Fell in a pit, all out of continues.

[dmstanford42]

Hey all, I'm in need of some motivational help. I've hit a pretty nasty slump and can't seem to shake it. I'll elaborate:

 

In Feb this year, my wife and I signed up for Tough Mudder, because it looks like fun and it's a great goal to work towards. We started off strong, really pushing ourselves. Saw some decent gains in strength and endurance, feeling really good about how things were going.

 

But now, I've plateaued pretty hard. I've been stuck at the same weight/reps on just about every exercise for the past 4 or 5 weeks. This has really started to dig into my motivation because, well, I really, really hate the gym. The only thing that kept me going was seeing progress, and knowing I was moving towards my goal. Now that I'm not seeing that, I'm questioning why I'm torturing myself.

 

I've explored other avenues to try to break this trend: try different routines or activities, find training buddies, etc. Nothing has worked. I don't look forward to exercising anymore, I just think about all the things I could be doing instead. 

 

We've only got 2 months to go until the event, and I feel dreadfully under prepared. I'm starting to not even be excited for the event, since I'll most likely just flop on every obstacle.

 

Any advice for breaking out of this? I need a respawn bad!

 

THANKS!

[SinnahSaint]

Have you tried reducing reps but adding weight or vice versa?

 

(As a former underpants gnome, I've read many tips and tricks without trying any of them so don't take me too seriously ;-) )

[dmstanford42]

Yeah, I tried both. I did two weeks of +5 lbs; reps dropped by 1/3/5 per set, but never started climbing. Same thing with reduced weight, only reps went up by 3/2/1 per set, but never increased past that. I've just stagnated at every weight/rep combination :-/

[Raincloak]

As I see it, you have three choices:

 

1) keep going to the gym

2) work out somewhere else

3) slack off and do nothing.

 

Option 3 is fun now, certain embarrassment later.  

Option 2 is somewhat fun now, unlikely embarrassment later.  

Option 1 is hate now, but may or may not be embarrassed later.  

 

Chances are, you'll have fun on the Mudder and be a little disappointed with your performance, no matter what.  At least, that's always what I get when I race.  I enjoy myself and then walk away going: "man I was slow, should've trained harder."  Doesn't matter how hard I worked in training, I always rag myself a little for slacking.  I have learned to recognize this tendency and just deal with it, rather than letting it make me miserable.

 

in short, if your race performance is going to be a little below your dreams no matter what, you might as well train in a way you like.  That would seem to me the best compromise between having fun now and being happy on race day.

 

soooo ... I'd go with option 2, myself.  But you have to choose for you.

[Leimanu]

My TM was really fun and I skipped a few obstacles - I didn't want to run through electricity and can't climb a 12 ft wall, etc.  Some I rocked, and some were just fun to attempt - I didn't even make it half way across the frozen dumpster thingy.

 

TMs are looooong.  It's 10-12mi of hiking with some obstacles to break it up, so I recommend getting in some long hikes.  Also, some HIIT workouts, intervals, or the training workouts on the TM web site.  It'll get you out of the gym, or at least to a different area of the gym.  A lot of people said they jogged a lot, but I don't think that's the most effective workout for this sort of experience.

[dmstanford42]

On our non-gym days, we've been doing some looooong runs, punctuation them with sets of burpees, squats, pushups and what have you every half mile or so. We also use the small playground near us to practice sprinting up slides and doing dead hangs and monkey bars (as some of the TM training videos suggested) but some of the things we just don't have the equipment available to try. Cest la vie.

 

Really, the only part of this that sucks for me is the Gym. It's the only option we have for dedicated strength training, and for me its just so demoralizing. Even when I push myself, I can't seem to break my strength plateaus (specifically on triceps and pull-ups, which I heard were pretty crucial for a lot of the climbing-oriented obstacles).

 

You're probably right, however, in that I set my expectation far too high, even with almost a year to train. I can't be 100% dedicated to it (work, life, etc), and expecting massive returns in that time is probably unrealistic. Reflecting on it, I think I may have lost the personal enjoyment of preparing (because the event will  be crazy and fun) because I talked it up to so many people and now I'm thinking they expect me to do well. I need to refocus on doing the best that I can and enjoying the event.

 

Thanks

[EdF]

Have you considered looking up your diet? Not the "lose 5 kg in 1 week" kind of diet, but the overall nutrition that you have in your life. Maybe you need more energy from your meals, or lack some vitamins, proteins are too low to build your muscle on the desired pace. I think it would be beneficial to revise your nutrition plan, even if it's just to say "It's okay, I'm doing everything right".

[dmstanford42]

We probably ought to do that again, just to be safe. We check it every couple of months or so, but haven't recently, so it's possible that I've managed to slip below acceptable levels there.

 

Thanks

[BeautifulBeast]

I'd say drop the weight by 5%-10% for a couple of weeks. And then gradually going back up. It's helped me break plateus in the past!

[BeautifulBeast]

I'd say drop the weight by 5%-10% for a couple of weeks. And then gradually going back up. It's helped me break plateus in the past!

[Noname123]

When this happens I take a week or two completely off from major lifts and work on ancillary dumbell and body-weight routines. Also, training for OCRs you can do some insane stuff and it counts as a workout- the running/burpees is a great one, strap on some weights on wrists, ankles/add more weight to your hydro pack and work on the jungle gym like you are. 

 

What kind of equipment are you looking for that you don't have access to at the gym/on a jungle gym? 

[BoydLabBuck]

Are you getting enough sleep?

[Noname123]

Also, I'm an idiot, diet has a HUGE thing to do with it. You might not be eating enough if you're trying to build muscles and have been training for close to a year. 

 

I literally just ran into this. Lifts stalled, I was feeling good, couldn't understand it. 

 

Ate more, felt weird, dominated my lifts and set PRs weekly. Whoops! 

[Lou186000]

Hey all, I'm in need of some motivational help. I've hit a pretty nasty slump and can't seem to shake it. I'll elaborate:

 

In Feb this year, my wife and I signed up for Tough Mudder, because it looks like fun and it's a great goal to work towards. We started off strong, really pushing ourselves. Saw some decent gains in strength and endurance, feeling really good about how things were going.

 

But now, I've plateaued pretty hard. I've been stuck at the same weight/reps on just about every exercise for the past 4 or 5 weeks. This has really started to dig into my motivation because, well, I really, really hate the gym. The only thing that kept me going was seeing progress, and knowing I was moving towards my goal. Now that I'm not seeing that, I'm questioning why I'm torturing myself.

 

I've explored other avenues to try to break this trend: try different routines or activities, find training buddies, etc. Nothing has worked. I don't look forward to exercising anymore, I just think about all the things I could be doing instead. 

 

We've only got 2 months to go until the event, and I feel dreadfully under prepared. I'm starting to not even be excited for the event, since I'll most likely just flop on every obstacle.

 

Any advice for breaking out of this? I need a respawn bad!

 

THANKS!

 

Cool that you guys are doing Tough Mudder, it sounds like you've hit it really hard! I've read multiple places that it's good to take a whole week off of strength training every few months. Maybe that's something that would help? I'm sure I read that in one of Steve's pieces, though I couldn't tell you which one. It's something to the effect of, you take a solid week off from doing strength training, then go back to it and you might well see the improvements you've been missing. Hope that helps some.