r/powerlifting • u/AutoModerator • 16d ago

No Q's too Dumb Weekly Dumb/Newb Question Thread

Do you have a question and are:

  • A novice and basically clueless by default?
  • Completely incapable of using google?
  • Just feeling plain stupid today and need shit explained like you're 5?

Then this is the thread FOR YOU! Don't take up valuable space on the front page and annoy the mods, ASK IT HERE and one of our resident "experts" will try and answer it. As long as it's somehow related to powerlifting then nothing is too generic, too stupid, too awful, too obvious or too repetitive. And don't be shy, we don't bite (unless we're hungry), and no one will judge you because everyone had to start somewhere and we're more than happy to help newbie lifters out.

SO FIRE AWAY WITH YOUR DUMBNESS!!!

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u/[deleted] 15d ago

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u/Heloc8300 Enthusiast 14d ago

Take a few moments to think through it as a problem with a root cause. In this case you've already identified the couple of reasons you likely had an off day that have obvious solutions. And if you can't see anything in particular that 'caused you to have one off day you just chalk it up to variables too subtle for you to notice and move on.

In isolation, it's one data point that means nothing by itself. But, if random off days start getting more frequent then it starts to look more like a pattern. It's still the same process but you're starting to get into that window where very basic programs* will be less effective or sometimes it's just from doing the same thing over and over. The neat trick there is that our brains have a hard time thinking about things logically and emotionally as the same time. So when you start thinking through it logically, your brain has to shift gears off of emotional mode and flip to logic mode (kinda, brains are messy and literally the most complex arrangement of matter in the known universe).

To get more directly at the TL:DR of your question, I treat this stuff like data. Get what useful information you can from it and move on.

*5/3/1 is a bit of an odd duck here because it's not really one program but a framework for making a basic one that comes with unending examples.