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Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Active Recovery Week: Day #1

I was not impressed with my Personal Records from last week and have decided to not work on the major lifts this week, focusing instead on metabolic conditioning and general ass-whooping.

Alwyn Cosgrove, Jason Ferruggia and others have all spoken once or twice about the positive effects of short (under 45-minutes) training sessions. I personally fatigue quickly after about 30 minutes of continuous high-intensity physical activity and believe shorter training sessions are a very valuable tool in a trainer's toolbox.

The goal for this week:
In 30-45 minutes, do as much work as I can, at the highest intensity I can, resting as little as possible between sets.

The term "sets" is a bit misleading, because I am not really paying too much attention to the actual set-rep schemes being used. Instead, I focus on tempo and form. As soon as I significantly slow the movement down or the form becomes sloppy, I stop and take a short, un-timed break and grab some water. At that point I will either switch movements or pump out an additional "set."

I just started training clients out of the HiFi Personal Fitness studio and am taking advantage of their collection of kettlebells and a short climbing rope hung in the second room. They also have two small sleds and plenty of resistance bands. Using very little equipment, I was able to completely butcher myself for 45-minutes yesterday afternoon. I recovered quickly and had an elevated mood for much of the evening.

My next session is schedule for tomorrow.

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