Welcome to Training Tip Tuesday, where I explore a different training focus each week—from strength and cardio to flexibility and balance.
Today’s Training Tip
Don’t forget to recharge your body battery.
Why Front Loading isn’t Necessarily Wise
When the weather or upcoming travel forces a schedule change, it’s easy to go into overdrive trying to squeeze in all your outdoor chores, runs, and workouts ahead of time. I’m guilty of this and call it front-loading my week. While it feels productive in the moment, cramming a week’s worth of physical labor into a couple of days can quickly backfire.
Our Body Battery is Just as Important
Remember, your equipment isn’t the only thing running on a battery.
While you can easily swap out or recharge your electronic shifter batteries, your e-bike, or your lawn tool batteries, your own internal battery takes time to recover. When you are forcing extra physical labor into an already packed training and work schedule, you have to listen to your body.
If your internal battery is hitting low power mode, it is entirely okay to trade a high-intensity workout for a stretch class, a short walk, or an intentional rest day.
The Bottom Line
On high-stress or high-labor days, match your workout intensity to your current energy levels, not just your calendar. Longevity in fitness is all about knowing when to recharge!
Questions
- • Are you guilty of front-loading your workouts or chores when you see a bad weather forecast ahead? ~ absolutely
- • How do you recognize when your own internal battery is hitting low power mode? ~ Believe me, my Garmin reminds me long before I realize it!
- • What is your favorite low power activity when you need to recharge but still want to move? ~ I stretch or go for an easy walk.
I’m linking up with Jenn from Runs with Pugs and Jenny of Runners Fly for Tuesday topics Link-Up. Be sure to check out not only the hosts’ posts, but those of the other great bloggers joining in on the fun!
I let aches and pains be my guide- every once in a while I just know that it’s time for a day off. I’ve been doing yoga lately, and I have a favorite 45 minute “deep stretch” session which is perfect for a day off!
It sounds like you have a fantastic plan for recharging your body battery, Jenny.
Same! Garmin will tell me with a low HRV and high RHR.
I tend to overdo things without listening to my body. Right now, I can tell that I’m absolutely exhausted, so this morning, at Crossfit, I took only light weights and took it fairly easy.
You are right, longevity in fitness is all about recharging and recovering – and for that you need to know your body well. Great post, Debbie!
Thanks, Catrina! I do need to listen to my own advice, though, especially as I’m adding miles as we wrap up the Great American Ride.
I walk when I am really tired. or go to the the gym. My main activity as you know is running.
Aches and pain and lack of sleep influence what I’m doing.
Sounds like you know your body well. Kudos to you.
Listening to your body is important and it sounds like you’re doing just that.
I used to do this all the time and have really stopped. It’s a long game!!
That’s great, Deborah! I need to get better at it myself.
As you know, I do a lot of low-impact cardio when I’m feeling depleted. The elliptical is a godsend for such workouts! That said, I also keep those workouts relatively short 20-minutes, for the most part, lor even shorter. Sometimes, I hit the bike, but try to keep the cadence moderate and avoid hills (wind, not so much, LOL).
You work out hard, so those low-impact recovery workouts are very important. It’s great that you have so many options, especially an elliptical at your ready.
I do some front-loading, but also not. When I’m about to travel i want to clean the house so that everything is in order when I come home, but there’s also the stress of packing and preparing for the trip! So I usually fail with that ambition and have dropped it completely in recent years, knowing myself too well by now! When it comes to weather and outdoors, absolutely YES. The thing is, our weather is so unstable and we have so few days of real summer weather so when we do have those days I have to make the most of it. I’m fortunate that my workouts can happen in whatever weather, since my primary fitness work happens in the gym. When it comes to walking, I’ve learned over the years to not stress over it, I can’t accumulate a week of walking in 2 days and that’s it!
I hear you on getting the house nice and tidy for your return home – I do the same thing! With your unstable weather you’re probably very used to constantly checking the forecast for planning outdoor exercise and gardening. 🙂