Uptown Sweat

We are called Uptown Movement because that is what we do. We move.

The reason I am bringing this up is related to a conversation I had recently with a friend.

This person, who is stuck at a plateau, asked for some feedback. They are super cardiovascularly fit but not getting any stronger, not getting any more mobile, not building any more endurance, but train really hard and often.

I had a look at their programming and the problem was clear, they simply don't take enough rest. They have reached a level of strength that is neurally taxing, meaning the weights they lift need time to recover from. But instead they were doing it like a conditioning circuit. Neither being effective.  Training with weights too light and volumes too high to be strength sessions, while simultaneously training with weight too heavy and volume too low for cardiovascular training.

A tale as old as time. "Highs are too low and lows are too high." 

My advice was super simple: take more rest between sets if it is a strength or skill session, and treat cardiovascular training sessions as exactly that.

What they are doing is building mental endurance and fatigue tolerance. Excellent. That is a super thing to have, but now that they have it, time to move on.

But here is where things got tricky. Push back, and lots of it.

"But I need to feel like I have trained to feel good."

When I hear this, I start to feel icky. And I get it, most of us have been taught that a workout only counts if we're drenched and destroyed by the end. It's a hard idea to shake, because it's everywhere. But it’s capitalism and consumerism manipulating our relationship with our bodies, impossible beauty standards, body dysmorphia, and never-enough-ism. 

Heavy stuff, so I like to gently introduce other perspectives around training.

I try to reframe training around three ideas:

Exploration Building connection with your body, creating awareness around sensations, learning our unique strengths and weaknesses.

Evolution Doing the basics better than you did a year ago. Building greater ranges of motion, lifting new loads, learning new skills.

Expressing Trying something new, getting comfortable with not being perfect and with failure, having fun.

Sweat and high heart rates are one way of recognizing a training session. But they are not the best indicators.

I remember a mentor of mine telling me that his grandmother could make someone sweat, but his grandmother could absolutely not coach someone to move better.

That line has stayed with me for 15 years. It is the bedrock of our philosophy.

At Uptown, we train for progress over punishment and control over random chaos. 

Absolutely go all out every once in a while. Push it hard. End up gassed, sweating, and questioning life. Those sessions can be humbling, fun, and great markers for where to focus your training next.

But if that's your norm, ask yourself: why am I demanding so much from my body, so often? What am I really chasing?