By Jeb Stewart MS, PES
Too often these days people can get overwhelmed, frustrated
and feel like they aren't doing a “good job” if they aren't getting all of
their workouts in to the letter. I can assure you that this is not the case,
but if we don’t know how to adapt our training during these times, then it is
likely to occur. Your coach should be relatively available often for any
questions you have regarding your training or to help you adapt the training
when life interferes. Heck, we encourage it vehemently! However, if you do not
have a coach, or even if you do, here are some simple tips and strategies to
help you adapt on the fly and make the most out of the training time you do have.
In the course of working with my clients, I want them to
learn how to adapt their training when things come up so that they feel
empowered and accomplished rather than feeling like they failed and getting
stressed out about it. I try to create the weekly workouts to give my athletes
bang for their buck training to help make the most out of the days of the week
when time is at a premium. Most coaches are well aware of how hard it is to
even get that time in as most of us have families and full-time jobs just like
those who they coach. So, when time is scarce, I show my athletes a few ways
that they can adapt their workouts in a time crunch to still get them in and
make them count.
Key Workouts
In an ideal world we would all sleep 7-8 hours, train for 3-4 hours a day,
eat perfectly, take naps and go to bed by 10pm. Unfortunately that doesn't
happen very often, if ever. So, when all else fails, if you get your KEY
WORKOUTS in for the week, you will at least know that you are doing enough to
maintain or even improve your fitness.
For most of us, our key workouts fall on
Tue, Wed or Thu and on your long day/days on the weekend. These workouts
usually consist of intervals or specific drills during the week and your long
days if you are outside on the weekends. If you are stuck inside, your workouts
should be kept brief, i.e. 1.5-2 hours or less, and very specific. Your key
workout in the gym is your leg and core day. If you are only going to get one
gym workout in for the week, make sure it’s that one. And lastly, always make
time to stretch. It only takes 5-10 minutes and is critical to performance,
recovery and injury prevention regardless of what some of the “experts” tell
you these days.
Scheduling
If you miss a workout on the day it falls in your training plan, either
skip it and don’t give it another thought or get it in when you can that week
if it is a time of the year when workout sequencing is not critical. If you
have a coach, I would encourage you to contact them to find out how to adjust
your schedule to accommodate your situation. If you miss a KEY WORKOUT, it is better
you get that in, than skip it and do the easier stuff unless you are just happen
to be worn out from stress and fatigue. Then it would be best to take the day
off or just ride easy to rejuvenate your body, mind and spirit. When you are
really tired, either riding easy or taking the day off and pushing that key
workout until the next day can be a good call. In the early part of the season,
specific scheduling is not as critical and we need to keep our training fun for
it to be effective long term.
Adjusting on the fly
For most of us, we are keeping the workouts during the week to the meat and
potatoes to help us get in effective training while keeping our lives balanced,
but sometimes the workout may be longer than the amount of time we have
available to train that day. In that case, here’s what you will need to do to
adjust it on the fly so that you get in a good workout, even with a minimum of time.
Cardio and bike
workouts
Start by cutting your warm-up and cool-down in half but still get it in.
Then if you still need more time, cut your workload in half by doing less than
the recommended number of sets for the day. Then, if you still need time, you
can cut the rest periods in half. If this still isn't enough, you can cut the
interval times in half. Please go about it in this order as it is designed to
eliminate things in their order of importance. Of course, this is only to be
done in case of emergency, in which case it will allow you to still get in a
quality workout in. Contrary to popular opinion, something is still better than
nothing, for our heads as well as our fitness!
Strength &
conditioning
To save time here, similarly, start by cutting the warm up and cool down
time in half. Make sure you are super-setting exercises and performing circuits
whenever possible to eliminate wasted time between exercises. (Super-sets
involve doing one set using the opposing muscles used in the first exercise
right after another without resting between the two. Circuits involve doing a number
of exercises one right after another without resting between each exercise.
Both concepts will reduce the amount of time you spend in the gym and the
intensity of your workout). Do 2 sets minimum so that you are at least
maintaining and then do more next time when your schedule allows. If you need
more time, just do the key exercises for your core and the biggest muscle
groups such as squats, lunges, dead lifts, etc. And lastly, if you need more time
leave the stretching for another time later in the day or in the week and get
on about your day. Once again, this is to be done only when you are in a time crunch.
As you can see, there are many ways to adjust our training
to help us get it in and avoid the negative energy that we create for ourselves
when life throws us a curve ball. The goal is to make the training we do be
effective and fun and avoid it becoming a pair of handcuffs or a source of
stress. Give some of these suggestions a try and let your coach or a friend
know if you have any specific issues you may be having with our training program
and work on it together to come up with a solution that leads to success.
For
more information, visit www.endurofit.com or contact Jeb Stewart with any
questions you may have, at jstewart@endurofit.com. We look forward to hearing
from you soon.
