Do more! Work harder! How dare you have that cheat meal! These are common things heard from coaches. What about rest, time off, and enjoyment? In many articles I’ve written, I’ve talked about how to keep working, the need to scale to get the most out of your fitness, taking it one day at a time to adhere to your nutrition program, which supplements you should take and even how to handle big tasks over time. What we haven’t talked about, is what to do when shit hits the fan, when you’re feeling down, when you’re not adhering to your diet because you feel “over it” and when your training is suffering.

The answer, may be the the exact opposite of what you’ve been told before: give yourself a break. There are many aspects to success in fitness, whether it be nutrition, or fitness. The emotional, and psychological aspect can be the hardest to conquer. The body is so tied in to emotional response and hormones, that even stressors from your work life, family life, and love life can take their toll on your ability to make progress. The human being is a beautiful existence of complex systems created by tiny cells that create systems controlled with a conscious mind; the likes of which has not been seen on Earth before. Our bodies are truly remarkable, and capable. However, they are not indestructible and can be overworked. Like machines we build to do our bidding, if they are overworked, not oiled, cleaned, and well kept, they will break. In our training, we are purposely adding stressors to our body, all in order to repair and come back stronger. In our efforts to find better nutrition, we are adding emotional stress of having to plan our meals, exclude “junk foods”, and be outside of the norm compared to our peers. Both of these stressors can add up over time and lead to long term non-adherence, and failure to become more physically capable and healthy.

So what is it I’m proposing? To take a break if you're feeling broken, beat down, or mentally defeated. I’m not saying I want you to drop fitness, or eating well. What I want, is you to take the time you need to be able to do the right things for an extended period of time and get the results you desire. If you’re over-trained, take a week off. If you aren’t following your nutrition protocol because you're too mentally taxed, relax for a few days. In the world of training, it takes evaluation and sometimes a few steps backwards to take multiple steps forward. Enjoy your life, and do what you need to do to keep working towards your goals. There’s no guilt in letting yourself recover, to come back even stronger.