Long ago, I figured out the “secret” to getting strong and in shape is learning to daisy chain as many OK-ish sessions together as possible before taking a (planned) break.
What’s an OK-ish session?
Literally one when you don’t slack off but don’t go bonkers either, get your scheduled work done, and finish up feeling marginally better than when you started.
Getting it right is a bit of a dark art, that’s for sure. Moreover, it takes a lot of experience to know when to push and when to hold back, meaning you’ll definitely get it wrong (probably lots of times) and wind up exhausted or spinning your wheels respectively.
But it’s well worth figuring out how to self regulate, because training is obviously a lot more rewarding when it’s delivering results without making you hate life, even if those results come more slowly (which they will when you use your noggin in this way).
Besides modulating your effort, the other thing you will have to learn how to do to make a mighty daisy chain is modify your routines to suit prevailing circumstances.
Here’s a short story to explain what I mean:
I last went abroad in 2018 for my honeymoon (I no longer travel).
Jess and I took a cruise because being dropped at the terminal and casually walking aboard is objectively superior to being treated like a terrorist-in-waiting at an airport. However, the downside for those who are into lifting and whatnot is that cruise ships gyms are typically not that well equipped, with ours having nought but a limited selection of machines, some treadmills, and dumbbells that went up to, I think, 30kg.
Hence, training as I would ordinarily train was not an option, which left me with a choice.
I could:
A) Sack off training in favour of spending two weeks lounging about the pool, drinking heavily, and gorging on more food in a day than most in the world get in a week. Or,
B) Modify my routine to keep things ticking over, thereby keeping my head somewhat in the game which would make it easier to resist behaving like an utter degenerate.
No prizes for guessing I went with option “B”. It’s the minority option, in my experience. Largely because most don’t know how to shuffle their training around while on holiday or don’t want to train at all while they’re away.
I can’t do anything to help those in the latter camp because they are thoroughly unserious people who look for every opportunity to flip the “off” switch and behave like overgrown teenagers.
But those who want to keep going but lack an effective and, more importantly, realistic way to go about it?
They would almost certainly benefit from “The Training Survival Guide”.
This is a short (81 A4 pages) and inexpensive (£20) eBook explaining how to train productively when life conspires to screw with your carefully constructed routine, so you can keep your hard-won results and pick up where you left off when things return to normal.
Ordinarily, it’s only available to those who purchase certain books and courses of mine, but I am making it available for general sale until tonight (13th) at 23:59.
If your interest is piqued, make haste here to learn all about it:
https://philtyreman.co.uk/survival/
Thank you,
Phil Tyreman