Setbacks and failures can occur in every aspect of life. In this blog, let’s look specifically at how to interpret setbacks in the gym to your advantage.

Let’s be honest, life can be hard. There are lots of daily challenges which we all face. They might be difficulties with coursework, your ob, finances or just generally staying on top of everything. Implementation of fitness and exercise also brings various challenges with it.

We all love seeing the progress that we make, especially when we know how much work we’ve put into our training. But sometimes we hit a brick wall and our progress comes to a sudden halt. For the next two to four weeks, there’s suddenly no training, no stronger lifts, no faster 5k times, and no more changes in your appearance. In fact, the reverse happens, you actually see yourself losing the visible progress you’ve made. That bigger bicep peak or flatter stomach that has taken you two months to see any noticeable changes in. Getting injured or ill is a right pain. And there’s not much you can really do other than let the healing process do the majority of the work.

Trust me, I know how you feel.

How to Interpret Setbacks and Failures

You see, the easiest option for you is to give up. Hang up the towel and forget that you even decided to commit yourself to getting fitter. I mean, you’ve lost a lot of the progress that you’ve worked so hard for over the past two months. Moreover, it’s inevitable that this will happen again soon enough, so what’s the point? Why should you bother?

There is every reason to get yourself back into the gym. Of course the obvious answers spring to mind including regaining your previous fitness levels, but a lot of the time it’s not as easy as just saying that. I need you to think about failure like this. Failure comes part and parcel with fitness. It just does. Knowing this is key because in order to go forwards you must expect failure and setbacks to occur. By predicting the future in this way, you accept the fact that there will be times where you won’t be making any progress at all.

Thinking about failure in this way also allows you to really enjoy the times when you are making great progress. It reminds you of how this success felt like when you’re down in the dumps. Remind yourself if you’re injured or ill at the moment of how it felt when you experienced that feeling of success. It’s amazing isn’t it? This mindset has helped me a lot in the past guys which is why I’m suggesting you try it out. Thinking in such a way enables you to bounce back off setbacks like they’re nothing as well. Physically, you might be effected. But there is not a chance are you flawed up there mentally.

Adopting a New Mindset

If you’re currently out of action for a certain period of time, do whatever you can to recover as quickly (but safely) as possible. I suggest adopting this mindset of going forwards when interpreting failure. It’s worked for me and I hope it does for you too. As for those of you who aren’t injured, see how this works for you in terms of staying motivated when progress may be unfortunately stopped in the future.