Purposeful layoffs
24 April 2006If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
People often ask me how they should train while away on vacation. That supposes that I would insist they should train while on vacation. My counterintuitive advice surprises them: why not synchronize a purposeful layoff from training while away on vacation? If you are due for a vacation, going on an extended business trip or coming up on a period where (for whatever reason) physical training will be difficult, cumbersome, inappropriate or impossible, why not plan ahead and plan to not train! Planning not to train sounds like a contradiction in terms but a timely layoff at just the right time is often the best possible course of action. Purposefully redouble training efforts leading up to the vacation and while on vacation avoid training altogether. Use the respite to heal fully and completely then jump back in the fitness mix with both feet, physically and psychologically rested and ready. One strategy I use repeatedly is to really push hard, heavy and often in the month leading up to the vacation – peak out, perhaps even get a little burned out, then avoid all training while gone. Use the vacation to rest, feed and heal the body. Does this sound like heretical stuff rooted in laziness, sloth and lack of dedication? Not really. Competitive athletes always lay off after a major competition to allow the battered body to recover from the pounding. Every elite athlete and coach knows that after beating the hell out of the human body getting it ready for a competition the best thing to do is take a layoff. A post-competition layoff from intense physical and psychological effort allows the body to recuperate, recover and heal. Not only is this physically true but psychologically the mind, the brain, also needs a chance to heal itself. Competitive preparation is stressful and intense; in the weeks and days leading up to competition an athlete thinks of little else and this mental single-pointed-ness takes a terrific psychological toll. Rest the body, rest the brain. Once recovered and revived jump back into the fray with a vengeance.
“Won’t I lose everything I’ve worked to achieve? Won’t all my gains disappear?” That’s rookie talk. Obsessive-compulsive types cannot stop training eventually hit the “sameness wall.” The sameness wall is an insurmountable barrier that obstructs progress. The sameness wall occurs when the trainee insists on training when a break is in order. Unwilling or unable to stop, the compulsive continues to train all year and ignores the fact that quantifiable progress has totally ceased. This type usually incurs some sort of injury attributable to a combination of overwork, fatigue and staleness. Burnout and inertia is the constant companion of the obsessive-compulsive fitness devotee: too much of a good thing is never a good thing. Top athletes take several weeks off after a major competition is to allow the body to ‘de-tune’ and become unaccustomed to the training effort and effect. Elite competitors want the body to get a little ‘out of shape’ so that when they begin anew a training program it will produce an effect. 10 steps forward, 1 step back nets 9. In the olden days we used to refer to this as ‘softening up for gains’ and it’s a deliberate strategy. Once you peaked out physically, the best thing you can do is totally cease and desist any and all training for a proscribed period of time. Again, this is all predicated on the assumption that after the layoff you get back on the bandwagon. If you are peaked-out, burned-out or over-trained the best thing you can do is take some time off. If you’ve gone in a particular training direction as far as you can go and gains ceased, often a planned layoff is appropriate and will stimulate progress in the long run.
Obviously if you are lollygagging along, halfway training, you can use the “softening up for gains” approach as an excuse, an excuse to loaf, become slothful and undisciplined. You are a fool fooling yourself. Taking a layoff after a peak period of intense physical training has a liberating effect on the body and the mind. Better yet if the planned layoff, the training sabbatical, is synchronized with a wonderful vacation in some cool location. Enjoy friends and family without the compulsive-obsessive behavior that mars interaction with others…”I’d loved to go to the boardwalk with you guys - but I have to find a gym to train for two hours.” Besides, I still get a lot of exercise in the form of activity: personally vacation for me is one long extended cardio session. I always seem to end up walking my legs off, running and romping with the kids, being super active with water-related activities. On the go continually. I also like to eat big on vacation. Extra calories after a restricted period will trigger an anabolic burst if not taken to an extreme. I eat more, worry less and forget about barbells, dumbbells, progress and my ‘quest.’ Oddly, towards the end of any vacation, my thoughts invariably turn back towards training. I really enjoy training and by not allowing myself to train I build up a real desire to get back into training. By the time I get back to the ‘real world’ I’m positively itching to commence serious training once again. Now rested and ready, psychologically fired up, I always make fantastic gains in that post-vacation period. So when I get these questions relating to how best to train while on vacation, the first thought that comes to mind is - if you have been hitting it hard and intense - why not blow it off altogether?
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