Fitness is a Long Game
On one hand, it feels like I've been away from BODYATTACK forever (it's been 10 weeks)...
On the other hand, I was out longer than this with a knee injury about seven years ago.
And we were all out of our routines for at least 10 weeks back in 2020 when the first wave of COVID-19 shut everything down.
When we're in the middle of something, it can feel like it's taking forever — to heal, to see results, to reach a goal.
Time has this way, though, of ticking on and before you know it, that thing that seemed to take forever is far in the rearview.
If there's one thing that training consistently over the last 20 years has shown me, it's that training comes in phases, because fitness is for life, and life goes in cycles.
When you know you're in it for the long haul, one missed workout or one month of modified training is barely even a blip.
I see this over and over again with my clients and with my own training.
I've trained clients through vacation prep, graduations, wedding prep, new jobs, pregnancy, postpartum, pre-and post-surgery, and every other normal phase of life.
Each stage comes with its own goals, obstacles, and opportunities, there's almost always something we can work on, and every daunting challenge is over before we know it.
Before my ankle stuff, I spent about six months modifying my upper body workouts to avoid elbow discomfort and another six months rebuilding my strength, and now I'm stronger than ever before at pull-ups and chest press and continuing to progress.
That's why short-term fitness challenges frustrate me so much.
Fitness takes time. It takes consistent effort and work for a long time.
I'll be honest. If I was only looking at my workouts through the lens of the last month — nearly half modified due to injury and vacation and a few missed altogether — it wouldn't necessarily look like much. But I can look back over months and years and see the progress I've made, and it helps me remember that setbacks are normal and temporary.
If you're not where you want to be right now, that's ok. You can start now. The sooner you start, the sooner you'll start seeing the progress you want.
If you're struggling with an injury or health condition and it's affecting your workouts, I've been there and I'm there now, too. How can you work around it? What can you do instead? (And sometimes, resting and letting your body do its healing work is the best thing you can do.)
