I have mentioned periodisation before (click here). It is the “big picture” view of training. It is about managing your training in such a way as to maximise your results. I talked before about doing things in a certain order, but it also means managing when you can work hard and when you need to ease off to recover. In this way, periodisation works on different time scales, such as:
- Calendar
- Short term – time measured in hours or days.
- Medium term – time measured in weeks or months.
- Long term – time measured over a year or longer.
So one essential bit of kit is a calendar. And looking at your calendar, you can’t help but notice that Christmas is coming up quickly. And I guarantee that virtually everyone will end up eating/drinking too much and training too little/not at all. But that’s ok. Because if we are clever, we just incorporate this into our periodised training plan. The most basic plan is to gradually ramp up our training and diets to “peak” just before December 25th. This will leave our bodies in the peak of health, fitness and strength, and the “easy” period of recovery coincides with our week of eating, drinking and watching The Great Escape on tv. Then, at the end of this week, fully recovered, we are ready to get back into training in the best condition we have ever been at the start of January! Compare this to what most people will do. They will think:
“Buggerit! Christmas is just round the corner. There is no point exercising/dieting now. I’ll wait until the new year…”
This means you will head into Christmas bloated, unfit and weak/feeble. And in this terrible condition, you then start to eat/drink too much, making things even worse. It is little wonder that come January, so many people struggle to get going again. Don’t let this be you. Contact me now (click here) and I can help you get through Christmas better than ever before. PS – it has always been a tradition since I was a kid training with Roger back in Aberystwyth, that we have a Boxing Day training session. It was never a nasty, hard one. It was geared around getting together with friends and keeping the training “ticking over”. It was basically “fun and games”. This is a tradition I aim to continue this year. How about you?