Month-to-Month Mistakes to Avoid Making in the Gym (Macro)

On Friday, I talked to you guys about three common mistakes in the micro, the daily efforts you put forth in the gym. Today, I’m going to review three common mistakes in the macro, the long-term, zoomed out picture of your fitness.

Lacking Macro Vision
This is ground zero for abandonment of a healthy routine. Think about it like this. If you started a job on day one, you probably wouldn’t have your long-term career mapped out in front of you. However, once you got the lay of the land, saw some higher ups around you and got a feel for the job demands, you’d start to map out where you wanted to go and how you wanted to get there. You’d talk to people, ask questions, and envision what your next step is going to be.

Not having a plan is the gym version of just showing up and punching the clock. Sooner or later, that gets old.

Not Mixing It Up
Adaptation is your body positively reacting to stimulus. If you always give it the same stimulus, it’s going to stop reaction. Frequently change you your rep counts, workout approaches, etc. For example if you have tunnel vision for the performance side of the board it might be time to scale back load and hit some volume.

Warped Sense of Adaptation Timeline
The process of adaptation takes time. Likely a lot longer than your ideal wait time, however it’s important to understand that all of your hard-fought micro efforts need time to build off of one another. It’s easy to get frustrated with a few months of effort and minimal physical change, but the uncomfortable reality is that those you see in the gym looking and moving the way they do have years under their belt. Not weeks or months. This is where the beauty and pleasure of skill development comes into play. Focus on acquiring and bettering skill, not outcome, and the results will appear right in front of you one day.

Your progress moves through different generations. Each one chips away at a little bit of its former self. Be patient. Have a plan.

-Dave