Managing Training Time

Trying to fit in training time might be the most difficult part of training. Unless you are a professional athlete, independently wealthy, or young and without ties, it is tough to manage all the things you need to do while going about your life with family, work, and social obligations. Add in a multi-disciplinary approach (S&C, BJJ, striking, clinch, MUC/awareness, handgun, carbine, knife, stick, etc...) and the problem expands exponentially.

I wrote about one way of dealing with this on my blog back in November of 2008 (No Time). This trick is good for fitting in something, but not the bulk of the work you need. For myself, I need to be more organized and focused.

What I do is use a large desk calender from a office supply store and I write, in advance, what my workouts will be on what day for the next 1-2 weeks. Sounds simple, but I have found most people don't really plan that way. They "know" what they are needing to do, but forget to plan around the things that pop up in everyday life.

For example, it's easy to say you will go to MMA class M-W-Sat, but what if you have a business dinner meeting that you forgot about on Wednesday? How do you compensate? Do you try to push back the schedule? Do you just miss the class? Or do you try to squeeze in multiple workouts on the same day (say the MMA class and a heavy strength session)?

IMO, it's easier to do this ahead of time. If I can see my schedule for two weeks out, I can plan around business commitments, holidays, kid's doctor appointments, etc. If there is a conflict, I can work around it ahead of time, rather than scramble and stress out, or beat myself up for missing a workout.

I like a having a plan. It helps me to focus on the training itself, and not about the when.