Success and Failure...

Hi and Happy New Year!

Hope you have been having a good time, and if you jumped off your fitness routine it's time to get back on it again and re-commit once more.

I Failed!!

If you were paying attention you will know i recently decided the last few weeks of the year would be enough to improve my pull up numbers. This was to use the example of regular practise of a movement to get better at it.

Well i pretty much stuck with the plan and the truth is it did improve my pull ups, at least from the beginning of the 3 week period to the end. On the testing day the first 13 or so never felt so easy. However stopping at 19, i didn't get my new PR of 20.

What to learn from this?

Although extremely mad about not getting the result i wanted in that moment, i soon started to look at the possible reasons for the result i got.

Despite the fact that a training approach works and has worked for me in the past, does not mean it will work every time. It is important to know how to effectively manipulate efforts to get the results without overtraining.

I was using this as an experiment and so artificially constraining my efforts to one type over this few weeks. It seems what was needed was a more complex training stimulus, and i did keep wanting to vary my efforts. I stuck with the plan.

There are a couple of ways to look at this. One is that to succeed you must experience failure many times, and even come to enjoy it as stepping stones on the way to success. Have you heard the saying "you learn far more from your failures than your successes"?

The other is that every result is merely feedback and not failure. It is a chance to learn, and based on that, change course for next time. I like this as it gives goals a bit more fluidity and continuity. This is something i first picked up from Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP).

'Failing' to reach a target means you know more about what to do next time, not that it is time to give up!

Either way, to earn your feedback, or your 'failure', action is the essential ingredient.

While i have failed to hit targets many times, i have also hit a few bulls eyes also. In fact i got a couple of big ones in before the end of the year which made up for missing the pull ups!

I always say this...but...

You have more than likely heard me recommend a training diary on a number of occasions. Here we go again! There is no better way of making your feedback high quality than being able to see clearly what got you the result.

So i urge you to give it a go, buy a specific notebook and commit to tracking your training until it becomes a habit. I find it does make a difference.

One job of a personal trainer is to hold clients accountable to their goals, and this is a great way getting a level of accountability to yourself. Write your goals for the year at the beginning, and review often.

Pretty soon it is staring back at you in black and white if you have been missing sessions, or hitting them all hard. If you are training right, those great sessions or new PR's are also there to inspire and motivate and enjoy.

Have a great 2008!

Steve.
http://www.everydayathletes.co.uk/
http://sussexpersonaltrainer.blogspot.com/