A week of reflection

After our first blog introducing us and how much we like training you would think that this post would highlight how much we trained this week. However that wasn't the case... far from it actually.

Although my girlfriend was away for this week, I (Stefan) actually started off the week really motivated actually. I had a football match on an evostik teams pitch. (A decent standard of football). And I had a decent sleep as there was noone next to me waking me up early. So I was up and ready for a good game of football, which it was. I come out of it with an assist and 90 minutes under my belt… However I also come out with a nasty tackle to both my legs and limped off the pitch and straight to work.

This had an impact on me for the rest of the week, as this is the only form of exercise I had for the week. Usually I go to the gym in the mornings at about 11 o'clock so I have enough time to rest,bathe and prepare my food for work which starts at 4, however this week was different because work began at 2 o'clock from this week, so I had to change my usual routine. Going back to where I was, so Monday came, I had a mashed up leg and I started work earlier so I thought I'd use Monday for a day off from the gym. My mindset wasn't up for It and I was already defeated by the start of the week.

Front lever

My week started differently… I was unable to go to the gym this morning so I done a home workout but in reverse (I like to have what I think is fun done last). Started off with front lever and handstand drills rather than pull, press up and sit up variations for warm ups. This seemed to work better as I had a lot of strength and energy that I would not normally have enabling me to do a more controlled handstand.

Days like this really excite me, days when you surprise yourself. When you try to do something you think you can’t but you try it for a joke and by some weird miracle you over exceed your expectations and do it. I love it because I can see results, small, but a result nonetheless. I am getting one micro step closer to my goals.

Tuesday came I (Stefan) was all ready to go to the gym, in my head nothing was stopping me until I get a message from my driving instructor asking if I could do an earlier lesson, so I took that, which took over my gym spot. The same general theme happens where I just don't go to the gym for various reasons that I make up in my head. But it all comes down to me, I was feeling lazy and I just couldn't overcome it.

I woke up 9am to go back to sleep as I had no work, honestly, I knew I should of stayed up, been productive but not having work can defeat me some days (agency work can be unpredictable). I didn’t want to do a workout -or anything- as I was feeling below the bar but after stalling for a few hours doing unnecessary things (watching TV) I started, with pull ups, then onto gymnastic rings, simply because I enjoy being on the rings. It’s not always about sets, reps and drills, these are done so you can hone in on your skills and better your craft.

Kickboxing, 6PM one of the things I look forward to the most in a week. Everytime I go, without a doubt, I am pushed to my limit and with the support of the class I push further. I love the balance of training and sparring. Honing the skill, bettering your craft.

So Saturday come… Saturday is the day me and Stephane commit to going to the gym together no matter what. So I was like at least I'm going to get 1 major workout this week. So I go into Saturday and we get up nice and early so we can go to a coffee shop and do some work before the gym. So we get to working, almost finish before going to the gym when I get a surprise… my girlfriend gets back from her holiday early. Yes I'm happy that she's back early but no gym for me as I'm obviously going to spend the day with her before work. But for me, there was just no gym for the week and it was no reason other than mine. My mindset wasn't ready for the knockbacks that occurred throughout the week.

I (Stephane) try to keep my workout in week cycles and evaluate how the week has been on a Sunday, figure out what days I feel; went well, what worked, what didn't work and how I rectify what didn’t. This is so I can go into next week starting on a positive and keep it going for the week. I call this setting myself up for success. This post I aim to shine light on what goes on in my mind in relation to working out.

Reflecting on my week… it wasn't all bad though. On the Monday I got invited to a fitbit workweek hustle. Which is basically Monday to Friday battle with all of your fitbit friends to see who can do the most steps, which motivated me to do more steps. So even though I was hobbling I was still walking to work and back just to get those extra steps on to secure my win for the week. So even though I didn't really have a productive gym week, at least I got some form of exercise in.

When we was trying to come up with our first post, we were unsure of what to write and how to keep you entertained and informed. In the end we decided to take you into our workout week showing the highlights and lowlights of our week. Then we reflected at the end of the week to see what went wrong during our week and hopefully giving you an insight of our flaws and how we overcome them. That is to try and keep you motivated in your workouts and how you to continue to train no matter what barriers stop you.