Programming for training can be a tricky situation. You have to weigh the balances right for risk vs. reward. How much effort you are putting into your workouts needs to have a reason as to WHY you are training that way. Does it make sense to burn your body to the ground if it will not give you the progress you desire? Training for performance is a balancing act between appropriately challenging your body to elicit physical improvement and recovering enough to see the gains from all your hard work.
There are two main ideas when designing a plan: Stress is stress and stress adds up.
-Stress is stress no matter if it’s mental or physical. Your body has a hard time differentiating between the two. Keep in mind if you are training hard, juggling work responsibilities, or tending to your family, all of these stressors have a significant effect on your performance.
-Stress also adds up over time. If you are not resting and recovering properly from your stress, it will overflow and cause increased cortisol levels and stress. This puts a decline on your fitness and training capacity along with your mental well being in life.
There will be periods in your life when the stresses of life, demanding workouts, a lack of good sleep, and poor recovery leave you in a less-than-optimal state to train. When these times inevitably come, it’s important to know how to adapt and stay on point. Your goal is to design a plan that every workout is created with a specific outcome in mind.
When thinking of risks, you need to consider three primary variables: mode, volume, and intensity.
TRAINING STRESS = VOLUME X (AVERAGE) INTENSITY
How do you know if the risk is outweighing the reward? Here are some tools you can use to check for yourself:
-Morning body scan: how do you feel upon waking?If you feel sluggish you may want to consider decreasing the intensity.
-Injury status. Are you injured or do you have any nagging issues? If you answer yes and have explosive, high-impact movements on your schedule that day, you may want to consider other options.
-Are you plateauing or declining? How are you performing lately? A lack of progress can mean you are close to needing more recovery. A decline in performance means you likely need recovery in the very near future.
If you fall under any of the above scenarios, you might want to dial in your recovery more. Your body undergoes stress in so many ways. Ensuring you are getting the proper nutrition and sleep are critical to making more performance gains in the future.