Overcoming Disruptions in Your Fitness Routine: Four Strategies for Climbers, Hikers, and Alpinists

Forgiveness versus metaphorically flogging oneself. I try to choose the former. This is after a lifetime of unwittingly choosing the later.

In our video on getting back into fitness after running into a barrier (we cover longer-term layoffs like injury, short term missed days, bad days, and plateauing), we sum up the goal as reestablishing the positive habit. But often times, the barrier that gets in the way of that habit shifts from a worldly event - like, say, having a surprise business trip - to between your ears. And the funny thing is, at least in my experiences between myself and my friends, the more dedicated and serious you are to that habit, the more in the way your mind can get.

For me, my mental block manifests as criticism and negative self-talk about my missed day(s). I get stuck wanting to make up for it somehow, by working harder or longer or doubling up. What that ends up doing is forcing my body to make a leap in the amount of output I am asking of it. And while my body can usually produce that 100% more output (taking the example of doubling up a workout), I pay for it down the line.

So, the bad choice may be a big shift in my routine, but the cause is this negative and unforgiving perception of my “slacking off.”

Really, then, when getting to route cause of any downward spiral I end up in, it starts with granting myself some grace. It’s okay to miss a workout. It’s okay to have an off day. It’s certainly okay to be limited and coming back after an injury.

But, like I said, it seems the more seriously you take your fitness, the harder it is to let go of the imperfection of it all.

So, besides the movements and the form, I now practice this forgiveness as part of my routine. Yes, there is a fine line between serving myself honestly through forgiveness and giving myself permission to not put in the work, but I typically can sense that line when I come to it. What I used to have a harder time distinguishing was when tough-mindedness crossed the line into being punitive.

Now that I’ve learned to assess, address, and move on (assess why I missed a workout, address the real cause, and then just make the next day a good one) - rather than trying to rehash the past - I have found that I’m able to reestablish a sustainable new habit rather than fall into a level of effort that quickly becomes unsustainable and self-defeating.