Coach's Corner
Tips from Leo Totten

Follow your Workout, but Don't Follow your Workout
06.1999

FOLLOW YOUR WORKOUT, BUT DON'T FOLLOW YOUR WORKOUT!!!

Yeah, I know what you are saying; he's really lost it now! He can't even make up his mind - do you or don't you follow your workout?? Of course, you should ALWAYS follow your workout! Well, not so fast! There are exceptions to the rule.

A good coach has lots of positive qualities, one of which is to be able to construct a workout based on the needs of the individual athlete. Many factors need to be taken into consideration when making up the workout - time available to train, time of the year in the periodization cycle, equipment, strengths, weaknesses, outside stresses, etc., etc. A "canned", generic workout simply will not do for the advanced or semi-advanced lifter. A workout for one lifter will not necessarily be appropriate for another although it might if all factors are similar.

A coach needs to try to make training cycles as scientific and "objective" as possible. However, some "subjectivity" has to be factored in as well and this is where the difficulty comes in.

Many of you are in the tough situation where you train alone and rely on workouts sent to you by me or someone else, or you make up your own workouts. This can work well, but it takes some flexibility on the part of the lifter who has to critique how the workout is going and make adjustments accordingly. This is often very difficult but it is crucial for improvement to continue.

The workouts are a "guide" and they are not "etched in stone". Of course, the lifter should try to follow it the best they can, but there will be days when "it just ain't happening!" On those days, it is OK to cut back on a few sets, or lower the percentages, or even take the day off! On the other hand, there are days when everything is "on" and the percentages may seem too low - in that case, it is OK to crank it up a little. Overall, it should pretty much balance out as long as you don't go too crazy in one direction or the other. Too many "cut back" days and you will undertrain but too many "push it" days and you will overtrain. There is a fine line and one that is difficult to see if you are training alone. Ideally, a coach should be watching you to make those adjustments for you. It is much easier for the coach to see than for you to try to figure it out yourself, but sometimes your situation forces you to make that decision.

Along those same lines, don't be afraid to miss lifts in training. Of course, you want to have focused, quality workouts with as few misses as possible, but the truth is, if you are pushing it like you should be, there will be some misses! Everyone misses occasionally (some even more than others!!) The key to "misses" is not the fact that you missed, but, rather, how you deal with the miss. Did you re-group and come back and make it? Did you let it "get you down"? How you react to a miss is very important. If you acknowledge the miss and then move on without letting it bother you, you will continue to improve!!

So, bottom line is, you follow the workout, but you don't! Make sense? Hope so.

Keep training hard - but smart!!