We all have them. Those days when things just click, we feel good, we move good; and overall, we perform well. These are our good days. Then we have days when nothing seems to work out for us. We just feel like we have it and movements don’t feel right. They’re going to happen. Both of them - the good and the bad. For the sake of this blog and because it’s what I want to talk about here, we’re going to keep this to the confines of our workouts in the gym. All other aspects of “good days” and “bad days” are on the table, but you’re going to have to sit down one and one with me and maybe bring in someone with professional training to help you out as I can not (that’s a joke haha).
There’s a few key factors that affect “good days” and “bad days” in our workouts. We are in control of them and can easily enough address them in order to keep things trending to the “good” side. There are always going to be factors outside of our control that come up despite our best laid plans. That’s ok. Kids wake us up four times throughout the night. A friend in need phones in a favour and we rush off to help them. We spend $32 at the car wash the day before detailing our truck and then it snows the next day (for real I see red!). However, the things we can make work to our advantage will help set us up for success and keep those good days on track.
First, nutrition. What we eat the day before plays a very large factor in how we perform today. If we are underfed and don’t have enough fuel, we come in the next day with an empty tank. Despite our best efforts to make the engine go, we’re out of gas. We can still idle down the street and get to where we need to go but we certainly aren’t going to be setting any land speed records. Make sure we have enough fuel to power today, sets us up for a good day tomorrow. The second aspect of that is quality of our fuel. If we fill the tank with sub-par fuel, we are going to be using that as our energy source. When we put in low quality proteins, carbs and fats then our body still has to process and use them. Our system needs to work extra hard to make that happen. Nutrient uptake is severely diminished. Our macro nutrients (those “proteins”, “carbs” and “fats”) are most likely way off track for percentage of what we need and our micro nutrient levels are most likely way down from where we they should be. Very simply, high quality calories in today are going to make for high quality results tomorrow.
The next big factor is sleep. I’ve become fairly in tune with my body and recovery. I can tell you what time I am going to get sore and how much it’s going to to hurt based on my sleep. When I come in first thing in the morning, I will never feel too bad. By the 7am class, I can start to feel it and it will peak around the 10am class. This will be exaggerated with less sleep or more subdued with a good night’s sleep. I notice a marked difference in my recovery from 7 hours compared to 8 hours of sleep. Getting good quality sleep, the same as good quality calories, goes a long ways in our next day’s performance. A few quick tips to help with that. First and foremost, allow yourself the time! No matter how amazing your sleep quality is, if you only get 5 or 6 hours of it, you aren’t at optimal. Yes, I realize that in most people’s lives, that’s a reality. That mindset needs to change. Your rest and recovery needs to be as much a priority as your time in the gym. Another is to make your room as dark and as quiet as it can be. I have two small kids and live in “real life” so we have our door open and night lights on in our house for them. I get it. I do know that when I “have to” sleep downstairs in the basement for whatever reason, that my sleep quality is much higher. It’s very dark, very quiet, and very cool. Which leads me to the temperature thing. A cool environment promotes good sleep quality. Our body’s internal temperature naturally lowers when we sleep. A cool ambient temperature aids in this. It’s good to be comfortably warm under the blankets but the air should be cool. Adjust your sleep as needed in order to make it a priority just the same as you do to have your time in the gym training.
Last thing I will talk about is mindset. There’s obviously a lot we could go in to here. Just to really quick address a few things. Stressors are the first thing. If we have had a highly stressful day up to the point we come in to the gym, our performance is going to suffer. Your body has been partaking on an “internal workout” for the rest of the day. This wreaks havoc on our nervous system and emotions. It’s draining. It happens. It’s ok. Just give yourself permission to be OK with putting in a less than ideal performance. It’s going to happen. The next thing, and more to one we can have a higher degree of control over, is our outlook for the workout. If you are the type of person who looks at the workout before hand, sees it’s “movement X” that you dislike and then dwell on it all the way in to the gym, guess what? It’s not going to be any better when you’re there! Instead, how about approach it like this. “Movement X today. My chance to work on them”. I’ve talked about in weeks past blogs, the score you put up on the whiteboard today, is gone at the end of that very same day. Don’t worry about it! Take the opportunity to work on quality movement and mindful practise.
There’s always going to be those days. The good, the bad, and even sometimes, the ugly. With a little bit of planning and good habits today, we can make tomorrow be a much better day. Quality food. Quality sleep. Quality thoughts. They will go a long ways.