More Often Than Not (Part I)

Training More Often Than Not

I've done my share of minimalist programs over the years, but starting three years ago, nothing was really clicking with me. I had been very busy with coaching, work, and trying to be a good, attentive parent. No matter what I did, the training template or split I was trying would be too restrictive for me to continue during periods of high stress.

I managed to stumble upon a philosophy that works and I try to incorporate it into all areas of life that I consider important. The philosophy has allowed me to get training in regularly and has been adequate for my goals.

The philosophy is this: If it's important, do it more often than not.

I believe that if something is important to you, you need to give it attention more often than not. Every day and all the time might not be realistic expectations for everything in your life, but more often than not is worthy and generally attainable.

In the gym, I call this my "More Often Than Not Training" approach. Here are the basic tenets of the approach:

* Work out more often than not
Making training and exercise a habit means doing it "more often than not". You don't need motivation, you need to make a habit. Missing a day is inevitable, but try not to miss two in a row. Two easily becomes three, becomes four... Missing practice very quickly becomes a habit of its own.

* Have clear goals
Clear goals make it easy to decide where to spend your training efforts. If your goal is to run a marathon, then, generally speaking, the answer to the question 'What am I going to do today?' is going to be apparent.

* Make no single session a time-consuming herculean effort
Training should be sustainable and repeatable. The "Go Hard or Go Home" mantra is fine for the young and gifted, but it will lead to burn out for many. Do things you don't hate, and don't do things you like to the point you start to hate them.

* Do something. Anything is infinitely better than nothing
Don't have time? Then do a couple warm-up sets and one solid work set and call it a day. Long term, making a bunch of minimum payments is going to have greater impact than skipping them all together.

In 2016, following the tenets above, I managed to do some kind of strength training 267 days out of 366. That's averaging a touch more than 5 days a week and that's not bad! I finished the year feeling good overall and did 20 chins for the first time in over 20 years. I will adjust my goals in 2017 to better address areas I want to improve, and I'll share that in my next post.

- Boris