Thank you for giving language (“temporal austerity”) to something I experience with a good chunk of the everyday athletes I work with who work irregular schedules, travel a shitload, and/or have lives that are all over the place for one reason or another. Where I’ve landed from a programming standpoint with these folks is NOT scheduling things on specific days, but saying: Here are our overall objectives for this week, here are the workouts we want to hit in order of priority (P1, P2, etc.), here are some general guidelines (e.g. give yourself X # of days between priority workouts, if you have even 10 minutes to move in a meaningful way, that’s better than 0 minutes, etc), eat and rest as well as you can given everything that’s going on, and let’s generally just try to keep the ball rolling even if its speed varies a bit. With these folks, NOT having a rigid structure, and giving them the autonomy to “make it work” for their schedules, has led to better overall consistency. As a coach, it took me a while to get comfortable programming in this way but it’s hard to argue with the results.
I totally agree. Clients like this need a la carte options. It's counterintuitive to the training we get as coaches but it's hard to argue with outcomes!
This is a great article and really made me think - lessons apply much more widely than just exercise. Temporal austerity affects mental health, family life, work performance and more. In my old firm we ran a programme centred around these themes. Three lessons from that helped me:
1. You probably already do some good stuff. Just do that a little more and a little more often.
2. Make the right choice when you have a choice. Sometimes you don't. Then just do what has to be done. All those right choices will accumulate.
3. Linked to expectations, be kind to yourself and celebrate what you actually achieve
Yet again awesome post. I used to be pretty regimented in life as a rule including but not limited to exercise. A few years on an ER schedule kind of threw that in a blender and spit it out all over. Now I’m able to train events with a bit more flexibility. I still try to get my training in most days but the times are all over the place. I think the most important thing is like you say just keep moving. Thanks again for the insight
I can learn and reaffirm a lot from this. What I was missing was how to discuss this with clients - how you explain in these words is going to be extremely helpful. I am grateful for Coach Pfaff teaching me indeterminate programming and Rollover programs as they resonate well with this discussion
Thank you for giving language (“temporal austerity”) to something I experience with a good chunk of the everyday athletes I work with who work irregular schedules, travel a shitload, and/or have lives that are all over the place for one reason or another. Where I’ve landed from a programming standpoint with these folks is NOT scheduling things on specific days, but saying: Here are our overall objectives for this week, here are the workouts we want to hit in order of priority (P1, P2, etc.), here are some general guidelines (e.g. give yourself X # of days between priority workouts, if you have even 10 minutes to move in a meaningful way, that’s better than 0 minutes, etc), eat and rest as well as you can given everything that’s going on, and let’s generally just try to keep the ball rolling even if its speed varies a bit. With these folks, NOT having a rigid structure, and giving them the autonomy to “make it work” for their schedules, has led to better overall consistency. As a coach, it took me a while to get comfortable programming in this way but it’s hard to argue with the results.
I totally agree. Clients like this need a la carte options. It's counterintuitive to the training we get as coaches but it's hard to argue with outcomes!
So good!!!!! Timely.
Thank you!
This is a great article and really made me think - lessons apply much more widely than just exercise. Temporal austerity affects mental health, family life, work performance and more. In my old firm we ran a programme centred around these themes. Three lessons from that helped me:
1. You probably already do some good stuff. Just do that a little more and a little more often.
2. Make the right choice when you have a choice. Sometimes you don't. Then just do what has to be done. All those right choices will accumulate.
3. Linked to expectations, be kind to yourself and celebrate what you actually achieve
Love these! Thanks for sharing Kenny!
Yet again awesome post. I used to be pretty regimented in life as a rule including but not limited to exercise. A few years on an ER schedule kind of threw that in a blender and spit it out all over. Now I’m able to train events with a bit more flexibility. I still try to get my training in most days but the times are all over the place. I think the most important thing is like you say just keep moving. Thanks again for the insight
Thank you! Life has a say...
That’s for sure
I can learn and reaffirm a lot from this. What I was missing was how to discuss this with clients - how you explain in these words is going to be extremely helpful. I am grateful for Coach Pfaff teaching me indeterminate programming and Rollover programs as they resonate well with this discussion
Thanks, Nick! Master Coach wisdom from Dan Pfaff...