A Busy Guy’s Case For Daily Training
Kevin Vito
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Like many other Party Members, I've been continually searching for the Holy Grail of fitness routines for many years. My fitness goals, like most Party Members are very broad. We all seem to want it all: strength, speed, endurance, power, flexibility and a chiseled god like physique.
Unfortunately, many of us, including myself, often attempt to attain these lofty goals at the expense of the most important benefits of training "health and a sense of well being". Fortunately, the birth of my daughter has made me reprioritize my goals; health and energy are now number one and two on my fitness goal list. With a family, a full time job and an old house that needs constant attention, a carefully formulated training schedule or a train hard/rest hard philosophy is out of the question. Finding the time to train isn't really the tricky part for me; I usually train before my family gets up in the morning or after everyone has gone to bed in the evening. I found the tricky part to be having enough energy/enthusiasm to tackle my other responsibilities and commitments after a hard training session.
My training schedule has always been a few hard training sessions per week with rest and active rest scheduled in between. This training schedule wasn't working well for me anymore due to several unplanned trips to the playground, the pediatrician, the pool, the hardware store, the paint store etc., etc. My train hard or go home philosophy was now not practical to say the least. After joining the Party and adopting some of its radical training methodologies, I decided to give daily training a try (despite the opinions of most fitness gurus that training every day with weights is a mortal sin). I also read something Pavel wrote in the Russian Kettlebell Challenge that intrigued me. Pavel stated that because of their training schedules, police officers may want to train "everyday" with Kettlebells. Train everyday to stay fresh was a strange concept to me.
My first attempt at daily training did not go well, I felt pretty wiped out at the end of the week. After taking a week off from training, I posted a question on the Dragon Door Discussion Site asking for advice on how to properly incorporate daily training. The general advice was to "not train on the nerve". OK - finally here's the crux of this article: After training everyday for a few weeks and being careful to avoid any straining or fatigue during my workouts, I felt better than I had in years. My energy increased, my focus was better, mood was better, no more muscle soreness - the list could go on. The increased feeling of well-being was different that of a layoff or a taper from training. It seemed like a training session was now something that gave me more energy rather than something I had to recover from. If you think about it, this may be the way we were meant to train. You'll notice most young children seem to thrive on all types physical activity everyday, however, most young children will instinctively stop their activity immediately when they begin to strain or tire or stop "when it isn't fun anymore".
Here's an example of one of my Daily Training workouts:
Strength / Grinds
KB Clean and Press 2x5 (10 reps is my max to failure)
Pull-ups 2x6 (12 reps is my max to failure)
Pistols 2x3 (8 reps is my max to failure
Strength Endurance
Hindu Squats 2x30 (100 reps is my max to failure)
Hindu Pushups 2x20 (40 is my max to failure)
Kettlebell Swings 2x20
Flexibility
Relax Into Stretch exercises
Important Points:
1. Complete all reps without struggle/exertion - "but don't forget high
tension techniques!"
2. Wait for your heart rate to return to normal in between sets.
3. Add reps and sets slowly and carefully - take a day off if needed.
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