By Mike Tuchscherer

            Okay, I admit the title is a bit like the kid on your school bus who used to shove pencils up his nose – starved for attention.  But while the title may be a bit excessive, what is surprisingly not excessive is the notion of training every day.

            It may come as a surprise to many that I advocate training everyday for all kinds of athletes.  Iron Sports athletes especially could use this as a change in mentality.  But does that mean I have my athletes in the gym squatting heavy on a daily basis?  Not in the least.

            You see, what I mean is training in the more broad sense of the word.  “Train everyday” does not mean “lift everyday”.  There is a lot more to preparing yourself as an athlete than just picking up heavy stuff.  There are large components of fitness that are not addressed during traditional lifting workouts that can be very important to the overall development of the athlete.  But rather than rehash all of the potential areas that need training, I’ll just point you to this article.

            As you can see, there are certainly a lot of areas that we need to develop in our training program.  And once you consider the hectic and chaotic nature of life in general, you realize that some days are better than others for different lifting objectives.  For example, maybe a particularly stress-and-drama filled day leaves you feeling drained.  Is it really a good idea to go for a maximum deadlift attempt or maybe wait until tomorrow?  I can’t really give you an answer outright because each situation is so different.  Maybe this person can’t get to the gym tomorrow, so it’s better to suck it up today than not do it at all.  But on the other hand, maybe it’s better to just let this one go and live to fight another day.

            Answers to these questions are really part of listening to your body.  There are many ways to do that, but there are very few ways that offer objective feedback in helping you to make that decision.  TRAC is one of them.  TRAC offers a fantastic level of insight on the functioning of various body systems, which allows you to determine how to get the most bang for your training buck.  And that’s the essence of what I have been doing lately to train everyday while keeping an ideal level of functionality in my body systems, all the while avoiding overtraining and other problems.

            The overall design of this includes a training plan.  We plan to train on specific days of the week, but if things happen that create a condition where the training won’t be effective, we change what it is that we are training.  The original training plan actually looks like most that you see; on Monday do this, on Wednesday do that, etc.  Then non-lifting days are planned for GPP training and all that it entails (prehab, neglected muscles, energy systems, etc).

            The key here is that training each day is adjusted depending on what TRAC says that we need.  The main workouts are fairly straight forward.  We have our plan and if TRAC indicates good functioning of body systems, then we continue training as planned.  If our stress levels are elevated or if CNS is depressed, we adjust our training in accordance with TRAC’s recommendation.  This could be anything from a slight reduction in training volume to restricting PR attempts to cutting the session in favor of light recovery work.  Adjusting the main training sessions is actually pretty simple when you have TRAC making the calls based on your actual body physiology.

            If you are planning for a GPP session, TRAC is still very helpful.  What you do to adjust your GPP sessions has to do with understanding GPP’s role in your training, both for the short term and the long term.

            In the short term, GPP sessions should prepare you for the next workout.  They should restore any muscle groups or body systems that need restoration (nutrition plays a huge role in this as well).  In the long term, GPP still serve the purpose to prepare you for the future training requirements, but it looks different.  Over the long term, GPP serves to build work capacity, develop energy systems, develop strength in neglected muscle groups, etc.

            Just by getting a feel for both short and long term GPP objectives, there is a difference in intensity, taxonomy, and the overall stress induced by those sessions.  Short term GPP tends to be kinder and gentler where long term focused GPP workouts can still be very tough.  TRAC allows us to figure out which style of GPP session is most beneficial to us today.

            If all of your systems test well, then you can probably afford to push your GPP training a little bit.  These can be sessions focused more on the long term objectives of GPP.  Where this starts changing is when systems show signs of fatigue and over-stress.

            If you are getting ready for a GPP session, but your stress levels are high, then you probably want to focus on low intensity energy system work and/or stretching.  This will have the greatest impact on getting you ready for your next session.  If stress is low, but CNS is poor, then you should take action to stimulate your CNS.  This tends to be very low volumes of light, very fast work.  Think of a light, explosive warm up using exercises that you don’t often do.  Olympic lifts, jumps, and throws work particularly well here.

            It’s also important that you keep all this in perspective.  Personally, I would balance the information that TRAC suggests with what you know from your daily life.  If your CNS is shot, but you also haven’t slept more than 2 hours in as many days, perhaps a good night’s sleep will serve you better than a GPP session.  But circumstances like this are usually pretty obvious.  The tough training questions are when the answers aren’t so obvious.  Those are far more common as well, but fortunately, they are also the ones TRAC can help with the most.

            Before closing, I’d like to take a moment to shed some light on Adaptive Reserves.  Those of you who use TRAC will notice that Adaptive Reserves tends to move about more slowly than the other factors.  This is normal, but it is also important.  If your adaptive reserves fall below a 6, then you should take steps to reduce your overall stress levels because your body is running low on adaptive ability.  Getting yourself into moderate or even high stress situations is important to causing the body to adapt and change, but if it is causing your adaptive reserves to fall too far, then it’s too much.  Granted, it’s a fine line to walk, but it’s much easier to walk it when you can SEE the line rather than just stumbling along blindly.

            So this is the general system some of my athletes and I have been using to train every day.  Each day there is something you can do to get closer to your goals.  Should you ever take a day completely off of training?  Sure, but it’s mostly a mental need, not a physical one.  If you can find a way to closely manage the functioning of your body systems and train according to that need, you’ll be rewarded with higher levels of performance and better gains than you’ve experienced in a long time.  As is always the case, you have to give your body what it needs to be a better athlete.  And this is one highly effective way of doing just that.

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