So a lot has happened in a short period since the last blog post l wrote for you team. The Open has finished which went 100% better than any of us could have expected, both finishing in the top handful of athletes in our local area and inside the top 1,000 in the whole of the UK, and with around 10,000 people registered that’s pretty AWESOME! The plan was then #ProjectBatman full steam ahead right? Not quite.
If you have been following our various social channels you will have seen that JC has picked up quite a serious injury which will leave him out of action for a few months which sucks. But it does not mean no content, training or #ProjectBatman. It just takes a slightly different approach and a little more patience. For JC right now it’s rest, recovery and doing everything possible to help the ligaments that have detached reattach, followed by a kick arse rehab series coming your way after so look out for that 😉
I’m now back to full on Batman mode and where l can, and the body feels good training twice per day and being a little more serious with nutrition and very loosely tracking. This is what l want to talk to you all about today as since i’ve started sharing more workout clips and bits and pieces a common question l keep being asked is how l manage to train twice and how my food looks, how l break it up etc, and generally just an all round interest in what i’m doing which is awesome that you want to know.
First things first l train 2x per day when l can purely because l enjoy it and love to train, i’m not approaching it with the expectation that l will get stronger faster or fitter faster etc, yes my body will adapt to high training frequency which is great but l will over time be resting a little less which means periodised full weeks of resting and recovery down the line. Also with the nature of our work l may only manage to get 2 sessions in maybe 3-4 times per week realistically anyway. For me it’s a lot easier for a few reasons, firstly i’m self employed so l have the bonus of being able to set my day up in order to fit training in. I have a gym downstairs so l don’t really have to travel to hit a good chest session and finally it’s my job to train and create content so it has a little more need’ involved as well. I say this because of the person l used to be looking in from the outside thinking ‘l can’t even get to the gym more than 3x per week and this guy trains twice per day?!!’ this can quickly become vary demotivating which is the last thing we want for you all. We want every single one of you to know the whole story when it comes to us because it’s very easy to take everything literally which can have a direct effect on your own motivation.
Now we’ve got that out of the way, if you look and still think that every now and again you’d also like to hit two sessions, how do you do that? First of all the big question you have to ask yourself is why? If you want to train more because you enjoy it or maybe have to front load your week due to work/ life commitments later in the week, great and very valid reasons in my opinion. Next it’s very simple and common sense to be honest. I set my days up like this. Every day has one conditioning session i.e cardio or light weights, and one session more body building style like chest day or shoulders for instance. A simple rule of thumb is that the heavier bodybuilding style session will always be very focused and shorter, around 30-40 minutes max. Then it’s just a case of making sure everything gets hit and equally gets the rest needed between sessions. Ow and most importantly of all, a kick ass play list to get me through the sessions! I’m currently loving a Spotify mix called ‘The Rock Workout, some old school classics on there. I have one full day of rest/ active recovery every week which will only include a ROMWOD or a nice long walk with Carly and Steven.
Nutritionally again i’m keeping it very simple, the main adjustment is that i’m obviously eating a little more. But still the basics remain the same placing the majority of my carbs around the two workouts, keeping my protein consistent and pulsing throughout the day to optimally support protein synthesis. On my rest days or days that i’m only getting one session in bring the carbs down slightly until l have the inevitable tired day’ where my body starts to tell me l need to refeed.
Supplements wise again simple, whey protein from AWESOME Supplements as standard, creatine monohydrate and lucine to help further support protein synthesis. I have also just started taking the AWESOME pre workout as well for the second session of the day every now and then which is a shot of concentrated beetroot juice, amino acids and creatine mono’ so bare that in mind if you decide to get that yourselves as beyond the initial loading phase this could be too much creatine if taken daily alongside a monohydrate to. I just like to take something to perk me up a little without the crazy caffeine kick later on in the day and this stuff does the trick with the sour flavour it’s INSANE!
I’m sorry, this post seems to be very self indulgent to me when l read it back haha but we do get asked a lot about our training approach and also #ProjectBatman so it’s nice to share and give you all an insight into what our process is. The key to remember when it comes to training is to do what you can when you can, always ask the question of why and what it’s adding to your life? Does the approach line up with the overall goals and most importantly are you enjoying it?
We are under no illusion that we are in a position whereby people listen to us and want to follow what we do which is great but that makes it even more important for us to give context to what we’re doing. We’re ultimately here to hopefully motivate as many of you as possible and shine the light, so keep being awesome and we will be back soon.
L