This article is all about detraining, and not overtraining, so I want to make that very clear. Overtraining is very real, however, at the other end of the spectrum, there is detraining, and this right here is the reason why you are lazy.
Yes, I’m making a big, polarizing statement, why? Because, as you’ve noticed throughout all of my health and fitness articles, I’m really passionate, but also slightly irritated by people that are lazy.
What is Detraining?
Detraining refers to diminishing physiological capacity as training becomes infrequent and ceases altogether. Detraining begins to occur and performance gains diminish significantly once a frequent exerciser has not exercised for 2 to 3 weeks.
You see this happens with athletes all the time, when they stop their exercising, their performance goes down significantly. Heck when I was younger, I was a pole vaulter in track, I’ll be the one to admit this to you, I went a little soft because I didn’t like doing handstand walks.
But that’s really what I did to myself, I called myself out and said, “Adam, get your shit together, you can be better.” Constant self-improvement to reach my fitness level higher and higher.
Then I realized in my mid-twenties that I had to make this a lifestyle so I never miss again, like I did in high school when I neglected doing handstand walks to prepare for a track meet and pole vaulting.
This is what detraining does, it fucks up everything when you have too much recovery. Your performance suffers. If you are an athlete that came to my article, then here’s what I have to say to you…
BROTHER, go get in your workout. I don’t care if you have to say no to sex from your woman to get it in, just get that workout done because your performance will be well worth getting in that workout!
Leads You Down a Dark Path
“Small minded people blame others. Average people blame themselves. The wise will see all blame as foolishness.”
-Epictetus
You know I’m all about mental health as I’ve always promoted having a good state of mind since the beginnings of my blog.
What you don’t realize about detraining is this can lead you down a dark path. I’ve been down that road my friend.
Every time I went down that road, I simply had the pussies mindset. Let’s face it, strong men will always blame themselves. Weak men will blame other’s. Always look within my friend.
You know this as I am really big on having a positive, resourceful state of mind. However, we all know life hits us in the face. Shit happens, you might be running late to work, then you get out of work and you are ready for bed.
The next thing you know, you start saying to yourself, “Damn I really need to hit the gym.”
In a way that’s your fault. You gotta be responsible for you my friend.
I’m not going to always say “Be positive.” I know that some people don’t like that comment.
Because I also understand that life throws everyone curveballs. Let’s say you go through a breakup, I still encourage working out.
Self-sabotage is in fact a big reason no men have masculine energy. So I encourage you to snap yourself out of it.
This is what I did my friend, every time I realized, “Adam, you’re weak.” That’s called calling yourself out.
I went to fucking work and did HIIT training, no fucking excuses, and I immediately got back in to the winners mindset.
Learn How To Cook and Bake Food
Detraining can and will cause lack of motivation, and quite frankly, I have mixed feelings on motivation.
On one end, it can be good when I’m training a client. On the other end, I understand that it’s not enough. Why is that not enough? It’s because you gotta focus on what you eat.
It’s not just the hour of working out, it’s the next 23 hours and how you use that time. It’s comfort and it’s easy to sit around.
This is precisely why I’ve labelled detraining as the number one reason people are lazy.
It’s because its true. Look around you. If you wanted to, you can order door dash and stay in the house all day every day.
I encourage you to learn how to cook and at least try this avocado brownie recipe as its better than ordering fucking gross Burger King, McDonalds, or Wendys.
Quite frankly, I recently was in touch with one of my clients who got Burger King and he said he got sick super fucking bad.
He was out for 4 days in a row. This is why I never go to these places, it’s literally poison.
Detraining Affects on Athletes
Here’s where I gotta give full credit to True Athlete Performance.
If you are an athlete and you’ve come across my blog, I encourage you to reconsider how much you’ve declined physical activity.
I understand life happens, but just look at how easily you can lose performance.
This should open up your eyes as to why I’m so fucking passionately annoyed with the average person, even if you are an athlete.
Look man, I’ve called myself out, so I will call you out. What is your true reasoning for stopping exercise?
Are you not an athlete anymore? I get that my friend, I once ran track, you gotta ask yourself why you’ve stopped.
Question yourself, get down to the root of the problem. Put all of your thoughts in a journal.
Then and only then can you get true clarity as to why you aren’t going to the gym anymore.
Ask yourself the following:
- Am I demotivated because of my current financial status?
- Am I demotivated because I cannot play sports due to injury?
- Am I demotivated because I can’t do the exercises I used to do?
Even go deeper if you have to. This is something I still do till this day when I notice my energy levels decline.
I’m here to give you tactical strategies my friend. Sometimes you gotta have honest talks with yourself.
By now you should know, it’s not about motivation. It’s really about making fitness a lifestyle.
It’s about persistently catching yourself having days when you think working out is impossible, but it is in fact possible. How can I make such a big statement?
It’s because unless you have a serious injury where you’re unable to workout at all, the only thing holding you back is yourself.
Swimmers Lost Skeletal Muscle from Detraining
There were up to 8 swimmers that lost their skeletal muscle in their shoulders according to this study here. [R]
That’s sad isn’t it? Honestly, you should see by now that detraining is the opposite end of overtraining.
Both aren’t really that great, however, I’d rather have you get in a good run than just sit around.
And don’t use the weather (oh it’s cold outside) as an excuse.
It’s like dude, even though if you think you have limitations, most of that is shitty limiting beliefs.
“I can’t run it’s too hard on my joints Adam.”
“I can’t swim, it’s really hard.”
This is where I come through to you and say, “Bro, stop being weak and lazy.”
You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. Choosing the easy way out by coming up with excuses is weakness.
The Takeaway
Here’s the takeaway my dude, go be a motherfucking savage in the gym. Or if you are really that uncomfortable in public…
Then workout at home. I’m here to get you to realize that half of detraining is on you.
Why am I calling you out so much? Because I genuinely believe the reason for everyone being depressed nowadays is a lack of inaction in their health.
Health is wealth my friend. I want you to succeed. So do yourself the favor of going through my free weekly german volume training protocol that people paid $40 dollars a month for!
If you want to work with me one-on-one, schedule your fitness consultation here. It’s not free my friend. So unless you’re ready to invest in yourself, I encourage you to go through that weekly weightlifting program.
Feel comfortable to comment down below and you can always email me at AdamSkoda@MasculineMindsetCoach.com with questions and concerns.
You’re a legendary action-taker in a world of talkers. I’ll see you next time!