Emotional Resilience During the Virus
OPEX RC Coach, Henry Toraño discussed some really helpful ideas for people of many makes and models to navigate their training, lifestyle, and daily habits to continue to move forward in this very difficult time.
Global Feedback About What People Are Feeling During Coronavirus
Many of Henry’s clients felt initially very stressed when lock downs commenced because they were very uncertain about what their training lives were going to look like in this new global landscape. Henry got out in front of all of this by sending each of his clients specific bodyweight workouts immediately upon lock downs being announced, but he also attached those workouts with the question “what exactly do you have access to right now, and when do you have access to it.” Simply giving some control back to his clients, they felt a big sigh of relief. In today’s world, feeling in control - at least to some degree - is so important to reestablish. If you are in this boat, think about some of the places that you have control and spend some time thinking through and then reestablishing that control to remove a level of uncertainty around you
“We all do fitness because we love it, and we want to have a platform to express it” - Henry Toraño
Don’t Lose Site of the Other Facets of Life - Gratitude Helps
Training is such an important factor to our clients. If you’re reading this, you’re likely in that same bucket. However, it’s so important to not get so lost in the day to day inability to train “normally’ that you’re forgetting about all of the other areas in your life where you can be enjoying rhythm and progress.
Being mindful and grateful for those other facets of your life will do wonders in helping you step forward as opposed to worrying about staying in the same place like you may feel with parts of your training.
Remembering what you have going for you, even if it feels grim, helps greatly to move you through challenging times. Thinking about what you can do - you’re in control of those things - vs focusing on what you can’t do - things you’re not in control of - help you to stay grounded and less stressed.
Specific Reactions and How to Handle them
The first reaction for people who are used to making their training a priority is to feel a lot of stress about the workout itself. Henry is working with his clients to get to the place of “just hit the workout that you can” as opposed to worrying so much about the pieces you can’t do due to the virus lock down. It’s funny, many of the workouts that Henry’s clients are doing were initially perceived as “weak sauce” because they weren’t heavy or complex, but after the clients did the workouts, they reported back saying they got lit up. If you allow it to be, these new types of workouts can provide very new stimuli on the body which can feel great.
For the people who were training for very specific events - multiple levels/tiers of that.
For higher level athletes, Henry is working closely with his clients to get their heads wrapped around no competitions in 2020. There are very few likely examples of events that will happen in 2020 that will have sponsorships etc as a part of them. While it doesn’t sound like this is a good thing, if you choose to take it as a training and/or reset year you will have a more calm mindset and get more from the training you are able to do now and over the next few months.
For everyday performers, weekend warriors, and people who like to test themselves here and there, many people are looking to fill that training void that is now in front of them. Henry is working with them closely to make sure they are building sustainable habits so that those clients don’t feel such a need to train for the same amount of time they did before.
Uncertainty is what is stressing people out the most….
Whether you are not used to having your kids at home with you, whether you’re going to get sick or know people who get sick, or whether you’re worried about your job in the short run, it’s so important to understand and be aware of how you’re reacting and why you might be reacting that way to whatever is stressing you out so much. Take on each challenge in a way where you can go after the pieces you can control and put your focus on something other than what you can’t
We’re in a time that is completely untouched by our generation, so we much know that we will all have these feelings of fear or anger or loss or boredom or... it’s when we accept that we’ll have those feelings and work hard to put wonderful perspective and habits at the top of our priorities list that we’ll give ourselves the best opportunity to weather this storm and come out the other side the better for it
Best of luck,Cheers!
