#74 - My Training Has Never Been Better. Here’s the System - And What I’d Steal if I Were You.

Stress. Fatigue. Long days. Early mornings. To-do list stacking. Sound familiar? 

In this episode I break down exactly how I'm training right now - the split, the nutrition strategy, and the principles behind it - so you can pull what works and apply it to your life regardless of your schedule, stress load, or season.

Principles and methods - not a prescription. Take what fits.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, what's going on, everybody? So, welcome to the Everyday Responder podcast. And we're gonna go over my own training today. So every time I do a story post on Instagram or different things like that, um, I always have people ask questions. So my goal here is to give you a rundown of my own system. So super excited about that. And uh yeah, I'm in a pretty busy season with school, coaching, drill every once in a while. Um, so it's been pretty stressful. So the idea here is to give you a glimpse into my system that I'm doing for myself and hopefully take some uh take some some really good strategies and tactics that that we use here. So side note, I actually just did a uh little presentation, I guess you could call it, of my final, my uh, my capstone thesis, which I am very, very excited about that. I know some of the uh the professors and classmates, different things like that, are just like kind of looking at when I'm when I'm like showcasing what some of the findings, it's just like, oh, this is like really cool. But like I guess sometimes people don't really understand it. And um, I guess another side note, if you are thinking about going to school and you are like a little bit older or different things like that, highly, highly recommend. I've done so much schooling uh in my life with uh I have an I have another master's, a bachelor's, um, I'm getting a master's now. And uh so number one, you know, using some of the benefits that we earn, but number two, going back to school with a a purpose and kind of doing your own thing, having life experience, it makes all the difference in the in the world. Like it is it is so phenomenal to be able to go back, do what I want, and not really care, to be totally honest. Like I have a couple other finals and I was like, hey, this is what I'm doing. And they I got some feedback, and I'm like, well, no, like, no, this is this is what I'm gonna do because at the end of the day, I'm trying to, you know, create things, have a dual purpose, and create things that are beneficial for the community. So it's like it's so cool. It's like I don't I don't really care what my my grade is, to be totally honest. Like, I'm I'm building this with a purpose and it's real world application. So a lot of professors appreciate that actually, but um, yeah, I'm just gonna keep doing what I want to do in in school and and kind of uh kind of be that asshole and skirt the lines on the assignments just to make sure that uh yeah, I can I can help out the the community as well. So, with all that said, yes, uh a busy season and we're we're getting after a lot of different things. So my my training had to adjust a little bit, but I am I'm very excited about the adjustment because it's actually been super helpful. I've been getting really good results and recovering um a lot better than I used to because I've implemented some of the things that we're gonna talk to today. So, like I mentioned, um right now with certain things that I'm doing on a day-to-day basis, you know, there's very early starts, long days, sometimes late nights, and I absolutely hate that because it's like, okay, I need to also get my sleep, I need to put down technology, different things like that, um, which I do. But again, this season is a little bit stressful. And there are times when it's like, okay, I'm going to work until I finish, right? And there are days, not every day, but there are days where I skirt those lines a little bit. And it's like, well, I need to get this done. And I'm, you know, yeah, there's gonna have to be sacrifice when it comes to um putting tech down and different things like that. But I still prioritize sleep. Make sure you do as well. Um, but with all that said, like crazy schedules, different things like that. Um, sometimes travel mixed into the mix into the mix, and it's it's uh obviously a nightmare with with certain things with nutrition and and all those different types of things. But uh again, this is the best that my training's been a while, the best that I've felt in a while. So I think it would be beneficial to talk through some things. And I want you to to look at this as through the through the lens or through the perspective of yes, obviously we we probably have different stressors. Yes, you your schedule is probably uh or could be a little bit more brutal because you don't really have control over certain things, or you don't have the aspect of like being able to know exactly what your shift is like if you're like a law enforcement or fire or even sometimes military, depending. So I want you to look at this through the lens of uh strategies and tactics or overall principles and not like the exact thing that I'm doing. So this is gonna be helpful for, like I said, chaotic schedules, uh family obligations, just overall high stress, um TDYs, vacations, being in the field, life stress in general, right? That is the goal here to go over those things, and and I'm kind of going through it in my own season. Um, so we'll we'll have to obviously make sure it's it's catered to to your specific season. But again, just zoom out and make sure you're looking at the uh the overall principles here. So before I get into the specifics, I I don't even feel like I need I should have to put a disclaimer here, but um, I guess the way that that the the world is is going, I'm gonna give a a brief disclaimer here. We we all know that training needs to be individualized and built for you. So something that works really well for me or something that works really well for my clients isn't necessarily uh the the perfect glove fit for you. Um I would also say here, I'm well aware that there are multiple ways to hit it hit a target, right? I picture somebody, you know, it's always the the person with with glasses, and and I I love glasses, no, no glasses hate here, but I just picture that person like pushing up their glasses and like, well, actually, with like that exact voice, right? So, what I'm gonna talk about, like obviously, there's more than one way to get there. There's a you know, uh, no perfect split, or or this might work better for you, or well, actually, the uh it's optimal to hit this amount of sets and you know, push pull legs this or bro split that or full body this. It it doesn't really matter. We're just talking about um big picture things here. So uh make sure you you're understanding that as you're listening through and again focusing on the um the principles. So I think overall I wanted to kind of start with the unfortunate reality. And and this was definitely me way back in the past before I really had a system or a methodology, or just kind of like shooting from the hip with whatever I felt like was the best for me. So I, you know, think it's very important that we have that starting point. And if we look back, like I was talking about with the unfortunate reality, you know, if I were to ask, like, what do the last six to 12 months look like from a training perspective? I think the unfortunate reality is it is very rare to have somebody say, Hey, this is the program that I I you know saw through, or this was the the vision of my last six months, and that's why I'm here, right? A lot of us are kind of shooting from the hip. We don't really know, you know, what we are doing, and it's just kind of like, ah, yeah, I I took a little bit of this program, I took a little bit of that, I tried this conditioning, and then I just like put them all together, and it's like, well, we don't know what led you to where you are, we don't know where you're going, and we don't have a specific vision. So that's that's an unfortunate reality. Another thing when it comes to overall systems is it's the the nutrition compliance aspect. It's like, uh, you know, um, we we kind of use that shield of intuitive eating. Ah, I intuitive eating. And I would say for most people, the translation there is you you're just guessing. Like you you have no idea. Like, in order to intuitively eat, you actually need to track and practice and learn. And then from there, it's like, okay, now I can actually intuitive eat. But again, it takes a while, it takes a very long time to be able to actually intuitive eat with accuracy. Um, so again, most people aren't practicing that skill or honing in that skill. They just they just think they got it, right? Non-negotiables, so habits, um, they're all over the map. Maybe we start with uh we see some story or some list, and it's like these are S-tier habits and do these 30 things to make the the day a success. And it's like, okay, like relax. We don't need to do 30. And most people will try to like stick to that and then burn out in a couple of days. You know, people don't know where their sleep's at. So what I'm getting at here is, you know, we a lot of the times don't even know where we're headed or where our compliance actually is. And that is usually the the starting point, or that is the data that we need to be able to say, okay, this is probably what we need right now, right? And I'm not, you know, throwing stones. I've I've been there, I am far from perfect, from perfect with what I execute on a day-to-day basis. But I think it's very important because I understood those things where I was at, and I understood where I need to be. And it's like, okay, I'm gonna make some adjustments with my training, which I'm gonna go through because this is the season that I'm in, right? But if we don't even know what we've been doing, we don't know our starting point, then we're again just shooting from the hip and we're gonna usually, you know, go on Google and and search in our specific goal. The first thing that pops up, oh, this is what this random person said I should be doing. So I'm gonna try it. And then again, we probably burn out or we get injured, or it's like, uh, I'm not where I need to be. And I just kind of quote unquote wasted, you know, six, six months of training or three months of training, whatever the program was. So I'm gonna go over some some lessons here uh that that I've learned throughout the the process of coaching and throughout the process of you know doing my own programming for myself. I will say disclaimer here, you know, I am always investing in coaches. Um, so a lot of this has been learned through through uh some of the coaches that I've had and and also um experience as well. So lesson one, um, you know, it was me understanding that, okay, maybe this time, this isn't the time to train like a professional athlete. I've done some very stupid things that um I'm happy I did. But like, for example, uh there was a time when I was working nights for a couple of years, and it's like, oh yeah, working nights, I I saw this thing that that got me fired up, and I'm going to sign up for my first powerlifting competition. And it's like dumb. Like that is that is not smart. So again, like figuring out, okay, you know, the the old me would, okay, let me stack a bunch of stressors, right? Everything that we're doing is is stress, but like let me just stack on more with uh with some high volume, high intensity work and and you know, um melatonin and all these different things that to to help me sleep during the day. And um, yeah, just keep piling more stress on, right? Let's pick something, let's stay hard, and let's grit through it. But now I'm I'm asking the question and I and I ask my clients the same questions, and uh these this is kind of the guiding principle. And it's like, well, can we get the same results with less, right? Because now we start looking at stress as a is a bigger picture, and we need to understand that stress is stress. So think about training, life, work, school. Um, our our body doesn't really separate them, so stress is stress. So if we can actually start recovering and adapting from less, we are probably gonna get better results because we are, you know, uh embracing, I would say 85% of the equation with recovery there. So uh again, I I've used to look at it, look at it from the perspective of, hey, I'm gonna train six days or seven days a week because that is what is quote unquote optimal. Right. And now with current stress and and different things like that, could we get you know more with less? And you know, could we get better results or the same results with four days? So we need to get take that perspective of okay, I don't want to work overtime in the gym and not get paid for it. So it's the same thing with work. I know nobody would want to work overtime or extra hours or do all these extra tasks when you're supposed to be off and not get compensated for it, right? Nobody wants to do that. So we need to take the same perspective with training. And I will tell you, um, you know, within the last um, when did I start this? Probably uh a couple of months ago. Um since I've dropped some training days, recovery is better. I'm actually fired up to train and I feel stronger going into my next readiness evaluation that's coming up in um, I think it's two weeks, two or or three weeks, maybe three weeks. Um, but I I guess the overall lesson here is we need to create more bandwidth for the stressors that that actually matter, right? Right, or matter most. So we don't want to like try to burn the building down. So again, I've talked about all these different stressors that I have going on and that you likely have going on. So we need to start looking at it from a perspective of okay, if I can condense some training or I can mitigate some of the the training time, maybe I could put some of that bandwidth towards other things. So for me, that looks like um like finals and you know, balancing or trying to balance family life, all these different aspects. Okay, so now I have more bandwidth. I'm opening up days on the schedule, and it could be the same for you if you have family obligations or you have um a super long day, like a 13-hour work day coming up. It's like, okay, um, an off day would probably be beneficial there, right? So thinking about it from that perspective. So last thing I'll say on this lesson is um, you know, it's not, it's not just about adding more, right? More volume, more intensity. I always say it's about recovering and adapting. So I think this is the the toughest message that uh for tactical athletes, and I say this with uh with love because I wasn't hearing it, but I I want you to hear it, right? So the it's so tough because the the person who isn't training at all, they're probably gonna say, Okay, yeah, I'm not training. I need to get the momentum back. I want to hit these specific targets. So why don't I train six days or seven days per week and and lock in, right? And that same exact per or the other person on the opposite side who's always injured, always burnt out, always kind of program hopping around, they're probably at the same thing. Oh, six to seven. Like, yeah, we'll we'll keep crushing and we gotta just endure, right? Like, we keep that mentality, stay hard. Um, whatever the your favorite mantra is, and we'll just keep saying that or watch some motivational video on YouTube, right? Like both people are probably shooting for the same thing, but I found for me, and again, there's obviously nuance here depending on your goals or depending on your specific targets, but I'm gonna go over my training more specifically. But I found for me and the majority of my clients that four days is that sweet spot. So, four days is that sweet spot, and I'm gonna go over why here. Number one, no movements can be wasted, right? When we start looking at only training four days, it's like, okay, well, do we really need this movement? Probably not, right? So we need to make sure that we are optimizing what we are doing, hence get better results because we're only focusing on what moves the needle, all the other junk's not there. Another thing here is you learn to prioritize and not just add. So, same kind of concept there. Okay, I am going to prioritize my strength, therefore, I am only going to use or or my main movement patterns are gonna be no nonsense, no BS compound movements. And now we start looking at it from a perspective of okay, I need to squeeze everything that I can out of this, uh, out of this movement or out of this session, right? We can't just go through the motions on different things. And another kind of tactic that I like to use is with accessory stuff, like let's do two sets. And people are like, two sets, that's it. And it's like, well, yeah, train those things to to one rep in reserve, depending on what it is, maybe close to closer to failure. Now we're gonna squeeze more out of that than holding on for dear life for you know five sets of this or four sets of that, right? We're gonna try to, we're gonna unintentionally probably pace ourselves and make sure that that we can we can get through those sets and reps. But when you see something like two sets or when you see something like four main movement patterns, it's like, okay, this is all I got today. I'm going to squeeze everything I can out of this. Now we're starting to see better results because we're actually training hard, right? Most people, the the reality is, and I'll be honest, most people don't train hard. They're going through the the motions or they're not bringing things, like I said, to the to the proper intensity. And it's just like whole, like I said, holding on for dear life, trying to make it to five sets or trying to make it through six sets or whatever that may be. But if you are actually training hard, you don't need to just hammer strength or hammer hypertrophy or all those different aspects, especially if you are in this season that we're talking about, right? In this season, I would bias recovery every day of the week so you can actually show up and do it again tomorrow. So, lesson number two is fuel for performance. So I talk about this all the time, but I wanted to give you my uh my blueprint that I've really been focusing on that's been been working wonders. So there are days right now when my activity is pretty relatively low. So that is like an off day. I'm glued to my computer, I'm doing a bunch of tasks, like not having a lot of movement. However, I do I do still take intentional walks. So I make sure I'm still hitting my um 7,500 at minimum, sometimes up to 10k, depending on the on the day and how much time I have. But uh again, I I'm not super active on some days, uh, relatively speaking. So what I've been doing is uh a lot of carb cycling to match my performance needs. So when with big picture, that is saying that my training days, especially if I have um some strength and maybe some conditioning on the same day or just straight conditioning days or just straight straight uh strength days, I make sure that those sessions are my or those days, excuse me, are the highest calorie days. So uh again, we don't need to make uh a ton of different adjustments. Um, I would say actually, if you are not consistent with tracking and you haven't really done that, I probably wouldn't mess around with this. I'd probably just keep it at a consistent like uh 2800 or 2850 throughout the week because it can get a little complicated. I don't want to like like overcomplicate it or act like it's some crazy, um, crazy process, but very important that it's actually going to be sustainable. But just to kind of put it in perspective, you know, highest calorie days. So that would be where I have a day, whether it's um strength training, so getting after it there, or like I said, strength and conditioning. Um, those days are probably around 3,000 calories, right? So that is when I'm I'm really ramping it up with uh overall fueling. So again, fueling those sessions. Moderate days where that's more conditioning-esque, uh, maybe not super long in duration. Just for an example, maybe that's 2850. Now on low or off days, maybe I'm around 230 or 2400 calories. So again, like that is a big drop-off, but at the end of the day, we we want to look at this from a week to week or month to month perspective, and we'll see where the averages pan out. Where the averages um I'm probably around maintenance or a slight deficit with those types of calories. My goal here is just to make sure that I'm actually fueling um the sessions when I'm hitting it really hard and when I'm when I'm training really hard. So, with that said, I found this uh this to be a great tool for, you know, um, like I mentioned, fueling sessions when I'm I'm feeling great. So I can feel great throughout the the entire session and throughout the the entire day. I can match life needs. So for example, say if I'm you know going out to dinner with my wife or um have a certain event or whatever that may be, I'm not gonna like be super neurotic and and have to put that on the calendar for a training day. But if we could start looking at it like, okay, you know, I'm I'm going out to dinner on this day. Oh, why don't I, you know, match that with my training so I can have more calories allotted for that specific day? So it offers some some flexibility with that, as well as, you know, just overall recovery where I am fueling my body is is hungry, it's churning when I have that hard, when I have those hard strength training days. So why don't we just fuel it those days and make sure that we are ramping up recovery? And then from there on off days, we're we're not doing a lot. We're doing the you know, the the 10K steps, the 7500 plus, that type of target on those days, which obviously we don't need a uh a crap ton of calories there. So I found that you know very helpful. And on the off days, I'm not like super hungry anyways. I usually push back um my first meal um just to make sure, or not just to make sure, just I'm usually not super hungry in the morning. Um, so it's pretty it's it's the the big thing here is it's sustainable. I'm not really focused on uh on food throughout the day when I'm when I'm not really moving. Um, obviously still hitting the targets, still hitting the protein, but um I found that a pretty pretty uh pretty sustainable and and fun thing to do. So lesson number three here is just train. We're gonna talk through some training things. So with training overall, the the current setup is four. I'm training four days per week, which uh again blows my mind because I used to be the the guy absolutely you know jam packing the schedule where something was was always on the schedule for for training. So and I I want to reiterate always moving. So So don't take that as uh you know off days or super passive. Like we're still being active, but uh we're talking actually like training training very hard. So four days, two full body days, two conditioning days. And like I talked about, actually training hard. I think that's a very important aspect. And sometimes this can be, like I mentioned, helpful because we are actually hitting an intentional where it's like, oh shit, I only have you know two days or um or two days of strength or whatever that may be. So I'm gonna make sure that that I'm hitting it hard. Another kind of sneaky aspect of this is you are actually fired up to train. Like I am not, you know, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not fired up to train every single day. I think people that say they are are lying. Maybe they they get to the gym, they feel really good, and that that fire comes back. But um, I I personally don't think everybody every single day, every single training day is is extremely fired up. This is awesome. I'm so pumped. Um, they just have the the habit and the discipline to get it done, which as do I. It's it's it's good getting there. But um with these days and kind of opening up the schedule, uh sometimes it's like, damn, off day, like, yeah, I might do something a little easy. But at the end of the day, it's like, okay, let's let's hold it down, let's focus, let's switch the focus, let's be competitive with something else, whether it's finishing assignments, whether it's you know, writing content, whatever that may be. Um, but we can we can turn that competitiveness to something else. And then once the training day comes, it's like, all right, we're back. Like this is gonna be this is gonna be fun. Um, so I talk about full body all the time. Um, I know, like I had mentioned with my disclaimer, it is not the only way to train. I'm well aware there's multiple ways. You could do upper lowers, you could do an upper lower full body, you could do push-pull legs. Um, I don't necessarily condone this behavior for tactical athletes. You could do bro splits, there's so many freaking options. Um, but for me and and the schedule and the bandwidth that I have, I I always I would always lean for for full body with something like this. So, number one, full or full body for a couple of reasons. First thing, schedule autonomy. Uh, I think this is huge, especially from a tactical athlete perspective, if you got a lot going on. Um, the scheduling autonomy with full body allows flexibility baked in. So we're training four days. We we have three days of flexibility here. So nothing, the cool thing with this is nothing will be ruined if we need to move around or flex our schedule. So we don't want to do, um, I mean, for the most part, we don't want to do two full body days back to back. That's not not smart, especially if we have some room in the schedule. But if we need to move around conditioning, right, that's not gonna be the end of the world. If we need to move sessions to the right, that's not gonna be the end of the world. So again, it offers that flexibility. And now we can kind of plug and play with what we're doing. I remember months back I was at drill and um we had mandatory PT, different things that we were doing. And it's like, okay, uh, I'm not going to like scrap everything. Why don't I plug this in as my conditioning day? Right. And so we can just move stuff around. Or um, you know, my the the gym on base doesn't have the same equipment as uh my gym does at home. So instead of like, oh, you know, this is this is so bad or whatever, we can start looking at it from a movement perspective and say, okay, um, squat pattern, let's hit this squat pattern, hinge, let's hit this. Um, push pull, we we have this, we could do it. But again, it's not going to like absolutely destroy um everything that you've built. So I think that's a cool aspect. And you know, if we need to, you could still kind of sub um full body, uh, kettlebells, light stuff like that. We can still we can still plug and play there. Another thing, time efficient sessions. So the cool way that I've been setting this up for me and that I set up the I set up this way for for my clients here. The targets, you know, 45, 45 minutes, um, 60 minutes max is is kind of what we are shooting for there. Um, sometimes it's less, but that's kind of the the ceiling that we try to do. Again, you know, if I see something, um, and sometimes I ask, you know, my clients to put in how long the session took them with rest periods, with warm-up, cooldown, stuff like that. Um, and yeah, sometimes we we slash some things to make sure that that we're in there for you know 60 60 minutes max. But the the cool thing with the way that I'm kind of doing it now and the way that I set up programming, and honestly the way that full body training should be set up in general, um, we should be able to flex a little bit depending on what you got going on for the day. So the way that it should be programmed is hey, we're gonna have the main movers. So say if you have four four main mover or two main movers and then a couple of support or accessory movement patterns, those are your four things. That is the the meat and potatoes of that session. Now, sometimes there might be like an arm farm or carries or um targeting weaknesses, different things like that on the tail end of the session. And I I teach people like if something needs to be slashed, like slash those things. Those things are are often the the most fun, quote unquote fun. But at the end of the day, if we hit the the main movers and we're like, oh shit, we're we're cutting it close on time, or I gotta get to work, I gotta do this, I gotta do that. We can cut out some of the extra stuff, and that will probably buy us 10, 15 minutes, right? So if you have the bandwidth, if you have the time, do it. If you don't, don't, but make sure that uh that you're you're hitting the the main movers. So I like this setup because again, if I'm like, oh shit, I gotta get to the gym quick and then I gotta get home, shower, do this, and then I gotta go to class or whatever that may be. Sometimes there it's it's tight, right? Sometimes I I need to either um sometimes I either need to slash those things or or just keep it super, super quick. Maybe I I sacrifice some rest periods or certain things like that, but it offers that flexibility. Last thing or a couple, couple other things here on full body. Um, it gives us the opportunity to to hit the missing link. So I would argue for the majority of people, and I say for tactical athletes, it should be conditioning and strength, not strength and conditioning. Conditioning, that's how uh that's how important conditioning should be, right? So conditioning needs to be a mainstay. I hear this all the time through through conversations where it's like, oh, I do a little bit of uh conditioning before or after, or um, this is my active recovery day or whatever that may be. If you want to improve, conditioning needs to be the a mainstay in the program, right? It's not an afterthought, it's not an extra, it's not if you have time, right? We need to figure out how to program conditioning that you're actually going to do and that's actually going to move the needle for you. So uh I hear it where it's like, oh, I do um one mile at the end of every session. And it's like, well, are we actually, you know, getting we're are we actually squeezing squeezing what we can out of that conditioning? Do you have any, you know, days where it's just conditioning bias? Like, well, what are we doing? Right. So depending on your split, if you are doing like uh two uppers and two lowers or push-pull legs or or something like that, I would argue that that might not be the best split for you because of your bandwidth. Not because it's a bad split, but if you only have a a or if you have a tight schedule or a certain window of time, um, again, maybe those aren't the most optimal splits because we we need to make sure conditioning's in there without packing the schedule. So if conditioning causes you to have to train six days a week or seven days a week, it's like I said, it's probably not the best split. And that is why I usually go to if in a in a tight season, it's like, okay, two full body days, two to three conditioning days. And then obviously that can flex where maybe, you know, uh once once uh school is over or once the semester's over, maybe I do uh upper lower, like two upper, two lower, right? And I have more bandwidth to be able to do those things. Um, but just something to consider when you are thinking about your uh your overall training system. Again, it's not this strength and this conditioning, it's all a system. So like think about that the next time you're you're programming stuff. It's like, do we actually need you know, four strength days or five strength days? Can we just do two and and get get really good results? And then last thing with full body recovery. Like we are hitting multiple things, we are hitting things multiple times per week without blasting things or putting ourselves through the blender. So, like push patterns, hitting that multiple times per week. Same thing with hinges and squats. So we're not demolishing legs or we're not demolishing chest or whatever that may be. We're we're sticking it, I call it sticking and moving, right? We're hitting a couple things and then we're we're we're uh progressively overloading those week after week and like okay, now now we're we're good, we're recovering. But from a mobility standpoint, from a like I said, recovery standpoint, I think this is the move for the majority of people. Um, and you know, if you quote unquote miss something or you need to move around your schedule, it's not going to demolish the week, right? I I found that um, you know, most days, you know, if say for example, if you're doing a bro split and something pops up and you're like, damn, I can't train. Usually legs are gonna get get slashed from the schedule, right? It's like, oh, let's hit upper body or let's hit uh chest and try back by um and legs are gonna get slashed, or or something is going to get slashed, which we can't have. We need to make sure we're hitting things multiple times per week. So again, it offers that flexibility. So from a conditioning standpoint, I talked a lot about full body. From a conditioning standpoint, right now for me, I am touching on easy, moderate, and hard work, one uh one of those per week. So easy, you know, base work, expanding that uh aerobic capacity. Moderate, we are practicing pacing with uh we'll we'll call it like tempo threshold-ish type work, and then hard days where it's like, okay, we're we're getting after it, we're stepping on the gas, we're we're touching out and we're feeling out speed. So I think it's very important to hit on those once once per week. And again, there's there's flexibility there depending on your starting point. You might, you know, bias uh easy work, right? Maybe that's the priority. Maybe you do um some air bike finishers or different things like that. But for me right now, it's like, hey, let's let's uh while we can, let's let's build what we can. So with the overall layout, again, I talk about day one through day seven, super important, you know, not necessarily Monday through Sunday. I know that might seem like semantics, but I think it's very important to look at it from this perspective because it it, you know, we're not we're not married to certain days of the week. I don't have to train on Monday. I don't have to train this on Thursday. I don't have to start the week on Monday. I personally start my weeks on Sunday right now, right? So that's I have it's an off day from from school. I'm gonna hit it hard. And then on Monday, easy work. So I don't have to go to the gym. I could just go right to class. So things like that are baked in with that day one through day seven. But day one for me, it's it's plyos. Um, so right now I'm doing jumps and uh jumps and throws, um, full body, but we're biasing a hinge and a press pattern, and then we're doing some hard work at the end of that session. So I've been absolutely loving um, you know, hitting the hitting the strength pretty hard. Usually the strength takes me around 30, 40 minutes. Um, and then I have about 15 minutes of hard work, but I've been loving the the speed work of of running after um after the the full body, but it's so perfect the way that my uh my gym is set up. So I hit it hard, I change my shoes, and then I I do uh about a five-minute easy run to kind of warm up, see how my legs are feeling, shake them out a little bit, and then I run down the road a little bit, and then there's this very long, straightaway road that's not super busy. Um, it's not a main road, and then I just do my speed work on that road, and then the the five-minute easy back is perfect. So, or usually I walk on the uh on the way back, so as like a cool down a little bit. Walk takes me about five, 10 minutes walking back, and then I get in my car and go home. All right. So I absolutely love that. It's great. You can get outside, get some sunlight, hit some uh some hard work, and have that that cool down incorporated outside, which is uh is is phenomenal. So that's day one. Day two, like I said, easy work. Day three is off or a flex day. So having that that uh midweek kind of flexibility if I need it. Day four, it's we're we're doing some prep work. We're we're targeting some weaknesses, um, or or just targeting some uh yeah, we'll we'll call them weaknesses. Um, but for for the prep work on this day, I do uh right now I'm doing um some dead hangs, uh working on some pull-up numbers. So I'm doing dead hangs and leg curls, getting a nice pump in the uh the glutes and the hamstrings. So that would be the the prep work here. Now we're biasing a squat and pull bias, and then we uh we have some uh additional work capacity at the end where usually I do some sort of um some sort of circuit or arm farm pump work, um maybe some carries, those different types of things at the end of this session. Um day five, I do a pogo circuit. So um some pogo hops, some uh quick switches, different things like that, just building up um some things while the the volume is uh a little bit lower on these or as we are progressing those. Um so pogo circuit, and then uh we're we're working with some heavy legs on this day. Um, but we're going that that moderate here. So um working different durations, making sure we are practicing pacing. That is something that uh I uh I practice and preach. So we're practicing pacing, figuring out, okay, maybe we could pick it up a little bit, maybe we could slow it down a little bit. We're running on heavy legs. Um, I I think that that we obviously we want to we don't want to blur the lines, right? We don't want to get injured, obviously. But there's nothing wrong with running with uh with some heavy legs, and usually once you you shake it out a little bit, um they're they're good to go, they're responding. But um very good to really practice that stuff and train that that internal monitor to to understand what moderate feels like. So when it comes to test day, it's like, okay, yeah, I this is the pace, this is my working pace. Let's see if we can beat that. Or let's hold it on, let's hold on to to this pace for a little bit because I know if I go a little faster, I'm gonna be uh be bonking towards the uh towards the end of the test. So bunch of things to think about with the moderate, but again, we're gonna have heavy legs after a squat biased day. So we have two off days after that. So day six and day seven are those off reflex days. That is when I do my uh my programming, that's when I do updates, that is when I focus on schoolwork, that is when I focus on just kind of decompressing for the week. Resting up two days, it seems like a long time, but again, now you're fire, it's like, okay, we got a heavy hinge day today or the next day. We're we're feeling good and we're we're recovered. We're we're feeling awesome. So, with that layout, what I wanted to do is is match it up against the the everyday responder targets, or um, I call them the uniform standards, right? So, thinking about we're gonna go through there's seven of them and see how this kind of matches up and see how you can incorporate these seven into what you're doing on a week-to-week or day-to-day basis. So the first one, exceed personal standards. So again, with this, you know, deliberate and intentional approach with four days, now we have more bandwidth to focus on the things that matter. So even with you know, with less training, now I could start focusing on um habits that I want to maintain or standards that I want to maintain. I can have more bandwidth to be able to uh go to go to dinner with my wife instead of trying to sneak in an extra session, right? I can do all these things and I have that flexibility. So it is baked in. Fuel the number two, fuel the machine. So again, we are carb cycling a little bit for high STEM sessions. So if we are once we are getting after it, hey, we are going to make sure that we are fueling those sessions, make sure that we are eating enough to actually recover. Crazy pumps, by the way. And uh again, we're recovering a little bit faster because we are biasing our highest calorie days with those training and then uh with the training days, and then on off days, it's like, oh, okay, we're we're going to you know drop a little bit. We're we're not starving here, but it's like we don't we don't need to keep you know eating all this stuff if we're if we're pretty um like relatively stationary for that day. Number three here, train violently. So again, jumps, hops, throws moving multi-directional, you know, north, south, east, west, moving rotationally. That is happening on a week-to-week basis. So again, on day one, we're talking about the uh the plyo. So um right now I'm doing a uh a standing vertical jump. Sometimes I do a seated box jump, but there are some jumps there, as well as I usually match that with a throw. So a rotational med ball throw or a med ball slam, some sort of you know, moving rotationally or something like that on that day, as well as the the pogo circuit. So so being twitchy, uh moving around a little bit, building up that uh that tissue tolerance on day five before the the moderate work. So that is touched. Now we talk about number four here. Get strong and handle body weight. So again, for these days, for the two strength days, the the main movers here um are in that three to six rep range. So uh three to six rep range for say like a a squat pattern or a hinge pattern, as well as usually the the secondary movement. And um the the second part of that handle body weight. So the support work for those main days is right now for me is a weighted dip and a weighted pull-up. So we are handling body weight and we are adding a little bit of load there. And the the rep ranges there kind of vary, but um again, we're we're getting strong with the main movers and we are handling body weight. Number five, move fast, slow, and practice pacing, right? So again, we've talked about on the on day one, we have the the intervals there. So we're we're touching on speed, we're moving fast um on those days. And again, getting some sunlight there. So make sure you're you're getting outside, make sure you're uh doing your cooldowns outside if possible. Slow recovery work on day two. So uh again, uh well, easy work, we'll call it. So easy, you know, shouldn't be super stressful. Again, yes, there's going to be heavy legs, there's there's probably gonna be some inherent fatigue there, but we're we're keeping it relatively easy, we're keeping the intent intact. I don't care about pacing um on that day, or I don't care about uh what your pace is, I should say, on that day. We are just moving, we are helping. Um, and I would say if you're doing it properly, which I hope that you are, um, that that session is gonna make you feel good, right? You you are recovering. That is not saying, and by the way, I'm gonna go on a little tangent here. Easy work does not mean that it's going to be a walk in the park, right? You're not out there like waving to your neighbors, like everything is, you know, nasal breathing, everything is perfect. No, there are times where like easy work is is relative compared to the the moderate and hard. But um, I think that's a common misconception where it's like, oh, you know, easy work, nasal breathe the the whole entire time, and and different things like that. We want to keep that conversational pace, but again, um it's not always gonna be easy. Like the the goal is to keep your heart rate in that easy range. Um, so uh I don't like to obsess about heart rate, but think about that, you know, 125, 130 to about 145, 150, right? There's a there's a big range there, it depends on the person. Um, but usually that is a a good um a good range to to kind of shoot for. And there's a ton of different formulas, different things like that. But um, I personally wouldn't overthink it, and I I don't want you to. Um, but just keep it relatively easy, be able to hold a conversation and you're actually hold a conversation without gasping for air. And another one I say is you can intermittently nasal breathe. So that does not mean you need to hyperventilate yourself and only nasal breathe the whole time, but you can, you know, you take a couple turns or you're running um downhill or whatever that may be, you can nasal breathe without, you know, gasping. Um, so that would be uh we're we're hitting on easy work there. Um, day two there. Last day, so pacing, you know, pacing work is day five. So we're hitting that moderate, we're hitting that practice, we're getting in that, you know, hard but sustainable zone. Something that that we could probably sustain for 10 or 15 more minutes. Not an exact science there, but just think like, am I going too hot right now? Many people will go way too hot on this work, and it turns into kind of a slug fest. The goal is not to um showcase speed on the hard day or moderate day, it's to actually build it. So I would rather you personally, I would rather have you be a little bit, you know, conservative on those days and then just progress week, week by week, right? I would rather have you do that than um see your splits look like uh look like they're they're going downhill, right? Or uh uphill, I should say, uphill. Um, so very, very important there. But again, we're hitting we're hitting those three on a week to week basis. Um, number six here, strong enough to lift it, conditioned enough to carry. So again, this to me is that that work capacity, being able to handle um unknown durations, kind of again practicing pacing. But think here, okay, we have the strength that we're building with the lower rep ranges. We have the conditioning, we're hitting all aspects of conditioning. We're we're far left with very easy, we're far right with very hard, right? So we're we're finding we're hitting both of those ranges, we're building. Your aerobic capacity while we are building strength, and with this, what I like to do towards the the end of session, um, like I talked about on day four, usually work in some sort of circuit, right? It's uh I don't even know if you'd call it a circuit. Sometimes I put tricep, um, sometimes I put just two uh two exercises, but just for an example, maybe it is um deficit push-ups and farmer carries, something like that, where it's like, okay, we have a uh, you know, we're going to condense some work there and see how we hold out. So we're gonna get a total of deficit push-ups and see how long we can we can farmer carry, you know, uh heavy to to moderate load there. So something like that. Um, there's also you know, uh stuff where you can work in biceps and and triceps and and have that fun stuff with like um finishers and and lateral raises and different things like that. But again, we are hitting that strong enough to lift it, conditioned enough to carry it there. The last one here. So this is where we're going to wrap everything up. But last one, arguably most important, something that I used to overlook, and I know many people overlook, unfortunately, but it's recover and be able to do it again tomorrow. So, again, the the whole entire system is built for this one. So when you have or or when you need a high output every day, we we can start doing that because now again, it's not just having a high output with training, it's about having high output with energy levels or being able to hit tasks and not have that brain fog or mental fatigue, right? So once we start looking at training differently, like I've talked about in this episode, we can start saying, okay, if we want to actually recover and adapt, we don't need to show all our cards in training. So now we can actually recover and again be able to do things tomorrow, right? It doesn't, and like this is the the common misconception with training, is it's like, hey, I need to feel like I'm training hard, or I need to, you know, uh bias, sweat, soreness, and fatigue. Or if I'm not, you know, extremely sore and uh I can't move my legs or the stairs are brutal the next day, then that wasn't a good session, or I need to feel like I'm sore to know that the training is working. It's like that that's not the way that this stuff works. So again, uh I said um Stu Smith said this uh a while ago when I had him on the podcast. Um, he said, You're you're gonna be older longer than you're gonna be younger. And I was like, whoa. I like had to think about it and I was like, damn, that that's really cool. I really like that. So the the the premise that I kind of took from that was you don't need to wait to start incorporating these things. A lot of people wait to incorporate uh, you know, full body or wait to incorporate machines or different things like that when they're beat up and when they're they're feeling like uh feeling an injury come on or they're injured. That's a big problem. We just wait for those things to happen or we wait for ourselves to get older and uh you know more more dinged up and more beat up to incorporate some of these these things, these things, right? We're already behind if we do that. So why don't we just start incorporating this mindset and these things into our system now so we can we can push that uh push that timeline a lot later. We know father time is coming, but the more that we can do these things properly beforehand or earlier on, we'll be able to push out that that timeline. It will keep getting far further and further. So wrapping up here, like uh it's something that that I've really wrestled with as I've grown, um, grown as a coach and grown um with my own training. It's like, could I work in more training now? Obviously, 100%. Like, yes, I could go to the gym, I could train every day if I wanted to. Um, but we need to understand that there is a a cost to that and and there's a trade, right? Is it worth that trade? If I train, you know, six days or seven days per week, and you know, I'm getting after it and different things like that. Like, there is a cost with the the time duration with other things that are going to be sacrificed, but it's like, why if I can get really good results, if not better results, with less, why wouldn't wouldn't I do that? Right. So I would say, you know, venture to guess that most people are doing way more than they have to, and they're burning out other areas in their life just because they're they're trying to stay hard or they're keeping that military mindset or that mental toughness, that type of mentality. And we're doing way more. And yes, you may get some results in training, but I would ask you to take an honest self-assessment or an honest look about the other things that that you could be optimizing to get better results. So, again, that's the the sleep, the stress management, the nutrition aspect. Again, that nutrition is a huge one. If you know, instead of allocating that hour for the gym for an extra day with quote unquote accessory work or active recovery or pump work or different things like that, if we just allocated that to our meal prep time or that to our reading time or reflecting time or whatever that may be, maybe even steps, we're going to get better results. Because now, again, we're focusing on things that actually move the needle. So, again, kind of switching it back to my perspective here. Um, when it comes to my own training, again, this is what I'm doing right now. Um, will it change once the season opens up? Definitely. Um, probably, I would say, maybe not if I'm if I if I keep moving at this trajectory. Um, but again, like I don't want to um, you know, minimize this. Like I am honestly feeling great with what I'm doing on a day-to-day basis, getting great results, energy left for the things that matter. And and I think that's the that's the whole point, right? We're we're uh we're missing the the forest for the trees when we just beat the shit out of ourselves and training, and then we're like, oh, everything else is falling off, or I just want quote unquote perfect balance. That's what I'm aiming for. Perfect balance, my training is perfect, life is perfect, nutrition is perfect. Like those things don't that that doesn't exist, right? We're going for for some false belief. But the more that we can open up more bandwidth to be able to focus and and truly allocate time for different things and and start biasing certain things with the season that we're in, that is how we are going to be able to actually train for game day and be able to recover and do it again tomorrow. So big challenge for you at the end, we're at the end here, is to actually build something that lasts. It's not about, you know, loading up the schedule and holding on for dear life and then burning out in a couple of weeks or getting injured in a couple of weeks. It's like, can you see yourself training like this for six months? Again, we've talked about that where most people don't know what they did for the last six months, or most people's compliance for the last six months is absolutely shot. But it's like, okay, can I sustain this in my busiest season, in my most stressed that I've been in a while? Yes, then let's keep executing. So I appreciate you. I appreciate you listening. Again, we do have the uh application open if you are interested in hearing more about what we do. That does not guarantee a spot. But if you are a good fit based off of the answers that you put in and the effort that you put in to your answers, I will likely, if they're good and we would make a good team, I will be uh be sending you a follow up video of this idea or these ideas built for you specifically. So I appreciate you.