I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus from writing on here for various reasons. Between the holidays, starting a new job, and restructuring my own training moving forward, a handful of endeavors have had to donate their time and energy towards editing and adjusting to a new schedule; this blog being one of them.

For now, I’ll let this post serve as a brief update on things. 

First of all, it’s important to note that I’m working in a new role where I believe my professional expertise in training, nutrition, and overall health education will be sought after and valued significantly more than it ever was at my previous role. For this I’m incredibly thankful, exponentially happier, and very excited to see where this experience takes me from here. Perhaps this new role will give me some new insights that will in turn help drive out some different content on here. I’ll leave it at that for now.

In terms of my own training, I’m in the process of undergoing a notable shift in goals, structure, and environment. When gyms slowly began to reopen as the government gradually relaxed its grip on them, I jumped at the opportunity to find one close by that had the kind of equipment I’ve been used to using for years: barbells, heavy dumbbells, a few go-to compound machines, etc. Normally, I’d be able to use this stuff for free at the facility I trained out of prior to the government reaction to the pandemic, but upon returning to that facility, I was dismayed to find out that those pieces of equipment specifically were now off-limits due to “their increased risk of spreading the virus.” I digress on that one.

So then I was back to the former option, which left me paying for a membership at a gym where I could at least start back up with a skeleton of my previous training protocol. But due to my daily schedule changing, I was forced to get up nearly every morning at a ridiculously early hour just to have enough time to eat a few bites, chug some coffee, go train for 30-40 minutes, shower, and leave the house in time to start my long commute to work, which was getting progressively longer due to increased road construction.

Eventually the effects of this routine began to accumulate and manifest in the form of a negative feedback loop: chronically inadequate sleep, under-recovery, poor workouts, and normally disciplined nutrition drifting toward laziness and convenience. Training goals aside, it began to feel like I was spinning my wheels just to maintain what little progress I’d regained. It soon felt silly to keep pouring money into something that wasn’t yielding something positive for me, even if it had to do entirely with my current life situation rather than the gym itself.

I took some time off of training almost altogether and started to recalibrate. I gave everything time to rest and heal back up. I began to examine ways I could train for the time being that didn’t involve a public gym, which I also felt could realistically get shut back down suddenly if the government so decided. My mindset began to transpose to total self-reliance.

This is what kicked off my wife and I’s decision to just start investing some of that budgeted time, effort, and money in a more permanent home training setup. My wife has trained at home for a while with a fairly minimalist equipment set, but that was never a route I had entertained prior to being forced to train at home early last summer. I used that time as an opportunity to diet down to a fairly lean body comp while doing the minimal amount of training and conditioning. At that point, I was so limited in terms of equipment I could realistically use at home that doing large volumes and variations of training was nearly impractical anyway.

However, this time around I’ve chosen to chase down that same kind of goal while relying more on conditioning and frequent workouts (hopefully this allows me to eat more food in the process). We’ve already invested some money into some minor equipment for our training space that will help make this strategy more realistic for the time being. Down the road, we’ll gradually build on our equipment set depending on what estimated costs and footprints look like. For now, things seem to be working out smoothly though.

Currently, my training split is higher frequency, but revolves around shorter, faster-paced workouts. Most of the time I’m rotating between full body, upper body, and lower body sessions and flipping between strength and metcon-focused workouts. The only equipment I use is some kettlebells, dumbbells, bands, a pullup bar, and plenty of chalk. Most weeks I have a structured plan for that week, but if something comes up and I need to shift sessions around, I don’t sweat it. Same for days off; sometimes I’ll take the dog on a long walk or even run a couple miles with him if I’m feeling good. If I feel tired and beat up, I just take that day off completely and prioritize getting to bed early. 

It also helps that I’m starting to get settled into my new job and new routine, which now helps me identify what parameters I can consistently work with, since I train in the morning before work. The increased stability has afforded me more consistency in my nutrition as well. Though I write everything down in terms of training, I still realize the need to keep things flexible for now. As long as my body fat continues to slowly trend downward while my conditioning slowly trends upward, I know that I’m chipping away in the right direction. Also, using kettlebells as a primary training mean for the first time has added another constructive layer in terms of both short and long-term strength and movement goals. Though I’ve experienced a few minor hiccups thus far, as with any training protocol I create, the edges always get sharper the longer I chisel away.

After fumbling arrows for so long, the ability to hold steady and take aim again is liberating.

New beginnings are on the horizon. I’ve never had it so good.