Hi Friend,
Can you believe we're going into year 3 of Covid? It's crazy. I had to look up what endemic meant. I'm no doctor, but I once lived in a Hilton for 2 months and 3 weeks, so that means nothing, so take my next sentences with about the same weight of opinion you'd take from Antonio Brown on how to be a good teammate. I think maybe Omicron will come in fast and then drop off a cliff, setting us up for a much better spring and summer than last year (they were more normal in the Northeast), until at least the next variant comes out.
So if Covid's not going anywhere and we have to find a way to keep living our lives and taking care of ourselves, how do we do it?
Well for one, self-care is going to have to play a greater role for all the old reasons self-care was important to us,
minus some things that aren't as important right now,
team sport ready
beach muscles
races / competitions
plus all the new reasons self-care is more important than ever to us:
O.K. So self-care is important. Can we agree (nod head yes if you agree)?
So how do we build self-care into our life?
Well this is how I do it for myself and my clients.
Schedule it (M / W / F -- M / T / Th -- M / W -- W / F -- M / Th -- T / Th, ...).
Prepare for it the day before (clothes, food, planner, tell others, rest).
Be proactive about what's coming up in the next quarter (spring!).
Build in flexibility (before work, after drop off, after work).
Time things (nutrition, hydration, rest, work, family, transitions).
Consider school schedules, work schedules, holidays, seasons, vacations.
Keep it simple.
Make it fun.
Go slow to fast.
Play the long game.
Build in recovery.
Make it progressive over time.
The list goes on and on.
Here's the take home point. You know you need to do self-care to manage stress, feel good and somehow continue to move forward and be your best self.
That's what I do. I do the thinking for you.
Consider our 2022 Group Personal Training Calendar
This training schedule like everything in Change Your Body Boot Camps is thoughtfully designed for the busy person's lifestyle. If you like value, advantages and leveraging your time, then you'll love this schedule. If you didn't already know CYBBC is a complete, full body, high intensity, do anywhere workout using minimal equipment. It's a program, not a class. You get to lift weights, train like an athlete and have confidence that you'll always be doing a full warm up, addressing imbalances, and having recovery built into your workout, training program and schedule to both make you durable & resilient to stay healthy longer and most importantly available so can perform highly in your life and prime each day to get the most out of it while reducing your chances of having to watch from the sidelines hurt.
There are:
4 quarters
13 phases (a phase is a program, last 3-4 weeks)
45 weeks of face to face coaching
7 weeks of built in recovery (everyone needs a break to keep things fresh)
every national holiday off
follows Newton Public Schools vacation schedule
1st two weeks of a phase are intro weeks (and guest weeks): we go slower
last week or last 2 weeks are record weeks: we go faster
each quarter and each phase has a specific them
quarters are proactive (e.g. in the winter we prepare for the spring; spring for summer...)
phases have their own themes (e.g. hypertrophy, strength, peaking)
translation
hypertrophy = conditions muscles, tendons and joints; muscle pump
strength = focus on getting stronger; muscle definition & muscle density
peaking = focus on being fast & strong vs. fast & slow, with endurance; in shape
Think about how that might fit into your lifestyle.
Then consider our weekly schedule.
6:00am, M / W / F (before work)
9:00am, M / W / F (after drop off)
6:30pm, M / T / Th (after work) *
Plus:
Imagine having the flexibility to train at different days & times, should you need to.
Imagine if there were both virtual & in person options.
Imagine if there were recordings you could follow along with.
*All classes are currently virtual except for 6:30pm, T / Th, which are at the Mackenzie Center.
Don't you think that might help you be even more successful AND consistent with making your self-care or managing your stress or managing your mental health or getting exercise and fun social connection or working on your body composition or getting some movement or getting stronger or working on your flexibility or addressing your posture or helping you to sleep better or working on your endurance, ....
Look we're not for everyone. I mean, I require my members and private clients to have their own equipment, just so 1 excuse is instantly eliminated (can't get to the gym b/c of XYZ, I wish I could workout, ...; you've got the gear, you've got the program, you've got a coach, you've got an appointment and you've got awesome people to train with). Next...
Below is what I tell my clients. In fact, I copy & pasted it from an email I sent to them.
"Here's what I recommend. Try to build your life as much as possible around this training schedule. Plan your time off, recovery and vacations around our schedule. Try to time your energy demands in the program with your life, so you can peak for big events and recover when training demands are less. Remember I've thought about life stress with the programming and schedule, but often times your life stress won't match up with the schedule, so try to think about how to time some of your life demands with our training schedule.
e.g. the 1st two weeks of a phase are intro weeks (and built in recovery weeks), so you'll do less in CYBBC, leaving more energy to recover and do more.
e.g.#2. the record weeks are going to demand more of you and sometimes they'll leave you wiped out for a short period of time, while other times they're going to raise your energy level through the roof along with your confidence, your mental toughness, your creativity, your optimism, ... the list goes on. Plus, after you recover they're going to set you on a higher plane of performance both in training and in life. You'll need to learn how to balance these and the only way to learn is to go through it and reflect.
Last. By all means, live your life and when the training schedule doesn't match or compliment your life, don't follow it. If you want to take a vacation and it's a training week, take the vacation. If you need a personal day or your getting crushed by life, take the day off.
Do what's best for you and circle back when you can. We'll be here waiting and ready to play the long game with you, when you return."
Covid's not going anywhere anytime soon. It feels like it's endemic. We're going to have to learn to live our lives anyways and keep moving forward. Omicron might come in fast and then drop off a cliff (remember I lived in a Hilton for almost 3 months; this is supposed to be funny and keep things light). Spring & Summer could be better than last year (pending the timing of the next variant), so why not find a way to take advantage of the situation and make things happen for you vs. to you.
2022 CYBBC Training Schedule
Notice how we're on, when most everyone is on and off, when most everyone is off. That means we can peak for the off times and then use those off times to recover, so we come back fresh and recharged.
