Last week, I promised you that I will share with you how and why I’ve been training lately. During the last 11-12 years, working out has always been kind of the main part of my day. I’ve spent around 9 years of my life, working out twice a day, every day, and sometimes even more than twice a day. I’ve hurt my body so much, I’ve exhausted it more than once, in the desperate tries to become stronger, more athletic or just in order to lose some weight.
During the last 2-3 years, my knowledge about working out and nutrition has taken a turn. Initially it took me a lot of effort, to start working out just once a day. Then, it was hard to include one rest day a week. Gradually I began working out 5 times a week and rest for two days.
It turned out, that when workouts are just something that brings you more pleasure; something that you do in order to be healthy and fit, instead of making them the meaning of your life, it is not hard to give yourself a rest every now and then. Not in order to be lazy, but in order to recover.
For the last year, I’ve been really busy, when we keep in mind that I am trying to do a billion of things. Sure, this is not an excuse for skipping a workout. You always have time, as long as you have the desire to do something.
When we keep this in mind, I always find time to work out. What was missing a year ago, was my recovery. I was trying to work out like a pro athlete, but I never took the time to recover like one. And there came a time, when I felt pretty tired. That’s when I decided that for the first time in my life I will challenge myself to listen to my body in time. Before I get injured or something else happens, that will be a punishment from my body, for my lack of patience. I decided to take a break, before my body forces me to take an unwanted and unexpected rest.
So, I took the brave decision to work out just two – three times a week. Completely shocked. For a person, who has spent most of her life, working out twice a day, three workouts a week sound like a complete laziness.
Fortunately, that is not what I was thinking. I spent , initially, 6 weeks( and now over a year), working out just three times a week. I took some weight off the bar, so I could decrease the intensity, in order to give myself the rest, I failed to take during the last 12 years.
What happened? Probably you are thinking that I am gonna say, I felt depressed due to the lack of workouts, that I probably gained weight and went out of shape.
Well, truth is that none of this happened! The result is that now I feel great and I have more strength to work out. To be more productive and to feel more pleasure from working out.
I realized that it is great, when you do not use working out as an escape from reality and when you fill your day with some other meaningful things. I realized how great I feel, due to the fact that through the last year, my nutrition turned from “the center of my life”, to just a fuel for my body. I got to feel the freedom of working out three days a week and rest four days and still not feel the fear, that if you eat, you will get fat. Because that is just not gonna happen, when food is not your main source of entertainment and when food Is not your main salvation from boredom.
Thus, on the days I did not work out, I used the time scheduled for workouts, not to be lazy and lie in bed, but to take a walk In the park and read a book. I took that time, to do something else that brings me pleasure and the sense of being complete.
I took the time to observe more carefully some of people I train with. I found out that most of them work out just 2-3 times a week and they are still getting great results. They do some things, which even the so called “professional athletes” couldn’t do- pistols, handstands, deadlifts and squats with a significant weight, weighted push- ups and weighted pull ups, L-sits and so forth.
For the past six weeks I had the opportunity to get in the shoes of a person, who doesn’t live for sports. A person who takes 3-4 times a week for active sport. And tell you the truth, I realized that this is not an excuse for the lack of results. I once again, realized that not the quantity, but the quality of the work done, defines the end result.
And now, I have so much strength and I am filled with enthusiasm to achieve more with myself and my body. I work out out two – three times a week.Thus, I will be one step closer to the balance, I am searching for in everything I do in my life.
I feel really happy with myself, mostly because of the change in my mentality. Back in the days, not working out used to crush me, and now I know that less, doesn’t mean that I am gonna lose what I’ve achieved.
Just the contrary. During the last six weeks I have a huge progress with my handstand, I paid more attention to some of the imbalances I have and I can tell you that even though I trained less, I achieved more.
And I will just add, that the less number of workouts is not an excuse for the lack of physical movement. Use these days for active rest. Walk or hike. Just move. You do not need to be in the gym every single day, in order to be physically active.
So those of you, who used to tell me that I am fit because I work out a lot, and that you do not have so much time to train… you can’t use this arguments anymore. You can get results even when you work out less, but for the cost of the quality of the effort- in the gym and in the kitchen.
I’ve never trained less, but I’ve never trained so good. I’ve never eaten better and I’ve never been fitter, than I am today!
