As someone who has a very difficult time accepting that anything they're doing is "their best," this last quarter of BBG has been really challenging for me thus far. The program warns you that it will be both physically and mentally challenging, but I was sure I'd struggle more physically than mentally. I'm a pretty driven person when I want to be. I won't sleep in unless I feel like absolute shit, I'm good at maintaining a healthy diet, and every time I go to the gym I make a solid effort to get in the best workout my body will allow me to. While I've for sureeee had workouts that I struggled to get through physically, I found that during the first half of this program I wasn't particularly struggling mentally. Getting out of bed at 5 am stinks, cutting out a lot of carbs stinks, tequila sodas sorta stink - but they were all things I could push myself to do. Mentally, my biggest struggle has been convincing myself that I am doing my best. While I'd have workouts every once in awhile when I didn't get as many reps in as I wanted to, or wasn't sure I was doing an exercise correctly, for the most part I was still able to convince myself that it was my best effort I could give that day & that was good enough. Now, 3 weeks out from completing my first round of BBG - I'm finding that post-workout conversation with myself to be a bit more challenging.
The first few weeks of BBG, pushing yourself to get in as many reps as you can is really the only challenge. There are a few tough exercises (the first time I did commandos, lmao, sad) but for the most part you're performing pretty standard, easy exercises as fast as you can. I remember vividly the first time my arms gave out on me - I think I had gone through that particular circuit 3 times - it felt oddly good?? Like I was definitely doing my best because my body physically couldn't do anymore. Now that I have gotten significantly stronger (you should see me do burpees now v. when I started - amazing) and my body chooses to cramp rather than give up, its tough for me to gauge whether or not I'm really giving it my "all" per say. That being said, the exercises themselves get significantly more difficult. I thought doing decline push-ups with my feet on a bench was some Navy SEAL bullshit - HA, I was trying to do burpees on a bench and then jump up and do a knee up and fall back into a lunge this morning?? You can't do that quickly! I left the gym feeling really defeated this morning because my feet and quads were cramping and I could only get through the circuits 1-1.5 times each. It's difficult to remind yourself that you're doing your best and you are getting stronger when you previously were doing 3 sets in 7 minutes and now you're struggling to get through 1.5. That has been really challenging for me mentally. The past two weeks, I feel like every time I've left the gym I've felt like I didn't do my best (even though I probably did) purely because my arms/legs didn't give out, I didn't throw up, and I didn't get through as many sets. It's actually pretty helpful typing this out because I know how crazy this sounds - more intricate exercises, more attention being given to form, and higher reps in a set obviously slow you down - but it is a difficult mental hump to get over.
I'm sure a lot of you who are currently doing BBG, have done it, or are thinking about doing it could benefit from this personal rant. When you're leaving the gym and wondering why you're not sweating as much, your arms don't hurt as much, you can walk in a straight line, and aren't starving to death - it's not because you're not trying, it's because the program is working. You're getting in better shape so the workouts aren't going to destroy you like the did in the beginning. I think going forward I'll be supplementing in more exercises just so I feel like I am doing "enough," but for everyone doing or thinking about doing BBG right now - the mental challenge is real & its something you should prepare yourself for! I'm having a bad self-esteem day about it & I probably don't need to be! As long as you are pushing yourself physically, the mental challenge will take care of itself. Remind yourself that you're doing your best and that the program wasn't designed to be the same for 12 weeks - you wouldn't get the results! Doing 200 knee ups in 7 minutes isn't going to be as beneficial week 9 as it might have been week 2. I hate when Rob says this but its true - you have to trust the process.
Post- birthday weekend I'm definitely feeling a little gross and bloated, but I'm excited to see what I can push myself to do the next 3 weeks before I head out to California. I feel a lot stronger than I did back in March when I started & I think in and of itself the statement that I'm "excited" to really cut and start doing two-a-days is a testament to how this program has changed me. I'm still not in a place where I'm totally comfortable wearing a bathing suit, so its coming up on the moment of truth - yikes. I thought it'd be beneficial for myself, as well as some of you who are currently on workout programs, to talk about the mental challenge of pushing yourself through BBG or similar programs. I don't see that spoken to as much as the physical, but I think its just as (if not more) important to recognize that there will be days and weeks when you won't leave your workout feeling 100% sure of yourself, and that's totally okay!
I'll keep updating as I'm finishing up here with this program & hopefully as I start round 2 the week I get back from San Diego! Everyone say a prayer that I grow some self-esteem within the next 3 weeks so I don't have to be t-shirt on the beach girl.
:-)
Ally
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