Focus on What You Can Do

Assuming you'll be training long term, at some point, your usual workout routine will get disrupted.  At some point, your usual routine will be disrupted. You will not, at least for a time, be able to do the workout or exercises you prefer to. 

• ​You might sustain an injury.
• Gyms might be shut during lockdown and be forced to train at home.
• Have some minor niggles that are restricting you.
• You might suddenly receive random pain from a certain exercise.
• Work or your family life might get in the way of your program.
• Certain exercises won’t be possible as you get older.
• Your back might feel a bit sore.
• You can't get to the gym as often as you would like.
  

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At some point, life will get in the way of following your program.

The key is to continue training and do what you can.

Far too many people will stop training if they can't training the way they want to. Don't be one of those people.

When I first started lifting weights, I had terrible shoulder problems. I would often be in pain because of it. I couldn't do much, if any pressing exercises, as it would cause severe shoulder pain. Bench pressing, dips, and overhead pressing all had to be out of my program. I had to concentrate on legs, back, and rear delt exercises. I was soon able to add in bench pressing. It was only one work set a week to start with, but over time, as my shoulder improved,  I was able to add more sets and do more pressing exercises. During this time, I greatly improved my squat, deadlift, and upper body pulling exercises. I trained what I could, and when my shoulder was better, I could then push that hard; I didn’t stop.
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I've seen people in similar situations, and they completely stop training. I had clients what to cancel sessions because they had something that hurt (non-training related, I should add). One time, it was because their back hurt from how they slept. There was plenty they could still do, but their first thought was to stop everything.  

​I’ve had periods when I couldn’t get to the gym any more than two days a week. I still did what I could and made progress. It wasn’t ideal, but I made it work. 

The key to succeeding with training is to do it consistently over time.

You will have setbacks, but you can’t stop every time it happens, or you won’t achieve anything. 
​You can, and should still train around injuries and niggles.
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If you suddenly can’t do a favorite exercise or an injury from an unrelated activity makes certain exercises impossible, don’t panic, get upset, and stop training.

​Focus on what you can do!