Short on Time?
We all have those days where life happens. Unexpected tasks or obligations come up and we find ourselves with too little time to get a full session in. Or perhaps you are combining our program with another (like prepping for a race). Regardless of what’s preventing you from getting all the training in, we can prioritize what we do by taking a moment to reflect on our why’s. Ask yourself,
Why am I short on time? Is this a one off or something that occurs regularly?
Why is training important to me? Or what purpose does this training serve for me?
If you are experiencing only temporary disruptions to your schedule, then do what best fits the time you have or what you were looking forward to the most. However, if you are routinely limited on gym time, we recommend alternating between picking the strength piece or the conditioning piece. Typically the workouts that accompany strength days still have some focus on the theme of the day, so you won’t be missing out entirely. But the pattern should be to work heavy one day, then light and aerobic the next. That way you are touching on different areas of fitness across the week.
Understanding why your training is important can also help you prioritize which section of the workout to get done. Perhaps you are wanting to get stronger. Or maybe you already do lots of endurance based activities in your free time (running, hiking, biking, skiing, etc). If either of those are the case, focus on doing the strength piece of the training. If you come from a strength background or are just building your fitness base, do the conditioning piece! There is a high probability that there will be some strength component included in the workout each day.
If you are looking to improve your overall health and wellness, pick the piece that you are looking forward to the most half of the time and what you dread the other half. More often than not, what you enjoy is what you are already competent at, and what you dread may be a little more challenging or uncomfortable. We want to find balance here. Our program is designed to be balanced, so when you have to edit bits and pieces do your best to maintain that overall balance.
Also don’t hesitate to move the training sessions around to best suit your needs. Let’s say you have a long run scheduled for Friday but Saturday is a 15 minute workout of burpees and running. Instead of doing *more* running, you could switch up the weekly schedule to that Saturday workout on Monday and do Monday’s power clean work on Saturday, which is a more logical layout for someone who runs. While this is hypothetical, it is just to say that it is ok to mix and match days as needed. What matters the most is that you are consistently doing something!
