A lot of effort goes into designing and fitness training programme. Professional athletes and weekend warriors through to health & fitness enthusiasts all invest a lot of time, energy and money in getting fitter. They must first select the right goal before deciding how to achieve it. This takes a lot of effort if done properly and no training has even taken place yet! Add training to the mix, it is understandable that people want to see a return on their investment of time and effort. So what happens when things don’t go to plan? As a mobile personal trainer in Ascot I share a recent experience of training disappointment.
Is my training programme working?
If you have set the right goals and been diligent in your planning then you can expect your fitness training programme to work. Some people are able to design effective training schedules by themselves. However, I always encourage people to enlist the help of an experienced fitness coach. They offer an objective pair of eyes to tell you what might be missing. Tick these boxes and you can be confident that you are heading towards your goal of improved fitness. Monitoring progress is key to keeping you on track. Recording workout volume and intensity, personal bests, effort and energy levels are ways of keeping your training programme working for you. Having a coach watch your performance is also a very valuable source of feedback.
A coach or training partner can help keep your training programme on track.
Training becomes a lot easier when all is going to plan. However, how we deal with mistakes and a lack of progress is likely to define the overall success of a fitness training programme. A recent example from my own training was when my own strength and conditioning coach highlighted errors in my Olympic lifting technique. Up to this point I had been delighted with well things had been going. The loads that I was lifting in training were increasing across the board. But this was only up to a point. The moment my training programme asked for very high loads my technique flaws came to the fore. When you are placed under pressure, that is when you see the weaknesses. I had a major one based around how I pulled the bar from the floor. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement!
Drawing upon emotional intelligence
I now have a choice. I can sulk about the fact that my progress is not as great as I first thought or I can see it as an opportunity. Acknowledging mistakes and weaknesses is difficult. The ego is bruised. Knowledge of flaws in programme design and execution are highly valuable. Now I know what is going wrong I am in a position to fix it. Knowledge of shortcomings is allowing me to build a better training programme. In relation to the example above, Olympic lifting technique work at lighter loads is the order of the day. I shall maintain an element of heavy lifting but at a reduced volume to make way for the technique work. Get this right and it will not be long before I’m achieving new personal records on Olympic lifts.
NK Fitness work with a wide variety of personal training and group fitness clients in Ascot and the surrounding areas. We encourage our team to train smart. Displaying a high level of emotional intelligence when things go unexpectedly wrong is one of the best tests of training smart. Training programmes are made to evolve!
