I haven’t posted anything on protein, water, mobility, or nutrition in a while and I feel that doing so makes you consider your habits. Have the guys been eating one gram of protein per pound of body weight plus fifty (e.g. a 200 pound male would hit a minimum of 250g of protein)? Have the gals been aiming for almost 1g per pound of body weight? Are you drinking half your body weight in ounces of water (e.g. a 200 pound male would drink 100 oz of water)? Are you doing daily mobility to improve your movement limitations or painful areas? Are you returning to a clean diet after last week’s eating extravaganza?
These are the little things that make or break your training. Any child can go into the weight room and attack the barbell, but it takes a professional to pay attention to details outside of the gym. If you’re encountering recovery problems — and aren’t using stupid amounts of volume, intensity, or frequency — then look to how well you’re adhering to the above “outside of the gym” aspects of training. If you’ve read this site for a while, you should be thinking “duh”, but at the same time you may realize you haven’t been hitting your daily protein requirements.
Remember that recovery is not a glass of water that you can quickly fill or empty; it’s a continuum. Eating 300+ grams of protein, doing an entire hour of mobility, or over hydrating in one day might be impressive, but it amounts to precisely dick if you don’t do it regularly. You should be consistent enough so that you don’t require a cram session. It’s the same thing as lifting: if you haven’t lifted in a week, you can’t make up for lost time by squatting 20 sets of 5 in your next workout. The concept makes sense in the gym, so act the same outside of it.
If you’re sitting there wondering why you haven’t squatted 405 or pressed your body weight, it might be because you don’t take your training seriously…which is fine if you don’t want to hit your goals. Spending 5 to 10 hours of your week toiling with the iron is more than a fucking hobby; quit dicking around and get serious. Do you want to be an imposing physical specimen who lets children do chin-ups off of your biceps after pressing a car? Then realize that these “little things” are training and get to work.
Can’t believe I actually found an example.
