"How Much Should I Be Training.....?"

This is something I get asked frequently by newer members of our tribe.

There is an assumption here that Quantity is the only variable that dictates how you will best make progress in your training. In truth, Quantity is only ONE of variables that dictate how much we should train..

Lets explore..

Firstly, I’m going to simplify what happens to your body when you introduce it to progressive physical stress so we can get an idea of how different variables can affect our returns.

If your doing things right, exposure to physical stress, in your case, exercise, will cause micro trauma to your body. That’s why you leave the gym weaker than you arrived. You’ve created a whole bunch of cellular displacement and things aren’t working as well as they were when you arrived because you’ve damaged yourself.

Our body recognizes the damage as a shift in our environment. As far as our system knows, our environment just got a little more competitive. It thinks your working harder to breed or eat (or not to get eaten). It doesn’t know your fooling it by exposing it to your gym and not an environment it feels it needs to thrive in to survive.

Once the damage is done, your body gets to work repairing itself. IF you have the right kind and amount of rest and nutrition, it will do even better than just a repair job. Relative to the kind of stress implemented, It will re-build you a little more resilient to that kind of stress than before. It will build a slightly tougher, higher performing you.

On the flip side, if you do not have the right kind and amount of rest and nutrition, you may find yourself doing more damage than good. Micro trauma on top of micro trauma without enough healing time and building blocks will inevitably lead to sickness or injury. We’ve all got that mate that trains like a demon day in, day out yet looks like shit and is always injured.

And So, How MUCH Should You Train..

Movement quantity is governed by balance. The more you move, the higher the intensity, the better QUALITY of rest and nutrition you need.

Some professional athletes train six days a week, six to eight hours a day. Their life outside of their training is dedicated to maximizing the return of those dedicated hours, down to the minute. Luckily for us, we don’t need that kind of obsessive approach to our schedule but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make changes to capitalize on our returns from all our hard work.

In general we recommend people attend a minimum of 4 classes JB classes a week. Keep in mind your individual situation may require a different approach, but this is what we recommend in general.

Keep in mind, this will be a shock to the body for the first couple of weeks – it is highly likely that we will be exposing you to things you haven’t done in a while, or perhaps EVER. Expect soreness in areas you didn’t know you could be sore. Be happy knowing that this wont last forever.

We also ask that you keep us updated with how the body is feeling while you go through this process. Everyone is entering this training process from their own unique position in life. We like to work with each of our tribe members on an individual basis. Talk, email, text, just keep us updated so that we can help you maximize your results.

Here are some rules of thumb you can adhere to in order to maximize results from your training:

• Aim for a minimum of 8 hrs QUALITY sleep a day. This is your healing time. We will be posting a blog on how to increase the quality of your sleep shortly.
• Nutrition. Do not fool yourself. If you haven’t been taught how to eat by a professional, then you do not truly understand the science of nutrition. Educate yourself with how and what to fuel your machine with. Join our nutrition program. We will teach you how to feed.
• Do something everyday. Think of what happens to the standard pool pump when it stops working. The pool gets stagnant, the pump gets blocked. Our bodies are big ol’ fuel consuming pumps and filters. We are not designed to stop moving. It can range from high intensity with heavy work loads to a mobility session or even a bush walk. What ever you choose, do not stop moving.
• Pick your battles. If your kicking off your new fitness regime, be smart. Don’t go hell for leather every day for six days strait. If your feeling fatigued, listen to your body, skip fight factory and opt in for a mobility class. If that’s not an option, turn up to fight factory and drop your intensity levels by 25%. If you’re a regular mover, look into de-loading every six to eight weeks.
• Acknowledge potential injuries (niggles) and fix them. Don’t sweep your problems under the carpet. Sooner or later they will come back to haunt you. IF you don’t know how to fix them, reach out to us. If we don’t have an answer we surely know a practitioner who does.
• Lastly, enjoy moving. The more you enjoy it, the more of it you’ll want to do, the more you’ll structure your life around it, the more you’ll live a life worth living. Lets face it. If we’re moving right, eating right and sleeping right, we can “train” all day every day and it’d be damn good for us.

If you haven’t entered into a well structured Strength and Movement program and are looking to make some progress of your own, get in touch with us. We would be happy to chat with you about your goals.

Happy training people..

Tee