The rest is just as important as the work

One of the biggest reasons people get injured is that they only look at the amount of work they do (training load, daily active tasks, etc.) and ignore their rest and recovery.

For example. I was working with a runner who had done a 5k the previous week and felt good doing it. The following week, she was programmed to do the same 5k again. Upon completing it, she was feeling some knee pain, and the entire run felt significantly harder.

What changed? She had a busier week at work, and the stress was causing her to lose sleep for a few nights before her run. The capacity to do the 5k was there, but her tolerance for it had decreased at that point in time.

I feel this all the time in my training these days. I can deadlift a certain weight one week, but on a day when my daughter is waking me up throughout the night, that same weight feels twice as heavy, and I'm better off adjusting my training load for what I can handle that day.

Listening to your body and adjusting this way is one of your strongest injury prevention tools. Injury only happens when we do something above our capacity, and even if we've done something before, we can't ignore the importance of how "recovered" we are in determining what our tolerance actually is that day.

A great way to visualize your level of tolerance based on stressors and recovery

You can't pour from an empty cup. As frustrating as it can be to swallow your ego and lighten your training load, it's essential for preventing and managing pain in these moments.

You're better off doing this as opposed to hurting yourself and being forced to take days and weeks off from training. To be clear, this doesn't mean skipping workouts entirely, but regressing variables like load, speed, volume and more to get the most out of it without overreaching.

To your good health,

Coach Stephen

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Thanks for reading.

P.S.

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