I have always rolled my eyes in wonder as trainers, coaches, and lifters would speak about the most optimal training program and wonder what reality they live in.
For instance...
This week illustrates PERFECTLY what I wrote in this article about how my training split is set up and why...
Sunday, I walked into the gym, warmed up and then my wife gave me some news that required I leave the gym ASAP. Not only the gym, but town.
Thirty minutes later, I was on the road. So is my training now F*&ked? NO.
In life, shit happens, so my program is set up for the worst-case situations.
Monday is usually an off-day, but this week it became my chest and tricep workout, which is what I missed Sunday.
During the week, I train back, delts, arms, abs, etc. I do this whenever I can fit it in. These are SIMPLE to train anywhere for me. Hell, for anyone! I was out of town Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. I got back late Wednesday night. I did drive home once in the middle of this, only to get a call two hours later that I needed to go back.
I found a small gym close to where I was located. I always find the closest because time is critical, and travel sucks it all up. I don't care how crappy, plush, or limited the gym is. You can train my weekday body parts anywhere. I did chest and triceps on Monday. Back on Tuesday and shoulders on Wednesday. I made sure I had time for cardio every one of these days. The club wasn't the greatest, but I got in everything I needed to do - plus some - and it took no real time away from what I was doing because it was so close. While others went to lunch for an hour, I went to the gym and called my lunch in to have picked up on my way back.
Tomorrow, I'll do arms and then might have to leave town again Saturday, so I have to figure out if I can leave later in the day, so I can still train Saturday morning (legs are a bitch to train on the road), or if I need to push them to Friday. I would rather NOT train them on Friday, as this is a lot of training days in a row, but I've got to do what I've got to do.
Dieting is also simple if you know what you're doing. I went to the store and picked up my egg whites, omega 3 eggs, almonds, natural peanut butter, and brown rice bread. Every grocery now seems to have an organic section, which makes things easier. I packed my metabolic drive and a shaker. There's four meals a day with zero effort at all. Then, I found a Subway where I bought a week's worth of my triple chicken breast flatbread. That makes about five or six meals. This left one meal per day if I had to eat out, and that's also easy. You order smart and since it's the last meal of my day, it won't have any carbs. Everywhere has some kind of meat, so it really doesn't matter where you go.
I'm writing this to illustrate how most excuses I hear are 100 percent complete bullshit. This week has been full of stress and emotional hell, but these things have made a difference in keeping my sanity, so I could focus on the most important things.
I should note that I've been in situations like this before. You learn as you go, and I do hope some of these suggestions help you in one way or another.
Is this really the most optimal way to train? NO, not at all, but when did REALITY ever become OPTIMAL?
One thing I've learned in training, life, and business is to always deal with the REALITY of the situation at hand. THIS is what gets you moving and keeps you moving. You can spend your entire life looking for the most OPTIMAL way and never get one damn thing done.
This might explain why so many coaches and trainers are weak, fat, and (or) out of shape. Then again, they could just be lazy and lack desire, but that's for another day.
Originally written in 2010 and pulled from Dave's old training log.
