I had planned to work out but I did not.
I had a feeling yesterday that I should chill out for a day. I haven't worked out much more than normally the last few days but it has been cake on cake as the swedish expression goes. Saturday I did a total of 240 squats, plus 160 push-ups and 80 pull-ups. On top of that I did heavy deadlifts which was rough the following days. Monday started out with pressing out almost 160 squats in 4 minutes. Add to this the 49 pull-ups and 49 burpee's, they pressed the parts of my body that was already under stress from saturday.
Yesterday was a harsh rowing-experience and late yesterday I felt that my muscles were pointing towards over-training. Instead of going up and doing another days workout, I simply took a pause. I've been eating great both yesterday and today (so far), so I feel that tomorrow I'll be back to working out with a better mood than ever. The sad part is that I really really felt like training today. I guess it's hard to do the right thing, and even harder when doing the wrong thing is doing the things you really love.
Enough of the emo-violin whining. I'm posting an article that I once wrote on facebook:
I came to a realization a while ago. This is hard for me to explain, but I would like to try and share it with everyone I know.
The key to my self-realization and self-knowledge is by overcoming my fears. I am not talking about fear of spiders or a certain type of animal. I am talking about facing the unknown, facing your fears. I do not want to continue giving the same answer and getting the same result. The only result from that is succeeding in avoiding my fears instead of addressing them.
Society today encourages avoiding fears instead of addressing them. We live our lives by a series of daily routines. Our lives are set into frameworks that are not meant to be changed. You live within the boundaries society encourages and, as a result, avoid your fears. In my view, society’s motto can be summed up as "The simplest way possible". If you see a person at the subway that is obviously feeling mentally ill, do you help them? Do you stand up and offer your assistance?
Facing your fears does not necessarily mean that you must break up your daily life and move to another side of the planet where you can find Nirvana. Facing your fears is an internal conflict. External factors such as where you live are simply not relevant to this discussion.
Everyone addresses their situation differently. For me, I am training, exercising, and eating in a way that I feel makes a difference. I try to defeat myself every time I go to the gym, every time I eat, and every time I go to a new place. Something as simple as learning how to dance makes all the difference. I might not win every fight with myself, but at least I try! But then, what can I lose when I challenge myself?
Everyone has their own unique way to face their own fears. Whether or not we realize it, facing your fears and addressing them will make us better in ways that we cannot understand until we have actually addressed our issues. Self-discovery, the inner conflict.
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A few things about this, and I love it all.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I think that it's great that you know to take a break today. You've put out a lot of energy and working out the last few days, and if your body needs a day, it needs a day. Of course you could work out today if you wanted to, but I suspect that there's a fine line between training at 100% and over-training. So breaks are smart, as long as you're doing them at the right time for the right reason.
Second point, I love that article. It's funny because you use 'society' and talking about 'culture' and how we work as humans. Sometimes I think of Sweden as being a place vastly different in how people work/think/etc. It turns out at the core of it though we're all pretty much the same, and you're making the same observations that I've always held to about my fellow man here as well.
About facing fears, etc. One thing I really want to do is go move and live in another part of the world. I obviously fear losing equity by selling my home, not having any friends around, etc. But I also know at my core it's something that I will need to do at some point. Whether that's moving to New Zealand, Sweden or Monaco. (I know, 3 really different spots, all for different reasons).
Last point - let's keep it in mind to potentially open a gym some day in Sweden. I don't know how the business market is for that, or if it's viable. However, I do have access to funds, and if I ever were to run a business, that's the type it would be. I'd love to be a personal trainer, and spend my day helping others reach their goals. Also I'd love to learn to tala lite svenska ocksa :).
Anyway, enough drivel. Good work. I'm probably taking a rest day and getting things in order here as I've returned from vacation and have a lot to get done before work tomorrow.
Hey bro,
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, all of the things that you said are either things that I've heard before or simply assumed. This is a good thing, not a bad thing. I try to always keep my mind a little bit extra open when it comes to you. I know that you have the potential to suddenly drop everything you have and move to uganda or somewhere to produce maple suryp, simply because you would think it's a cool idea. That being said, I would love to open a gym. In fact I've thought about taking classes in my spare time about things associated with training and diet.
There are different ways to be able to drive a gym in sweden. To get a gym to earn enough money to pay its own bills might take a couple of years before it accomplish something like that, though.
Wuvs,
Simp.