I’ve been strength training on a regular basis since 2010, and coaching clients since 2015. And the longer I walk this journey, the more I’ve come to believe that our fitness routines vary between two stages:
Periods of training
Periods of moving.
And you’re like, Kim – wtf does that mean?
So glad you asked.
There’s a good chance that I’m only planking with a giant weight on my back if I’m following a program from a coach….
When I think of training, I think of following a specific program and routine for a set period of time. For instance, last November I hired a coach to write me a four-week program. In the program, he wrote me three days of workouts lasting four weeks.
That meant that I had a day one, day two, and day three and I could do those workouts on any day of the week, but the goal was to get all three done in one week. Then I would repeat those same three workouts for the next four weeks.
In a program like that, because I’m performing the same exercises each week, I’m working on progressive overload. If I did 10 reps with 25lbs one week, my goal was to do 11 reps at 25lbs the next week. I was trying to improve on my strength every week, as much as my body would allow.
I’ve had my coach write me a new program every month since November. Once the four weeks are up, I ask for a new program.
To be clear, those three workouts didn’t always happen in a week. I traveled over Christmas and had some other life events that caused me to miss a few weeks here and there. But even so, I went back to my program as soon as I was able, and once I’d completed all 12 workouts, I was ready for a new program.
Everything I’ve described above is what I think of as training – and that is also what I think of as being “all in.” It’s when you’re in a solid weekly routine and feeling dialed in.
But prior to November, I had limited my training for over a year because of a herniated disc in my back. I was trying to figure out what was going to make it worse, and seeking out treatments to try and make it better. During that time, I was advised to not lift over 25lbs, so I stopped training. What I did do though, was exercise.
So maybe I should stop there for a second - let’s define what I mean when I say “exercising.”
First of all, it didn’t always happen at a gym. Second of all, it didn’t always include weights. Third of all, I wasn’t always sweating buckets (actually never, because I don’t sweat buckets…).
What I did do, however, was make an effort to move with intention, get my heart rate up a little, and do something that allowed me to feel connected to the process.
While I know that not everyone loves technology, my other strategy was to use my fitness watch and heart rate monitor to track whatever I did. If I did a stretching and mobility circuit, I hit the yoga start button my my watch. If I walked, I hit the walk button. If I did some other form of cardio, I used the cardio button.
I did that because my watch makes the same weekly exercise recommendation as the CDC - 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise in a week. That tracking process felt really important to me, because it gave me a sense of accomplishment that I was doing something, even if that something didn’t always feel very productive.
I know that a lot of people struggle with having an all or nothing approach. They are all in when they have the mental and emotional space to train. But unless you are a professional athlete, chances are you aren’t working your life into your training, you’re working training into your life.
And you are rarely going to have long spans of time when you can be all in on much of anything because work and family and travel and life.
The challenge is to give equal credence to both training and exercising. I know that most of us would like to be training - when I’m following a program and hitting consistently challenging sessions I feel like I’m making progress.
But the reality is, moving with intention is okay too. Whether you are training or exercising, it all counts. And it is absolutely true that doing something is better than doing nothing.