Running Interference
As many of you know (and if you didn’t here’s reminder #2) that our next scheduled recovery week is in a couple weeks.
We have written much on the topic of recovery weeks and the purpose and plan behind taking time to let your body recover from training. For those of you who are new (or just plain stubborn :)) here are some past articles outlining recovery principles and procedures:
Recovery Is Where The Magic Happens
Rest, Recover and Regenerate, It’s Not Optional
When we take a recovery week, we are looking at recovery from the standpoint that we will call the macrocycle, or yearlong plan. We schedule 4 weeks off from training per calendar year. These are not haphazardly taken, but scheduled into a carefully designed plan to help you improve over the long term.
Your weekly training is designed in much the same way. Our training schedule is Mon, Tue, Thu, and Friday for a reason, and a huge part of that is the way your body recovers on a daily and weekly basis. Except for the most genetically advantaged 5 or 6 days a weeks of intense strength and metabolic resistance training isn’t effective because we are unable to recover properly.
So what does “Running Interference” have to do with anything?
Strength Coach Ian King was the person who introduced me to the reality of “The Interference Principle”. In his context, he found that that energy system training can seriously impair strength and size developments.
We have observed that this principle also comes into play with some of our clients who do “other” training along with our training. There is a point you can do too much and get less – sometimes less really is more!
I may ruffle some feathers here, but too bad. I can unequivocally and without a doubt say that the amount of sweat produced in a single training session has absolutely nothing to do with how effective that session was in changing your body.
I get it. You enjoy the feeling of working up a good sweat. It makes you feel like you did something. Most of the comments we get about “great training session” come after the ones where you are absolutely trashed.
But what if that trashing made you worse?
If it taxed your recovery to the point it weakens your immune system and you are constantly getting colds? If it caused excessive inflammation in your joints and you are constantly in pain or popping Advil? If overuse produces knee pain, or plantar fasciitis?
Is it worth it then?
No is the only correct answer.
And that is why we don’t train that way every day. Why we take the time daily to work on mobility and flexibility. And why we caution you about your exercise load outside of bootcamp training.
You see it really is possible you are running, or spinning, or ellipticalling (is that a word) interference on yourself and making less progress than you could be.
And that is not what either of us want.
We get asked a lot “What should I do on days there is no bootcamp?”
The answer really is “It Depends”.
And that is something your coaches would be glad to talk to you about on an individual basis.
We are glad to sit down with you and get a complete picture of what your goals are and what you are trying to accomplish. For instance Liz is training for a half marathon. We came up with a plan that will allow her to get the mileage in that she needs in coordination with bootcamp training and other things she enjoys doing. We sat down with Stacy and mapped out an interval protocol she can do a couple days a week that allows her to get that “cardio fix” without taxing her recovery.
Training with Get Fit NH means training within the context of a carefully planned system designed to get you better. When it comes down to it I love the fact that many of our clients are so addicted to being healthy they can’t fathom a day without doing “something”.
Let’s work together and make sure we aren’t “running interference”.
Make It Happen!
Dean
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