Start patiently training in blocks now for your Summer peak.

The long nights and cold days are upon us, I always feel like December is the ‘temperature acclimatiser’ for the real Winter test that is January! Already I don’t feel like going out, I just want to hunker down at home with a good big mug of tea. But let’s ditch that hot drink and start to think about our health, now is the time to start hitting your base training if you want to get super fit in 2021.

What is periodisation for?

When your talking about fitness your talking about performance, if your talking about performance your talking about hitting your peak. I’ve always found it beneficial to tell my clients that they need to mimic the seasons and periodise their training if they want to hit peak performance at the right time, which means training at similar intensities so that by the Summertime they’re flying. Hence we are talking about – Periodisation.

So as we are in Winter, let’s talk about base training….

Imagining base training, you probably think of a runner or cyclist getting steady Winter miles in to keep their endurance ticking over, this is partly right but there’s more to it than that. Base training can also means a decrease in intensity in every other sport or activity you normally do, it also means giving your body a rest by trying completely new things like yoga or core stability for example. Things that you miss out in the big Summer months can be hit in your ‘base training’ period.

Think if your body as a machine that adapts quickly.

The human body is very good at adapting to exercise. It’s a machine that, given the right amount of time, will grow stronger with whatever is thrown at it. The down side of this is that if it’s not given periodisation it ‘plateaus’ and becomes very used to that ever exercise, therefore further adaptions become harder and harder to accomplish. To look at this differently, it’s a bit like if you were to keep taking a dangerous drug continuously, you’d eventually need more and more of it to get the same effect! This is why base training, periodisation or training in steady blocks is so important.

Think of a time in your sporting life when everything was in tune, when you got great results and it felt just that little bit easier, I’d put money on that it was a time that was ‘built up’ too. You probably trained right, it was more periodised and you were patient. Patience is a tough thing to master if your someone that wants results, but trust me, you’ll need patience if your going to listen to this blog and periodise your training.

There’s such good news for you if your reading this and are prepared to put the work (and patient training) in. Base training your body right will prime it and freshen it up ready for your best year yet, so apply it! It doesn’t matter whether you are a high level athlete or a beginner, base training at this time of year is crucial to hit top performance (top results).

Ignore your ego and be patient.

Put that monkey in it’s cage for a few months, ignore it, if the monkey had its way you’d keep striving for more and grasping at a rainbow. You also don’t need me to tell you that there’s a dangerous virus around at the moment, so why not really pay attention to your body and not your ego!

To close, periodisation is crucial in hitting top performance, train in blocks and trust the process. Don’t follow what others do and train randomly. Periodising my training is what has kept me strong and performing well and I’m 41 this year! If I could help you by summing up training in periods in 3 words they would be…

Patience!

Patience!!

Patience!!!