Who Needs to Rest Anyway?

When I am programming training I have two distinct schedules that I work off of. I first have my scheduled program which if done straight equals 10 workouts a week.

Let me be the first to tell you that that is an insane workload and I don’t recommend it to anyone. I’m also a little crazy but that’s another story…

The second biggest variable to my training program is my rest cycles.

I follow a strict 3 days on, 1 day off protocol that is independent of of my training.

What does this mean? I have a workout programmed for every single day of the week, with two-a-days set for three of those days. So as it stands Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday-Friday-Saturday-Sunday, now, through the next six weeks.

Now lets look at this through the lens of three days on and one day off. So 3 weeks of programming now looks like this: Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Rest-Friday-Saturday-Sunday-Rest-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday-Rest-Saturday-Sunday-Monday-Rest-Wednesday-Thursday-Friday-Rest-Sunday, and so on through the 6 week cycle.

This does a number of things for me.

  1. It cuts my weekly workouts from ten down to 6-7, a much more manageable number
  2. It forces me to take recovery more seriously knowing that that is what these cycles are for.
  3. It keeps my mind fresh. This rotating work/rest cycle has no scruples, some weeks it cuts my two-a-days, other weeks it cuts the easiest workouts, but knowing I get a day off keeps me actively involved with it.
  4. It gives me time for my second great love which is golf.

Working every day is retarded. Working Smart is better for you and your state of mind.


Photo credit: Foter.com

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