I remember touching this topic already a while ago. What do I mean by training evolving with you? Well let me explain. You know how in life EVERYTHING CHANGES, even the things you wish they didn’t (like you wish you weren’t getting older) do change and there is nothing you can do. Holding on to something that has to change is against nature and will bring frustration in the long run because it’s a lost battle from the beginning.

We experience changes in a lot of aspects of life from growing older (mentally changing mindset or priorities, physically aging), career, relationships, unexpected events and so on. Some things you have control on, others you don’t. The ones you have control on you better act on it. So when it comes to training, you have to consider a few things.

Let’s say you’ve been training for a while. Are your goals the same as when you started a few years ago? If not, what are your goals now? Is your motivation the same? If not, why and what would bring it back? Ask yourselves these questions. There is a chance you need to refresh your motivation and reestablish your goals, or you’ll keep training the same way getting no new results or getting more hurt because you’re not shaping your training around your changing body but are stuck doing things you were doing 5 years ago.

When I started contortion, I tried and learned EVERYTHING. I wanted to know as much as possible and be able to do ALL the poses there were, in fact I even had a list of contortion poses in my diary and I slowly checked them all. That was my phase of DISCOVERING. Pushing my limits, expanding my mind and learning to believe in myself. It was a life-changing time, intense and super rewarding. Could I have stayed there? No. It was too intense to last, mentally and physically. Forward it 6 years later, I’m not in that phase anymore. Why? Because I’ve changed. I entered the phase of MASTERING poses and HEALING my nagging injuries. I was less into pushing limits (and let me tell you, I definitely push them or I wouldn’t be one of the few people out there that started contortion at 27 yo and got to where I did) and more into making the poses that looked and felt best on me, MINE. Making them perfect. Avoiding the ones that just plain hurt. Perfecting my learning, adding new discoveries, maybe less impactful, but very insightful and personal. Training has never been the same year after year, I kept some parameters (I wanted to keep a certain frequency, intensity and length of my sessions) but also shift my focus into mastering, teaching and learning how to prevent and cure training related injuries. It has been another wonderful phase. That is how you should approach your training, because your training should serve you best in accordance to where your life is heading now. What is important to you? Let your training go there.

I, for example, wanted to continue my contortion training for bettering my coaching skills, keep practicing and more than anything avoid getting hurt. HEALING was one of my priorities, therefore I went back to strengthening and rehabbing certain joints. That’s where my life was heading too, healing, strengthening from couple difficult years, prepping myself for the new years to come keeping my body and mind as flexible AND strong as I could, without forgetting all the work coming from my hard earned years of contortion training.

That is why training is a wonderful tool that accompanies you throughout your whole life, if you let it. This means not obsessing over things that don’t serve you anymore, certain approaches you need to let them go and make space for the new ones. Maybe you’re in the phase where you’ve been wanting to make a quality jump in your training and finally got a coach, then make that be your new shining phase. I can never stress enough what a difference has had in my experience to have someone to guide you when you want to step it up. It’s priceless. So wherever you’re at, be honest with yourself about what you want and why, and don’t feel bad if you don’t want the same things anymore or you can’t seem to get them anymore, maybe your body doesn’t need them as before or maybe your motivation is moving somewhere else. Follow the changes, don’t fight them and you’ll be strong and healthy till old age. Not everything will change, you’ll be able to keep certain things in the process and that my friend will be your strongest skill set. If, for example, your training evolves but you’ve been doing  handstands for 20 years, you mastered that shit. It’s yours, and nobody can take it away.

I hope this post gave you some interest insights about your training and where you’re headed with it in life 🙂 best of luck!