DOING LESS

It’s easy to think that more training produces better results, and that doing less means we’re somehow going to lose all our gains. But I have been doing a lot less over the last few months, and I realise how little difference that has actually made to my body. 

I had been someone who used to train 5-6 times per week for hours on end; lately I’ve been training 3-4 times per week for around an hour —for various reasons, the main one being, I just don’t want to be spending hours upon hours in the gym anymore, and other factors have felt more out of my control: disruption to my routine, travel, jet-lag, all of which have impacted my recovery and I’m just not willing to train now when I feel under-recovered.

Some things I’ve focused on:

Prioritising the big lifts in the gym, and getting the most bang for my buck using multiple-joint compound lifts.

Focusing on self-care behaviours: good but not perfect nutrition, adequate sleep, veg, protein, all the water and short walks outside.

And you know what, maybe there are some changes but I’m no longer in the space where I’m going to scrutinise that with callipers, scales, and pinching bits of myself. Why? Because it’s not important to me anymore. I’m not going to stand here and say that I don’t give a shit about my appearance, but it’s certainly not how I measure my self-worth. There would have been a time where I would have been looking for some kind of change to use it as an excuse to beat myself up and ‘spur’ myself in to action—but FUCK THAT, I refuse to take action from a place of hate.

I guess I just wanted to say that more training does not equate to greater results, and taking rest and doing less, does not necessarily equate to losing our gains. It’s easy to look back at what we were once doing, but things change, and it’s important for us to continually re-evaluate what is realistic for us, and what feels good. Sometimes we can devote more time to training, some times not so much and that’s ok. 

Recognise that you choose how you see and treat yourself—and I hope that you choose to treat yourself with grace, to see that you’re doing the best you can, and choose to see yourself as the fucking queen that you are. 🤘