Time to Change Programs? - Beast over Burden - #486

Is it time to change programs when your frustrated and want to blow up your current program? Niki & Andrew how to approach this logically when reason is the furthest thing from your mind.

I Want Something Different - NOW!

You miss a PR, tweak your back, or can't fit into your favorite jeans. You're ready to blow up your program.

But is it time to change programs?

Maybe, but it's first time to think about things.

Don't react in emotion and make your life harder. Wait before you send that angry message to your coach. Hold off before you decide to change everything and go off in a completely different direction.

Try to detach and observe yourself. Identify and allow the emotions and thoughts that naturally arise. Consider the circumstances that created the current situation.

Next, it's time to think.

Is It Time to Change Programs - Actually?

Let's talk tradeoffs. You can't have it all.

Many times a client, dejected by a bad workout, will request a big change. Once she realizes what that shift would involve, she decides it's not worth it.

Niki discusses trying to identify where the locus of the problem is. Is it a "me" thing. A "me" problem might be that she did more work than the coach prescribed, so she wasn't as recovered as she might have been.

Or, did circumstances create the bad workout, This means things out of the control of you and your coach. Examples abound, but include deaths, divorce, new kids, new job, move, major illness, and more.

Lastly, it could be a programming thing. As the coach, you need to dig into what led to the missed rep. Even if circumstances and the lifter affected the miss, can you do a better job accounting for these? You probably can.

Niki thinks about categorizing things into resources and outcome here. The outcome, in the workout, was a missed rep. Do you actually want your outcome to change?

So, is it time to change programs? Maybe, but not after some deliberation. It might make more sense to just make an MED change.

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