How to Deal With Bad Workouts
I'm sure you've had workouts where the warm-up sets feel exhausting, or when the weights felt heavier than they normally do and you end up feeling like you're weaker than you used to be. This is perfectly normal. Not every workout will be a great workout.
Your performance will fluctuate on a daily, weekly or longer basis because of many factors such as, stress, sleep and nutrition. If you're going through a stressful period, only had 4 hours of sleep last night and didn't eat enough calories the day before. The chances are your workout won't be great. Training should be a lifelong activity, and there will include periods of ups and downs, and you'll have to manage and work through the down periods.
Your performance will fluctuate on a daily, weekly or longer basis because of many factors such as, stress, sleep and nutrition. If you're going through a stressful period, only had 4 hours of sleep last night and didn't eat enough calories the day before. The chances are your workout won't be great. Training should be a lifelong activity, and there will include periods of ups and downs, and you'll have to manage and work through the down periods.
A common saying is that out of 10 workouts, only 1 will be great, 1 will be awful and the other 8 will be average.
I think even 1 out of 10 workouts being great is unlikely once you've been training a while and get to a certain level. Sometimes it will feel like you're not progressing, but if you keep showing up all the average and bad workouts will often result in a bunch of great workouts. So many times I've gone months where training had been average and then I suddenly start hitting PR's.
Understand not every workout will be amazing, and be okay with that.
Social media has changed what people expect from an individual workout. Instagram just shows people the highlights of their training. It shows their personal records and their hardest sets. This gives some people the impression that every workout is like this, and they then think they have to train like this and put pressure on themselves to do the same every workout.
Once I posted a PR on Instagram. I recieved a direct message commenting on how hard I push my sets and how often I hit PR's. This person thought every set I did was like my PR sets are. The reality is I had a spent a whole year mainly having average workouts with the lift. It was only a period of 3 to 4 weeks where I was able push get a PR.
Once I posted a PR on Instagram. I recieved a direct message commenting on how hard I push my sets and how often I hit PR's. This person thought every set I did was like my PR sets are. The reality is I had a spent a whole year mainly having average workouts with the lift. It was only a period of 3 to 4 weeks where I was able push get a PR.
No single workout, no matter how good it was, matters that much.
What matters is putting in consistent work and making improvements over a long period of time, so still train when you don't feel 100%
Don't make the mistake of not training because you can't perform at your best. If I only trained when I felt great I would hardly ever train! Consistency is the most important thing when it comes to training. Nothing will hurt progress like having periods of not training at all.
You'll often surprise yourself and have a good workout. There is always some way you can make progress in a workout. I've had workouts where I had poor performance on the main lifts of the day, but had managed to make a small improvement of an assistance exercise. Even if you only improve on 1 out of 5 exercises, it still add up over time. It's rare I haven't been able to make some progress in a workout, no matter how small it is.
Don't beat yourself if you have a bad workout, or a bunch of bad workouts
It doesn't matter and happens to everyone
Chris Adams Personal Training
Personal trainer in Nottingham
Personal trainer in Nottingham