Maintaining, Transitioning, and Play

I was just answering a question on the Message Boards about maintaining results that leads right into what I’ve been doing since my last training cycle ended: playing, tactically, which can be just as important as the program itself.

Without breaks any training program will get stale. Your results will plateau, your enthusiasm will wane, and you’ll increase the risk of overuse injuries. For most of us life itself creates plenty of opportunity for breaks, but they should be scheduled regardless. And if you plan these breaks well they can lead to improvement that’s almost as rapid during your program, especially if you’re training for sports.

Here’s a very simple overview of why, without going insanely nerdy on you:

Training almost always targets certain energy systems in your body. Beachbody programs generally target those that will lead to rapid body composition change because that’s what most of us are after. But whenever you actively target one area of fitness others are being left out. If you know what your training program isn’t covering then it can be easily to fill this in later. If you don’t it’s harder, however, it’s not all that tricky to figure out what your training has been lacking because, basically, it’s stuff that’s the opposite of what you’ve been doing.

For example let’s use P90X because it’s the most inclusive program we offer (meaning that it concurrently targets the broadest range of energy systems). Because every workout has you training at your maximum for about an hour, simple math lets us guess, correctly in this case, that we probably aren’t targeting things that are much shorter or much longer; which are the energy systems concerning muscle cell motor unit recruitment (or power) and aerobic efficiency (aerobic endurance). While these areas aren’t too important for body composition change they can be extremely important for athletes. If you’re an athlete who values one or both of these areas they are best trained during your breaks from the program.

Furthermore, specific sports always require some amount of more simple body adaptations, such as getting used to the elements your sport is played in. These play periods should focus on lots of time doing your activity. For example, in almost any sport skin is vital and can only be prepared specifically by doing the said sport.

Finally, sports all require specific neuro-muscular patterns (often called engrams) that, while somewhat retained, need to be refined if you plan on continual improvement. Again, these are gained by doing the actual sport. Also, if you’re training is sound you’ve gained fitness (strength, endurance, mobility) which must be taught how to perform. Play time, through specific adaptations of your training gains, will help you get stronger while you aren’t doing any actual training.

If you look at the calendar of my month “off” (top), you’ll see that I’m spending as much time, or even more, doing exercise as I was when I was training (below). The only difference is that there are no real workouts. But there’s a plan, which is, well, no real plan because taking a mental break is vital to build-up enthusiasm for structured training. But within my “no plan” I’m still playing in areas that weren’t targeted during my last round of training, while also building up skin, making environmental adaptions, and refining my engrams. The goal of which is to have me mentally and physically ready to progress further during my next round of training.

key: boulder, climb, coop = some form of climbing; 4 x 10 means 4 5.10 routes, etc; mtb = mountain bike; RUKE = run/hike, which is an aeorbic-level hike (ultra pace); FWU = a variation of the X2 functional warm-up, which i don't usually record; NIS = neuro-integrated stretching; brick = run and bike workout; trainer = rode my bike on a trainer indoors; RACE = duathlon nationals

Recovering From Relaxing

Ah, it feels sublime to be tired and sore when you’ve gotten that way from activity. And when I get time to relax pretty much all I do is exercise. After ten days of gettin’ after it I lied in bed til nearly 8am, deciding after numerous false starts that my aching muscles needed a few more moments on snooze. Phase one of my year is in the books and now it’s time to play a bit while I decide what’s going to come next.

near lee's ferry.

the type of nav reading that makes me happy.


My schedule over the last ten days, generally, had me up by 5:30 and working ‘til it was warm enough to head out. Then climbing, riding, hiking, running, or driving until it got dark, followed by dinner and, finally, more work until my eyes would no longer stay open—usually by around 10.

my mobile office.

trails around sedona.


I think it’s safe to say that I don’t relax like most people. I’m not getting out as much as I once did so, when I’m on the road, I try and cram in as much into each day as possible. Over the last ten days I’ve ridden six new (for me) trail systems, gone to six new climbing areas, driven 2,000 miles, done one national championships race, and managed not to fall too far behind on work. In fact, it’s due to work I’m home now because there was more on the agenda. My computer died Tuesday night, prompting cancellation of this weekend’s little Grand Canyon sufferfest, and forcing me to high tail it home instead.

room with a view in tucson.

putting on my best special agent dale cooper impersonation at mom's, in salina. 'once a day, every day, give yourself a present...'


So now I’m back at the morning ritual: sitting on the computer, slowly sipping coffee, Finnegan by my side asking repeatedly if I’m ready to get outside yet. Today he’s going to have to wait longer than normal. But with temperatures on the rise, some good winter fitness in the bank, and longer days ahead I will be making this up to him. I don’t think he believes me.

Sweet Relief

My latest hard block of Hell Month was five straight days of double workouts, which had my legs screaming so loudly that I found myself texting a middle of the night Facebook entry:

“Legs hurt so bad I can't sleep. Both terrible and great at the same time.”

The terrible part is obvious but it’s also great to have a tactile reminder that I’m back at hard training. Being totally exhausted to the point of pain makes me feel like I’m living life as it should be lived.
After two active rest days I’m nearly back to normal and ready to lay the hurt on again, thanks to Asylum Relief. I was honestly reluctant to give up my recent recovery modalities, foam rolling and neuro-integrated stretching, but since I’m testing Asylum it’s what I had to do. And it’s working just fine, in fact better than I was expecting. A combination of the three, along with some yoga, is going to be my regular recovery MO until something more effective gets discovered.

Asylum Relief is pretty much designed to be done daily. In fact it begins doing the same movements that you do at the end of every workout as a not so subtle hint (plus Shaun repeatedly reminds you to do it and tells you to have Recovery Formula after, which he wouldn't if you were only doing a recovery routine). It’s not scheduled this way in the literature but that’s only because we don’t want to scare people into thinking that they’ve got to train over an hour each day. But I’m quite certain that any time you commit to an extra 15 minutes of cool down with Relief you’re going to feel like it was time very well spent.

There’s an old cycling coach saying that goes, “If you don’t have time to stretch you don’t have time to ride.” Few follow this but I’ll bet that those who do are faster than those who don’t. And even if they aren’t they are certainly the ones who recover fastest, get injured less, and feel better in general. You can take that to the bank.

It’s My Party And I’ll Play If I Want To

Since I’m getting a lot of questions about what I do during a rest phase I will explain. Since these questions are mainly from our customers, who do home fitness programs, I’ll work this into my answer even though most of my goals for the year will happen outside.

The main objective of a rest phase is to take a break from targeted regimentation. No one can stay focused all the time and hoards of studies show that it’s better if we don’t try. So my primary goal during this time is to force myself not be think about my goals, future, or current state of fitness. This is fairly difficult and takes constant attention because we’re all creatures of habit and my daily existence is filled with concerns over fitness. No matter how I try these remain in my head but I force my actions to be contrary to my habits.

This will scare those of you who once were unfit and had to fight to get to where you are today. While natural, you should look at my advice as prescient because I’ve been dealing with this most of my life. Pushing your motivation too far will lead to a breakdown. 100%. Backing off before the lull will have you both physically and mentally reading to see your next challenge through to its end. Your main concern, I find, is that reverting back to your “old” habits will lead you back to your old un-healthy agenda. It won’t, however, because you should plan your break so that your next training cycle begins before these old habits have a chance to take hold. View it as that your training programs are your real life and your recovery phase is a vacation.

Also, as you’ll see from my example, you needn’t waste away on vacation. I ‘m probably spending as much time being active as normal. The only difference is that it’s not targeted; merely play.

Because I’ve got two furry maniacs dependent upon me for their exercise I spend between 45m and 2 hours each day outside running around, often with my wife or friends. This can be hiking, running, skiing, or biking. Mostly I’m going at an aerobic pace but I’ll vary it without any plan. If I feel like doing intervals I will but mainly it’s steady and slow. My scientific view of this is that’s its building base aerobic conditioning that is varied enough to work a lot of difference muscle sets. I’d say my average outing is about 1:15-1:30.



I also go into the gym but my workouts are short: 10 – 20 minutes. Because I know I need to improve both mobility and joint stability that’s all I’m doing. I’m experimenting with this shoulder joint stabilization workout and doing 50 reps of different types of stability squats/hip mobilization and balance exercises. Some days I do the rice bucket workout to keep my finger/hand/forearm/elbow connection balanced. For mobility I’ve been using the foam roller at lot. While this can take some time I do it watching movies, which I’d be doing anyway. I also do some ab stuff in front of the tele. If the mood strikes I’ll do some yoga or take a Bikram class.

So, as you see, I’m not exactly inactive. I’m just playing, not training. I do the same thing with diet. If I want fries, dessert, cocktails, whatever, it’s on. No zigging. No zagging. No real thought about diet. Mind you, this doesn’t mean I’m hitting happy hour followed by all-you-can-eat rib night either. I feel like ass when I eat or drink too much. And I don’t like feeling like ass. It makes me surly. So my diet is still decent; just a lot worse than normal.

The lesson here is that your breaks in your training program should end up not only letting your mind and body recover but validate your healthy lifestyle. As much as you try to be like you were pre-90X (or whatever) you are no longer that person. You feel better when you’re healthy. You like it better when you look good. Life is better when you’re active. And the more you believe it, the more motivation you’ll have during your next training program.

pics: speed bartending at my own party with ex-world’s fastest climber hans florine, making plans to get rid of the ex (more on this later), and playing with the family in the uintas.

Party Time!

“After his last race of the season,” says my friend Spencer, “he puts him bike in the garage and refuses to even look at it until his legs hairs (which are shaved, of course) grow to an inch and a half.”

We all need rest, both physically and mentally, and this is my favorite off-season recovery story. I like it because it’s simple, clear-cut, and 100% non-scientific. Rest is something where not only is science un-necessary, it’s debilitating. Rest should be both physical and mental. Sports—and exercise—are both physically and mentally addicting. Therefore, breaks should cut you off from both angles so that you come back both physically and mentally fresh.

This is much easier said than done. Vonn (husband of ski superstar Lindsey who is generally referred to by his surname) references the challenge as thus,



“She is extremely diligent,” he said, rolling his eyes. “That’s Lindsey, though. Even when she was supposed to be relaxing and resting her body in April, I would catch her sneaking into the gym. I’d have to drag her out.”

Dragging your spouse out of the gym is certainly counter-intuitive to some of you but, if you’re addicted to a sport or style of training (Xers, yes, I mean you too) there will always be a time where it takes discipline to shut things down.

The reason you want to force is break can best be described as human. Due to a combination of factors no one can stay on top of their game at all times. And if you don’t force rest on yourself then you’re leaving it up to your body to decide when it needs it. While this is obviously dangerous for athletes who need to perform on a schedule it’s better for the rest of us, too. Because we all have times when we would prefer to be at our best, so why leave it up to chance if we don’t have to?

Since my bike’s had plenty of off time this last couple of years I’ve shut down climbing until after New Year. This means no climbing, no training for climbing, no climbing news or scanning the net for videos. It’s a complete forced break that will not only allow microtrauma to heal but will also re-set my daily habits and focus.



Rest has another up side; it’s fun. Historically it’s often been too fun. We only need to peruse the sports headlines to find examples where one athlete or another has gotten in trouble in the off-season. Cyclists are one of the worst offenders. Because it’s such a weight-dependant sport you almost always gain weight you stop racing. Therefore, how much damage was done over the winter has always been headline news in the cycling press.

Jan Ullrich anecdotes aside, just because you’re not focused doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t exercise. In fact you should stay active. The only rule should be that you do something different than normal, with no regiment, no coaching (including Tony, Chalene, Shaun, et al), and no goal except to sustain it for a prescribed period of time. All very calculatedly un-scientific.

It’s hard to force yourself into some down time, especially if you feel as though you’re getting close to your potential. But if you take the initiative you’ll find that you’ll end up with more control over both your performance and your life.

Part II, what I'm doing as "rest", is here.

pics: curious goings on in the off-season: der kaiser obviously not worrying about his weight, party night in italy (“last blowout before training camp”) featuring some of the world’s best cyclists, and mrs. vonn decidedly not wasting her time off.

Childsplay

I’ve been beaten down all week. Last weekend was long and work has been busy and somewhat frustrating, a combination that has made my training week rather dismal. Despite long days I’ve barely been outside. My one ride hurt my back and my only gym session was uninspired. Today I serendipitously got my motivation back.

Beata’s been wondering what’s happened to her training partner all week. Today, feeling guilty, I took her down the street so she could stretch her legs in the park. She seemed a little low on motivation herself so slipped out of my flips and did a barefoot lap around the park to get her going. The resulting sensation was shocking.

From the first stride, the sensation of bounding shoeless on the soft grass brought me back to being a kid. I don’t know when the last time I’d run barefoot was but the feel and smell brought on sensations of my youth. I’ve been training in barefoot-simulation running shoes but it’s not close to the same thing. After a couple hundred meters of striding slowly I felt like a different person. Another lap and B was beaming, knowing she had me back. I finally had to stop myself. Barefoot running is something you should approach slowly. And the last thing I need is another injury to deal with. But the switch had been turned on. We came home and started scheduling the next phase of training.

It’s funny how sometimes you lose perspective during a training program. I’ve been doing this stuff all my life. I know the drill because it’s happened before, many times. But I still manage to get overly focused during training programs; allowing myself to grow stale when all I need is a change of scenery.

The trick is in figuring out what kind of scenery change will work. From now on I'll consider the power of youth.

When Not To Bring It

There are times when you shouldn’t train. Most programs and trainers tell you what to do and when to do it, but we’re all different. And human. And therefore subject to the laws of physiology. “No pain, no gain” aside, there are times when the smart move is to skip your scheduled workout. Yesterday, for me, was one of those days.

Most recreational athletes I know spend their lives in a perpetually overtained state. This is due to two things. First, we tend to think we’re copping out when we slack on our schedule. Second, we tend to be manic to the point that we need to train or our lives feel out of balance.

To train effectively, both of these tendencies need to be overcome. There are countless examples of athletes (recreational and pro) who have reduced the amount of time they spend training and improved their performance. Just yesterday, in fact, I read an interview with professional climber Yuji Hirayama, who just climbed his hardest route at age 40. He said that he doesn’t have as much time to train and climb as he used to and the result is that he’s getting stronger, and climbing harder, than ever.

The best example of this I’ve seen came from Tony Yaniro back in the early 90s. Climbers back then, myself included, tended to train like headless chickens (as well as not eat, but that’s another story), resulting in massive plateaus if we were lucky and injuries when we weren’t. Yaniro—who had a few world-standard ascents in his day—published a workout plan without a set schedule. Each day had a planned workout that began with a lengthy warm-up. At the end of the warm-up, he would assess whether he felt recovered enough or not to proceed. If he felt recovered, he trained. If not, he cooled down and took a recovery day.

Surely, this type of schedule would wreak havoc with us trying to train around busy schedules. If you’ve moved your appointments, kids, etc, around a time slot then, damn-it, you’re probably going to train. But that doesn’t mean it’s what you should do.

Yesterday, when the weather cleared into a beautiful afternoon I became psyched to get outside. I’d actually planned some recovery but my somewhat tender elbow felt fine and I thought about one more hard day before my recovery began. My mindset began to change when I felt lethargic on the hike in. My warm-up left me feeling ready… for a nap. So I bagged the planned session and spent some time scampering around the mountains with Beata at a leisurely pace, scoping the protection possibilities on a line I’d like to climb, and relaxing in the afternoon sun. Training day accomplished.

Recovery Formula

During my P90X postings last year I don't think I ever got around to discussing Recovery Formula. The last few weeks I've received numerous emails asking if we could replace the sugar in RF with stevia. This, I can only imagine, has come about with the marketing hoopla over no calorie sports drinks. I blogged a while back on "the world's most inane beverage" when I discovered that Gatorade was making a "low sodium" electrolyte drink. Since sodium is your primary electrolyte, I posed the question what could be more ridiculous? And they've answered; a sports drink with no energy. Amazing.

A quick lesson: calorie is a word we use for energy in the foods we consume. When we exercise we greatly increase the amount of energy (and electrolytes) we burn. Sports drinks were designed to replace things depleted while doing sports, which are primarily calories and electrolytes.

Marketers don't care about such pesky details. They are aware that people like new things, whether or not these things make sense. People like words like "no calories" and "no sodium" and, apparently, will buy them even if their goal is to buy something with calories and sodium.

Recovery Formula, as the name suggests, is designed to aid in recovery from exercise. This requires calories, among other things. I've written an article that discusses this process in laymen terms, and here it is.

How Long Should Recovery Cycles Be?

This morning Romney and I got up at 5:30 to do yoga. She had a class. I joined Tony. I got out of bed as stiff and sore as I was last week when I was actually training hard and thinking that I should be closer to being recovered by now.

P90X has recovery weeks that, as I said before, are really more like transition weeks. Recovery cycles during hard training can't always be mapped out. They generally consist of low-level training until the body is healed up and ready to go again and it's impossible to estimate how long this will take. While there are some obvious signs when your body is recovered that will surface eventually it can be tricky to get the timing right on exactly when you should begin hard training again.

Early in a training programs when recovery periods are transition periods you've often just shifted the work load. During this time other breakdown is occuring and you may not feel recovered during a recovery cycle. It's generally best to stick to a per-determined schedule during these periods. However, when you jump back into your training if performance hasn't improved you'll be best served to go back to your recovery phase.

During very hard training, like doubles in X or when your competing or performing it's best to continue recovery until your sure you're ready. The obvious indicator is feeling restless and bored and jonzing for more. But this isn't always the case because your body can trick you and feel creaky or sluggish when it's over rested. Checking your resting heart rate is a good way to tell when you're rested. It's not always correct but if your morning heart rate is slow it probably means it's time to load up the training again. If, after a couple of sessions you aren't feeling strong, transition back to recovery workouts and try again later.

A key component to recovery is nutrition. There's a saying that goes along the lines of "there's no such thing as overtraining. There's just undereating, undersleeping, and failure of will," and it's accurate to the point that overtraining is defined by your ability to recover, which is a function of rest and nutrition. This brings me to a little point I've been thinking about concerning doping for sports, because its aim is to enhance the body's ability to repair itself.

Sports doping enhances recovery through un-natural means. Using science we can speed up recovery, meaning you can train harder sooner. No sport has been rocked by doping as much as cycling over the last few years. This year's Giro is an indication that doping may actually not be going on in the peloton.

The reason that almost every grand tour champion in the last 15 years has been busted for drugs is that in a stage race doping is vital if you're competing against other dopers. In a one day race you can train, then rest and recover and peak. A stage races requires that you race daily. Over the last 15 years the speed of the grand tours has increased nearly every year. You would see the favorites win every key stage, even towards the end of the race. They were even getting stronger. Some of the fastest time trials in Tour history have been ridden at the end of the race, which seems unlikely using natural means after 20 days of continuous competition.

This year's Giro was different. The leaders--even though they were the best time trialists in the race--got creamed in the final stage. This makes sense because they'd been battling in the mountains during the previous stages while those not competing for the general classification were "resting" in the autobus, just trying to make the time cut. In the last stage the overall leaders were very competitive with each other but were beaten badly by those who'd rested while they were racing. This is a far cry from the last couple of decades (since EPO surfaced in the peloton) where the favorites would be dropping everyone in the mountains and then take more minutes in a time trail for following day. Clean cycling may be a reality again.

I'm not sure if I am creaky and sluggish or still overtrained, but yoga was hard this morning. I'll take it slow and steady this weekend, plan the next block of training, but Monday will only be a test as to whether I move ahead or do some more recovery.

pic: Giro podium: first and second in the first tt, this group finished 11th, 28th, and 68th on the race's final day.

Things Are Startin' To Stretch

Bagged Yoga today after the first few sun salutations and popped in X Stretch instead. I'm still tired and what I really needed today was a thorough stretching session. It occured to me that I haven't ever done this workout in its final form. I did the test version, of course, but this was a little different. During the X each time I stretched I'd done Debbie's Slim in 6 Express Cool It Off dvd, just because it's shorter. X Stretch was just what I needed.

I stretch daily but almost never long enough, which is a chronic problem. Stretching is boring. Thing is, whenever I do it I feel so good I say to myself that I'll stretch more. Rarely happens. Whenever it does my performance goes up and my injuries abate. Today's session was prompted because while climbing last Sat my knee locked up doing the above move. I have a problem in my knee that's been there for years. When I'm stretching enough and warm-up properly I don't notice it. But whenever I neglect it for too long I have something bad happen. This is generally during a climb when all of my weight is sitting on it, or when it's twisted as I'm starting to do in this pic. It usually siezes up, locks, causes me to fall off and then swells up. Luckily, it's never happened in a dire situation--actually, it did once and I was luckily able to hold it together for one more move to a big hold where I could both get protection and shake out my leg. This weekend it was a minor problem only as I was able to clip a bolt, hang, and shake it out. But it was enough to get me stretching again.

A cycling coach once said "if you don't have time to stretch you don't have time to train." Very few of us pay attention to this. Those that do, I'm certain, out perform everyone else.