There is no worse feeling than showing up to the gym day after day feeling as though absolutely nothing is happening. Sure, maybe some progress was made initially. You felt motivated by the first few weeks of exciting novelty that training brings. But now? It is as though all progress is stalled and you are officially spinning your wheels with no breaks to pull or mechanic in sight.

Ask yourself these questions. Are you struggling to make progress? Wondering if your training is doing anything for you? Doing more and getting less? Just flat out burnt out?

I have been there. You are not alone. And there is hope. Keep on reading.

Have you ever heard of the phrase, “not all progress is linear”? Well, it’s effing true.

A BRIEF NOTE TO IGNORE MY POOR DRAWING SKILLS. Alright, carry on.

| Progress hardly looks like this:

Progress hardly looks like this:

| It really looks more like this:

It really looks more like this:

(and even that is almost unreasonably good)
Now I am going to present you with a model that I use to roughly outline the elements that are required to ensure training goals are met. The structure of the model is important as well. Let’s take a look:

Beach House Model

As you can see in the Beach House Model, sleep and nutrition are listed as the foundation. This is because without them, there is really no house. If you are not getting adequate sleep (7-8 hours per night of QUALITY sleep), and you are not eating properly (over or under consuming calories, under eating protein, eating a lot of highly processed foods, avoiding quality food sources for the sake of “time”), then you are legitimately fighting against yourself. You can work as hard as you want and maybe even make reasonable progress, but you will likely not go very far for long. Poor sleep and nutrition are the two largest factors in stalled progress.

This may be where you stop reading and have an intervention with yourself. If so, BYE! Let me know if I can help!

For those with sleep and food on point and STILL struggling to make progress, I shall carry on.

The model outlines the house, which is composed of training variables used in a training program: intensity, frequency, volume, and exercise selection/order/execution. Even if you don’t know what these variables are, I promise that you are using (and maybe abusing/misusing) them in some fashion.

I will define them for you, but I will not go in much more detail for the sake of sanity and time. If you have any future questions, feel free to reach out to me via email (ac@alchemicaltraining.com) or Instagram (@abigail.crowe).

Intensity: A measure of force exerted (i.e. % of 1RM) or effort put forth (i.e. rate of perceived exertion)
Frequency: a measure of exposure (frequency of body parts trained or training sessions completed per week)
Volume: a measure of work done (sets, repetitions, weight)
Exercise Selection: The exercise chosen
Exercise Execution: The quality to which the exercise is performed
Exercise Order: The order in which an exercise is placed in a training plan

All of these variables play a large role toward the measure of quality that the training program contains. And the most wild part is: one program could be amazing for one person and absolutely detrimental to another. Individualization is a huge element to properly designing a program using the metrics mentioned above, and it requires quite a bit of time, experimentation, and education. It is why I have a job (yippee for me).

With the house outlined, the roof represents consistency and proper periodization. With no roof, the house may be up, but it’s still pretty unlivable. Without consistency and a plan to periodize training- aka creating phases of training with certain goals in mind in order to promote effective change and optimize performance- there is no real progress.

Consider creating several training blocks to really plan for the future effectively and generate some motivation to show up on a regular basis. If your goal is to get jacked and lean, maybe you have a 3 month strength block eating in a calorie surplus followed by a 3 month hypertrophy block eating in a calorie deficit. If your goal is to run a 10k in under 50 minutes, maybe you dedicate 6 months to strength training and base work, and another 3 to muscular endurance and improving running aerobic capacity. Write the plan, execute the plan.

When all of these tools are put together properly, progress is not only possible, but inevitable.

And if all of this information is a lot and overwhelming, remember that the best training plan not completed loses out every time to a very mediocre program that you consistently show up for and put effort into.

So sleep well, eat well, and show up. It gets you farther than you think. And if you are ready to dive deeper into your training and reach new/tougher goals, do not hesitate to reach out so that I can point you in the right direction.

Sincerely,

\ Coach Abs - Alchemical Training

Coaching

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