How to Deal with Burnout During Your Military Fitness Training

We all get tired from our daily schedule and the challenges of moving. Whether it is one step in front of the other, a never-quit attitude or you must get things done, we all deal with doing something when we do not feel like it. Fitness is no different. Here is a great question about feeling burned out with your workouts:

Hey Stew. In a recent article about motivation, you mentioned working out when you don't feel like it (which I advocate for). Do you ever experience burnout from that? How do you deal with it? Thanks, Matt.

When you feel burned out, write down or review your previous week's schedule. Then review how you slept, ate and hydrated. Did you have a crazy week with late nights and early mornings? Did you do more challenging workouts than usual or skip them all? Did you eat nothing but fast food, because you were in a rush and traveling for work? Did you stay hydrated? These are the questions you must ask yourself, as they will most likely answer why you feel burned out.

On the other hand, ask yourself the same questions when you do not feel burned out, are particularly motivated to train and have some of your best physical fitness performances. When you set personal records (PRs) or feel outstanding after training, a quick check of the last 24-48 hours may reveal a blueprint for achieving the exact moment in the future.

This could also be the way you are training. Even with a solid recovery plan, if your workouts are the same routine each week, you may want to mix it up. Consider a daily de-load week to reduce the reps, weight, intensity, distances and effort levels. Add a mobility day or two into this week to work out any aches and pains that typically accompany your reasons not to be ready to train.

Consider changing the workout focus. For instance, if you are lifting weights to get stronger and gain muscle, do so hard for 3-4 weeks, but take a week and switch to calisthenics, stretching more and cardio. The 3-4 weeks of working hard can interfere with your best training plans as we all get tired, especially when going heavy.

Consider block periodization training, which involves strategically changing your training on regular cycles so you do not get bored or burned out doing the same workouts. One option is what we call Seasonal Tactical Fitness Periodization. If you want to diversify your training, do the activities you like but experiment with others. Or if you are in the tactical profession, you may want to do a cycle of things you are not naturally good at doing, so that you maintain a level of overall fitness to do your job well.

Depending on your job, consider creating a fitness test around what you do and the physical fitness test required of service members. Here are some ideas for a wide range of workout and testing ideas.

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