Slow and Steady Wins the Race

The burden of slow progress can cut deep. The program calls for intense weight pushing, and sometimes our bodies cannot keep up. The low weight high volume trainees will drop the weight out of fatigue caused by lactic acid burning. Instead of hitting their 8 reps, they will hit 6. As for the high weight low volume, they will drop the weight due to lack of explosive energy. Dropping a weight out of pure exhaustion is frustrating. Noted by the other trainees, the weight that we are lifting is bearable. Mentally we are capable of lifting the weight. However physically we are just not there yet. This is where discouragement kicks in. For some reason, we kick our butts hard whenever we fail a lift. The right mindset can help you strive far during a lift. If you believe that this weight is “too heavy”, you have already failed at it. No one can replace your belief in yourself. Although very rudimentary and blunt, whenever someone fails at a lift, I strictly tell them to get over it and focus on the next lift.

As I said before, the progress has been slowing down for the trainees. Instead of jumping up by 10-15 lbs a week, they are beginning to stay at the same weight for a week, or only go up by 5 lbs. Welcome to my world. After a while, your elastic body cannot change as drastically to support the weights. Instead, there must be time for your body to create those new contraction points and repair muscle tears. Slow progress sucks, but we must endure and push on.