Training in the Offseason
What did you get done this week??
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My previous post on alcohol received a ton of awesome feedback and for that I’m grateful. Today, I’m going to discuss how to manage your training when you’re between structured programming, aka the off-season. Structured training should make up the majority of the year, but as many of you have brought up there are periods where you’re not able to train optimally. Other reasons include finishing a program and taking a brief break before hopping on a new one, non-optimal training times due to deployment cycles, a scheduled de-load period, or travel.
This year I’ve trained to get my 12-mile ruck with 35 pounds down to 1:57, run the 6 week speed cohort to get my 1-mile time down to 4:54, and run the 12 week hybrid cohort to get comfortable with a higher volume of aerobic work paired with 4 lifts per week and an additional sprint session per week, all while maintaining body fat between 7-10% and a bodyweight around 200 pounds.
Back during the Elon/Twitter debacle the following interchange between the previous Twitter CEO and Elon Musk was released in court proceedings.
Although it’s obviously hilarious, I think about this often when it comes to both my work and physical training. If you look back on the week, month, or year, what did you really get done? Can you quantify the impact you had on the organization you work in? Can you quantify the impact your training and nutrition had on your performance and/or physique?
These are questions people rarely ask of themselves because it takes self-awareness and often times are hard questions to face. In the short term, it can be difficult to see these impacts when it comes to training. But especially as the year wraps up, it’s important to reflect on what you actually did - especially in the realms of relationship building (friends, family, romantic interests, etc), work, and physical fitness/health/physique. Deep in the throws of a training cycle you may not see any progress. You may feel beat down, exhausted, just trying to go through the motions of each session. But when we look on an acute timeline, I can see everything I did and understand the purpose for why I did those actions.
Evaluating on time horizons of 1-week, 1-month, and 1-year allows me to see the impacts of the actions at different intervals and how it’s truly working (or not). This is why I love coaching - for many it’s the first time they have someone else’s perspective and analysis, and someone who is forcing them to evaluate if what they’re doing is actually working. If not, we make slight modifications and keep working. Side note, I recently brought on another member of the AG team (who will be introduced shortly) which allows us to coach more of you. If you’d like to apply for training, set up an intro call here.
Now let’s get back to the main point. Evaluation at different periods helps us understand if we’re actually moving towards a goal. In line with proper periodization, there will be times when we’re not on a full training program or the same structure we have when training heavily.
As we hit the end of the peaking phase, there will be a transition period (the off-season) with lower volume, intensity, and sport form. This is where we should focus on still maintaining some structure in the absence of a true program. Many probably don’t give it a second thought, know they’re in a brief period to relax and maybe do a few workouts with no real goal.
To be clear, adding specific times for rest or vacation is fine, and actually recommended. Take some time to do absolutely nothing and enjoy your life. But if you are not on vacation, let’s evaluate how we can easily keep you on the path without suffering a withdrawal in performance going into the next program.
The simplest way to continue to progress in the off-season is to hop on the AG Phraks Variant (for free here). I love this program for multiple reasons. The first is literally hundreds of you have downloaded it and made insane gains in strength and performance using it as your primary training program. It is modular and able to be run year round by stacking additional accessory and conditioning work on top of it. You can read more on how I use it here. The other reason I like it is you can run it barebones where the total time commitment is less than 30-45 minutes per day, can maintain or improve your performance, and takes no thought as to what to do each day. You simply finish the program you’re in and revert back to phraks until you settle on a new goal or program you want to run.
This is exactly what I’m doing right now. I trained this entire year and hit some of my goals. Now that I’m in a brief period of decreased volume before my next program, I’m running the AG Phraks Variant. No thought required, I can jump in and hit sessions quickly each day. This also gives you the opportunity to evaluate how your training has gone previously and set a new goal for the future. We are nearing ‘new years resolution’ time, which I generally dislike. If you’re going to do something, just do it now. There’s something to saying I’m starting on a specific date, but there’s also a reason millions of Americans also give up on their resolutions 2 weeks into January. If you have something that needs doing, why not start working towards it now? Take a day, a week, or even two, figure out what needs doing and work towards it. If you’d like to work with me on that, drop an application here. Now go to the gym.
Cheers.
DISCLAIMER
This is not Legal, Medical, or Financial advice. Please consult a medical professional before starting any workout program, diet plan, or supplement protocol.