The worst part of any exercise program is hitting a wall. Yes, that is far worse than a tough workout, or making yourself get up at 6am to workout.

Why do we hit walls?

There are several reasons we can hit a wall or start to plateau with our workouts. The biggest thing is to notice that you might start to plateau or that you have and make some changes right away. Here are two of the more common reasons.

1. Maybe you let your nutrition slip a little and it isn’t as good as it should be (or as good as it was when you did notice results.)

2. Maybe you’ve been doing to same workout over and over again and haven’t made a change so your body has actually gotten use to the workouts and it doesn’t respond with the same positive effects.

So what do you do??

1. Review your nutrition again. Make a log of what you eat over the course of 2-3 days. See if you are slipping up a little more than what you think you might be. Have your coach or trainer review your food log and ask them to make suggestions on what to change. (sidenote here, this may cost a little extra money for you to have someone review your food log and make some meal plan changes.)

2. Switch up your workouts. If you’re an avid endurance athlete add in some weight training (you need to do this regardless). If you’ve been following a weight training program, change the weight or alter the workouts slightly, so that you’re doing movements that are similar but not identical to what you’ve been doing. Switching the amount of weight you use could also help matters.

You may also notice that if you typically workout in the mornings, maybe you need to workout in the evenings every once in awhile. Keep in mind that you might also need an extended rest period where you’re mostly doing active recovery type of working out but where you take a short rest (4-7 days) of the give-it-all-you’ve-got type of workouts.

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I’m not going to talk about physical strength today. A little off topic.

Mental and emotional strength are equally important in an entirely different regard. They effect our physical strength, they are responsible for our actions, they inhibit and expand our viewpoints, and they contribute to who we are.

Pretty significant.

Events of the past often affect us at times when we least expect it. Tonight was one of those nights for me.

There are times when we need to channel all of our strengths to get us through a moment in time, a situation, a conflict… Sometimes we let ourselves down and other times we far exceed our own expectations.

Too often we second guess ourselves…believe we could have done something better or different. The truth is, there’s always going to be a “What if” scenario, but you can’t old on to them. You can’t write your life in that thought pattern.

Be conscious of the actions you do take. Accept responsibility.

Regardless of what you do, make it count. Be strong.

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This is a great full body kettlebell workout. It shouldn’t take you more than 20 minutes to do, so get this one in on a day when your time is short but you still want to do you workout.

Kettlebell Complex

Snatch
Windmill
Clean & Jerk
Front Squat
High Pull

Perform one rep of each exercise in the order listed above then switch to the other hand. So, one snatch, one windmill, one clean & jerk, one front squat, and one high pull equals one rep. Alternate sides, complete a total of 15 sets.

I got this done in 17:20 with a 24kg kettlebell last night.

Let me know how you do.

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It’s sometimes hard to separate the things that mentally distract us on a daily basis, especially when those things are the core of what we do and who we interact with each day.  How can we use those distractions to better our workouts, or should we block those distractions so we can have tunnel vision during our workouts.

Honestly, both options have worked for me when it comes to working out, more specifically during heavy lifting days.

We either have to channel all of the external and mental stimulus into what we want to achieve during our workouts each day, or we have put that behind us for a short time and focus on the task at hand.

Like I said I’ve used both with much success.  You might have a better outcome in your workouts if you do one over the other.  It depends on what type of person you are and how you handle and can use the things that are going on in your daily life.

You might be able to use how you feel about a certain situation

• to stay more focused on your workout
• to do one more interval of sprints
• to lift a heavier weight
• to take a little less rest

Whatever it is, a good workout can reduce the amount of stress you are experiencing from a certain situation.  It can also relieve tension, and perhaps make your workout more effective one some days.

Regardless we can’t lose sight of the fact that following a sensible exercise program consistently will improve our overall health in many ways.

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