Mark Fenn - Health & Fitness

Elmo heads into a light week.

Recovery drives progress. Appreciate and respect it.

Elmo is working through 4 phases: Light - Moderate - Heavy - Light.

Last weeks heavy phase had a session of 8 x 8 minutes x 1 minute recovery.

This weeks light phase had a session of 5 x 8 minutes x 1 minute recovery.

Intensity remained the same, volume reduces. This allows some some recovery. The key word being some.

At this point for some they will think its only 5 sets so ill push pace up but this now changes the session, the load increases and is no longer a light week. Things get messy when this happens.

On Saturday when Elmo had completed his final session of the heavy week we reviewed the last few weeks and spoke about the last week.

The pep talk.

Lets not go into the light week expecting it to be easy. Many at this point do expect light to = easy when why would it be easy coming off a moderate and heavy phase of training. We will be carrying fatigue, this doesn't disappear on day one of a light phase, we will only partly recover over the light phase before we build back into moderate the process continues.

I hope that makes some sense.

Enjoy your weekend

Mark

The prescription might be the same, we might do the same or similar exercises but the key point is the Dose.

The dose is personal to you.

We only have to stand in a que in a coffee shop to appreciate this process.

One drink (The Foundation) now has so many options, sugar, milk, flavourings and the list goes on.

Apply it to an exercise, we have the foundation but we can look at time under tension, reps, sets. load, double set, super sets, change the position of were its completed within the session. The dead lift could become a single leg deadlift. Latpull down could become single arm latpull down.

The prescription and dose need planning, each exercise within that session to be considered and then all sessions plans to enhance the training week.

Last week I got it wrong because the start of the session fatigued the grip strength so the 2nd part of the session was diminished. This is OK because on paper it looked good but on completion I need to make a couple of changes and that's the process.

Hope that's useful, any questions let me know.

Mark

Doing more does not always bring better results.

If you are happy with your routine, how it makes you feel and the results it delivers then we are all good. We can keep goign with it for a bit longer while reviewing the process occasionally.

When we are not happy, we want more from it etc its easy to think I need to do more.

For me before I look at adding more to any plan I look at the present plan, are we getting the most from it? Sometimes we are and we and sometimes we are not.

If we do look at adding additional training there is one primary consideration. Do you have the time each week for this additional session/sessions? Not just this week, or next week but long term.

Sometimes less is more.

Welcome to September. I hope you made the most from the Spring & Summer 🙂

The perfect day.

Has the expectation come that everyday should be perfect, no issues, no problems no challenge?

I am not just talking about life but also training.

Why are we shocked that what we did last week can feel very different to this week?

Yesterday I took part in an event, I spoke with a few people and they showed frustration during and after because it didn't go how they thought it would.

I get the frustration we all get it, we want to do well but that's not life.

For me my preparation was good (its my strong hold) the event well I couldn't of got it more wrong if I had tried 😂and that's ok. I didn't get frustrated I took the chance to learn, looked at what I need to work on so the next time I can improve.

Frustration can be a great friend when used well but it can also be our worst nightmare if we don't use it to our advantage because we don't change or challenge we just take what we do to the next session.

Nothing learned, noting gained and sadly no enjoyment.

I have learned something, gained something and while a little frustrated enjoyed it.

Mindset is a powerful toot - Use it wisely

Mark

Its OK to do it your way.

For some they enjoy exercise, for some they do it but its not enjoyed in the way others do and for some they endure it.

It is important though to respect how other people feel about exercise, For those who enjoy to think everyone should and for those that don't to assume no one does.

For me I appreciate honesty at this point, If i know they do or don't it provides guidance on the how.

The tricky bit is does the goal we set align to the training we do.

A good example:

Wanting to run a spring marathon while not enjoying running.

Add to this training through the Autumn and Winter you can quickly see the challenges ahead.

This is not to say we cant achieve it we can it will just need managing in a different way to someone who enjoys runnng.

Enjoying what we do can also throw a few curve balls, over training, under recovering and while we enjoy it we might not always do what we need to do.

Lets not worry about if others do or don't lets focus on you.

Enjoy your bank holiday

Mark

Do you ever find yourself thinking your training is boring?

I often speak with cyclists and runners about rather than going from home why not drive 10-20 minutes or even further so you can enjoy those areas out of reach from home.

Don't have the time? That's ok go from home but lets start to take the positives.

This week Elmo wanted something different away from Ironbridge and the Ercall/Wrekin so we went to Cannock chase, it took a bit longer to complete the session due to the drive but we had the time.

We had a great time running for 8 minutes walking for 1 minute.

We saw Deer, a few walkers, met a few dogs and a naked rambler.

This change of location didn't detract from the objective it worked with it,

This is not something we will do weekly as time is a factor but every few weeks we will head over. I can bring my mom and Dad they can enjoy a coffee and a walk with Molly while Elmo trains.

This has gone from just a run from near home to possible options which change the outlook.

The What - How - Why is yours.

Exposure - Adaption - Train

From experience exposure and adaption are not always considered as a training phase more we train but this can leave us open to a few red flags such as chasing the weight or pace and this can lead to niggles, injuries and feeling like we are not progressing.

Just because you can doesn't me you need to.

Lets take doing something new or returning to it after time out.

Phase 1 - Exposure, take time to learn, build back in and allow time to get feed back post session/sessions before progressing.

Phase 2 - Once we are comfortable we have set the foundation we take time to adapt this might be in the way of what was challenging becomes more comfortable.

Phase 3 - The training now continues and with every progress we expose and adapt.

There may be times you progress, you add more weight/intensity/volume and it feels good, you can do more but at this point lets look at exposure and adaption should we stay here for a bit or progress.

It didn't hurt is not a measure we review, pian should not be thought about as an outcome even though i seems to be.

How does it look, how does it feel during and after.

How does it compliment or hinder what is to come.

Sometimes we get caught out doing that bit more that we didnt need ot do.

Look after yourself - Challenge while respecting the process.

Elmo threw his bone out of his bed in annoyance his Garmin turned off mid run.

I see this more and more when devices don't work as expected and i understand why but we should be able to see doing the session is better than not doing it. The data is secondary.

Interesting though the same annoyance is often not shown when training is not completed when there was no reason not to do it or when we prioritised something else.

So Elmo took a second, wagged his tail and adapted.

The session was run 8 minutes and walk 1 minute. The pace was to be comfortable.

He continued with the comfortable pace and estimated what 8 minutes could be, It didn't matter if it was more 7 minutes or 9 minutes the session was completed, the same distance covered.

With his ears flapping, tongue hanging he felt he had achieved a good session and it was like going back 30 plus years when we didn't have access to this kind of data other than a Casio stop watch and lap button.

Having the technology we have is great when understood and used well but it will never deliver the results without us putting in the work when it works and doesn't work.

Learn to train without data because just when you need it it might not be there.

Please look after yourself

On a daily basis people are jumping out of their skin because they are not aware of what is going on in their surroundings.

Noise cancelling headphones, lost within their device and this brings an environment that removes what is actually going on.

We miss the shouts from behind we are passing, the shouts infront before you walk into us.

The trip hazards increase.

It’s not about removing devices more learning how to use them while being present in your environment.

We live in what can be a nasty world, your safety is important, you are important and this post heavily reflects how we train.

Are we attending or are we present.

Take care, reduce risks and be aware of your environment.

Mark

The negative loop - it requires a constant feed to survive, break the feed and prevent further negativity.

Social media is powerful, there are many positive posts, but they don't get many likes, shares, or comments. This doesn't mean they didn't hold value they did.

Recently there has been some very negative posts to which they got lots of likes and comments. This now creates the loop; it gains traction and only stops once the loop is broken and this happens when the comments stop.

So what has this got to do with fitness?

How you talk about your own fitness leads to how we go about our training. Words are powerful.

Im not saying there are not negatives there are but let’s work on how to break the loop.

Examples.

Within the world of fitness, I see more posts about don’t do this, don’t do that but rarely do they say why or back it up with what to do instead. The information might be good, but it holds no value.

We often hear surround yourself with positive people because our surroundings influence us. I couldn't agree more.

You complete an endurance-based training session with no clear goals and on review we speak about disappointment, we thought it would be quicker, gone further but really the goal was achieved we completed the session and should promote the positive not something that didn’t even feature.

Its not a bed of roses, there will be ups and downs choices to be made but it’s the positives that drive us forwards while the negatives help us learn and develop.

Little things can lead to bigger outcomes.