What A Change!

Becky setting up for some Deadlifting. 

Adding more training days to your week can be a great thing and you should definitely see more progress and return on your investment (time and money) but changing your training schedule can cause changes in the rest of your life and the balance that you had achieved is now gone. Making the jump from 2 or 3 sessions a week to 5 or 6 (or more) isn't as simple as just adding more workouts. Yes only training 2-3 times a week can limit progress and return on your investment but training more means more commitment on different levels.

When adding training sessions to your week (or multiple training sessions a day) there are several things that need to change along with it.

1. Training more means eating more. This doesn't mean that you can eat whatever whenever. You just need to be prepared to fill up the gas tank more often because you will be driving further during the day. By not filling up your tank with proper nutrition your body will start using muscle tissue for fuel if there isn't the right amount of carbs, fat and protein to sustain your new level of activity. Make sure to have fuel available before and after your training session.

2. Make sure your training is varied to promote growth and proper adaptation along with skill work to accomplish new tasks (and goals). If you run 6 days a week for 6 miles at a pace of 6 miles per hour what will you be good at? I'll give you a hint you'll probably be good at running 6 days a week for 6 miles at a pace of 6 miles per hour. Doing the same thing over and over will only get you good at doing that same thing over and over and it might leave you with an overuse injury. Vary your training so things don't get stale.

3. Step up your recovery. You may want to make more "you" time or make sure you get some extra time in the sac (sleeping). Recovery is the second part of training so make sure you can get 8-9hrs of sleep. I am writing sitting in my PJ's at 7pm after bailing on a second training session I had planned this evening because I felt a little slow and tired and decided that training Olympic lifts when slow and tired will lead to poor technique. I'm going to bed early so that I can tear Shi* up tomorrow!

4. Space out your training sessions if you are doing multiple workouts a day. If you are going to do two workouts in a day try and break them up and do the more technical and physically demanding session earlier in the day and have the second one as a skills session or use it to build the engine if you are trying to build your cardio respiratory capacity. Don't force a second session if you aren't up to it. The downtime you take could be more valuable than the throttling you give yourself.

5. Make sure you have a goal in mind that's measurable and that will help you to keep coming back for more. Losing sight of the "Why you are doing this" is a great way to lose motivation. Make a goal, set a date, follow a plan and make sure you have smaller goals to demolish on the way. It's not a bad idea to have some other big goals planned too. I believe in Kaizen (Constant and never-ending improvement).

6. Have fun with your training. This should be the best part of your day. No phone, no work, no traffic, no responsibilities. Just doing what your body was meant to do.

Some people treat their bodies like abandoned buildings. I like to treat mine like an amusement park!

Posted by Paul