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I have spent a fair amount of time thinking about what I want for myself in the next year, and two words come to mind: beautiful and strong. Those words probably mean something different to each person, so let me delineate for a moment what they mean for me. Beautiful: I have no aspirations of becoming a swimsuit model, I could probably die happy having never seen a single ab. I just want to be comfortable in my own skin. I want to choose clothes because I like them and they express me, not because they hide me (disguise the muffin top, cover jiggly arms, etc). I have no idea what weight that is (there is a range based on body composition), but a reasonable approximation would mean I need to lose 2 pant sizes. Strong: By this I don't necessarily mean strong in the more obvious sense, more like anti-fragile (physically and mentally). I want to be strong enough to move my own body through space in all dimensions (pulling up, pushing out /down, running, swimming, etc) and to not injure myself in the attempt. To phrase this in a more measurable manner: I want to run the Trifecta (series of 3 obstacle course races) in the spring of 2024 without needing help on any of the obstacles. When thinking of these two terms in combination with the idea of training and diet periodization (thank you, @Harriet for that introduction), I locked on to the imagery of forging a sword from a lump of steel into a beautiful, strong weapon though periods of intense heat and hammering alternating with tempering phases of rest. So that's me this year: forging myself into a hot sword. Thr first step is putting the iron into the fire. Starting in January, my challenge goals are to: 1) Stick to my caloric deficit to lose 1.0-1.3 pounds per week. I have done advanced maths to figure out what this should be to start, but the numbers may change depending upon how successful the theoretical number is in the real world. 2) Eat 0.8g of protein per pound of bodyweight. I can go over, but not under. Food prep and meal timing will likely be essential to making this goal easier, but aren't necessarily goals in themselves. 3) Increase my activity volume (not intensity). I averaged 3.5 resistance training workouts (aka MAPs) per week. This will go up to a full 4xweekly. I am also adding a goal of at least 4 movement snacks per day (more is fine). A snack must be at least two minutes, but the daily sum should total roughly one hour. One snack must be hanging strength if the MAP did not include hanging that day. So a day of snacks might look like: Groundwork/Stretches 10 min + Walk 30 min + Hang 2 min + Belly Dance 15 minutes = 57 minutes. 4) Reinforce myself mentally to endure the fire. This means reminding myself that the fire stage is temporary. I can cool down (slightly reduce activity volume and increase calories to maintenance) next challenge. When I am tempted to quit/cheat, I will work through my reflection questions list to remind myself why I chose this path and the benefits of staying in the fire until it is time to come out. Let's do this!

I'd like to rethink my programming from the ground up. I'm placing this thread hear because I'm interested in feedback and also because I find that I do some of my best thinking when I'm able to write stuff down then come back to it. Goals compete in the World Kettlebell Lifting Long Cycle Championship in April 2015 with 24K bells for 60 reps at a bodyweight of 85KWin my local LifeTime Fitness We Are Alpha competition and compete in Regionals. Local is May-ish, regional is early summerParticipate in Hammer Race (video)Knock 5 goals off my to-do listConstraints Garage Gym is only available April - October (basement gym is available year around)I'm only willing to run when the Garage Gym is open (It's Minnesota and I'm a wimp)I train 5-6 days most weeks - one workout is lost to pilates work for prehabBecause I count myself a kettlebeller first, I do some swings and long cycles pretty much every day that I trainBecause I long cycle every day, a bodybuilding type split is out of the question. I can play with a Westside Barbell style splita previously ruptured disc makes me not very comfortable with doing heavy singles for squat or deadlift.Tools LifeTime Fitness - long term availability TBD No bumperslots of machines, lots of dumbbells, 2 squat racks, octagonal metal and plastic weight platesboxes for jumpingTRX, Gymnastic ringsGarage Gym (April - October) 20 K barbell100K in bumper plates40K in steel platesgymnatics ringsheavy bagjump ropeBasement Gym (Year-round) Kettlebells (pairs from 12K - 28K by 4K, singles 32K and 40K)Floor SpaceConcept II rowerPrevious Since I closed up the garage gym, I have been doing kettlebells every day. If nothing else I open with progressive swings, press, snatches, etc. If it's a sport day I will do a while of Long Cycle, usually 10-15 minute but some days I do 5 minutes up to 30 minutes if I'm working heavy doubles, light endurance or heavy singles. I then usually go to a crosstraining workout. Sometimes it's stolen from Crossfit, sometimes it's AMRAP that I made up, sometimes is minute on, thirty seconds off or whatever. I occasionally do just thirty minutes of rowing. About once a week I do squats that usually culminate in 100K reps or 80K for 20 reps. Initial Thoughts The Garage gym will be open about the time the next challenge starts on NerdFitness. I plan to take advantage of this time to hit barbell work very hard. I'll also start to gear up running but initially it'll be a couple miles at a time. I'll also try to get out for my first orienteering meet of the year, I may drop some of the kettlebell work temporarily. The second NerdFitness cycle will probably represent a little less barbell work in total with more focus. It will hopefully be the final push on weightloss. I may oscillate between those two while I have access to the garage gym. When fall hits I will need to make sure my Long Cycle technique is spot on and start a six month cycle to prepare for April. I have a history of injuries that I think could have been avoided if I ever deloaded, so I hope to use the six load, 2 deload schedule to avoid injuries. I figure six weeks is too long to do just one thing so I may do two cycle types in a given challenge period, each 3 weeks. Planned weekly schedule would go something like this Monday: Off Tuesday: Sport, Heavy (60 minutes) Wednesday: Long (90 minutes) Thursday: Pilates, maybe 30 minutes of endurance Friday: short but intense (30 minutes- most likely day to be missed) Saturday: At least one cross training, often a second heavy workout (at least 60 of 60 X 2 with a break) Sunday: pick 2 of sport, cross training, endurance (60 - 90 minutes) If you made it this far, you've earned the right to give me some feedback. What do you think?

Hi Rebels Since I join the rebellion and trying to plan my workout more carefully I'm struggling with periodization. I train Kickboxing twice a week ( on Wednesday and Friday ). I'm following Bodyweight Battalion workouts on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. I tend to rest on Thursday and Saturday because after the kickboxing session I'm a bit sore. But some times I do extra training / seminars on Saturday. My problem is that I do no strength workout from Tuesday to Sunday and have absolutely no room space for running. I would like to add "road work" 2 / 3 times a week. Said that I can't change the "kickboxing days" have you got some suggestions to improve my training calendar? Thanks