Throughout 2022, I experimented with some new fitness concepts and did a lot of thinking about restructuring my fitness routines around lifelong fitness.

My current plan has three areas of focus: Lifting, Cardio, Mobility.

Lifting

I’m doing a low volume plan: 3x/wk (chest/back, shoulders/arms, legs), 10 or so exercises each time. Going close to failure (last rep with good form). A few sets of abs on 2 other days a week before cardio.

I searched for a couple of different programs when designing this and eventually ran across Skip Hill’s plan: The TEAM SKIP Training Protocol of 2022. I adapted it for myself and came up with a program that generally follows that outline.

To start the year, I did a meso with 4 weeks of 1 set and 2 weeks of 2 sets and then a deload week. Good, but 4 weeks of 1 set got boring. I’m going to try 2 weeks of 1 set, 2 weeks of 2 sets, then deload. Then maybe 1, 1, 2, 3, deload. Don’t want to get back to heavy volume all the time, but I like working out :-D.

A couple of other changes I’ve made this year:

  • Emphasize 2-3 minutes of rest (vs. the 1-2 minutes I used to take). Offset the extra time/boredom by supersetting opposing muscles.
  • Do an isolation exercise first. I’ve historically followed the “big lifts first” school of thought. Get them out of the way first when you’re freshest, that way you can see progress better rather than being affected by tiredness from other excercises. Since I’m not going for a record, though, then being warm and activated is more important than seeing numbers go up.

Cardio

Right now, I’m mostly doing incline treadmill at Zone 2 pace for cardio – 3-4 days a week for 30-60 minutes. I eyeball Zone 2 for me at 135-145 bpm. Some days if I can’t make it to the gym or feel like getting outside I’ll do a jog, weighted vest walk, or drills (skipping, cutting, jumping).

I’ve had noticable improvement of my zone 2 pace over the past couple months. I started around 3.2 mph at incline 8 and am now at 3.6 mph incline 11 for zone 2. It will be interesting to see if that continues and how far I can take it. I wonder if there are incline treadmill standards for noob vs. trained zone 2.

I also play Ultimate Frisbee once a week which covers speed, intervals, etc. And I’ve been biking the 2 miles to the gym instead of driving – doesn’t take any more time to bike and gets some more motion in, and a nice little warmup.

Mobility

I’ve tried “stretching” in the past and never had good results – whether it be just random static stretching or more organized things like yoga. RomWod was OK but even there the static holds really didn’t feel super good and I didn’t see progress over time. It just didn’t really produce results.

Instead, I’ve been doing mobility work. This stemmed from several sources – Knees Over Toes Guy with the idea to develop strength in end ranges, a video I found with a hip routine for adductor issues, GMB’s mobility program, etc..

All of that combined to give the idea for a daily routine where I dynamically move joints through their ranges.

In the morning as soon as I wake up I’ll put the coffee on and then do a bit of bodyweight mobility like leg swings, single leg rdl, etc. while its brewing.

Then at night when I’m watching TV and winding down, I’ll do a 20 minute mobility routine – either one of the programs I mentioned earlier or just some random dynamic stretching I come up with on the fly.

This has noticably improved my range of motion. I can touch my toes without a problem or warmup.