Man with all the food talk lately I felt like it was time to get back to what's important-training!
Last year my training was kind of up and down with the shift to running my gym full-time, plus all the other business deals, projects and products we had rolling this past year training took a bit of a backseat as did competing.
I managed to keep a fairly regular training schedule, but bounced around too much programming-wise which led me to do a lot of reflecting on the important qualities of training at this point in my life.
Right now my training business and the other ventures I have going on are the most important things, if I am focused on this I can't focus on training for competition - so a strict kettlebell sport or strict powerlifting program is out.
Since cleaning up my nutrition my weight is down tremendously - 35 lbs - and I began studying Qigong and Taiji, so I wanted to improve my flexibility and mobility as well as make sure I am practicing Qigong / Taiji and meditating daily.
Now for the weights. I gotta' say, I miss powerlifting competition-the intensity, training and focus plus there is NOTHING like a powerlifting meet! It's awesome. However I'm not into being fat, bloated and out of shape just to lift heavy weights anymore. On the flipside, I don't thing I need to pack up my barbells just yet. I have to keep the squat, bench, deadlift, overhead press, chins and rows-the basic lifts-in my training but balance it out with some non-linear forms of strength and conditioning - my favorites? Kettlebells and Indian clubs. I'm pretty convinced that the clubs and kettlebells are my favorite forms of training and sometime down the road I can see me doing my daily sessions with these two exclusively - my body feels like a million bucks after them; healthy and full of energy, not run into the ground. It's great for restoration too.
What's left? Conditioning. No treadmills. No ellipticals. Running, pushing the prowler and dragging the sled is where it's at-and will probably throw in some heavy bag and jump rope work in there too.
At the end of 2011 this is where I was at with my decision - no competitions, just a well rounded balance of strength, conditioning and energy work - bringing balance back to over all physical development-not just developing the body-but developing the body AND mind and spirit.
So end of December I tested my maxes on my main lifts to set my training %'s, set my training goals and got rolling! As of this week the first 4 week cycle is in the bag and I'm starting the 2nd - so far so good!
Here's the outline of the plan:
Every morning - Qigong, Taiji and meditation (works out to be 3-5 days a week)
Taiji class at the Shaolin school I belong to (Shi Deru Shaolin Institute): M & W nights and Sa mornings
Daily - LOTS of stretching and mobility work -- I have already seen HUGE improvements in my flexibility (but being down 35 lbs helps considerably too!)
Tu/Th/Su - running and / or other conditioning, about 20:00 - 45:00 total.
M/W/F - strength training; indian club swinging, primary barbell lift(s), accessory work, kettlebell conditioning and more club swinging. Monday is squat and accessory work, Wednesday is bench and accessory work, and Friday is deadlift + overhead press and accessory work. Starts out with 5:00 or so of club swinging; barbell work is Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 program; kettlebell work is lighter weights-higher reps and generally not setting the bell down (usually 5:00-15:00 of work) and finish with another 5:00 or so of club swinging -- total training time is about 45:00.
That's it - simple, sweet and well-balanced; nothing extreme just some type of daily work, just as real physical culture should be.
Stay Strong AND Healthy!
-Scott
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