From Thanksgiving and into the first few weeks of the New Year represents the holiday season, winter, and a period of relative darkness (considering the available daylight hours). Let’s just call it December and January in the northern hemisphere.
Year-end projects at work, school functions, holiday parties and other obligations typically fill this season. It’s been called the most wonderful time of the year but it’s probably also one of the busiest times of the year. More to do and less daylight to do it in.
At TLA, we utilize a number of proprietary systems and models I’ve developed over the years. A major one of those is SEASONALITY. This is a blending of evolutionary biology principles with training and lifestyle practices in the modern athlete and fitness enthusiast. If you are interested in learning more about seasonality, you can read the in-depth article “The Seasonality of Peak Performance” and view the explanatory graphic.
To explain seasonality with simplicity, and connect it to the microworkout, all we need is a few sentences. The diminished daylight hours and colder temperatures drive a strong hormonal stimulus for humans to hunker down, lay low, and generally conserve energy. At least in relative terms. Our neurotransmitters, hormonal system, and metabolic function are actually hard-wired to sleep more and avoid exhaustion…more than at any other time of the year. We should still work out on a regular basis (daily in my opinion), but our training sessions should be a bit more brief and a little (although not completely) less intense.
The modern human has the power of cognitive override. You can say “this is bullshit” and force yourself to do 90-minute gut-buster grindathons in training right now. Like so many things in human physiology, that will work. Until it doesn’t work. Basically, you can force your central nervous system to do just about anything you demand, even if it’s inconsistent with ancestral patterns. But that comes at a cost. You’ll burn up reserves which must be restored. That energy debt needs to be repaid. Crushing workouts at Christmas usually means you go flat by March and wonder why. I’ve seen this hundreds of times. No lie. In fact, it’s one of the many reasons gung ho New Year’s Resolution training programs invariably fall apart. Gott be smart, patient, and progressive.
So how does a microworkout actually work? Well, the answer is very open-ended. Let’s say you usually train for about an hour in your typical sessions most of the year. During December and January, just do 30-40 minutes. I know some of you are panicking and thinking you’ll lose all your hard-won fitness. Actually the opposite is true. You’ll maintain conditioning while staying in line with your body’s natural biology, and you’ll both feel better and hit greater heights in performance in the spring/summer.
We’re mainly paring down volume, aka exercise session duration here. We still need to use all the levels of intensity, including the highest amounts (max strength, speed, Zone 5, etc.) but we trim the exposure here. Microdose those elements but don’t go away from them entirely. Short, variety-filled, and fun workouts should be the theme in December and January. It’s a natural, animalistic pattern.
Also, using the principles of seasonality and microworkouts during the dark season can also free your mind. Maybe you never dread or loathe your training sessions, but knowing that you can look forward to a (again, relatively) brief and exhilarating workout can do wonders for motivation, mental workload (during this busy time), and decision-making fatigue.
Let’s say that 30-40 minutes just isn’t seeming like a reality on a busy day. You can do 10 or 20 and that’s a whole hell of a lot better than the big goose egg in your training ledger (whether you actually keep a log or not). I love to think outside the box (there really is no frigging box anyway) on occasion in my own training as well as that which I develop for my esteemed clients. Some days we just hit a walk around the block and a few kettlebell exercises (great for home or office) and call it good. Other times we execute a snack of movement every hour for 12 hours. The only rules that exist are the ones you decide to believe in.
I didn’t want to dive too deeply into the physiology of all this stuff. Just wanted to encourage you to embrace the microworkout during this season. As always, thanks for joining me and let me know what you think.