29/07/2026
To often you see people complain about training and performance in a negative way. “I can’t seem to make progress” or “I feel flat” or the classic “it’s not working”
In my experience these happen when you don’t do the following:
1. Follow the plan and progressively overload rather than jumping all over the place and randomly loading. Away at comp, holiday and then you return you need to cut back a little and build the tolerance again even for just a week as you set your schedule and routine back to “normal” or “regular” routine. You can’t just jump back in running as hard as you did or lift as much as you did. Traveling, comp, all of these take a toll on you physically and mentally.
2. Monitor and adapt, there is always room for flex and adjustment or rather there should be if you currently not doing so. Some days you need to just cut back recover and go again. The body is not a robot it’s an ever evolving beast of an organism, but it can break if you don’t pay attention. If an extra recovery day is needed then take it, a mobility session is needed take it or just reduce volume and intensity. But this has to be based on the days and weeks leading up to it and how your training volume and intensity stacked up including any games.
3. Peak for match day: The day before a game you should not be trying to lift the most but rather reducing volume and keeping things sharp, reactive, explosive, all of the above. The day before comp you will not gain anything but rather lose if you try and “train to gain”. So having a taper in your week or plan like a deload week is always key.
4. Recovery: recovery should be paid the same attention as you do to training. Whether it be in the gym or the field/court/water you name it. Recovery is where the magic happens and if you really focus in on it and put a plan in place that you can replicate each day, week, or month and monitor it then you will see the benefits in due time. Has to be run consistently over a period of time not 1 week. Part of recovery is sleep, hydration and a well balanced nutrition plan for your energy needs. These also need to be part of this recovery plan so you not doing things randomly.