Time To Train
2020-08-10 21:23:04
By
August 10, 2020
For years, many people have measured their dedication to training by bragging they work out five to seven days a week for two to three hours at a time. This to me has never made a lot of sense. It’s the same as people boasting how many hours they work in a week away from their families and not enjoying things in life. Training is meant to supplement your life, not be your life.
For athletes competing at high level, this becomes skewed because their top priority is their gametime performance. For the rest of us, our training is a way to provide a healthier and happier life. What we have found is many people don’t think they have the time to train, but in reality, with some adjustments, it can be done very easily.
This is a huge question for many people when they talk to someone about beginning a training regimen. For people just beginning, I suggest two sessions a week. Two is not a large commitment, but it can begin to create a change in someone’s routine. We find two days a week allows the ability to pick up on some movements that will be used in workouts.
At one day a week, many people don’t seem to develop routines to aid their workouts and it is hard to learn many movement patterns. As someone progresses, we can add more sessions, but this takes time for many people and we need to ensure they can recover from another session each week before adding more. If a trainer tries to get someone to commit to 4-6 sessions a week, they're stealing money and you should run away because they don’t have you best interest in mind.
This is another measure of a training session that doesn’t make any sense. Some of our most challenging workouts have lasted forty five minutes, while others that were also great were over two hours. For people beginning a training plan, they likely don’t have a high GPP (general physical preparedness) base. This means their work capacity isn’t very high. We will have new people to our facility do a modified warm up, some bodyweight movements to see how they move, some med ball throws and see if we need more after that. But for most, that is a full session starting.
Train as little as you need to in order to elicit a response from the training. Don’t train until you can’t walk, until you’re dizzy, etc. We’re smarter than that by now and know the compound effect of consecutive successful training sessions pays off long term.
If you have a busy schedule with work and family, wake up 45-60 minutes earlier and find an at-home plan you can follow. While some of these aren’t optimal, beginning the day with movement can help and minimize the chance of missing a workout completely. For most people that I work with, I personally suggest more frequent workouts of a shorter duration. Some clients train 30 minutes, 6 days a week. It’s not optimal for playing sports at a high level, but the frequency keeps them in a routine that fits their schedule.
Training can be special for each person. Make sure when setting time aside for a training session, it is your time. I’m not a fan of smart watches and many fitness trackers because they're connected to phone, email, and other communications. Disconnect for a short time and focus in on your goals.
This might be your only time to yourself all day. Make yourself a priority so you can be better to everyone you come into contact with daily.
Nick Showman
Showtime Strength & Performance
www.showtimestrength.com
