day after all.