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Barbell Training Motivation | 4 Influences & How To Combat Them!
Wouldn’t it be great if we were always motivated to train? If you’ve ever experienced lulls in your barbell training motivation or keeping up with your powerlifting training, you’re not alone.
Barbell training motivation ebbs and flows and is a natural part of the training experience. However, there are many factors that contribute to changes in training motivation and it’s how we respond to it that makes all the difference!
In this episode of the Progressive Rehab & Strength Podcast, Dr. Rori and Dr. Alyssa explore strategies for creating and maintaining motivation in your training through the ups and downs of your lifting career. It's easy to train when spirits are high, you are having fun and hitting PR's, but anyone who has trained for multiple years knows that everyone goes through slumps from time to time.
Whether it's an injury, the intensity of training, or life factors affecting you, training motivation can be hard to find, even for elite athletes. But by setting attainable goals, good habits, creating a solid plan for progress (and sticking to it!), keeping a log, and staying flexible, you can create and sustain training momentum.
Episode 3 Transcript:
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:00:00] And when I say never miss training, I don't mean they get the program done exactly as written in the timeline outlined in the program. That's where people should flex their mental bicep, and she does it because she's flexible in her mindset.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:00:28] Welcome to Episode 3 of the Progressive Rehab & Strength Podcast. I'm your host Dr. Rori Alter, Head Clinical Coach at Progressive Rehab & Strength, with my lovely co-host, Dr. Alyssa Haveson, also a clinical coach here at Progressive Rehab & Strength. And in today's episode, we'll be talking about training motivation. So we sent out an email to our newsletter subscribers about the first four episodes we were doing and asked for questions from you guys. Mr. Fabio asked in an email to us. He's also a member of our Secret Society of Barbell Mastery Free Facebook group. So definitely join that if you're interested in connecting with us in real life on Facebook because Facebook is real life anyway.
So Fabio wrote in:
"Do you think taking part in meets is a way of staying motivated? I often feel it forces me to focus and not skip training, even when all hell is breaking loose because I either have a training goal or want to do well in a meet. My girlfriend, who 'exercises' but does not really train for anything, is much more likely to skip sessions or spend an entire week without going near a dumbbell."
So I love this question.
It is a very common question that not only the PRS clients have; everyone who has a goal or is a competitive or recreational competitive athlete or into health and fitness.
Motivation is not always there. And you're going to have those days, those weeks or those months where you're just like, "I really feel like I'm dragging; this isn't fun." And there could be so many influences that are leading you to have those feelings.
So we wanted to talk about those influences, what you can do, and the type of mindset you can have or the changes you can make to your program to address those. For example, to make it easier to stick with your goals, habits, and training through motivation lulls.
So first and foremost, training and motivation are not linear. They ebb and flow based on your life season and the influences your program has on you.
So the four influences that we've identified affecting training motivation tanking or increasing are:
1) Internal training factors include things about the program that are decreasing your motivation.
2) External training factors, which are things in your life that are influencing your desire to train.
3) A combination of both of those things
4) Injuries, surgeries, and illnesses can influence your motivation to train through those or while you're experiencing those.
So we'll talk about those. And while we're discussing them, we will also talk about ways we can combat them. And then, we'll dive into what elite athletes or pros do, think, or feel through those times of low motivation and their approach and mindset that goes into training through lower points in motivation.
So without further ado, I'm going to pass this off to Alyssa to discuss:
"How do you stay motivated to train?"
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [00:04:24] Training motivation does change; therefore, the barbell training program must adapt to that. When the barbell training program doesn't adapt to a change in motivation, we end up with this disconnect where we lose motivation. It's hard to either continue training or show up and complete all of your training. So when it comes to losing motivation, we've got internal and external factors, which are the two big ones.
Internal Factors Contributing to Decreased Training Motivation:
1) Barbell Training is Too Hard: One of the big ones is that training is too hard. Either you know that you have a 5x5 or an 8x5 or whatever it is that's programmed for the day. And even if it's not that heavy or hard, it can be mentally daunting. But, add in heavyweight to that, which is challenging and fatiguing; you feel run down, and like your session will take forever to get through. And you know what it felt like last week and don't want to do it this week.
So you've got a few options.
Either you go in, and you just suck it up and do it. And how many more weeks are you going to do that for? Because you're at the end of your rope with this set and rep scheme, and it doesn't feel good.
Or you're going to go in and maybe do part of it or get through that 8x5 or 5x5 or whatever that number is that you're, you're dreading and then not finish your workout.
And then when that stuff starts to happen, it causes motivation problems because you did some of it and didn't do all of it. So you feel like you're failing. And it's just this slippery slope.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:06:13] It is a slippery slope. And that's when we just start to lose momentum, you know?
So when you start dreading your training, you think:
"I don't want to do this training session because it takes so long to get through. My sessions used to take an hour and a half. Now they're taking two and a half hours, 3 hours."
Then it makes you exhausted after, and you need an hour to recover before you can do anything functionally. So then it becomes a three-and-a-half-hour ordeal.
And the thought of going into your training session is:
"Well, I'm just going to be too tired. So I'll just do it tomorrow."
And you push things off, and it's a snowball effect.
So what types of things can we do to decrease that mental load of high volume, long training sessions, high training fatigue, etc.?
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [00:07:13] We can adjust the program, which should adjust when we run into that problem.
Even if it's not high volume, if the weight is just getting too heavy and all of your RPEs are 9-10s, you're grinding through your sets; something needs to change.
We tend to see that when someone is coaching themselves or working with a coach who's not monitoring closely on a weekly basis, we see that those changes aren't made.
And especially when it's somebody coaching themselves, they think, "I should be able to do this. I want to make progress." But they're losing that motivation. But really, a change needs to be made to the program.
a. To address fatigue because we don't want to have that much training stress all the time, or always train at RPE 10.
b. But also, if it's not simply fatigue and more, then that session is daunting, and someone says, "it's not that the weight is heavy. I don't want to do all these reps as it takes me forever."
Something needs to change to make that session manageable so that it's not 3 hours so that it's something that they will do and they'll start their training session.
Because listen, if they're going to skip your barbell training session, it's no better. Doing fewer reps or lower intensity is better than skipping a training session altogether. So something in the program needs to change.
In What Ways Can You Lower Barbell Training Intensity?
It really depends on where they're starting.
Let's use the example of 5 reps x 5 sets across:
Suggestion 1: Switch back off sets. You don't need to just drop the weight altogether.
I think sometimes there's that inclination to, "All right, I just got to make a huge change."
We first want to address the intensity by adding back-off sets.
Suggestion 2: And if we see that that first set is still RPE 9, 10, we can start to lower the reps of that top set.
Suggestion 3: As the back-off sets are getting relatively heavier, we can increase the back-off percentage
Suggestion 4: and then begin to lower that volume.
It doesn't have to happen in that order. We always make that intensity adjustment first by adding the back offsets. But, still, we need to watch what's happening with RPE, not just the average RPE, which we look at, but also what's happening between that top set and the back-offs.
Because sometimes the intensity of the back-off, the RPE, or the relative intensity of the back-off, will be okay. But that top set is really getting tough. Or even though the back-offs were okay, now they are RPE 9, 9.5 towards the end, and we need to make them a little bit lighter.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:09:54] So let's talk about what those changes look like. So let's use that 5x5 example that you were talking about.
So five sets of five reps across with the same load, and we're looking at the exercise RPE that are all pretty high for each set. So we got RPE 9 across or 8.5+ each set.
Example of Suggestion 1: The first change we would make is to keep progressing the top set by whatever load progression you use.
For example, you're increasing it by two and a half pounds, 5 pounds, etc., and do only one top set and then do back-off sets. So the remaining four sets of five would be at a lower weight.
Generally, we say start with a 5% drop. Then, as you start becoming aware of your response to load drops, you might know you need to take a 10% drop because 5% isn't enough to lower the overall intensity and fatigue of that exercise.
So that first change is going from sets across to a top set with back-off sets.
Example of Suggestion 2: Let's say the top set is getting really hard. The next thing would be to change the volume of that top set but keep the volume on the back-off sets.
So we would go from five to three reps on that top set to keep progressing forward and use that as motivation.
Use that as motivation that you are still getting stronger, you are still progressing, but it's decreasing the mental stress of that top set because it's lowering the relative intensity. So you go in with more confidence and motivation for that top set.
Then you're still progressing the back of sets, and there's less fatigue carrying over from that top set because you lowered the volume.
It's slightly confusing, but we have many articles on this stuff, so I'm just going to plug in here.
1) First, we have an article called Progression Without Regression. So that's how we make these small incremental changes on a lift-by-lift basis to lower the overall stress or training fatigue within a training session for a particular exercise.
2) One is on training fatigue.
3) And by the time this episode airs, we have another article that has come out on how to track those training trends to make those adjustments before they show up as a decrease in motivation.
We track particular trends as part of the Sustainable Training Method at PRS. The abovementioned articles discuss it and track the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) on all exercise sets.
We look at:
The behavior of rating of perceived exertion (RPE)
RPE to convert our training into an estimated 1 rm's (e1rms) for each lift, and we'll watch as a measure of performance, recovery, and fatigue accumulation.
And we'll watch those trends and estimated 1 rm (e1rm) to see when training fatigue is starting to accumulate too high or too much, which might lead to a decrease in motivation and performance.
And we'll use those to make these changes in advance to decrease the risk of training motivation slumps due to high training fatigue.
So that's one element of internal training factors.
2)Training is too easy or too monotonous.
When Training is Too Easy:
How might we accommodate that to challenge the lifter so they're not losing motivation because it doesn't seem like they're working hard enough?
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [00:14:21] That's something we run into more when we're dealing with a rehab client rehabbing an injury or addressing symptoms that are affecting some lifts, but not all of them. But, still, it's causing the training sessions to be short and overall generally easy.
Or with someone new, and we're starting them a little bit lighter, RPEs are low. As long as they're responding to coaching cues and doing well with making changes and using our feedback, that's what we can have them take a little bit bigger jumps from session to session. If they're at RPE 6, then we don't need to be taking 2.5-pound jumps under those circumstances.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:15:09] That's where we need to monitor these things regularly.
-->We do want to get a rating of perceived exertion.
-->We want to look at the videos of our lifters and say, okay, is our technical execution good?
-->Are they interpreting the plan and the program and executing it correctly?
-->And is everything just really light?
And if it's under the intention of the stress of the program, then yeah, we can say, okay, they're moving well, they follow directions, they're not going to YOLO. So let's increase their jump session to session so that we get them into a range that they feel like they're doing the work necessary to get stronger.
And I think there are periods when we should be working at relatively lower intensities. Obviously, the big one is when we're dealing with injuries, but also when we're starting a new training block. And I put blocks in quotations because we don't do block periodization. 95% of what we do is not block periodization here at PRS. But we deliver programming in four-week increments that we monitor and adjust dynamically weekly. However, we call them training blocks.
But when we're resetting someone and not necessarily resetting them all the way to the beginning, but to their next linear progression or linear periodization, that's kind of the beginning of the block, right? And we always want to start off a little bit easier because we'll get more out of it long-term if we're starting on the lower end of that intensity spectrum versus if we start too high.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:16:57] We should undershoot initially and never overshoot. And then we can progress a little bit faster, in the beginning, to get us to a steady rate of progression versus undulating from week to week based on autoregulation type things.
So if it's too easy and everything is in check regarding execution, then we can say, sure, let's bump up those jumps a little bit.
When Training Is Too Monotonous:
This goes in hand when you have someone new to barbell training who might have done CrossFit or bodybuilding training or exercise programs in the past. They're used to a lot of variety, or they're used to feeling sore and tired all the time.
And then you come into a well-written, planned, and progressed program.
a. You shouldn't really be sore all the time.
b. It is somewhat monotonous because we look for the repeated bout effect.
If we change things up too regularly, we wouldn't really start to adapt to anything at all. And part of the getting stronger process is adaptation, right?
So we need to experience an exercise for an extended period to get its benefits in strength and hypertrophy.
So how do we incorporate variety into intermediate and advanced training programs? What might we do with a novice that the traditional Starting Strength Novice Linear Progression (SSNLP) would not include?
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [00:18:48] Usually, the concern about it being too monotonous is it's not coming from the coach's end.
We're happy with the training. You're training the barbell lifts, and what will give you the most bang for your buck. And we have many clients who are happy with that and don't want to do anything else.
But, some people want more accessory work or variety in their barbell training programs.
So the first thing I do is educate on why the main barbell lifts we choose are the most beneficial. But that doesn't always matter. What they want is really important, and what's going to keep them motivated to train and ultimately keep them barbell training is what they need.
So, we can add in accessories at the end of the workouts, which will often just mix things up a little bit, giving them some variety.
For example, some people really want to train bicep curls. I will not put it in your program if you don't ask for it. But I'll certainly add it if you want it. And I'm not going to tell you, "No, you can't do those," because guess what? Someone will probably do them anyway if I don't put them and they want to do them.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:20:03] For a sustainable business, you need to really listen to your clients, and clients staying motivated is the most important thing for your business.
--> staying motivated
--> staying injury-free
--> and reaching their goals.
But those two things, reaching their goals and staying injury-free, will keep them motivated and with you long term.
So listening to the lifter and bending your own rules to satisfy the needs and wants of the lifter in the best way possible for them to continue to get stronger and reach their goals. Maybe biceps and triceps, planks, HIIT training, Zumba class, and running a marathon will not be the best for their strength training or their strength goals. But as their coach, we should consider what they want, manage the program, and design it to fit all of those things into it.
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [00:21:24] And I think that part of what's important is that they can tell us what they want and that, for the most part, they're going to get that from us. And then we can control when things are happening. Instead of having someone like, "You know what, screw it. I'm going to go and do a couple of CrossFit classes on top of your program." You're wondering why they're so run down and tired.
We want to have that control over the program to monitor it all. And I have clients that want to train a back squat, front, squat, bench press, deadlift, power clean, snatch, overhead press, and I have a couple of them. And this particular client isn't who you think I'm talking about. She wants metcons in her program, so we've had conversations about prioritizing differently.
This is where we do kind of talk about phases of training and what's going to be the priority. And I fit it all in. It's like doing Sudoku, making it all fit. Sure, if she wants to train different kinds of squats and that's what she really wants to do and what makes her happy. We're going to do it.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:22:42] We'll program it optimally.
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [00:22:43] Exactly. She's not back squatting three days a week and then front squatting. We're just making it all work. And she's happy.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:22:52] So, Alyssa, in the PRS Method, we tend to keep the main lifts in the program. So we keep those in the program, whatever your main squat of choices, your main deadlift or choice, your bench press in your overhead press.
Let's say somebody wants to incorporate training for a half marathon. Let's say someone loves running. We know that running can have a negative impact on strength development, but they've registered for a half marathon. They still want to do their strength training, but right now, they want to train for a half marathon.
How might we adjust the standard 3-to-4-day training program to incorporate time for marathon training and recovering from both training barbells and running?
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [00:23:49] Yeah. So it's essential to understand what the client's priorities are. They're not always going to be the same as yours.
And suppose someone's training for a half marathon or a marathon, and that's what they're doing. In that case, I'm not going to sit here and say, "well, you still have to train three or four days a week for X amount of time, and your training is suffering. So you've got to cut back on running."
That's not what we're dealing with there. That's when the relative intensity may need to be adjusted because now we're looking at their performance with the barbell lifts. And instead of saying, "your lifts are suffering because you're running," we''' look at exactly what's happening with their RPE, their estimated 1 rm. We know that the running is going to stay. It's not going to change and make adjustments based on that, but also scheduling out their week and potentially giving them fewer sessions, fewer barbell training sessions a week, shorter sessions each week. And talking about what days are you going to run? When are you going to have a rest day? Does it make sense to do your long run before or after the training session?
So, looking at the whole week with them instead of saying, I don't think you should run, it's affecting your lifting. That's not what they want to hear, and it will not get you anywhere.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:25:10] Yeah. So I think that it's really important to discuss with the client what their training schedule for the half marathon is going to be. and then tapering back the frequency of training and the intensity of training and understanding that as their volume and intensity picks up for training for the running that they're intensity, really mostly intensity is going to have to pull back on in the strength training. And we might then start to see a maintenance of strength in barbell training while they're peaking for their running competition.
So this is also why it's imperative to be tracking your training and tracking your performance and recovery from barbell training because we can then see the influence that running is having on your barbell training, and we can adjust the barbell training in response to the increased recovery demands of the running so that you don't go backward in your strength training, but that you maintain it while you're going into that other sports competition. Does that make sense?
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [00:26:30] Yeah, and I think kind of a parallel to that, which is external factors that we're not really going to manipulate too much.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:26:38] Right.
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [00:26:39] Not so much talking about activity, but I have a couple of clients who observe Ramadan, and that's where, again, we're going to be looking at the barbell training and their training trends and what's happening there while they are still training, but fasting. But there are significant changes that need to happen to the program. So, you know, and that's when we talk about scheduling training sessions and when they can eat. And though it's not necessarily another training stress, it's just an example of something we're not going to say. Don't do that, obviously. Right. We just need to look at the whole picture and adjust the barbell training, intensity, volume, and frequency to fit into the other stuff going on in their lives.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:27:23] Yeah. So, let's just define what external obligations are. So because I think this is a good segue way and kind of shows you where the intersection between internal and external training, training, motivations, or factors come in terms of training motivation. So, running is a combination of both because it is training, running as training, and it influences the recovery and intensity and response to your internal factors.
External Training Obligations Leading to Decreased Motivation to Train:
External obligations, such as family, work, and social, might influence your training schedule or your desire to train at this time.
Maybe you're going through a significant family change, a baby's coming into the family, or you have a big project at work, or holidays are coming up like it's about to be Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. These are all social types of influences that might affect your motivation to train other things like life events. So maybe you're getting married, or you're graduating.
I've had a lot of student clients, higher-level education, and college and graduate school. And when they approach that graduation date and they are having, and even Alyssa, this happened with you. I don't know how much you remember about this, but you started working at PRS before you graduated from PT school.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:29:03] And then when the reality of having to of no longer being in this like the academic lifestyle that you've been in for the last three years in graduate school, the reality of transitioning from academic to professional, the reality of okay, my student loans are going to kick in the reality of I have to find a job, the reality of I have to pay off my student loans, I have to take my licensing exam. When we have these significant life events, we can start to mentally and emotionally pull back from training, or training starts to overwhelm us because we're overwhelmed by a lot of other things going on in our life.
So I've seen this with many academic transitions from academic to professional. I would say this has happened with all the students I've worked with. And it's not that we've done anything wrong. It's our job as coaches to recognize that and say, "how do I help my client through this process and this change?" Because I know that they love training. So how do I keep them motivated and keep them from saying, "you know what, I've got too much going on; I'm going to skip training." So we must recognize these and other external factors that might affect training or emotional stress.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:30:27] Maybe you're going through a breakup, or you lost a family member or a friend, or there's a tragedy in your community. Or your pet passed away, or someone in your family is sick. So we have to take those factors into account and say what's doable for the client or the lifter in this phase right now?
And then we mentioned the schedule. Well, you mentioned scheduling a little bit with Ramadan. So, you know, looking at the client schedule and saying how does training fit in? When are they going to be most nourished and rest nourished and rest to train?
Maybe their shift working. And this is something that we see a lot with shift working. Maybe we have to adjust the training week from like 7 to 10 days or 7 to 14 days and give them say, okay, here's a week of training, but do it over 14 days. Don't try and stack everything in a Sunday to Saturday week, you know. So and I think that that's a tactic we use a lot is just saying kind of goes in the order in which the program is written, and don't confine yourself to what society has told us is a week, you know.
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [00:31:52] Yeah. And, and I think the other thing that we see is (and we let people know this is okay, is "hey listen, if you can't do your entire session in one bout, but you can come back and finish it and just split it up or finish it tomorrow. Great." And, or if you can only get through half of it. And I just actually sent an email to a client specifically about this. I said, if you're not starting it because you're worried, you're not going to have time to finish it, and the sessions have already been shortened anyway. Then just start it and do a lift. That's better than that's better than nothing. The other thing that we can do is significantly shorten the sessions. I've had clients that are like that tell me they can train for 30 to 45 minutes each day. So then we have 1 to 2 lifts in a session. And the thing that I was going to say is when we run into those situations, there are different kinds of people. There are the people that when I recognize that we need to adjust something and I say, Hey, this is what I'm thinking, we could drop down to two days a week or extend out your training week, or I can shorten your sessions there. They're the people that say, Yeah, I really need that. And then there are the people that say, No, no, I want to try to do this. And sometimes, I end up making those changes anyway because they don't feel like that's not acceptable. And again, at the end of the day, doing some training is better than none. So whatever program helps you do your training or some of it.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:33:25] Yeah. And I think, you know, my husband has been excellent about this since having our son, JD. We can't train those two and a half. Well, I would train for two and a half hours. I don't think my husband ever trained for two and a half hours, but I had like one of the most the best things that I loved about the training was just kind of going into the gym, taking my time, and checking out. My sessions would take two and a half hours because I would go at my own pace, and I would just enjoy it and, like, give myself the time to rest between sets. And I really can't do that anymore. And I have been struggling with motivation because I miss that type of training, but I just don't physically have the time in my schedule nor the energy to do that now that I have a son. And so it has been hard for me to adapt my mindset to one lift per day or just do what I can in 30 minutes or something is better than nothing, which I, you know, I know this is these are things that I know, and I talk to my clients about all the time and going through this. And I think, Alyssa, you've been through a lot of these types of things as well with life events and medical issues and that kind of thing. Going through these things helps us be better coaches and helps us understand our clients' experiences and thought processes more.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:34:52] So I get it. I have a lot of mom clients and just kind of bring in some examples of the things that you were talking about. Maybe we pull out the accessory, or you split things up and do one lift on Monday and then the rest of the two other lifts written in that session on Tuesday. So I have two moms that really inspire me. They're my clients, and they really, truly inspire me because they never miss training. And when I say never miss training, I don't mean that they get the program done exactly as written in the timeline that's outlined in the program because that's not the case. And I think that that's where people really should flex their mental bicep is my client, Anna Marie, she is a mom of, I think, five. I have interviewed her before. We actually, and I'll link this in the show notes. I interviewed her years ago in a YouTube video that when I wanted the thought of these podcasts had come into my mind, and I never got through it, but I did interview her for YouTube, so I'll put that in the comment in the show notes. But one thing that she does is she drops accessories. She prefers her conditioning over her accessory. So she drops the accessory and does one lift in the morning, and she'll come back for the rest of it in the evening, or she'll split it up on to different days.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:36:26] She always gets the barbell training in no matter what she literally and I this is one of my huge inspirations. I really can't even express how freaking amazing -she homeschools, she's a coach, she's got five kids, and she's moved since I've been working the last seven years. She's moved like two or three times and has been pregnant and runs a business, and she's just amazing, and she always gets her training in, and she does it because she's flexible in her mindset. And she doesn't just look at the training session and say, I have to do this in one in one bout of time, one training session, she splits it up or drops the accessory, and it doesn't bother her that she doesn't get the accessory in because she would prefer to do her conditioning and go hiking with her kids. But she gets the training every week, you know.
And then my other client, Melissa, who I requested, comes on the podcast, and we speak with her about this. She is a pandemic, mommy. So her daughter was born just a little bit before the pandemic. And then she was raising a baby/toddler throughout the pandemic. She's a lawyer, and she's had multiple surgeries throughout the time that I've been working with her.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:37:45] And that's why she intentionally works with us because she's needed surgeries. These are not things that were preventable surgeries. She really needed these surgeries. She's had a C-section and baby, breastfeeding, moved from an apartment to a house during the pandemic. Didn't have a gym or gym equipment or barbell equipment, continued to train through the pandemic without barbells, switched jobs, and lacked child care. Yet this woman shows up every week and gets her training in. And it's not necessarily in the order in which it was written or the loads written in the program. But she shows up, and she's like, I did it. I was there, and here's what I did and has not missed a beat despite the pandemic, having a baby, having surgeries, etc.
So these two women are prime examples of flexing that mental mindset or that mental bicep to overcome external training factors that influence motivation. And also, Melissa is a great example and kind of segway into the other area of training motivation: injuries, pain, and illness.
So this is our jam here at PRS. So, Alyssa, why don't you dive into some of the motivational factors people face when they get injured, have an illness, or have undergone surgery.
How might injury, illness, or surgery influence a person's motivation to train, and what types of things do we do to combat that?
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [00:39:29] It can be challenging for many people to have their training interrupted by an unexpected injury, especially when they feel like they're making a ton of progress. We can reduce the risk of injuries occurring. But, unfortunately, we can't prevent injuries. Some people come to us injured for help with an injury or symptoms they're having during training.
Illnesses & Training Motivation:
COVID has been big over the last two years, and we have a mandatory two-week COVID hold, which bums people out. Especially when they're not having severe symptoms, putting their coaching on hold for two weeks and then returning to training.
Injuries, Surgeries & Training Motivation:
Depending on the type of surgery, it will impact what training looks like on the other side of that. So the way that we address this is that the program needs to change to accommodate their needs. And when an injury or surgery occurs, we can continue to train the unaffected lifts. So training doesn't have to stop.
That's where many people come to us for guidance because they're hurt. But, I think I said this on our last podcast, they wait until they feel better to go in, and then the next session, they just don't feel better.
And then they'll wait another week until they feel better. And then it's been two weeks, and they try to go in, and everything feels heavy because it's been two weeks.
So we recommend continuing to train through that so you can train the unaffected lifts and continue to train them normally or with modifications if they somehow impact the painful or injured area.
And then, with the painful lifts, we can address programming and the volume and potentially modify the lift, modify the position, reduce the range of motion, and continue to train and progress while keeping in mind that certain pain levels are acceptable and some aren't. And we have an algorithm to sort of guide what your training decision should be in the moment based on how you're feeling.
Keeping Your Training Schedule Through Injury:
Maintaining that habit and schedule is really important for staying motivated, feeling like you're moving forward, and not getting into this thing of, "I'm not going to go to the gym. Then when I go, I hate it because I can't lift heavy."
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:42:05] Yeah. And I think the habit is the overlying or underlying thing, especially with external training factors influencing motivation and injury, pain and illness influencing training motivation.
I think the biggest thing with those two is maintaining the habit because we can get out of the habit of training when our motivation is tanked because of schedule or sleep or life events, a surgery preventing us or making it not comfortable or optimal to train.
Who wants to go to the gym when they have back pain? It's not fun to go train when you don't feel great. There's no denying that. And that can really influence your desire to train. And this will also kind of get into what the pros say, or the elite do. But understanding that it's okay to train when you have pain and understanding that some level of pain is okay to train through allows us or hopefully gives you a little bit more confidence that when you are experiencing pain or injury, you don't have to completely shut things down.
Some small amount of increase in symptoms while you train is okay. We usually say on a VAS scale. So a visual analog scale is a 0 to 10 scale rating pain from no pain, totally normal ten all-out max effort, pain getting bit by a shark and dying almost kind of pain. So we just want to put that out there. If you tell us you have an 8 to 10 pain, we don't believe you.
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [00:44:12] I always say ten is you're going to the emergency room. Yeah. Not you're thinking about going to the emergency room. You were there.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:44:18] Yeah. But understanding that on that VAS scale, we usually say if you're experiencing 4/10 pain or less, go into the gym, start warming up if your symptoms start to increase more than 1 to 2 points out of ten on that VAS scale, then stop there or stay where you are. If it increases more than that, shut that lift down for the day or change the range of motion or load.
So bring it back down to a load that doesn't increase your symptoms significantly or change the range of motion, so your symptoms aren't increased significantly. We get it. It is hard to train and convince yourself that it's okay to train through that, but it is okay to train through that so long as it's not creating a significant rise in symptoms.
So use that to say, "I'm going to go into the gym even if it's just 45 pounds. I will do that and then train the rest of my body." If that doesn't influence or influence it a little bit, then modify it.
For example, let's say you have a hip issue and squat and deadlift are affected. The bench isn't affected necessarily because your upper body is fine. Still, your hip position is influencing your desire or ability to bench press. Then you can change the position of your feet or your legs to take the hip out of the equation. And so you're still benching, but maybe you're doing Lawson press or feet up bench press, or you put your feet on 45-pound plates to just decrease the stress on that hip just a little bit so that you can train.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:46:02] So I think that for training through pain or illness or injury, we say train what you can. So if there are lifts that are unaffected, train those. If you can train those regularly, as the program says, that's great. But if you need to modify those, do them modified so that you're still doing them and you're showing up. You're doing the thing and maintaining your gym schedule and the habit of going.
And then also looking at the big picture, which is essential for encouraging people to train through injury and surgery, and whatnot is that look at the big picture. For example, if you have knee surgery and you stop training your upper body entirely, maybe you need to take 2 to 4 weeks off or six weeks, eight weeks off of like heavy lower body training.
But if you take that same amount of time off upper body training, you've just put your upper body back. It's gone backward when you still could have been making progress on your upper body during that time. So looking at the big picture and saying, if I take eight weeks off of training because I'm depressed or annoyed about my current situation with my knee, will I really be happy in eight weeks when my bench press has lost a significant amount of strength because I didn't train it because I was just stubborn? You know.
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [00:47:34] The way I like to think of it is what will I be left with in the end? Once you will, you can get through an injury or rehab from surgery. And if you take off from all lifts and you're not training when you feel better and are ready to get back into the gym, how much strength will you be left with if you've unnecessarily just stopped training your upper body? And the other thing is that effectively rehabbing involves being in the gym, moving and modifying lifts, and continuing to use your body.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:48:12] So keep the habit, even if it means just going to the gym and walking on the treadmill, do it. Because I can tell you and I talked about this in our last episode, I believe. It is hard to get that ball rolling again after a significant layoff. And significant layoffs can be because of these injuries or illnesses. What I talked about in the last episode was the first 20 weeks of my pregnancy. I was extremely sick and didn't train for 20 weeks.
It has been so hard to rebuild that habit of training because I was also experiencing a huge life change during that. So granted, I was extremely sick and couldn't train. But I'm just telling you from a perspective that I literally could not train because of how sick I was.
It's tough to get back in the habit after you have gotten out of the habit and lost the motivation because training also motivates us. There are elements of our training that motivate us when we are having fun and we're enjoying it. We're seeing our successes and our goals being reached from training. And we're seeing the effects it has on our body, health, mental well-being, 1RMs or estimated 1 RMs, and performance. We stay motivated. Right?
But then, when we get out of the habit, we don't remember how fun it is, and it's hard to get back to that.
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [00:50:00] Yeah. And I think with all of these factors, and with injury, it's important to remember there's a light at the end of that tunnel.
It might feel like it's really far away, but you will eventually be on the other side.
And what I think is really amazing and cool about barbell training and powerlifting and strength sports is that you can be pretty injured and wonder, are you ever going to be able to lift more than the bar? It doesn't feel good, and then go on to hit PRs after that.
And remember the end goal, whether your motivational issues are coming from internal factors, external factors, or injury. Realize that the program needs to be adjusted for you to succeed in your training. And that's okay because whatever works for you is best for you. There is not something that you need to conform to with your program or with your training. If it's effective for you, then that's good. If it's not effective for you, or it's not motivating you to even go in and do it, then it's not working right.
And at the end of the day, how do we stay motivated? Remembering why you're training and what your goals are and adjusting your training to help you continue to work towards those.
I've never had a call with a new client and asked them what their goals were and had them say to have fun during my session. That's usually not it. They usually have other long-term and short-term goals that are bigger-picture goals.
So remembering why you're doing what you're doing, because we're not going to feel motivated. Even when internal and external factors are all under control and aligned and we're not injured. Guess what? I don't always want to go to the gym. I lift. I just do it.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:51:59] Yeah. And I think this is kind of tying into our final topic, which is:
High performers and elite athletes alike, how do they stay motivated?
Because like you just said, I would consider us elite athletes. You've been to the world championships. I've been to the world championships. We've both competed at the Arnold on a high level. Have you been in prime time, or did they start a prime time after your last nationals? So you would be in prime time.
But we aren't always motivated. And what do other high-level people or we tell you in terms of motivation for training? So definitely not always motivated, and we don't always want to train, but the best of the best will tell you that despite the injury, despite the motivation, despite the life factor, they are getting in the gym, and they are doing the thing.
Just do it.
If it needs to be modified for you to do it, then you must modify it for you to do it. And that could come from you modifying it, or it could come from your coach modifying it.
But just do it. Go in and do the thing, whatever that amount of thing is on that day. And that will help you keep that training habit.
And I think that the most significant thing is for high performers or people who are not high performers or elite athletes, but the people who are the most successful are the ones that are consistent and have those habits in place.
This is why I want to have Melissa on the podcast because she's had the surgeries, the illnesses, and the life factors. But no matter what, she always keeps her habit. And even if it's just going into the gym with her operated foot elevated and doing seated overhead press, Larsen bench press, or good mornings because she can't squat, she's going in and doing the thing and keeping that habit.
So I think those are some of the biggest things. And also understanding that progress isn't linear. And also, the longer you do the thing, the smaller the progress is, you know? So any other thing that you want to add there Alyssa?
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [00:54:37] No, I think it's about lifting and training being a habit. And I remember when somebody asked me how I stay motivated to train. It was years ago. I was in the gym, and I remember thinking, "That's a strange question. Motivation. I just do it. It's just a thing I do." I didn't even really have an answer, like, "what do you mean? I just do it?"
And I think that's sometimes really what it's about and understanding that progress isn't linear. We're not always going to be hitting PRs. That's not the reality of it. But continuing to just do the thing will lead you to make progress.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:55:18] Yeah. So I want to tie this back to Fabio's question at the beginning and the last point I want to talk about in terms of what the high performers or committed and most successful lifters will tell you.
But to recap, what Fabio was asking, in the beginning, was:
"Are competitions or signing up for meets a good way to stay motivated?"
For some people, having an endpoint to work towards keeps them motivated.
But I want to pull in that that's an external motivating factor. And the people who are the most successful. Are not the people who are externally motivated. It's the people who are internally motivated.
Does an elite powerlifter want to be the best of the best? Do they want to win the world championships? Do they want to take first place? Yeah, but at the end of the day, that is not what keeps them coming into the gym daily. It might be, but then if you take two high-level lifters and say, okay, what's motivating Samantha Calhoun daily? It's not necessarily the desire to win. It's the desire to continually try to be better and beat herself, which motivates her to continue to train, which will motivate her to perform well.
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [00:57:04] I think it's the why behind that external factor. So the external factors exist as motivators, but the why you're doing it, I think, comes back more to internal factors.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:57:19] Yeah. And why does someone put a barbell on their back the first time? It wasn't because they wanted to go to the World Championships in powerlifting. It wasn't because they wanted to win a powerlifting competition.
It was because they wanted to get stronger. They wanted to enjoy something. They wanted to have structure, you know, and. So it's looking at the whole thing of barbell training. What strength training and powerlifting mean and why you started is a huge motivational factor, especially for me and even when looking at competitions.
In my first competition, I joined because I wanted to have fun and keep the motivation and the fun in what I was doing. So sometimes, having those external things to look forward to is helpful, but the underlying motivations must be there. Does that make sense?
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [00:58:17] Yeah, I agree. And the other thing I wanted to point out is a whole rabbit hole that we're not going to go down right now.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:58:25] But we like rabbit holes for next time.
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [00:58:26] Fabio's question also referred to his girlfriend, who exercises and will go a week without touching a dumbbell. And I think then we go into the difference between training and exercise. Having a plan, structure, and goals for training versus just exercising for whatever reason, whatever goal that is without a plan, or something to follow or help you stay on track.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:58:57] Yeah. And I think that's where motivation is when you have a plan. Does she know why she's exercising? And if she does, "I'm exercising to be healthy. I'm exercising to look good. Is the exercise, which is not necessarily planned and progressive towards a specific goal, helping her meet those goals?
And because exercising is not planned and progressive towards a goal, it's likely not helping her meet her goals. So she doesn't have the reaching goals or the goals in sight to help motivate her.
So then she's like, "Well, you know, I don't have to train, or I don't have to exercise today," because there are no goals or she's not reaching her goals. So maybe having a plan or training program would help her be a little more motivated because it would help her in the direction of her goals.
So exercising versus training is a whole conversation we can have in and of itself. But exercise in and of itself is not planned and progressive towards a goal, meaning that you're less likely to reach whatever desired effect you're trying to get from exercise. And then by not reaching those goals, you will tend to have less motivation.
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, PRSCC, CSCS: [01:00:25] Yeah. And we have plenty of barbell training clients who are training who don't have competitive goals.
Going back to the original question that Fabio asked: they stay motivated, make progress, look at their progress, get excited about it, and don't have a desire to compete and aren't thinking about a meet. But they still show up to every training session and do the thing. So I don't necessarily think that you have to have a meet on the calendar.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [01:00:53] To dive further into that, it's not necessarily about having a competition or a meet to work towards.
It's about: are you clear on your goals, and are you measuring progress towards them?
And what it comes down to is having a planned progressive training program to meet those goals and having a way to monitor and assess your performance or your achievement of those goals.
So that kind of ties together that tracking your training is important so that you can measure your training and your response to training against your goals, whatever those goals are.
So we have a whole system available to monitor your training and track your training trends. So it's called the PRS Sustainable Training Log, and we also have the Sustainable Training Program as well. That's not a program that you buy from us. It's a program that you can put your program into and also track your training in.
And that will give you all of those tools and key performance indicators that we use to:
--> track training
-->measure the effect of training
-->the response to training
-->look at the progress
->-look at recovery
-->look at performance over time
So that we can address all of these internal and external training influences and monitor those things, such as rating a perceived exertion an estimated one-rep max over time towards our goals.
So if you are interested in checking that out, those are available for you guys. The PRS Sustainable Training Log & Program.
So with that all said, we want to direct you to a couple of supporting articles that support what we talked about in today's podcast that can help you implement what we were talking about.
1) 8 Simple Ways to Start Barbell Training. That article will talk about some training schedule changes to manage other life external life factors. So do you have to follow a three-day program? How might you adjust a three-day program to two days, four days to five days?
2)How to Incorporate Cardio Into Your Strength Training Program.
We have two or three articles to help you manage internal training factors.
3) Progression Without Regression
4) 9 Time-Saving Adjustments to Reduce Training Anxiety
5) How to Manage Fatigue in your barbell training program.
So all those supportive articles are linked in the show notes along with a link to the Sustainable Training Log and program, and that is it for today's episode.
If you liked this episode, please check out more of our episodes that we've done and that we'll do in the future. Subscribe to our podcast channel or whatever it's called.
If you feel comfortable and enjoyed this, please leave us a review and share this episode and other episodes with your friends, coaches, training partners, clinicians, etc., to help spread the good word. And that's it. We'll see you next time. Bye for now.