How to Turn a Bad Workout Into a GOOD One

[00:00] There are those training days that just randomly suck. Whereas yet, we can't get quality lifting footage to post on TikTok. But what exactly should we do on these trash lifting days? Well, with a bit of exercise, science, psychology, and unsolicited personal opinion,

[00:14] we're gonna figure out just that. Now, for this video, we're specifically talking about days when our workouts feel like crap for no obvious reason it just does. Now, on these occasions, it's good to remember a simple psychological concept called self-efficacy.

[00:29] A concept shown to be a major factor to improve success rates with fitness goals. Basically, self-efficacy is our belief in our own abilities to achieve a specific goal. But if we suddenly can't lift like how we normally lift, like on off days,

[00:44] then that belief takes a big hit, which then makes us less likely to stick to our goals. That is, of course, unless we approach off days a bit differently. In fact, we can even approach off days in a way to actually boost self-efficacy.

[01:00] And here's how to do it. Now, this might not be fun, but the very first thing we gotta do is just accept that off days happen. Off days are inevitably part of the plan of being a human.

[01:12] But just because something is off doesn't mean we're doing something wrong. When we understand and accept that, we're taking the first huge step to preserving self-efficacy. Now, let's talk about what we'll actually do at the gym.

[01:24] Unfortunately, for our beloved ego lifters, including myself, the first thing we gotta do is our worst nightmare. We gotta lift lighter weights. How much lighter depends on how off you feel?

[01:36] It can be 5 or maybe even a 15% reduction. I wouldn't change your reps and sets too much, though, just for the sake of a consistent workout routine. Just tinker with the weights and not much else. But if you have to drop the weight dramatically, like 20% or more,

[01:52] then forget about consistency. Our goal now is just to do something to maintain our training habits. Maybe ditch all your compounds and just focus on accessories for the day, or try different lifting variations,

[02:04] or maybe ditch lifting completely and go for a walk. But what I especially like on off days is working on specific areas that need improvement, like improving a specific lifting technique. For example, if your usual workouts sucks today,

[02:18] then it'll be perfect to finally spend time working on your squat depth. And when we do this, we're basically improving our belief in our abilities by improving our abilities themselves, which is the perfect example of using off days to improve self-efficacy.

[02:34] So now we have the perfect plan during off days. But perhaps what's most important is what we do moving forward. Here, I highly recommend taking notes of our workouts.

[02:46] But we're not just interested in reps and sets. We're more interested in how things felt. So recording things like RPE is great, but it'll be great to also jot down notes on how you feel before, during, and after your workouts.

[02:59] And with this information, over time, you might start noticing certain patterns develop. Patterns that might actually help you see why off days occur, like maybe you've been dealing with a lot of stress, or fatigue has finally cut up to you after hitting all RPE 9s and 10s for the past several weeks.

[03:15] You might even notice patterns when your workouts go very well. Patterns that might be worth trying to replicate. So all these notes help us better prepare and plan our workouts, which ultimately makes us feel a crap ton more confident in our abilities to achieve our goal.

[03:33] Plus, by accepting that off days happen that we have to lift lighter or health, that sometimes we shouldn't work out at all, we can now turn a supposed failure of a day to a huge victory. And that's the true and game of self-efficacy.

[03:48] Congratulations, you unlocked the ability to turn one man's trash into their own priceless treasure. If you enjoyed this video, then please give it a priceless thumbs up and share it with your trash loving friends. Subscribe for more, let me know what you think in the comments,

[04:02] as always. Thank you for watching, and don't forget to get your protein.