maintaing a training regiment

So Im back into my swing doing five sessions a week.

I do my capoeira on tuesdays Thursdays and Saturdays and devote monday and friday afternoons to the gym.

I'm adamant that I'm not just attending lessons as I think this doesn't do your fitness as much good as a pure cardio and then stregnth session but it has to be said that five times a week is killing me.

The biggest problem I think is lack of sleep. I'm up before six every morning and at for well before seven. I also take music classes on a wednesday night and don't get home from them until nearly midnight.

A lesser problem is that if I do a decent session at the gym on Monday I often feel like lead on tuesday when it comes to training and I struggle to perform some of the stregnth based moves.

I was going to the gym on a wednesday but this was just impossible as by thursday I literally couldn't lift my legs high enough to kick one lesson so I shifted it to fridays instead.


Now I've tweaked it a bit so its doable, though still challenging. I sleep a lot in afternoons after the gym and before my music class, I go home between work and lessons more meaning I'm better rested for them. I'm eating as healthy as can be with lots of chicken and fruit and all that lark, I've even found time to start cooking stuff from scratch.

I know though that a lot of you do maintain equally if not more intense training scedules and so I thought I would start this thread to see how you cope

I was training 5-6 x a week and pretty intensely too until I got pneumonia and now I have a neck problem (probably brought on by a few hard hits to that area over the years).

Sleep is vital. Absolutely vital. Along with a good diet. I am one of those guys that wants to train brutally hard as much as I can but that's not necessarily training smart and I'm learning that....albeit slowly!

Have you heard of Thomas Kurz? He's a sports scientist, who has a good website and has written a few books. Google him... good information.

Anyway, Kurz says that a lot of the problems in training come from bad programming. His big idea is that you need to train skills before strength and strength before endurance and then put in a rest day.

In other words, if you wanted a weekly plan that made more sense, you could try this:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Capoeira
Wednesday: Gym
Thursday: Conditioning or active rest
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Capoeira
Sunday: Gym

If you don't like training at the weekends, this is a classic plan:

Monday: Skills
Tuesday: Gym (finish with some conditioning work)
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Skills
Friday: Gym (finish with some conditioning work)

Socrates wrote:Have you heard of Thomas Kurz? He's a sports scientist, who has a good website and has written a few books. Google him... good information.

Anyway, Kurz says that a lot of the problems in training come from bad programming. His big idea is that you need to train skills before strength and strength before endurance and then put in a rest day.

In other words, if you wanted a weekly plan that made more sense, you could try this:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Capoeira
Wednesday: Gym
Thursday: Conditioning or active rest
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Capoeira
Sunday: Gym

If you don't like training at the weekends, this is a classic plan:

Monday: Skills
Tuesday: Gym (finish with some conditioning work)
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Skills
Friday: Gym (finish with some conditioning work)

I've got a really good one but I've yet to implement it:
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Think about joining a gym.
Wednesday: Research local gyms on the internet.
Thursday: Think about going to one of the said gyms.
Friday: .....................Still thinking about it.
Saturday: C'mon give me  a break its the weekend!
Sunday: Decide to start Monday, Sunday is never the best day to start a new regime.
Monday: Repeat the above.

^^

HA!

Yeah, obviously training > not training. But intelligent programming > just randomly throwing together different sessions together.

Also, everyone will have rest days. It's better to plan them than to just wait until you are too tired or fucked up to go the gym, IMHO. Personally, I have two rest days per week. But I still do *something* on both days, even if it's not very intense.

Anyway, why not try an experiment? One day go for a long run in the morning. Five miles should do it. In the afternoon, go to the gym and do a squat session. In the evening, go and do some sparring.

Rest for a day. Then the next day meet up with some mates in the morning and do some sparring. Go to the gym in the afternoon and do some squats. Then go for a five-mile run in the evening.

If you do it, come back here and tell us your results. Which sparring session went better? Which squat session was more effective? How were both runs?

As an aside from the programming discussion I find taking ZMA really has positive qualities when cones to promoting deep restful sleep
I have a 3 year old that is either up super early or wakes up constant during the night and I feel semi normal when supplementing with ZMA
something to consider

Buster

oh and what Dave said :-D