Melissa Hartwig, of the Whole 9 Life blog (formerly of Urban Gets Diesel) posted an article, ‘Derailed,’ on her blog about what to do when ‘Life Stuff’ gets in the way and your find yourself in a whirlpool (the powerful circular vortex of water kind, not the hot bubbly kind) where you can’t seem to get a handle on your training, sleep, and diet. The less you train, the more you want to do, and the more exhausted you feel. You become overwhelmed with your life, work, and training goals to the point of not knowing where to begin to tackle them. I’ve been there too. In fact, I’m there now, and here’s an excerpt of the blog that I hope entices you to read the rest of it, which, I have to say, did the job of pulling me out of my rut:

First, when Life Stuff comes up, do your best to maintain your normal routine for as long as you can. You can juggle a lot for short periods of time, so if you can already see light at the end of the tunnel, suck it up, abandon extraneous activities and just stick to the basics. Deal with Life, eat well, sleep well and train. Narrow your scope for a few days to preserve what’s important until the crisis passes.

In it for the long haul? Here’s where you have to triage – and listen to me carefully. Eating well and sleeping enough come first. Just focus on that, and if that’s all you can do, that’s okay. Eat only Good Food, sleep as much as you can, and supplement for cortisol management. Those are your top priorities, and if you can keep those up, you’ll maintain an awful lot of your general “health”.

If you’re eating and sleeping well, get to the gym when you can. Here, you’ve got two options. If you’re feeling good and up for training with some intensity, then get to it… but make those workouts count. Screw the Filthy Fifty – your only priority is maintaining strength. Met-con capacity is cheap and dirty – it goes fast and comes back faster, so save your “cardio” for better days. Instead, deadlift. Press. Squat. Do some clean and jerks. Hit the big stuff hard and heavy. But what if you’re not feeling up for deadlifts? Mat Lalonde reminded me of a very important point a few weeks ago. Exercise, even at a slow and easy pace, is extremely effective in helping to manage stress and cortisol. So if you’re not able to train with your normal intensity, just do something. Walk your dog, swing a kettlebell or play with your kids. If nothing else, keep moving, because in terms of triage it’s better than nothing.

Check out the rest of the incredible pep talk and some other insightful, relevant, and wildly hysterical articles on her blog.

---

WOD 08.23.11

Press 3×5 or Wendler

Lil Nate
AMRAP 15

2 Muscle Ups
4 Handstand Push Ups
8 Kettlebell Swings