Other/Mixed Current philosophies

[Deleted member 5559]

I feel like my training philosophies have evolved over the last few years and especially over the last year as I've confronted some constraints that are new to me. I wanted to share some and hopefully others will add some of the ideas they resort to when considering where they are and where they're going.

1. Philosophy #1: get specific. Ever since I did not have a job requirement for fitness, I have gone down some roads of general preparedness training that has not actually prepared me for anything and has reduced the quantity of skills necessary for general preparedness. I believe GPP needs to have more specificity to it unique to everyone.
2. Philosophy #2: think bi-polar. I have noticed with more than just training, that anything that does everything actually does nothing. For example, I had gotten out of long steady state cardio for a while and I think it has hurt my fitness. I think it is better to train at the low end of the intensity spectrum and the high end rather than a bunch in the middle.
3. Philosophy #3: Be the tortoise. The deadline for fitness is much longer than we think. So many programs are X weeks long and chasing those programs regardless of the goal of the program can conflict with long-term performance. I am finding much greater satisfaction knowing the end state is years away rather than weeks or even months.

 

[Antti]

Nice thread @Bro Mo ! I'll add what comes to mind:

1. Get uncomfortable: I've gone beyond my comfort zone in many ways so far, and all of them have been rewarding. I've started training away from home, I've started to interact with people around training, and I've also learned new exercises that I've been hesitant about, or straight forward have not liked so much earlier on. My head has been turned on all accounts.

2. Get a program, and stick to it: I don't care where the program comes from, whether it's homemade or something truly tested, I think it's best just take a program for 4-8 weeks and do it. Walk the walk. It takes experience to be able to criticize, and some sessions here and there with modifications don't count. Even if the program doesn't work optimally, it will be a great learning experience, which it won't be done half-heartedly. It's actually really rational and a bit scientific. Without sufficient, repeated testing one cannot truly understand the phenomena and the development.

3. Make yourself accountable: I've found it good to get public with my training, and stick to it, no matter how it goes. Just today, I posted a video of my squats in the logs in this forum that I was really unhappy with. I don't sugarcoat what I do. I am sometimes successful, sometimes not. Getting it all out to people makes me be more honest to myself as well. I also like to do it with the people at the gym; last week, I told people to mark their calendars for Monday, as I would do a new deadlift PR that day. And it happened. Now, I realize that some people can estimate their training objectively. Even more, by massive amounts, people think they can estimate their training objectively.

4. Set concrete goals: My current pursuits make the goal setting easy, lift this at that time and so on. A clear and precise goal helps me to choose the right program, and makes training more concrete. Every successful session according to the plan takes me closer to my goal. The more general my goal is, the more my training is "random acts of variety". Even if I would want GPP, I would think it best to have short and long term goals that align with it.

 

[mprevost]

I feel like my training philosophies have evolved over the last few years and especially over the last year as I've confronted some constraints that are new to me. I wanted to share some and hopefully others will add some of the ideas they resort to when considering where they are and where they're going.

1. Philosophy #1: get specific. Ever since I did not have a job requirement for fitness, I have gone down some roads of general preparedness training that has not actually prepared me for anything and has reduced the quantity of skills necessary for general preparedness. I believe GPP needs to have more specificity to it unique to everyone.
2. Philosophy #2: think bi-polar. I have noticed with more than just training, that anything that does everything actually does nothing. For example, I had gotten out of long steady state cardio for a while and I think it has hurt my fitness. I think it is better to train at the low end of the intensity spectrum and the high end rather than a bunch in the middle.
3. Philosophy #3: Be the tortoise. The deadline for fitness is much longer than we think. So many programs are X weeks long and chasing those programs regardless of the goal of the program can conflict with long-term performance. I am finding much greater satisfaction knowing the end state is years away rather than weeks or even months.

Regarding the bi-polar point. This is a good one. A survey of elite athletes across all endurance sports found that the primary method of training at the elite level was polarized training. In this case it involved lots of volume at a low intensity (zone 2), along with a small volume at zone 4-5, with little training done at zone 3. Ironically, the biggest mistake novice athletes make is that their easy pace is too hard and their hard pace is too easy, resulting in everything hovering around zone 3. A bi-polar, or polarized training approach would be better.

Tortise = Dan John's "park bench" training = my DFYU principle.

 

[Kiacek]

Philosophy #1: get specific. Ever since I did not have a job requirement for fitness, I have gone down some roads of general preparedness training that has not actually prepared me for anything and has reduced the quantity of skills necessary for general preparedness. I believe GPP needs to have more specificity to it unique to everyone.

This is an awesome point, I deliver furniture, I found that different forms of GPP affect my ability to do my job (some are helpful and some are a hindrance).

Philosophy #2: think bi-polar. I have noticed with more than just training, that anything that does everything actually does nothing. For example, I had gotten out of long steady state cardio for a while and I think it has hurt my fitness. I think it is better to train at the low end of the intensity spectrum and the high end rather than a bunch in the middle.

I've only recently realized this (thanks to good advice from the members of this forum). I wonder where things like crawling for 5-10 minutes falls on this scale. I would love to achieve a 10 minute crawl someday, but it seems like the advice to train the crawl for time is counter to the bipolar approach.

Philosophy #3: Be the tortoise. The deadline for fitness is much longer than we think. So many programs are X weeks long and chasing those programs regardless of the goal of the program can conflict with long-term performance. I am finding much greater satisfaction knowing the end state is years away rather than weeks or even months.

This is, again, a lesson I owe to to the good members of this forum, Dan John, and Pavel. The idea of training for the sake of training without pressing the goal isn't a natural instinct. Definitely one that has to be learned and reinforced.

 

[offwidth]

@Bro Mo
Good job starting this topic. It's interesting to see different perspectives.
So I'll add some of mine that come to mind...

1. Training as preparation for the real thing.
2. Be absorbed in the process not a goal
3. Carry my own engine
4. Embrace the long view

 

[Anna C]

Definitely a good topic. Just thinking as I write...

1. Do what is natural - what humans evolved to do. That is what brings us back to our natural state and brings things back to balance. Walk a lot. Work with our hands. Be intermittently but mostly active. Take care of our bodies. Spend time outdoors. Meet challenges.
2. Use resistance training to get stronger.
3. Do "cardio" for heart and body health. Walk, run, bike, kayak, swim, ruck, hike. Do what you enjoy, because the more time you spend doing it, the better. Do it with people or alone; both are time well spent. But only do it in the gym only as a last resort.
4. Reduce and control stress, in life and in training.
5. Study recovery and get to know your own needs for it. HRV, stretching, sleep, rest, mood, tissue quality/massage, nutrition.
6. Be a student of strength and movement; there is always more to learn.
7. Find "The Edge." Every session, week, month, year -- you have to find that edge where you are challenging yourself and stimulating an adaptation, yet not too far over the edge where you will get injured or overstressed.

 

[Phil12]

Things I've learned this year:

Logging my workouts publicly is good. I was already logging everything but putting it in public motivates me to adopt a more coherent and goal-oriented approach. (the goal in general being: to complete the programs I start).

Put the phone away. Preferably in the fires of Mount Doom where it belongs, but failing that just leave it off. Having an hour or so of exercise and meditation in the morning without connectivity is magical.

 

[Kiacek]

Put the phone away. Preferably in the fires of Mount Doom where it belongs

Lmao, yesss!!!
The phone adds another layer to the ways I can waste my attention on anything but my goals.

 

[ali]

I know now where I'm not......

No longer a headless chicken running around like a blue arsed fly.
I still have that tendency mind, always lurking there to catch me out and resort to my old ways. In order to keep that at bay I.....

train for health and strength so when I do run around as above I can and thrive when I do. So polarised for me, alactic/aerobic with a nod towards monitoring my stressors better so I can enjoy and keep enjoying an active, sporty-ish and fun lifestyle. Be able to do stuff when I want to and grateful for that.

I have this delusion that I train also for sport performance except I don't do any, er, sport. Still it's the thought that counts. Firmly pitched up in Dan's Quadrant 3 then with brief tip-toeing in quadrant 4 well aware that I shouldn't really be there, more of a thought experiment than anything.

Onwards and upwards. Content and happy.