Believe it or not, every now and again, I get days when I don’t much feel like training.
Today is one of those days.
See, I’ve racked up a bit of a sleep debt from a few nights ago when I woke up at 0300 and made the irredeemably stupid decision to scroll Reddit instead of, you know, go back to sleep.
Can’t even blame the kiddos for this one. The three of them were so far into the shadow realm they were having tea with Cthulhu.
Garbage days followed. Training wasn’t great but nor was it terrible. Actually, all the workouts I did (three in total) were prime examples of 80% sessions (i.e. sessions that are “good enough”).
Where am I going with this?
Simply to say that the prime reason I have never fallen off the wagon with my training in fifteen years is that I’ve never run a programme that doesn’t take into account my propensity for doing dumb stuff like sitting on my phone at 0300, drinking too much, and working all the hours God sends.
In other words, the sessions are all designed with my “worst day” in mind, and when they aren’t, there is enough flex in them to dial back one or a combination of the volume, intensity, and density without torpedoing subsequent workouts (something you have to be very careful about with programmes that use strict percentage or even RPE based loading).
A prime example of this approach to programming is found in the routine I dissect in August’s issue of The Phil Tyreman Letter.
Inside, you will find a choice-by-choice breakdown of what was the most productive programme I have done in years, and, arguably, ever to inform your own programmes, or to just follow “as written” if that is what you prefer.
Of course, as a subscriber, you are entitled to whatever help with that you need from me (or anything else to do with training for that matter).
However, there ain’t much time left to get in before I finalise the list to send to the printer.
You’ve got until 23:59 tonight (31st), to be precise.
And after that?
You can still subscribe and get all the other benefits, but your first Real Paper newsletter will be the September issue.
Here’s where you need to go if you would like to learn more about joining us:
https://philtyreman.co.uk/information/
Thank you
Phil Tyreman