If you’re in this for the long haul, you know that you’ll have breaks in your training.

You’ll get sick, injured, or life will be too much and you’ll fall off course a bit. It all happens. It’s naive to think it won’t. So how about being prepared for the breaks instead of discouraged by them?

Assess the situation

Call it what it is – not the end the world (hopefully)

How bad is the setback? I mean really? How long are you out for? A week? A month? Unknown? Look it straight in the eye. Face it. And then feel all the feels. Because you’ll have them.

Be upset and disappointed that you’re sick, or injured or have not made training a top priority.

Then make a plan to get through the time off or to get back in the game.

Be realistic – Do what you can

There is almost ALWAYS something you can be doing. You might not love it, but that’s part of the feels. You are free to be irritated. With yourself and with the situation. By all means. But you’re still responsible for what you do in your time off. So I suggest making the best of it.

Take the weight off of the breaks in training and focus on what you can do now to be better. That is now your top priority.

And when you get discouraged or irritated, remember, the world is not actually ending.

Think long term – review history

You’ve been sick before, or had an injury, or taken time off right? And you probably learned some things in those times. Review what you learned. What worked? What didn’t? Repeat what worked, improve upon what didn’t.

What are the chances of coming out of this just fine? In the long term. You’ll likely be able to do everything you want to soon enough. Even if your injury takes a year to rehab from. THAT’S A BLINK IN YOUR LIFE OF TRAINING. And not the majority of injuries anyway.

So be patient sister, it will serve you well, lower your stress, and maybe you’ll even learn a thing or two along the way.

Lastly, when you come back, take it easy. This is my BIGGEST tip and not even one of the “three” laid out for this blog.

It has taken me almost 10 years to have a healthy enough mindset to take it slow when I come back to training. I know, we just want to get back at it and start off where we left. We push it too hard and then are insanely sore for days and can’t train again…not effective. Practice that self control and your body will thank you. Promise.

If you’re looking for a progressive, functional strength training program that inspires you to learn without asking you to figure it all out for yourself, click here to see if Built By Annie is a good fit for you (three options available)

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