Starting again with building strength in the gym can be intimidating.
Before quarantine, you were crushing it. Now, it feels like you got pushed back down the mountain that was your strength goal – or whatever your goal may have been before you were shut in your house.
We talk about all of this and the concept of starting over on the @empoweredbyiron Episode #133 and we’re going to sum it up with a few key takeaway points here to get you back in the right frame of mind:
Mindset Matters
Reclimbing is going to require that you focus on the NOW, and let go of where you were. We can’t do anything about what has happened.
We’re not living in the same world or circumstances we were living in a couple of months ago. If you’re resistant to that change, it’s only going to slow you down going forward. Let go of any notion of getting “back” to where you want to go. Recalculate and reroute for where you are right now.
And guess what? Your strength won’t be hard to get back, it just takes time and adjustments. Remember, we’re training for enjoyment and to better ourselves. Sometimes we get lost in thinking that lifting weights equates to our self-worth, and now more than ever we have to remember this is not true.
Growth is Not Comfortable
During quarantine, we all had to adjust and learn something new. Maybe it was managing your mental health, learning how to work from home for the first time, or training from home. Don’t be too hard on yourself. This is probably one of the top five toughest situations we’ve all had to navigate through and in case you didn’t notice, you’re surviving it.
Remember the things you were once terrified of but aren’t anymore? This is what the pandemic is forcing us to face in our lives and it only makes us better. It might suck at first, but give it time and effort and it will work out – just like strength training, right?
And the thing is, it’s not really over either. For many of us, training is still limited and COVID-19 is spiking in some areas. This is an opportunity for us to learn how to be flexible as we chase our strength training goals, which will come in handy for us in the long run.
The times when we’re at our lowest points and when we’re challenged are when we find out who we really are. And we can overcome a lot when we stop focusing on what once was, and taking our new circumstances and goals one step at a time.
What if I’m Not Motivated to Train?
On the flip side, maybe quarantine helped you discover that going back and retracing your steps may not be what you truly want, either. So, it’s OKAY to re-evaluate where you are right now in your life. Maybe it’s time to slow down and assess.
For some of us, we had to figure out our value without a barbell. We feel you on that and it’s hard. You had quarantine to sit with yourself and figure out this weird relationship with your body.
The times when we are stripped of everything we know are the times where we have to ask ourselves, “Do I even like myself?” But hopefully, this test helped you find the answer to that question, or at least start to explore it. And maybe you like what you’re seeing.
Do you want to go back to that person you were before if you had an unhealthy relationship with your body or the gym?
Maybe not. And that is TOTALLY okay.
You are strong and you’ve handled it up to this point, and more than likely you’re going to come out of this transitional period having grown a lot.
How are you feeling about “starting again” with your goals?
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