Please help me find my intensity again!!!

[PickMe69]

Over the summer I had this tremendous amount of intensity, going into every workout with passion, ready to lift, setting new PRs each week, then I got hurt towards the end of the summer, came back from that, was feeling "ok" for a couple weeks, with medium intensity, then got sick for a couple weeks with broncitis and strep throat... since then I have not been able to regain intensity at all, I've lost focus not only in the gym, but on keeping a clean diet, and I feel like my overall health has decreased...

maybe its due to the extra stress of school, but over the summer I worked and went to school as well... I'm playing rugby now, but I figured that would pretty much cover my cardo, and I could continue working out... I thought it could be just getting tired of doing 5x5, but when I switched to a push/pull routine my intensity didn't change much.... I've changed up PWOs but still not much of a shift except for the first workout after changing...

Anybody go through this? Any advice on how to get out of my slump? My overall mood seems to be affected by this too (or vice versa)...

Please help!

 

[PickMe69]

Nobody's been through this?

 

[captainahole]

Its very normal to go through peaks and valleys when training. Chances are you will bounce back when your emotional and stress levels lower. You may feel that nothing has changed but chances are it has.
Just keep on training you will get through it.

you mentioned you also had an injury. When you come out of a injury you will always be gun shy for a while, its just human nature.

 

[chaos13]

watch pumping iron, it always seems to help me

 

[Cali72]

watch pumping iron, it always seems to help me

"two more, I wanna see two more no matter what."

 

[stevesmi]

i agree with captain above.. yes i think every vet has gone through 'shit' in their lives that has effected their workouts. you are gonna have ups and downs. its not just in this sport but its in life in general.

just remember that muscle memory is a real thing, so when you do come back you can quickly get back to where you were before, you aren't starting from scratch. example a buddy of mine was kicking major ass, one day he goes down in a flag football game, breaks his knee.. has to have surgery and a cast. 6 months later he came back as strong as ever.

my other advice is move to somewhere else or change gyms. the change of environment can help you clear your mind and start from scratch. or change your workout splits. find a new workout partner... download some new songs to pump you up. i love listening to music while i workout and changing them up.

 

[ishaq]

i agree with captain above.. yes i think every vet has gone through 'shit' in their lives that has effected their workouts. you are gonna have ups and downs. its not just in this sport but its in life in general.

just remember that muscle memory is a real thing, so when you do come back you can quickly get back to where you were before, you aren't starting from scratch. example a buddy of mine was kicking major ass, one day he goes down in a flag football game, breaks his knee.. has to have surgery and a cast. 6 months later he came back as strong as ever.

my other advice is move to somewhere else or change gyms. the change of environment can help you clear your mind and start from scratch. or change your workout splits. find a new workout partner... download some new songs to pump you up. i love listening to music while i workout and changing them up.

the underlined is a great point, i changed gym a while back into a posh swanky top end gym, trained for a year until i realised id lost my bite, so went back old school to my on the corner street gym and the passion just burned back up inside me, and now im makin progress id never believed, felt awful losing my bite tho i know what you mean, but be patient and itll return like rocky 3 eye of the tiger baby!

 

[brianrno]

First of all, go easy on yourself. You're coming off of 2 setbacks which can be frustrating. Also, if you have more classes and more stress that can definitely factor in. Your Rugby could be tiring you out more than anything in the summer also which can make the workout the next day a little flat - especially if it's varsity as they push you really hard.

From a psychological perspective, it sounds a like a bit of a negative spiral which is why I'm saying to try and keep things in perspective and try and accept what's going on because it can give you a more positive outlook which can help to rule out the psychological factor.

When I tried doing MMA between workouts before I noticed that my workouts were a lot harder and the MMA was just too much cardio and I could barely do what others were doing because I was sore from the workout the day before and then my workouts weren't as good either. During the summer it sounds like your exercise was mostly focused on working out so it makes sense that you felt more focused in the gym and that you were making more breakthroughs.

If you can get back to where you were in the summer and even just maintain that with all the extra cardio and stress then I'd think that's pretty good.

Good luck with everything.

 

[die faster]

alot of good advise here. what works for me, download some new music, get a couple bottles of unleashed, a tub of jack3d or n2kts, and hit the gym and do what you feel like doing, dont push yourself through a 5x5 if youre sick of it. lower the weight and increase your volume, dont even count the reps. get that pump without trying to hit new strength PR's, since youre not gonna get them right now anyway. once you see yourself all pumped up in the mirror and veins popping out youre gonna be right back into it.

 

[EZ_E]

YES on the changing gyms....even if you go to another gym and pay the daily fee, it's worth it...

I was fortunate to get an inside deal on a membrship and used that as ammo to get my regular gym to reduce their monthly fee....now I have 2 and bounce back and forth......it's a God-send...

~EZ