How I would handle training during very busy periods

If I was incredibly short on time, but had goals and ambitions to improve my conditioning for an event, goal or challenge I wanted to complete in the near future…

This is exactly what I would do.

Busy periods affect us all. From work deadlines to school holidays and everything in between, it's inevitable that your 'ideal schedule' will be interrupted from time to time.

For me, I can find myself losing momentum during the following instances:

• Scheduled school holidays - a time when I choose to want to spend more time with my eldest boy

• Child sickness - Those spontaneous moments when you find yourself having to care for them when they can't go into school.

• The week leading up to and the week during "The Recalibration" (my 5 day challenge) - I have a lot more admin, zoom calls and video to record

• The days leading up to, during, and the days following Op Rebuild Mountaineering / AT weekends - A lot of planning goes into these, in addition to the delivery during the events, and days of cleaning and drying kit afterwards too.

Like you, I assume, I'd find that this loss of momentum would leave experiencing a pretty significant reduction in training volume for, potentially, a couple of weeks at a time.

I would naively expect myself to carry on regardless, without taking a moment to consider how unrealistic this was.

After a day or two of failing to do what I said I would, I'd find myself getting frustrated with myself yet continuing to procrastinate and lose momentum.

The primary issue with this loss of momentum is that it would result in a period of 'over-recovery' or detraining.

In short, failing to train frequently enough will cause you to regress, quite simply because you're not being exposed to sufficient stimulus or load within a period regular enough to elicit positive adaption.

So, what would I do?

Rather than set unrealistic expectations, I'd come up with a contingency plan, ready for when I needed it.

First, I'd try to identify how long this busy period or loss of momentum is likely to go on for. Whatever my answer, I'd double it, just to play it safe.

If I've been training hard, consistently, for the last 2-3 training blocks (12-18 weeks plus), and this period of busyness was going to be less than 2 weeks…

… I would't worry.

A significant reduction in training load (up to 60% reduction) over 2 weeks is often beneficial when it allows chronic fatigue to dissipate, and freshness to return (Buchheit et al. 2015)… think 'tapering' before an event.

However, beyond 2 weeks of lowered activity…

A decrease in aerobic-related performance is highly likely (Christensen et al. 2011 and Joo 2018)

Coop, J. Graph. Available at: https://trainright.com/detraining-truth-about-losing-fitness/

To give you an example… lets say you have 14 days off, (complete rest) it could take 60 days or several months to get back full fitness!

Reducing training by 50%, whether that be intentionally or unintentionally, could require several weeks of graft to return to previous levels of performance and resistance to injury.

However, reducing training by only 30% (not quite as aggressive as a conventional taper) means that you could be back within just 9 days or so.

Coop, J. Graph. Available at: https://trainright.com/detraining-truth-about-losing-fitness/

In this example, it's clear how important it can be to ensure that you plan in a realistic manner, taking other parts of your life into account (ie relationships, occupation, finance, personal development etc). 'Falling off the wagon' because you can't meet your own expectations as a self-proclaimed perfectionist is pretty much a worst case scenario!

Now, it may not be possible to only reduce training by 30%. In the case of school holidays, training at 70% of my normal capacity is still likely to be more than I commit to given that I still have to run my businesses whilst wanting to spend as much time with the kids as possible.

If time really is tight (i.e I have less than 20 minutes per day), I have to accept that nothing I do will meet the demands of my goals… maintenance of fitness is probably the best I can do.

In this case, I'd switch my mindset and adjust my approach from being focused on training-for-performance, to exercising-for-maintenance.

Short sessions of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) appear are probably the simplest and most time-efficient way to maintain fitness during those periods of reduced activity (Christensen et al. 2011 and Joo 2018)

HIIT is typically defined by repeated bouts of high-intensity movement, typically comprising a total of 10-15 min of effort with a session total of around 20 minutes.

These exercise bouts are usually very short (each one lasting 15 seconds to 3 minutes) and therefore very intense (perceived exertion of 8/10, targeting HR close to or above 90% of maximal HR), and separated by short (15 seconds to 2 minutes) rest periods (Laursen and Buchheit 2018).

Here are some examples:

Example 1

Session comprising of 3 sets of 8 reps / rounds with 2 minute recovery periods between sets:

Set 1: 20/10 seconds x8

2 minutes passive rest

Set 2: 15/15 seconds x8

2 minutes passive rest

Set 3: 10/20 seconds x8

Total effort: 6 minutes

Total time: 16 minutes

Example 2

Session comprising of 4 sets of 4× 1minute reps of 1 minute / rounds with 3 minute recovery periods between sets:

Set 1: 1 minute/1 minute seconds x4

3 minutes passive rest

Set 2: 1 minute/1 minute seconds x4

3 minutes passive rest

Set 3: 1 minute/1 minute seconds x4

3 minutes passive rest

Set 4: 1 minute/1 minute seconds x4

Total effort: 16 minutes

Total time: 38 minutes

Example 3

Session comprising of 5 sets of 2 minute rounds with 90 second recovery periods between sets:

Set 1: 2 minutes (change exercise every 30 seconds)

90 seconds passive rest

Set 2: 2 minutes (change exercise every 30 seconds)

90 seconds passive rest

Set 3: 2 minutes (change exercise every 30 seconds)

90 seconds passive rest

Set 4: 2 minutes (change exercise every 30 seconds)

90 seconds passive rest

Set 5: 2 minutes (change exercise every 30 seconds)

Total effort: 10 minutes

Total time: 16 minutes

Example 4

Session comprising of 5 sets of 45 second rounds with 4 minute recovery periods between sets:

Set 1: 45 seconds (max effort)

4 minutes passive rest

Set 2: 45 seconds (max effort)

4 minutes passive rest

Set 3: 45 seconds (max effort)

4 minutes passive rest

Set 4: 45 seconds (max effort)

4 minutes passive rest

Set 5: 45 seconds (max effort)

Total effort: 3 minutes 45 seconds

Total time: 17 minutes 45 seconds

Important considerations:

The exercises you chose should be simple and non-technical. The idea here is that you work very close to your maximum output, particularly in the sessions that offer longer rest periods. For this reason, it's probably sensible to use exercises like running, indoor cycling or other pieces of equipment such as an air bike, hand bike or (if you have enough space) a sled.

If muscular fatigue is desirable (hydrogen / lactate accumulation), you could also consider using basic exercises that you can complete for high repetitions in an explosive manner such as bodyweight squat jumps, jumping lunges, burpees and press ups.

At what frequency? I hear you ask…

One study demonstrated that as little as one HIIT session every 7-10 days helped well-trained cyclists maintain fitness and performance capacity over an 8 week period (Ronnestad et al. 2014)!

Another study proposed that the effective frequency for repeating HIIT is every 4 to 7 days over a 6-week off-season period in semi-professional football players (Slettalokken and Ronnestad 2014)

Whereas a slightly more recent study suggested that the ideal frequency is 3 times per week when looking at a 2 weektime period (Joo 2018).

I would say that it very much depends on your recent training history, how well-trained you are, and therefore how hard or how much intensity you can apply during the work efforts. In other words; the fitter, stronger, more powerful and more aerobically developed you are, the less frequently you may have to train in order to maintain fitness because your output is higher and therefore the sessions are more impactful.

I am confident that, regardless of how busy you are, you could easily find 16-18 minutes to get outdoors or in your garden every other day.

There is nothing worse than having to rebuild momentum.

If you can find a way to never have to "start again", but instead start off from where you previously left off, you'll find it much easier to achieve your goals in the long run.