I realized that going beast mode in every fitness session was slowly burning me out
Photos by Anastase Maragos/Unsplash
When I started trying to cut in early 2020, I subscribed to this basic program that aimed for fat loss through intense strength training.
The plan was to focus on heavy lifting—going for strength, not hypertrophy reps—and adding progressive overload in each session for two to three days a week. The fat loss would be facilitated by calorie restriction.
To be fair, it did work: I was losing weight, burning fat, and also lifting the heaviest weights I’ve ever lifted in my entire fitness journey. I liked it because I was going all out in only a few days a week, which was perfect for my lazy self.
When the pandemic hit, I started to follow this coach on Instagram that advocated for the same thing: You don’t need to work out four to six days a week to get gains—all you had to do was go all out for two days a week at most, and you would see the results you wanted.
If going hard a couple of days a week works for you and your body, then by all means, keep doing that. But if you need to go easier on yourself, there’s also no shame in adjusting and dialing it back down
Again, like the program I was subscribed to, there was a basis of truth behind it.
But somewhere along the way, something started to happen. Where at first I liked the idea of lifting as heavy as I could and adding to it in the next session, outside of the gym I had started dreading it.
I slowly started not looking forward to lifting super heavy, maybe out of fear of failing, injury, or just the general strain of pushing too much when I felt tired and fried.
It didn’t help that my brother slightly injured himself bench-pressing a heavy weight that I could do. I didn’t want that to happen to me, even though I was progressing responsibly; I felt like with the way I was going, it was only a matter of time.
Your fitness journey is a marathon
It turns out that there was, in fact, some justification for the dread and burnout that I was feeling. This article from GQ came at the right time, explaining that you shouldn’t go at 100 to 110 percent in every workout session.
New York-based trainer Luke Greenberg essentially says that your entire fitness journey is more of a marathon, not a sprint, and you’ll make a lot more progress when your body feels better and you train more.
But ultimately, I don’t think there is a one-size-fits-all solution to personal fitness. The philosophy that I originally subscribed to a few years ago wasn’t technically wrong either. It wasn’t promoting all heavy lifts and no rest days, and it worked for people whose schedules were too busy to have them come in every day.
New York-based trainer Luke Greenberg essentially says that your entire fitness journey is more of a marathon, not a sprint, and you’ll make a lot more progress when your body feels better and you train more
If going hard a couple of days a week works for you and your body, then by all means, keep doing that. But if you need to go easier on yourself, there’s also no shame in adjusting and dialing it back down.
So I eventually switched back to a more common bodybuilder-style workout that focused more on volume, turning up the intensity not through heavy weights, but through reps that I could perform safely towards failure. I now didn’t mind hitting the gym for more days as I needed to go out and walk as much as I could anyway.
And since making the switch, I’m glad to say that I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in in years, perhaps ever. So if anything, experimentation helps—I’m glad I got to try out all these different approaches to working out and figure out what works best for me in the long run.