ALTER TRAINING DAYS AND TRAINING TIME
20 July 2006If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Frequency (along with session length and workout intensity) is an exercise variable that need be periodically altered and modified to create physical momentum where none exists. Frequency is a core fitness variable and too often this single element is ignored. Humans are creatures of habit and habit-force is particularly apparent when it comes to establishing patterns of exercise. Rarely do we alter or adjust the frequency or time of day when we exercise. Our lives are centered on a seven day micro-cycle contained within a monthly macro-cycle wedged inside a yearly mega-cycle. The eight hour workday is the regularity gold standard contained within the five day workweek cycle. The ceaseless regularity of the commute to and from the workplace reinforces habit patterns. Throw in life’s other repeating cycles, i.e., three meal per day eating cycle, the sleep cycle, the commitment cycle, and it all adds up to a numbing regularity: it’s a world full of regimentation and sameness. Given our preference for regularity, what could be more natural then exercising in a scheduled predictable pattern? What could be more natural than performing our exercise regimen on a systematic basis?
Unfortunately predictable cycles are counterproductive when it comes to triggering physical progress. As I have stated numerous times, the human body will not favorably reconfigure itself in response to sameness. To use the same exercise routine in the same fashion at the same time on the same days seems so normal. This approach is fine initially. When physical progress ceases (as it always does) we need throw session timing and frequency into the variable mix. Too often time and place are sacrosanct - off limits, not up for consideration when progress-stimulating ideas and changes are being considered. One great way to stimulate progress when stagnation takes root is to change the weekly frequency or time of day when we exercise. Periodic reexamination of the weekly workout schedule is de rigueur among elite athletes. One potential progress trigger is to jettison the current training schedule and train either more or less. Change the workout day in order to purposefully destroy the rhythm the body has come to expect.
How might this work? Perhaps a trainee who trains three times weekly would subject themselves to five weekly sessions. Perhaps the trainee who hits the weight room six days a week would reduce to two weekly sessions. Perhaps a person who trains four times weekly at 6pm would suddenly shift to four weekly sessions at 6AM. The human body and the human spirit crave regularity and sameness – however regularity and sameness equate to stagnation when it comes to generating physical momentum. This is one of the hardest lessons to learn in the world of physical transformation – it runs counter to every instinct and fiber of our being. Purposefully altering the comfort and sameness of when and how often we train is difficult and counterintuitive – yet it remains one surefire way to inject that off-balancing element needed to jerk the human body out of stagnant complacency. If you are stuck, if you are mired in malaise, if physical progress is a distant memory, instead of altering sets, reps and exercises, consider altering when you workout and how often you workout. Nothing confuses the body’s internal clock like shifting from an ingrained pattern of Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 7pm to Saturday, Sunday and Thursday at 5am. Purposefully “blow the body’s mind” and watch as stagnation and inertia morph into momentum and motion.
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