Tag Archives: Recovery

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Renaissance Periodization, First Few Weeks

Many athletes at our box have been on Renaissance Periodization (RP) and have had excellent results. I started it February 5th. I had purchased the templates late in 2017. I finished up what I was doing, The BodyBiz, in January and then wanted to do something different. Below are some tips that I found useful:

First, read the FAQ’s and the materials provided several times through. Don’t just skip and read the bolded fonts. Read everything. I did not, and was eating 9oz of cooked protein four times a day for the first week. Whoops. Read the FAQ’s and watch the video.

I strongly suggest you scrap the MyFitnessPal membership and tracking. I found that to complicate things. The templates are all you need, paired with the digital scale of wonder and amazement! This thing is awesome. Pick one and stick with it, meaning weighing your food cooked, or raw. I weight it cooked, going by the grams of carbs, proteins, and fats, and put my meals together for the week on Sunday. Makes it much easier. Also, stick with basic meals the first few weeks until you get comfortable and confident with the templates. There are a lot of options for meals and some people are truly gifted at culinary genius based on the posts I see in the RP pages in Facebook. Try not to follow suit right away.

The scale is mean and it has no heart. Do not trust it. Meaning, do not rely on this as your single point of validation if RP is successful for you. I had been eating whole foods, following a similar program when I started RP and did not see much success in my two week base period. I actually gained a few pounds. However, clothes that had been snug before, were no longer snug. Trust the way the your clothes fit, and take the before and after pictures for comparison.

Don’t let one bad meal turn into a bad day, or worse yet, a string of bad days. It happens. Let’s face it. Our body composition did not happen overnight, not does changing our composition happen quickly. It takes time and more importantly, consistency. Cheat meals will happen for just about everyone. Do your best to enjoy that infrequent meal and then put it behind you and focus on staying on track with the templates. Go for a run, or a long walk, or do yard work, or something outside if you feel bad about the meal or a day, or in my case one hell of a fun weekend, and then follow the templates.

Feel free to post any questions and have a great day. Go PR something. Fact: Deadlifts are better than running any day.

 

 

 

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Rest Days; Take Them

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Image courtesy of Jessica Sepel

Wednesday is one of my favorite days of the week. It is a rest day. I am still up early however I am not heading to CrossFit BWI for a WOD. Time to repair the damage I did on Monday and Tuesday, which was pretty serious. Those WOD’s were no joke.

I used to not take rest days and then wondered why I was tired and was always sore. It shouldn’t have taken me that long to figure it out. I am stubborn. So be it. “I paid the dues so I am going” six or seven days a week. Not very conducive to healing. We spend a lot of time tearing down our muscles so we have to give them time to heal.

The only time we grow is when we sleep. That explains why I am 5’8″ and my brother is 6’4″. When we were growing up he would sleep to noon, and I would be up early. He slept more so he grew more. That makes scientific sense, right? The same is true for muscles repairing themselves. All of those dead lifts from yesterday tore the muscle fibers in your legs, back, arms, and shoulders. That is why your muscles are sore. Now they need time to put themselves back together, and get bigger so they are harder to tear. They can’t heal if you are tearing them apart four days in a row.

So, what is active rest? Stretching, Yoga, light exercise like walking the dog, slow swim, etc. Fran doesn’t qualify as active rest, and neither do Turkish Get Ups. I hate those things. I take two rest days a week. Sunday is the active rest day with Yoga. Wednesday is an off day, with the exception of the next few weeks because of Whole Life Challenge. I’ll probably get in the pool for a while this afternoon and do so mobility work tonight.

Mobility. Very much needed and probably overlooked by those who need it the most, including myself. Click here. Kelly Starrett has been kind enough to post videos for just about every type of issue with a solution. Need to work on squat depth, should not working, ankles not loose enough, etc. Do a quick search on his site and you’ll find a half a dozen different suggestions to get rid of the sticky junk and become a supple leopard.

Today I’ll eat a little more, all Paleo of course. Need to load up the fuel tank for tomorrow morning’s fun and provide enough nutrients for the necessary repairs. I’ll spend some quality time with the grid roller and a lacrosse ball. Getting old sucks, however it does beat the alternative.

Take your rest days. Eat well. Kick ass tomorrow morning.