I Don’t Believe In Maintenance
Submitted by Got Strength? Blog
I had an interesting discussion this morning with one of my long-standing clients, Linda. Today we were finishing up our session, in which Linda had just hit a personal record deadlift of 210 lbs (not bad for a grandmother of two!). She is working towards competing in powerlifting, and I have no doubt will be a smashing success. That’s one of the things that keeps her going.
However, she asked me when it would be best to move more to a maintenance style of training and what that would entail. I had to think about it for a second, but the more I thought the less appealing the sound of “maintenance” was. I see a lot of people in the gym who seem to be “just trying to maintain”, and I get that. There’s a point where you don’t want to get leaner, bigger, stronger, or whatever. At some point people become happy with their results and don’t seek to push it further… I guess.
I gotta tell you, I’ve never been satisfied with my progress. I’ve achieved goals that I’ve set for myself and been proud of that, but I’ve never been satisfied. After thinking about it some, I realized that to me the idea of just “maintaining” is really just a controlled backslide.
I think that if you decide that you’re not going to improve anymore, you’re inviting some trouble. Think for a second about how hard you worked for your results. Think about all of those times where you pushed yourself further, trying to add another five pounds on the bar or complete just one more sprint. That attitude is what got you to where you are now and is responsible for the progress that you’ve made. That’s the attitude that kept you showing up day after day and pushing hard.
Now you’re suddenly going to stop that trend and just start going through the motions? I don’t think so. How long is it going to be before your four-day per week maintenance program becomes three, then two days? Man, the weights feel heavy this week… maybe you should go lighter. You’re just maintaining, right? Do you see where I’m going with this?
Now, I’m not saying that you need to be balls-out, driving towards a goal with no prejudice 100% of the time. After you achieve your goals, you very well might be happy with your performance and physique. However, I find it hard to believe that you can’t come up with some way to challenge yourself and stay out of maintenance mode.
Those who try to stay in one place will soon find that life is passing them by.
