[recovery] -- injury PRs
The greatest misconception about barbell training is that it is for the body. While it is certainly true that heavy weights build physical strength, 99.9% of people will never amount to anything in the world of strength sports. For them, lifting is for the mind more than anything else.
After the novice phase, progress under the bar is almost never linear. Injuries and life circumstances derail everyone eventually. Lifting injuries are rarely serious, but they often require the trainee to reduce the weight and / or reps temporarily. It is depressing for intermediate and advanced trainees to struggle for one tiny step forward only to take two big steps back.
In these situations, it is helpful to think about setting “injury PRs”. In other words, we should compare ourselves to the last time we had a problem, not the optimal version of ourselves. Injuries create a new type of training with a simpler goal — how fast can I recover? Last tweak, I had to take 30% off the bar. Today, I only had to take 20%. Last tweak, I only did 2x3. Today, I did 3x3. Little victories like these can inject much needed optimism into a dark time.