Some fitness guru that I follow on the internetāI think it was Andrew Huberman, although it might have been Andy Galpināsuggested that the optimal ratio of resistance and endurance training was 3-to-2ābut also suggested that which one is emphasized should switch after some number of months.
So, you might combine three strength-training workouts per week with two endurance workouts per week for some number of months, and then reverse the ratio and go with three endurance workouts per week combined with two strength-training workouts per week.
This is interesting to me mainly because I seem to intuitively be doing exactly that. All through 2020 I was emphasizing resistance exercise (often 4 workouts per week), and limited myself to a single run most weeks. (Due in particular to a sore foot, but also just because it felt right.) I generally included an HIIT session most weeksāso also endurance training, even if not long steady-state training.
Early in 2021 I had made a plan to repeat Anthony Arvanitakis’s Superhero Bodyweight Workout, which I’d used the year before to good effect. I even bought the latest version, which seemed slightly better. But then a minor medical issue meant I had to defer the super-intense workouts that it called for. Once the medical issue was resolved I figured I’d get back to it, but as the year progressed I started feeling like running more and longer. My foot was no longer troubling me, and I always enjoy long runs.
I found myself doing less lifting and more running. Just lately it occurred to me that what I wanted to do was three runs per week, and maybe just two lifting sessionsāwhich would be nicely in accordance with the suggested adjustment in workout ratios.
So that’s my plan for the rest of the winterāthree runs per week, with just two lifting session. Then maybe in the spring I’ll switch back and reemphasize lifting.
Itās a bit harder to put this past year in a tidy descriptive box than it has been the past few years. Probably the simplest description would be: The same, but less so.
Last year I did a great job of leaning into exercise as a way to cope with the pandemic. This year started with me feeling like I could imagine that the pandemic would end, and I was focusing of all the new things I could do, once I could spend time with other peopleārock climbing, parkour, fencing, historical European martial arts (i.e. sword fighting), etc.
Except then the pandemic didnāt end, and I was left to carry on as best I could with last yearās exercises. I did okay, but not as well as I had done.
In fact, Iām perfectly pleased with the way I maintained my capabilities. Late last year I checked and documented that Iād pretty much accomplished the baseline goals that Iād set for myself (see Five years of parkour strength training). I just checked again, and Iāve not backslid on those.
Last year I didnāt even think about setting new baseline goals, because my plan had been to move on from these solo training goals to training with other actual people. This year Iāve felt like I needed to at least think about it, but so far Iām not feeling it. I do want to recover the ability to do a few pull ups (again!), but thatās about the only physical benchmark of that sort where I feel like I want or need specific improvement.
Itās not that Iām a perfect physical specimen; itās just that I donāt have much attachment to being able to squat this much weight or deadlift that much. I want to be strong enough to pick up something heavy and carry it a reasonable distance, but I donāt feel much need to put specific numbers on that weight or that distance.
I wrote a day or two ago about how I gradually shifted to more running and less lifting, which has been great. But in the middle of the year I spent some months doing less of everythingāI had a minor medical issue in the spring, then we took a vacation, then I went to visit my dad, then Jackie had her hip replacement (meaning that I had to pretty much take over running the household for a few weeks). I did okay in terms of not backsliding too much, but I didnāt make much forward progress, and it has only been in the last six weeks or so that Iām really getting back to doing what I want to do.
So, where to go from here? I guess I want to:
Continue to emphasize running, moving from two runs a week to three.Let the lifting sessions settle in at just two a week, but amp up the intensity.Get back to including a HIIT session every week.Take Jackie for a walk or hike every single time she wants to go, even if it means delaying or canceling a workout.Iāll aim to do something just like that in January and February. Along about March or April I will want to do the Superhero workout that I couldnāt do last yearāthatāll be a brief interruption in my shift back to more running and less lifting, but just for eight or nine weeks. In mid-summer we have a plan for a hiking vacation in North Carolina, so in May and June weāll want to gradually boost the amount and speed of our walks, and be sure to include plenty of hikes on trails, and to get in as much elevation change as possible in Central Illinois. Iāve got a couple more trips planned for late summer (assuming the pandemic allows), including attending WorldCon, but itās only the hiking trip that will have much influence on my movement strategy.
So, I guess I have a plan.
Possibly related posts (auto-generated):Recommended reading: The Windsor Method: The Principles of Solo TrainingMovement in 2020Recommended reading: Functional Training and Beyond by Adam Sinicki