Topic: Strapped for time

[soar]

This week I've been busy out my eyeballs and unfortunately have had to "streamline" my workouts.  On the good side, it gets me to push my workouts a harder.  On the other hand there isn't enough time for everything and I cut out the agility work.

So my question is, with limited time, what should I consider when I need to trim down the whole workout?  Or is there a simple rule of thumb, like fewer sets of the warmup but do the whole thing or (a hundred other variations I can think of)?

Dano!

[Gearsighted]

It depends on how long you're going to be short on time, amongst other things. I would say that the warmup could be shortened easily if you are certain that you are getting loosened up sufficiently before the workout. I usually only do 1 round as that is plenty for me. Part of this is the fact that I work outside, so I'm hardly ever sitting around getting tight.

If you're going to be busy for a week or so, cut your overall volume by 50%. This is a good strategy every 4 weeks or so anyway, as it allows your body to fully recover. So either cut the rounds in half or cut the reps in half, etc. and just storm through a shorter workout.

If you're going to be short on time for longer than that, you can split the workout in half and do half in the morning, half at night. Recent studies have shown that you get just as much benefit from two 15 minute exercises sessions in a day as you get from on 30 minute session.

[soar]

Thanks, that's helpful.

Following up on that, is the primary reason for the agility work for a warm up, or for gaining in our agility?  When strapped for time, I tend to just drop the agility alltogether.  I'm really focused on building functional strength to augment my Parkour & other activities, but its never quite seems like the best decision.

[Gearsighted]

Dan John had a great point, that if something is important, do it every day. With skills like strength and agility, you have to practice them a LOT so you can improve your motor skill. The beauty part of including agility work in the warmup is that you get both, agility work AND a warmup :p

What I usually do is gauge how I feel that day...sometimes I don't need so much warmup, some times I need more. Some days I've done some awesome Parkour training where I've really worked my agility already, sometimes I've sat on a tractor all day so I need to hit up some quick-feet drills. Once you get to a point where you can feel where you need work the most day by day you'll really be getting somewhere.

If I could narrow down the warmup to the fewest possible things it would look like this:

1-3 rounds:
10-15 pullups
10-15 pushups or dips
10-15 squats

1-3 rounds:
All the agility work

And that's it. Reinforcing the basic calisthenics and working some quickness at the same time. It will get your heart rate up and get your blood flowing. Some days you might just need one round of 10 for everything, other days you might need 3...you never know.

Hope that helps!

[PrincessPK]

Hey gear I've got one for you:

I parkour almost every day... do I still really need to do agility stuff on wobble boards and medicine balls? I'm thinking I don't, and I've been ditching that agility training for about a month now.

[soar]

Yep, thanks.  And thanks for keeping us all challenged with the WODs, I really "enjoy" them.   

[Gearsighted]

PPK, I would definitely ditch any gimmicky gadgets that don't necessarily carry over too much to real-world application. If you have the time, yes, they can be fun. But your time is better spent on your feet working the type of agility drills I recommend that will improve functional, full-body coordination, accuracy and agility.

As for whether or not they are necessary during dedicated Parkour training, only you can decide that. The way many people train their Parkour there isn't enough repetitive practice of movements to enhance the desired motor-skill portion of fitness in any measurable form, this is where a dedicated agility program can help. Also, the risk for injury when using Parkour specifically as a fitness tool is a bit greater, so you can work closer to your limit via strength and conditioning, which has some benefit. Overall, I would say keep track of how you perform/feel and if you are able to cover your bases through Parkour alone, more power to ya'!

[PrincessPK]

Hehe. Sounds good to me. I'm pretty sure that my daily parkour training is enough to keep my motor skills improving. I'd probably progress faster by sticking with my agility training... but damn these exercises are boring. And I just can't be bothered 

[Sat Santokh]

Soccer is pretty good agility training.  Also helps foot eye coordination