Sustainable training and living
The three-tiered approach
It would be great if we could fire on all cylinders all the time. Many of us may even subconsciously expect it of ourselves—pressuring ourselves to get through a designed training program, as well as other commitments throughout each day. We think this is a recipe for physical and mental breakdown.
Our experiences with our own demanding schedules recently got us thinking about designing a three-tiered approach to sustainable training and living. We’ve written in past articles about Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Training. Your HRV score is a great measure of how recovered or stressed out and tired you are. If you have a wearable device that measures your HRV, it’s quite easy to measure the three tiers of what your recovery is. Most devices give you a green, yellow, or red score. If you don’t have a device that measures HRV—you’re in luck! You get to develop the skill of actually listening to your body! We think this is an extremely underused skill these days.
So, either you have a green, yellow, or red HRV score—or you have listened to your body and you’re feeling fresh, kind-of-okay, or pretty wiped out. Now what? We thought we would take the example of each of our training programs, to give you at least two versions of what a three-tiered training/life program could look like.
Scott’s Microworkout Program
In the green/feeling fresh—going heavier and more intense
Four microworkouts throughout the day, rotating days of:
Swings x 25
Double KB Squats x 10
Swings x 25
Pull-ups x 6
Swings x 25
Weighted Ring Dips x 15
3-6km run three times per week
In the yellow/feeling kind-of-okay—scaling back weight, scaling movements
Swings x 25
Partial range-of-motion single-leg squats off of a box
Swings x 25
Ring Rows x 10
Swings x 25
Ring Dips x 20
3km run two times per week
In the red/feeling pretty wiped out
I will try to do just the 25 swings, four times per day. Alternatively, I will go on a slow 3km run, and skip the swings for the day.
Lennart’s training program
In the time of writing, I don’t use a device to measure my HRV. I wore a Whoop band for about 1,5 years and a Garmin device for a couple of years before that—so I have a good idea of what state my body is in. My current way of assessing my body’s recovery status is through my morning routine. If I feel wiped out from the get-go, that’s definitely a sign, but during my morning breathing practice, I normally get a good sense of how I have recovered.
I try to train and move every day, so my division goes something like this:
If I feel great, I’ll probably do a running/cardio session in the morning and a strength/weightlifting/gymnastics session in the afternoon.
If my body is very sore, I’ll skip the strength session
If I’m really tired, I’ll skip the running
If I’m utterly dead, then I’ll go for three ten-minute walks, after meals, and maybe play a little golf.
Recovery and social engagements
The more wiped out you are, the more you should scale back social engagements and other commitments and focus on recovery. This may seem obvious, but often we forget these things ourselves. We write often on these topics, but some main points to focus on are:
Sleep
Hydration
Eating whole foods
Breathwork
Meditation
Quiet time
Time in nature
Taking a longer break from social media
Time with a good book
The way to strength, health, and happiness is a long, gentle, sustainable road. Pedal-to-the-metal will break you eventually. Try developing a three-tiered approach for yourself. It’s helpful to have an idea of how to scale things back in advance, so you don’t end up with the “couch potato solution.”
Until next time,
Scott and Lennart