overcoming anxiety day (6/6/22)

The title for this blog surrounds one thing, lifting in the gym!

I have been feeling very confident in my training recently and my motivation is very high at the moment, so I was quite proud of how this day went, especially considering there was not time for my precious nap that I normally go for!

Monday normally has a fairly tight turnaround as the gap I'm not training is much shorter due to having a gym session at 1:30pm, and today I had a few bits of admin to sort out so I didn't have the same rest time I would normally have.

Swimming in the morning was fine, I took care of the admin bits I had to, and then I was off to the gym!

The programme has just changed, so now we are doing 'contrast training', focused around lifting very heavy straight into doing a power activity. Today, the activity that was giving me anxiety was squats.

The weight was 3kgs off my 3RM, 120kgx3, but I hadn't lifted close to that this block of training. The 120kg set was on my 5th set and the set before I had made 114kgx3 look pretty comfortable. But the weight itself brings a little anxiety as I really wanted to achieve it.

The 4mins rest period between the sets were quite anxiety filled but I knew I could do it, sometimes having that self-belief is what can really help you get through it, but it was a fight between my self-belief and doubts in my head.

If we went back a year, I probably would've crumbled but I was very proud of how I used the energy to get the 3reps at that weight, it was a big sign that I am on the right path and doing well.

The evening training was a very tough fly session which attacked one of my biggest weaknesses, I struggled but also LOVED the session because it was forcing me to get the best out of my weakness, and that is how you improve them.

Outside of the pool, I am currently introducing Abs to 'Stranger things', it is early days but she is enjoying it. I am never going to complain watching that series again!

Tomorrow is a backstroke day, I look forward to the challenge and whatever it brings!