Adjusting Your Training Temperature

Recently, my parents have been renovating our bathrooms in our family home. Out of all of the new stuff that replaced the old, one thing stood out to me: the shower valves. Before we had a one-way knob valve controlling the water. If you turned it the water would come out, and the more you turned it the warmer the water would get. Now, there are two handle valves that can separately control water, with one controlling the flow of hot water and the other the flow of cold water. So if the water is too cold, then cold water flow can be turned down, or hot water could be added.

So why does this matter with respect to what goes on at TFN Training? Well, when I was understanding how to utilize the shower’s new system, I had a Newton’s apple moment in understanding training’s flow with life.

When we want to take a shower, we usually just want it to be nice and warm. Similarly, people always want training to be going well. From a resistance training perspective, lifters generally want their technique to be clicking, their sets and reps to feel solid, and just want to feel stronger, and coaches generally want those things for their athletes. But what happens when those things are not happening; what happens when the water isn’t hot enough?

Let’s look at the temperature of the water as the training status and how our exercise regimen is going. We want it to be warm, so the hot water valve is representative of the programming, the technique adjustments, and all the other things we focus on to promote positive training. Likewise, the cold water is representative of... literally everything else: life stress, poor nutrition quality, low sleep quality, and all the things that oppose exercise recovery. Obviously, an argument can be made that each of those deserves it’s own valve, but for the analogy’s sake we’ll simplify it to the cold valve.

Training status is controlled by these valves, not a knob. Comparably, if training was amounted to a knob and we only had to focus on exercise, then we could just make the training harder or easier and that would solve all the problems. Not making progress? Just turn up the heat! Feeling a bit fatigued? Oh, we’ll take

 it back a notch and it will be fine next session. The issue with this is that we are all human beings with lives separate from exercising. As much as we want to just crank up the heat and have our lifts skyrocket, there are all of those other factors to consider as well.

Usually when training is not going well, novice lifters and inexperienced coaches just have their hand on the heat valve because it is the most direct answer and believe tweaking the programming will bring forth all of the solutions. However, progression and performance are affected by all of those other factors, much like the water temperature is impacted by both valves. Therefore, the answer frequently isn’t to hone in on the training, but actually to nullify any negative variables that may be influencing exercise performance.

When showering, you can eventually run out of hot water. At that point, you’re left with a chilly shower that can’t get warm again unless you get out and wait. Much to that effect, when you just try to push things in the gym and ignore everything else, things are bound to go poorly. Consequently, the answer is not to just turn the heat up to max and ignore the cold water. It’s not sustainable, nor enjoyable.

So what is the answer? While different scenarios can get complex, on the most basic level communication is key. Obviously, these negative factors are coming from somewhere. Athletes should be able to recognize them have a connection to their coach to ensure each party understands the current status and issues that is holding the athlete back. Coaches then need to understand and have knowledge on how to turn up the heat or dial back the cold to be able to make the best decisions with respect to that particular circumstance.

At the end of the day, progress and satisfaction is the goal we are all striving for. Whatever form that may take varies for everyone, but I hope you all can find the temperature that is right for you.