....and we're back!

We are back!

I hope you had a good break over Xmas and New Year, and are now ready to get stuck into another 12 months of awesomeness.

If you have done as I have and eaten your bodyweight in mince pies and mash potatoes, then it'd be good advice to get back into the swing of things a little slowly.

In my own training, I rolled it back 2 weeks.

I'm following a plan that is based on Jim Wendlers 5/3/1, where the weights we lift each week are calculated on a "gym 1RM", or a 1 rep max that you can do without getting hyped up to perform.

I've always liked 5/3/1 as a plan, it works really well if you commit to it over a long period.

And it's that extended timeline that means it is a good idea to take breaks here and there and also roll back a few weeks from time to time.

And while I used to to believe every training session had to be a PR, I have grown up a lot since then.

That idea of "go hard or go home" is great if you're in your late teens or 20's

It works great if you don't have a sport or activity to train for and the gym is an ends in its self

But that isn't my average client.

it certainly isn't me.

I think i got away with the "go hard or go home" mentality for so long because I had the luxury of being able to set my life up around training.

Hell, there have been periods where I literally lived in a gym, rolling out a sleeping bag each night!

However, my lifestyle of old isn't most people's lifestyle.

So we need to consider energy balance, time management , injury management and recovery.

We can only train as hard as we can recover, and recovery is mostly driven by" calories and counting sheep" (food & sleep), not by ice baths and morning routines.

And a big part of recovery is the mental reset you get by stepping away from routine.

Routine is great, it keeps us on track, keeps us going in the right direction, but it can get, well, routine.

And that's where the Xmas break comes in, it's a near global break from routine.

Now we are out the other side of it, it's time to slip back into routine, mentally and physically refreshed and ready to go.

Just start slow

And each session, each week, each month gradually ramp up

It's not "new year new you", it's new year but it's still you, just you that's reset and reinvigorated.

So let's fucking go!

Simple.

Not easy.

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Regards

Dave Hedges

www.DaveHedges.net