Speech of the Week: Deliberate Practice

The only way to take control of your destiny is to get better at what you do. 

This month we’re doing a low-key “Gym Rat” challenge.  The goal is not to do crushing, hard workouts everyday.  No, instead the goal is do a bit of skill development and sharpening on the “off” days. 

More skill = a more resilient you = more fit you =
you handling life’s problems with more capacity and less burn-out. 
​ 
Getting to your workout is the first half the battle.  And by all means, capitalize on that half!  But the next half involves Deliberate Practice. 

Here are the components:

1. Making the Time.  I generally don’t recommend adding time before or after your “on-day” sessions.  That’s a good way to burn out.  Instead, prioritize carving out practice time as a shorter “off-day” workouts.  You can also separate simple drills (like stretching or ones that don’t make you sweat) into anytime-throughout-the-day drills.    
2. Know what needs practice vs what needs effort.  
   1. Sometimes you just don’t have the skill to progress (for example, developing better technique in squats or in Clean and Jerk).  In that case, you need drills that help you practice.
   2. Sometimes you just need to dig in and work harder.  If cardio makes you shrivel up inside and try to find a place to hide, that’s the place that needs improvement.  Work on it until you’ve pushed that hiding point back.  On the other hand, maybe you dig around for an excuse to skip that 3rd set of squats.  That’s where you have an opportunity to deliberately practice pushing back that mental barrier.  (come, on, it’s only going to cost you 2-3 minutes of your time anyways).  
3. Be mentally engaged and present during your exercise time.  You’re here, so why not turn the switch on?! This includes:
   1.  declining to “phone it in”
   2. Improving your mind-body connection by on-purpose engaging the target muscles (believe it or not, that’s NOT automatic!)  Learning to recruit your glute muscles at the bottom of a squat instead of just using quads is a great example of this​  ​

 .

The plan is simple:
Pick from 1 of 4 short workouts and do them on your “off” days.  The 4 options are:

A) Squat Practice    
       1. Do 5 minutes of cardio or a 1/2 mile run  
       2. Knees Over Toes (KOT) basic series. Do 3 rounds of the following:
             a. KOT split squats x 5ea side, 
             b. Reverse Nordics x 10, 
             c. Hip extensions on a glute-ham machine x 10  
      3.  Squat practice light to moderate weights only, strive for best Range of Motion (ROM) on your worst lift: Plate squat, front squat, BB back squat, etc, shoot for about 3 sets of 10 reps after w/u sets. 
​DO NOT go so hard that you get sore from this.  
      4.  5 minutes of recovery breathing

B) KB Technical Practice
    1.  Full joint mobility warm-up (Vasilev-style) 
   2.  5-10 minutes of “Free Practice” technical KB drilling (focus on component drills like swings, cleans, dips, bumps, undersquats, rack holds, OH holds, etc).  
    3. 5 minutes accumulated total of KB conditioning 
    4. 3 rounds of Core Circuit 2: 
              a. Side plank x 30s each side, 
              b. Hanging knee to elbow tuck x 5, 
              c. bicycle x 20ea, 
              d. Reverse crunches x 10-20 
    5.  10-15 minutes of stretching and foam-rolling
    
C) Body-weight Push-Pull and Core

1. Do a 5 minutes of cardio OR 1/2 mile run OR 1000m row  
2. Perfect push-pull drill 5 x 5 --> 5 x 10 /  Perform 5 perfect pushups followed by 5 perfect inverted rows for 5 rounds with minimal to no rest.  Grow your ability out to 10 reps each over 5 rounds. 
3. 3 rounds of Core circuit
         a. Scapular pushups x 10, 
         b. Deadbugs x 20ea,
         c. Strict crunches x 10.
         d. Front plank x 30-60s.

D) High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT).

1. Do 5 minutes of steady-state cardio to warm up  
2. Do 7-10 rounds of 20/40s OR 30/30s (break this into 2 "halves" with a 3-5 minute rest between halves.  These intervals are meant to do all-out.  Pick exercises that don’t have a lot of inertia so you can get going and stop quickly.  (Airbike, battle ropes, running, bodyweight squats or jumps are all good options. )  
3.  10-15 minutes of stretching, foam rolling, and recovery breathing.