Seasonal Training

In order for you to build your highest & most complete fitness possible, there are several key aspects of your fitness that must be developed.

These include:

• Maximal strength (usually on a few select lifts)

• Power (ability to move weight fast)

• Well-rounded, whole-body muscle growth

• Aerobic conditioning (e.g. cardio)

• Anaerobic conditioning (discussed in this newsletter)

• Mobility (including flexibility & the ability to control weight through full range of motion)

-

This can become a lot to juggle.

You can give these all equal focus at any given point in time. It's just hard to get the best results out of all of them when you only train this way.

-

Instead I recommend taking a seasonal approach to your training- where different fitness disciplines take the limelight over time (equal focus across all of them can be part of the rotation).

The overarching point is that there is some sort of thought out, long term plan to how things are rotated.

When any 1 or 2 areas take primary focus, everything else should be at or just above the minimum effective dose throughout the week.

This way, you can still rest assured you are still making progress in the areas on the back burner, while progress is accelerated for the primary focus or foci.

-

How you structure your changes in focus can be dictated by a number of different things, such as:

1. Time of year

   • For my northern readers, training outside may be more opportune in the summer. The opposite is true here in Florida.

2. Planned events

   • This could be a half marathon, spartan race, or it could be a big hike you have planned. I recently went to Yosemite and trained for the trip like I would a race so that I could get as much hiking as possible done there.

3. Preference

   • Having a different structure to your training over time can make it more fun, which is a good enough reason by itself IMHO.

4. How busy you are right now

   • Maybe life is hectic right now. Maybe it'll ease up later. In such cases, you can set every mode of training to the minimum effective dose (which is much lower than you might think) and still make some progress; as opposed to giving up training altogether.

I speak to this idea a bit in this video, but here are some examples to make this all a bit more real:

-

Minimum effective dose of everything

• 2 days of full body power and strength training per week (~30 mins each)

• 2 days of aerobic and anaerobic conditioning per week (~30 mins each)

Evenly split focus

• 1 day of full body power, strength, and anaerobic conditioning

• 3 days of aerobic conditioning

• 2 days of full body muscle growth / mobility under load focus

Strength / Long Distance Run Focus

• 1 day of full body power, strength, anaerobic conditioning

• 2 days of full body strength only

• 2 short to moderate distance easy runs

• 1 long, easy run

Muscle growth focus

• 2 lower body lifts per week

• 2 upper body lifts per week

• 1 aerobic conditioning session

• 1 anaerobic conditioning session

Anaerobic conditioning / short distance endurance focus

• 2 full body power, strength, and muscle growth focus

• 2 days of aerobic conditioning

• 1 threshold / tempo run

• 1 true high intensity interval run

-

The further ahead into the future you think, the more you can set these up to build upon one another; therefore magnifying the progress you make that much more.

Overall, the point is this:

Having a rotating structure to your training can make it more enjoyable, more practical, and more effective.