Frustrated with your progress in the gym? | I share 3 key points

Hello Steemit! In this article I am going to explain 3 keys so that you understand how is the progression process and so that you do not get frustrated if you feel that you are stagnating, worsening your performance or you are simply not satisfied with the results you are getting.

^{Foto: Fuente}

Point #1: The speed of progress is not constant

The first thing we have to understand is that the speed with which we will progress throughout our history will not be constant, that is to say that throughout our lives we will follow a performance curve where we will have great results in the beginning and progress in a very short period of time, but as we progress and gain experience we will need long periods of time to have practically minimal results. This is because we have a physiological limit on the gains that we can achieve naturally.

As I said the speed is not going to be constant, but we must assimilate that progressing more slowly does not mean that we are doing wrong. We also have to understand that we are not going to achieve the same results in the first year of training and what we will achieve in the following years.

^{Foto: Fuente}

Point #2: It is impossible to be always at 100%

Many people become very frustrated when they see that they can not always maintain their 100% performance. For example, a person makes a personal record of 100 kg in deadlift, and the next day wants to repeat that mark or try to overcome the previous mark. Unfortunately I have to tell you that it is impossible to keep your performance always to the maximum, and in the end what you're going to get is the opposite and you'll make your performance worse.

If we understand the general process by which supercompensation occurs (the one that makes us progress), we can see that when we apply a weight, it will not make us improve. That is to say, this weight what produces is a fatigue and then with a correct process of recovery and rest, we place ourselves at a point slightly above and that is when we have progressed. However, we are going to make progress if we get everything right, but we do not always have to make progress. Maybe the succession of weights makes us maintain our performance or it may even make us worse. This is what would happen if, for example, we have made a personal record of 100 kg in deadlift and every day we try to repeat this record, in the end what we do is accumulate fatigue, thereby worsening our performance.

Point #3: You will not progress linearly

This point is quite related to the previous ones, that is, with the physiological limit and with the fact that we can not always be at 100%. Let's say that this point is the conclusion of this entire article.

As is logical, the optimal thing would be to start training and reach our physiological limit describing a perfect straight line, because this would imply that we do not stop progressing and that we are also doing it in the fastest way. But this is highly unfeasible.

On the other hand, it would also be perfect to move forward by describing a more pronounced but ascending curve, because this would imply that although we are progressing at different speeds we will always be moving upwards.

But these two scenarios are not going to be possible, because the reality is quite different from what is usually shown in a mathematical way. The physiological limit is simply a trend, but when we train and progress, really what we describe is a very different process. That is, we worsen our performance, we stagnate, we improve slightly, we return to worsen our performance, we stagnate again, then we place ourselves at a point where we had never been (personal record), etc. That's why many athletes reach a certain point of maximum performance at a particular time of the season, and then that point will not reach it again for a few years.

Then, the conclusion is that the process is not going to be linear and it is absolutely necessary that you worsen your performance, that you pond and then rise again. Therefore, my recommendation is that you always use the records you have at that precise moment to try to calculate your new cycles and your new season. Do not base yourself on previous records that you have done in a historical way because those will not serve you. If you stagnate think that it is something completely natural and that it is necessary to keep moving forward. The same if you worsen your performance or if you start to progress very quickly.

I hope this post will be useful, it has taken me time to do it, so your upvote and comment would motivate me a lot!

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