Get OODA There! Steps for Resolving Stagnation.
The effort was given, the energy was spent, and both the body and mind find themselves in burnout, looking over such little results for such intense effort. When we hit plateaus, and find stagnation in both our training and personal development, we feel discouraged, and lose hope of improvement. Often, we then fall into a feedback loop of victimization and misguided blame, making our interpersonal struggles become intra-personal struggles. When you stall, don’t get stuck, get smart, and get OODA there.
The OODA loop is the cycle developed by military strategist and US Air Force Colonel, John Boyd. What Boyd applied towards the combat operations process has come to be a part of the corporate operations process as well. Now, you can incorporate it into your strength and conditioning process. OODA is short for:
Observe. Orient. Decide. Act.
As you reach obstacles in life, whether in the workplace, home, health, or physical fitness, you can use these steps to continue improving. Training can be a metaphor for life and personal improvement, being physical in nature. Has your strength stalled, or endurance hit a wall? Start OODA at step number one.
Observe:
Observation is key in growing business, solving health problems, and taking progression forward in physical training. We often see observation in the gym in notepads, applications, or personal trainers folders. Observation is the root of deciding the purposeful change in training stimulus, or diet.
Are you on a weight cut, but not moving at the pace you intended? There’s and observation, an something that needs change.
Are you training for a bodybuilding show, and seeing your strength grow, but not the scale? The training weights you are using may be too heavy for your goal.
Do you lack energy when you go to the gym in the morning on an empty stomach compared to after a small meal in the evening? Maybe there is a better training time for you.
As you observe, whether mentally, on a notepad, or in a massive data spreadsheet, you begin to see trends, correlations, and results. Observing doesn’t have to be complicated. Is your deadlift max the same, even after 2 years of training it. Here’s an observation, your method isn’t working. Now you need to orient yourself.
Orient:
This is where you have to take account of where you stand, for what you have come to learn about yourself and your nature through the entirety of your existence. This will help you get an understanding of what’s realistic. If you struggled to run 5ks, and experienced severe pain in the process, you shouldn’t make your goal for improving endurance (or sanity) running a marathon. You have to orient yourself to what you can physically change in your life. If you’re struggling to make rent as a top amateur bodybuilder, can you really afford to spend more on coaching and supplements to go pro? Where can you make the change? Likewise, is it best for a diabetic (like myself) to pursue bodybuilding as a personal goal, even with the extreme dieting it requires? What are you doing, and why? There are numerous solutions to deficiencies in physical fitness, but at the end of the day you have to find your solution.
How much time do you have?
How much can you afford to spend?
Are you lacking in health? Sleep? Food?
Are you wasting time that cuts into your training OR recovery?
Once you know where you stand, and the options that are on the table, you can move to deciding your solution.
Decide:
Orienting yourself has now at least made you aware of the options. It has given you time to assess advantages and disadvantages of each decision. Working out earlier could help you get more done throughout the day, but are you already sleep deficient? You will have to comb over the possibilities, and choose the solution that is consistent, reliable, and sustainable. Sure, there are better, quicker solutions to some problems, but if they can’t work for you, what good are they to try? You have to find the choice that you know you can adhere to. A process that can’t be completed properly is useless in all things related to physical health and wellness. Carb-Cycling is a great way to lose weight, but not if you think every day is the reseed day. Be realistic, and choose wisely.
Act:
Of course, none of these could possibly become a solution, until you actually act. If you know that your recovery is nil, why are you still overtraining? What’s the excuse? If you took the first three steps seriously, you’ll know that you have to take a chance and act. Take the action, and make the change. Soda is the only unhealthy morsel in your food palette. Cut it out if you aren’t seeing the weight loss yet. You lack energy at mid-day, and you counter act it with coffee. But you lack energy because you don’t get to bed early enough, and it’s that coffee keeping you awake. Take the action, ditch the coffee, and reap the benefits of change.
Put a little more strategy into your growth process. Find problem areas of your life, and start calculating your steps for effective decision making. You may not always hit the target on the mark, but the OODA loop process helps to guide your change. Get your notebook and your awareness ready, and start taking steps toward improvement, today!
David Corrado
David Corrado began his training career at age 18, volunteering as a fitness coach for students with intellectual disabilities in the Gainesville, Florida area. While at University of Florida, David became certified, and worked as a trainer and coach at the UF campus rec center. Having been certified through multiple curriculums including PTAG and the NSCA’s CSCS and TSAC-F certifications, David now trains in Boca Raton, Florida, specializing in functional strength training for working adults. He trains his clients at the Institute of Human Performance, in Boca Raton, Fl.