Expecting Results
Perhaps moments when you expect so much of yourself aren’t as trivial as you first think.
Early last year, I reflected a little on expectations and training. On how I brainwashed myself during training into thinking I was underperforming. I thought about how my all time best performances correlate with minimal pre-race self-expectation, and all time worst with high pre-race self-expectation.
As a common theme in my own athletic endeavour, there’s no surprise that my relationship with self-expectation is expanding. And, the dilemma of it’s woes are all around us. Beyond what it means to me, I see this in friends, family, clients. To some extent, self-expectation can be a useful tool to have in your arsenal, however it can become a burden.
In the sports massage industry, what I see most is expecting results from a process. For example, you hurt yourself, and book in for a treatment. You expect a specific treatment and rehab process until we are ‘fixed’. We expect a definitive time-frame.
It happens in training too. We expect results from a set training stimulus. Runners love comparing previous results and processes. “I just need to get back to 40 miles per week and I’ll hit a PB”.
It's not exactly the wrong approach; ignorance can be bliss - high self-belief is linked to greater performance (no shit, Shane) - it's just not the whole approach. And too often we take it as that.
Let’s first not dismiss the bliss that ignorance can bring. That is, if ignorance brings a level of confidence, and you just-so happened to get your training distribution right, likely by chance, then this can work.
However, it usually is by chance, and only works for the minority of us. So it works… until it doesn’t. Then our ignorance does not serve us well.
Let’s frame it this way.
It’s fairly accepted that if you’re short you won’t make it as a pro basketball player. However, height doesn’t correlate with the best performance stats in the NBA. The tallest player would always be the best if this was the case. We don’t expect the tallest player to be the best. That would be daft. We would perhaps expect them to have certain advantages over their shorter NBA comrades.
This is the problem I see with expecting results. I believe that it requires more layers to consciously implement well in decision making, like we know with the NBA analogy above. We know it takes more than being tall to develop the skills, fitness, and mental ability to make it as a pro basketball player.
And it takes more than a calf-raise to manage your achilles pain.
I know what you’re thinking, “Yeah we know Shane. ‘Let’s all think on a deeper level’ blah blah blah”.
Obviously the process of training ‘hard’ will yield results. You won't improve your back squat if you sit on your arse every day after work. Yet, back-squatting every day isn’t likely to improve your back-squat. It’ll work up to a point, then you need to think more smartly.
So let’s all think on a deeper level, hehe. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it countless times again; Input does not equal output. Load stimulus does not always equal actual load. The processing: the context, is crucial.
INPUT → [processing] → OUTPUT
In a training context:
“I’ll squat 60kg this week, then 70kg, and in a month I’ll be at 100kg”
BACK SQUAT 4x6x60kg → [eat right, sleep well, adequate recovery] → IMPROVE BACK SQUAT
And when it goes wrong:
BACK SQUAT 4x6x60kg → [eat poor, sleep poor, inadequate recovery] → DON’T IMPROVE BACK SQUAT
Expecting that just doing 4 sets of 6x60kg back squats is all that drives results, misses half the picture. It’s wise to expect that you need to create a load stimulus that progresses over time to improve capacity and performance.
“I expect that 4x6x60kg will improve my back squat when coupled with adequate recovery and allow me to increase the load next week”
The progression of load stimulus will depend on the rate at which you can recover and adapt. This is important for injury and pain rehab.
Humans are complex. We’re non-linear, multifactorial, f-ing fantastic organisms. Trying to find one intervention or one process that works for everybody, especially in injury and pain is no more than a piped dream.
I think expecting results based on one intervention or a specific set of criteria is still part of this piped dream.
To summarise:
We already know that recovery gets those results. I just wanted to highlight what you already know to make the point about thinking on a deeper level so it can aid your decision making when it comes to injury and pain prevention, rehabilitation, and performance.
I’m wise because I’ve been foolish.
Much Love
— Shane