Back to the Drawing Board: Regaining My Passion for Training
To recap, my training goals are not to be number 1 in the world; my aspirations in life are not centred on training, for me it's a tool that I utilise to help me remain confident in who I am and maintain positive momentum in the direction of my goals in life.
The snatch fail affected my elbow, wrist and back, and, as you would expect, my training changed too. I was doing what I could to keep moving - training around my injuries to maintain my fitness. People suffer injures all the time when playing sports and, with patience and the correct management of the injuries, our bodies heal.
Come January 2015, I was in a good place to be able to start incorporating movements back into training and think about getting back into my old routine. What became apparent very quickly was that I lacked confidence, had become very detached from the sport and was finding excuses as to why I couldn't make the gym. I had fallen out of love with training.
Mentally I was struggling. For one reason or another, I had become totally disinterested in the sport. Something that needed to change, especially as I recognise a trip to the box as a major part of my daily routine.
I switched up my training schedule from that point onwards. Rather than following an individual program, I ventured back into the daily WOD at TRAIN Manchester, joining in with the 7pm classes.
It is in these classes that I began to regain my confidence and enjoy training again. The Facebook status makes reference to three things:
- Community - the like minded people surrounding you,
- Variety - when I say variety, I am focusing on the different coaches, people and volume of training,
- Time boxed element of a class - 1 hour long (in, work out and finished all within an hour).
These three characteristics are what I recognise as fundamentals of our sport, they are the fundamentals that I encountered back when I first started. For me, the return to the core fundamental aspects of the sport is what has helped me to regain my mojo and want to train.
The Message
The message I wanted to get across in this blog post is this:
Don't forget the foundations upon which your love for something is built.
If you lose sight of, or forget, the reason for doing that thing - in this case my training - then take the time to return back to the foundations and regain clarity.
Physically, without a strong foundation you cannot progress positively - something that is a common message in the box. I am of the belief that the same applies mentally. Do not forget why, and what it is you enjoyed about the foundations on which you have built your love for training. Do not be ashamed to take the time to re-learn, regain perspective and return to them often.
