Sometimes It’s OK to Not Follow the Program

Every have one of those days when no matter how fun, exciting, and productive your workout program happens to be, you just don’t feel like doing it?  I don’t mean out of lack of enthusiasm or laziness here though; motivation is not the problem.  You’re energetic and ready to train, but really just want to break out of the mold for a minute instead of sticking to the program.  This happened to me last night.  I went downstairs to my basement gym after putting the kids to bed ready, willing, and able to train.  I went through my standard head to toe joint mobility warm-up (sign up for the Warrior Fitness Mailing List to recieve a free chapter on Joint Mobility from my book, Warrior Fitness), followed by some breathing exercises to flush my bloodstream with oxygen and give me a little extra “go”, and then it hit me.  I had no desire to do my planned workout for the day.  Boom.  Just like that.  No warning, no indication, no nothing.  I stood there stunned for a minute just sort of staring into space, looking around the gym with a “what the heck do I do now” expression on my face.  Now don’t get me wrong here, I love the workout program I created for myself that I’ve been following for the past 3 weeks.  My results have been spectacular, my energy levels high, and I have, until last night, genuinely been looking forward to the workouts.  The exercises I was scheduled to perform were a combination of dumbbell lifts and bodyweight exercises designed to push my anaerobic threshold and build lean muscle while burning fat.  Great stuff!  So, what was the problem? 

What Did I Do?

I took a look around my little corner basement gym and my eyes settled on a pair of 15 lb clubbells against the wall, next to the dumbbell rack and thought to myself, Hmmm… haven’t picked those up in a while…. why not?  So I scrapped my preplanned workout for the day and picked up a clubbell.  I started out with some basic cleans to order, then moved into working shield casts, followed by mills, reverse mills.  No sets.  No rep scheme.  No timed rest intervals.  No plan.  Just playing with the movements and enjoying the freedom.  By the time I was done, 30 minutes had gone by and I was drenched in sweat and smiling ear to ear.

Sometimes it’s ok to not follow the program.  But, tomorrow it’s back to the dumbbells!

Jon

Jon Haas, "The Warrior Coach" has been training in Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu for more than 25 years and is currently ranked as a Kudan (9th degree black belt) under Jack Hoban Shihan. He has also trained in Okinawan Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Russian Systema, BJJ, Krav Maga, as well as Internal Martial Arts of Yiquan and Aiki.He is a certified Underground Strength Coach-Level 2, a certified Personal Trainer as well as founder of Warrior Fitness Training Systems. In 2008, Jon wrote the book, Warrior Fitness: Conditioning for Martial Arts, and since then has created numerous other online training and coaching programs helping people around the world become the strongest, most capable versions of themselves!

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