What 16+ Years In The Gym Taught Me
10+ Things
Published in
5 min readMar 23, 2021
Burn out WILL happen — Sabbaticals
I have to take breaks every year. Usually, I take a break from the gym at the end of the year for 3–4 weeks. Now, I have my end-of-year fitness sabbatical and also include short breaks throughout the year. The burnout is real. Even when I was a gym fanatic (in the gym 6–7 days every week), I still needed to take breaks, and my body would always let me know it was time when I felt apathetic about working out.
You Will Want to Take Longer Breaks(often)
Sometimes, the burnout exceeds my time off (fitness sabbatical). As I near the end of my fitness sabbatical, I will sometimes not feel ready to get back to the gym. Some people who have been active their entire lifetimes never experience this, but I do feel like taking an extended vacation from the gym at times.
What has helped me is:
- Keeping my fitness and health a priority.
- Practicing self-discipline even when I don’t feel like it.
- Having an accountability partner who has a sub-career in the bodybuilding industry, leading to my next point.
