But the following day or week, you attempt to do it again, but nowyou cant.

Did you get weaker?

Did your training not actually pay off?

Are you a failure?

Should you just go lie down and cry?

Of course not: You achieved that PR (personal record) and it is yours.

Nobody can take that away from you.

But if its real, why cant you do it every time?

This isnt just a problem for lifters.

Fatigue masks progress

Youre not the same person you were yesterday.

Maybe youre stronger, but maybe youre also more tired.

Maybe you ate well and slept well, or maybe you didnt.

Maybe youre extra stressed out from work today.

The biggest factor, when youre working out consistently, is fatigue.

I dont mean feeling sleepy (although that can happen).

Im referring to when your body has been working so hard that it cant perform at its best.

You did a pull-up once, but now you cant do any.

Fatigue isnt a bad thing!

In fact, its a sign that youre doing thingsright.

You see, beginners often worry that they arent recovered enough or that they need more rest days.

What if instead you compared yourself to what you could do last month or last year?

A few years ago, my best deadlift was somewhere in the low 200s.

Deadlifting two plates, 225 pounds, was a goal of mine.

I wasnt expecting the weight to actually go up, but it did.

I ran and grabbed my phone so I could do it again for a video.

I stepped up to the bar with the camera rolling, and… it was glued to the ground.

I tried 225 again later that day.

I tried it again later that week.

I couldnt figure out why I was able to lift it just that one time, and never again.

Finally, about three weeks later, I pulled 225 for the second time in my life.

But heres the thing: I didnt stop my other training.

I kept getting stronger, even if my levels of fatigue (or stress!

were hiding my ability to pull 225.

What happened was that the minimum I was able to lift on a given day went up.

Then it was a weight I might do for reps. Progress isnt linear; each week and each training cycle has its ups and downs.

Sometime later, three might be your minimum and on your good days youll be able to do five.

The key to progressing is to bring up those minimums.

Youre in your newbie gains phase, and thats a fun time of your life.

Think of building strength like studying a new subject in school.

Maybe chapter 2 as well.

But if you want to actually learn new material, testing yourself isnt going to get you very far.

At some point you have to crack open a book and study.

Training is like that.

(Similarly, training plans for running will often end with a race.)

So then youre looking at some amount of trainingusually one to three monthsthat has a purpose.

That purpose is making you stronger, faster, or betteron your testing day.

Use rest strategically

Leading up to a competition or a test day, its time to peak.

(Runners call this a taper.)

For a short time, perhaps a week, youll train less.

Workouts will be shorter and lighter; you might have a few extra rest days.

By working out less youre sacrificing a tiny amount of future gains but gaining some temporary relief from fatigue.

But remember, the peak didnt make you stronger; it just revealed the strength you already had.

Sometimes beginner lifters will notice that they seem stronger after taking a few extra days of rest.

This can backfire if they incorrectly think that rest is a tool thatmakesthem stronger.

Instead, keep training, and save the testing for test days.