Rediscovering Training - Part 1

In the last months (year?) I've been discovering and trying a variety of physical training methods or programmes, to keep fit but also because I really enjoy learning about the science behind it all. I think I'm now at a point where I picked up enough tools and insights to be building a really nice training regime into my day-to-day.

I'd been a big adept of high-intensity strength training for a while before 2011, after which I focused on cycling for the big Sweden to Serbia ride, then it seemed like I couldn't go back to my usual training regime because of a more hectic lifestyle in Mauritius. I tried hitting the gym again, and even though it was close to my place and relatively cheap, it didn't do it for me.

In late October last year I decided to give a 3-month long programme a go: The Shape of Your Life from Outside magazine. What attracted me was that the first month was meant to build aerobic capacity, so more walking or running or swimming to begin with, interspersed with strength training. The first week was amazing, I did mostly swimming which felt really good in the turquoise lagoon of Pointe d'Esny, and by the end of the second week I was swimming 40minutes non-stop quite comfortably. Then life events happened which put me to rest for over a week, and after that, mental and emotional stress made it difficult to start again where I left off. And then of course the festive season arrived in full force with substantial supplies of food and beverages: training on hold! Haha!

Come on, got to help the country's tourism a bit, right?

Hold then became stop because the tempo of the training seemed too much for my schedule and often-changing weekly to daily plans. That said, I learned a lot just from these two weeks and from the readings. As an alternative for the new year, I told myself that I would make the most of the Mauritian outdoors, and that I'm doing OK with: mountain biking and climbing a mountain in January, another in February, kayak to coastal caves and to an outer islet with Patrick from Yemaya Adventures in January and March respectively, a few rock-climbing sessions with Xavier from The Rocker - Rock Climbing Mauritius, and some nice windsurf sessions in April. So far, these feel fantastic!

The catch is that I'm thirsty for performance, and being somewhat "dispersed" between activities made it not so great in either of them (the pleasure of doing them was there, don't get me wrong). Surely there was also a part of plain insufficient physical conditioning. So off I was again in a search of efficient training methods. I came across a really good article on balancing exercises. These train the two sides of your body independently, whereas unilateral exercises (when you do exercises with your two arms or two legs together) can actually reinforce the dominance of your stronger side if you are unbalanced. If you ask me, I'd say that these should come even before the cardio stuff in your training plans, also because I think it helps to get some muscle tone beforehand. I would have loved to share the article but I can't find it again! I was sure I had bookmarked it...

Anyway, from there an interesting coincidence appeared about balancing: two friends got into slack-lining which had just made its entrance in Mauritius. It's awesome to watch, and when you do it, it has an addictive trait to it because it makes you really want to go further on the line without falling! As you can see from the link, it has a list of performance benefits for other sports. I didn't get one (yet!?) but I made a "replacement" at home for this, just by placing a solid stick on a few supports and walking back and forth on it. Of course, it's not like a line that wobbles and wants to push you upwards, but good enough to start balancing on! Check out this video for a mind-blowing demonstration:

Moonwalk from Reel Water Productions on Vimeo.

So these "discoveries", coupled with the few outings in nature re-sparked a healthy flame towards getting fit, then another crucial element started to materialize: setting goals! I'll go into that and more in Part 2, where I will share more resources too.

Chao!