How to Approach Training

How should you approach training and what variables come into play in its many aspects. From the motivation to train, to making sure your knowledge is up to date, to controlling internal factors over external - how should we look and move forward with our workouts?

Recently my training has changed. I had torn my shoulder almost a year ago but, at the time, it didn't alter my workouts. Then in October 2014 I was going through a workout and it wasn't right. I had no joy in what I was doing and with no coach to coach the coach I pushed through a painful set of bench press. Everything changed the next day and I had to alter my training drastically. Some of the lessons I learned from my latest mistake have shown up in your workouts. The biggest change I made, however, was to stop the fancy CF movements and WODs all together. I was scared. As the Open approached and I was asked why do participate if I wasn't in it, I realized how far the fear had reached. So I have added a new layer of training by doing partner WODs and taking a regular class on my non-Oly days. I am not better than you guys or your workouts so I will share in your pain that I wrote up for all of us.

Another change I made was my Olympic lifting. I have been heavily influenced by the Chinese style and what I can glean from my YouTube education. However a new resource has presented itself. The catch is he teaches a different style than what I know. The coach has never had a coach so I will check my ego and learn what I can from this new style. The human body can only move in so many ways so what he says, though it may be different, is of value. It's important to be put in different situations so that you can learn from everyone (an earlier article about the samurai book The Book of the Five Rings made this point about learning from all disciplines).

Training should be fun. It should be a part of your day that you look forward to. You should play games and set mini goals. Improvise and be ok with short workouts. The goal is to keep moving. A healthier human is harder to kill but is also a happier human. When we place a external goal above our internal drive then we are asking for injury. It is easy to get burned out when you have to place no less than this spot, or I have to lift more weight than that person, or only give yourself a year to reach this or that level. It's this outside expectation that can change our internal thoughts about a situation to the negative. I love training cause I feel healthy, confident, and safe. When I place a goal of going to Regionals by X date then fun can leave training because now I am worried about what everyone else in the South is up to. I can't control that and that lack of control is a negative emotion. By shrugging off that external goal and just going back to smiling, sweating, challenging, and integrating back with everyone there has been a joy to training that was gone for some time.

Always focus on your internal motivation and make things fun in training. Approach it with an open mind that looks for new info to integrate or even replace your knowledge. Approach training like its a skill that you must master and one day express virtuosity in. Approach training with fresh eyes every day.