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Have you ever noticed how much your coach wants to know about your life outside the gym? We ask general questions to help us make the best programming choices for you. Specifically, we’re looking for insights into the quality of your recovery and how well you’ve refuelled for your upcoming workout.

Even if you don’t share all the details, your performance under the bar will speak for you. Whether you step onto the platform at 100%, 80%, or 50%, it will have a significant effect on your workout. Think of your body as a fuel tank, with the daily stresses of life that drain your fuel. By understanding this, you can better manage your recovery and optimise your performance.

Knowing your Stress-nemies

When we talk about stress, we are usually referring to the training stress in the gym, accumulated from the volume and intensity of the lifts completed. However, your body’s fuel isn’t just reserved for the workouts. You must look outside of the gym for external stressors draw fuel from the only tank you have.

Activities like picking up a new sport, working overtime, or planning a big family holiday can easily add extra stress. While they may seem primarily physical, they all have the potential to add psychological and emotional stress, more so if the additional activity is something you weren’t previously adapted to.

Another form of stress that we often overlook is the stress of being unwell. Recovering from a bad flu can leave you feeling more drained than usual, and for some female lifters, managing the physical demands of menstrual cycles can also take a toll. It is common to feel weaker and more fatigued when the body is dealing with such stressors.

With all these factors to consider, we can almost always bet that when you feel “less than 100%” at the gym, the reasons are linked to stressors from outside of your training program.

Rest, Recover, Recharge

Mark Rippetoe has repeated this sentence to death: “You don’t get stronger from lifting weights – you get stronger by recovering from lifting weights”. If you haven’t realised it yet, recovery is an important aspect of your training journey, and it requires the most effort on your part. Going to the gym is easy in comparison; the real challenge is in your recovery. Two key factors that determine the quality of your refuelling are diet and sleep. A balanced diet with a focus on protein and consistent, high-quality sleep is essential for achieving a full tank’s worth of energy.

Diet

Protein is the primary building block for muscle growth, bar none. I’ve mentioned ways to add protein in one of my previous articles, so I won’t go into detail here. You simply need to eat so you gain bigger muscles to lift heavier weights. A daily protein consumption at about 1.6-2.2g of protein per kilo of body weight will go a long way to support your recovery effectively,

Sleep

Skipping a meal might not make a huge dent to your recovery, but missing a good night’s sleep can seriously derail your training progress. Sleep is the most powerful anabolic agent – the body literally rebuilds itself when you sleep. If your sleeping conditions are currently subpar, there are ways that may be helpful. Clean up your sleep hygiene, improve your sleeping environment, and use sleep aids – if they can be easily implemented, you should act right now!

Now that you understand the importance of identifying stressors that consume the most fuel, and the importance of getting a full tank at the start of your day, let’s see how they influence each other. I’ll share my own Stress-Recovery-Adaptation journey between July to December as an example. Keep in mind, the fuel percentages are my way of presenting estimates of how efficiently I refuelled from the stress I experienced.

August: 90-100% Tank Capacity

Stressors

• Training: Ramping back up after getting certified

• Work: Regular hours at the gym

Recovery

• Diet: Consistent food prep with a focus on protein

• Sleep: about 6-7 hours of undisturbed deep sleep

After attaining my Starting Strength Coach certification, the bulk of stress from preparing for the evaluation was finally behind me. Training and coaching were the only remaining fixed demands, which I was well adapted to. This allowed me to focus more on maintaining a balanced diet and consistent sleep, which in turn enabled me to consistently achieve fuller tank refuels.

September to Early November: 50-70% Tank Capacity

Stressors

• Training: Heavy deadlift focus for Halloween meet

• Work: Regular hours at the gym

• External stressors: Driving and Motorcycle lessons 2-4 times a week, plus 3-4 dinner shifts weekly at the restaurant

Recovery

• Diet: Irregular food prep, eating out more, inconsistent protein focus

• Sleep: Irregular sleep schedule averaging 4-6 hours every night, less deep sleep than in August

As you can see, the “holiday” period in August was unfortunately short-lived, and completely due to my own choices. I took on extra restaurant shifts on the nights I wasn’t coaching. On top of that, I started taking driving and motorcycle lessons – two new skills that drained my tank significantly, especially so on hotter days. I was pouring the bulk of my mental and physical reserves to these additional weekly tasks. Adrenaline from the night shifts kept me awake for longer, resulting in shorter, less restful sleep. Spending less time at home also meant irregular eating habits, further impacting my refuelling process.

As a result, I had overloaded myself and couldn’t make meaningful progress with my training. I was nowhere close to achieving a PR at the Halloween Deadlift Meet, and none of my other lifts saw any real progress either. My body was simply not able to recover sufficiently to meet the added demands that competed with training. We all know now that I was being too ambitious – my body couldn’t handle all of it.

Frankly, I was getting quite frustrated with the constant fatigue, so I reevaluated the stressors and recovery strategies. I accepted the factors that were out of my control, and adjusted those that I could.

Mid November to December: 80-90% Tank Capacity

Stressors

• Training:  Slowly ramping up to heavier weights, presently surpassing or matching previous 3RM and 5×5 records

• Work: Regular hours at the gym

• External Stressors: Driving and Motorcycle lessons 2-3 times a week, plus 2-3 shifts weekly at the restaurant

Recovery

• Diet: Regular food prep with a focus on protein

• Sleep: About 6-7 hours every night, regular undisturbed deep sleep with the help of melatonin, an eye mask, and pre-sleep routine

Reducing the number of restaurant shifts and cutting back on driving/riding lessons freed up more energy for training. I made better food choices and cleaned up my sleeping hygiene (e.g. no phone before bed!) to improve the quality of my rest. Despite not being able to refuel as optimally as I did in August, I think I did pretty well considering the training progress on top of the additional stressors.

Adaptation After Accepting and Adjusting

The result? My body is now much better equipped to handle more stress than in July. An improved adaptation has occured, because I can now recognise stressors and their rates of fuel consumption, and put more effort into recovering more effectively. I’ve definitely become stronger, more resilient to increased stress, and more skilled at managing my refuelling process.

Final Thoughts

Don’t fall into the trap of scraping by with “just enough in the tank”. Start identifying the factors and making smart, conscious decisions to help you achieve a full tank’s top up more frequently, and the results will reveal themselves when you get under the bar.