If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

Today I returned to training after my time off. I had hoped my body would be healed and ready to go, but I’m glad I didn’t walk into the gym expecting an amazing workout.

I didn’t want to go. I knew I had to hold back instead of training like a professional athlete arriving with endless motivation and energy. I was already demotivated knowing I would have to skip some of my favorite lifts again. It gets old accepting that certain lifts may no longer work for my body—but I still catch myself hoping.

I did my cardio and felt that familiar anxiety building around my weight-training ambitions. What if I couldn’t lift enough to gain more muscle? Was it time to accept a less ambitious goal, like simply staying in shape?

All the typical gym-rat worries showed up. Thankfully, this isn’t my first rodeo.

Let me cut to the chase: today’s training session was a complete disappointment to my mind. I wanted to return feeling stronger, pumped, and ready to train hard and gain. That is not what happened.

I had no drive. Part of me even felt relieved to have a possible excuse waiting: “I can’t train hard anymore, so now I just walk.”

What an easy fitness life that would be.

Then I pulled myself out of the role of Pauline the poor princess—a victim with limitations, oh, how sad!—and focused on making the session productive.

Instead of being butt-hurt because today’s reality wasn’t what I wanted it to be, I trained like a REAL professional athlete. I made the workout about recovery and strengthening what I could train without pain.

Was I happy when I walked out of the gym?

Yes—but not because I had a fantastic workout. I was happy because it was over, I had trained, and I hadn’t injured myself.

I wrote up the workout I did today for you here to hopefully motivate you to KEEP GOING even when it sucks you can't do exactly what you want to do! :-)

https://seizethetrainingday.com/programs/my-training-day-today-a-great-disappointment