My Training & Mentality

"There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level." - Bruce Lee.

In the past I've followed a fixed routine. Repeating the same various exercises week in week out. For example, working my upper body on Monday, Legs on Tuesday, Back & Abs on Wednesday and so on. With my focus on Strength in the week and technical training at the weekend.

For me personally, I found two problems with in this style of training. The first is to do with having a fixed routine. Simple I find it more beneficial to have creativity and variety in a workout. Sometimes I'll do a variety of different press ups, doing 10 of one kind before launching straight into 10 of another. Or I'll do slow press ups, or work with a weighted vest. With more variety I enjoy the work out more and work a wider range of motions. Also, I seem to work harder trying to push for that extra 10 press ups rather than simply stopping at 4 sets of 25. I alternate between different body parts each day, giving the other parts a chance to rest based on I feel like on any given day. Being flexible makes it easier to work around any small injuries that I might have whilst working towards other short term goals.

Secondly, is the lack of what I feel to be "complete" training. That is to say, I don't feel that training for strength only in the week and training for technique only at the weekend is very balanced approach for me. Simply because there is to much that I want to work on a daily basis. Of course your limited by your area and how much time you can spare to travel etc and all training is good training! It's just that I would love to be in a position where I can go out every day, warm up, do some heavy conditioning followed by some technical drills of some sort and cool down with a long stretch. This was basically the format for Forrest & Dans seminar in London a while back and it was a very good one!

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtJckTGvCcI

If you haven't seen the video watch it at least six times!! :p It was an amazing day and another insight in to the French Traceurs discipline and passion that I try to apply every time I train. It was only three hours long, and yet, it was three hours of constant movement and work. Far more productive than any 6 or 7 hours "Jam".

My mind set is normally one that is focused on today's training with a few goals set out in the future. I ask myself, do I want to train my legs or my arms more? do I want to do more conditioning or more technique work? Do I want to do some new movements today or repeat some old ones? Sometimes my legs are tired and I'll set up a little circuit around one or two rails that involve simple movements and maybe a little balance that put very little stress on my joints. Other times I'll head to a few trees near my house with a friend and max out my upper body on pull ups, press ups, swinging, climbing, and Laches. Whilst this is great, setting out a few goals in the future does help me to stay focused and "On Track".


Here is a quick video I made to show yesterdays training session. Working my abs, back and upper body whilst resting my legs from any heavy impacts. Oh the joys of Windows Movie Maker!




Later!