Tip of the Week -- Trending

[natellerandi]

We tend to expect the trend of our athletic progress to be linear. Afterall, our training tends to be linear, right? Our weekly flow of workouts is typically the same week-to-week with minimal variations thrown in, and we typically progress through different stressors in order to elicit continued adaptation and progress.

However, progress is rarely linear. Try to think of progress more as a set of stairs with the risers being punctuated progress and the treads being periods of little to no progress. The body adapts, assimilates and responds. As it adapts to and assimilates the work load, progress gets largely put on hold. Once the body assimilates the work load, then it responds -- with a nice jump forward in progress. The treads and risers could be days in length; or weeks; or, in some cases, months. The longer the plateau in progress (assuming things like sickness, severe overtraining, injury, etc. are ruled out), typically the greater the progress once the body completes its assimilation. You will see this mainly in kids as they stop growing and then hit a growth spurt. Duing and after the growth spurt, the progress a young athlete makes can be startling.

So, as you hit your plateaus, don't get discouraged. Instead, be encouraged! The plateau is the lead-in to the progress. It's the mounting swell before the wave peaks and crashes, releasing all that pent up energy. And like the crashing of waves, progress is not linear but rather cyclical.

Happy Training,
Nate Llerandi