Without anywhere near as much access to information 15-20 years ago compared to today it was a journey of trial and error and looking harder for the information and learning from others.
There are plenty of good points that still hold true now but that is for another post.
Anyway hope it can maybe help some of you out there. Whether a sportsman or keen trainer.
1. Drink more water.
Being in a weight restricted sport I often made the mistake of not hydrating enough. This actually made things more difficult in the end when trying to make weight. I still have to remind myself now. It’s one of those bad habits watching other boxers. But this applies to life and training in general.
2. Balancing the body with regards to training.
I spent over ten years with almost zero pulling exercises or working the posterior chain apart from the odd pull up. i have paid for it since. It also wasn’t until later on that I paid proper focus on strength and specific conditioning which then played its part.
3. Focus on more quality and less quantity.
Unless I was pouring with sweat I didn’t think I’d trained enough so I would try and make up for it by going for another run or just more rounds punching the bag. Practice is one thing (hours practicing moves) but over beasting the body to get in better condition or to burn calories was a mistake. Which leads me to the next point
4. Not resting enough.
Training for 8 weeks with out a day off is not a good move. If you are training hard and correctly in terms of reps and sets etc whether to build muscle, perform better or lose fat and find yourself facing less and less results or not even getting anywhere then it is mostly likely down to poor nutrition and lack of rest.
5. Too restrictive with diet.
Not eating enough essential nutrients like quality protein and fats led to me actually being malnourished with the amount of training I was doing. I was stuck in a cycle of getting injured or ill from too much training, rapid weight loss and not enough rest/treatment and quality food then gorge myself through the disappointment of not being able to box ,bloating out ( up to a stone in a matter of days) having some time off and then begin the cycle again. This went on for some time. The epitome of the notion training / pushing harder doesn’t trump training smarter. You’ve got to train hard and have consistency if you want to get anywhere but…..well you get the point
6. Too many normal situps.
Tons of better ways to train the core and abs than just traditional situps putting less stress on the spine.
7. Not getting enough treatments like massage ,osteopathy , sports
therapy etc.
Treat yourself to a therapy session regulary. Your body with thank you for it now and in years to come. Oh and always get a second opinion on niggling injuries too.
8. Doing the same things and expecting a different result.
