Over the past few weeks I have come to identify a few things that were not working for me not only in the way I trained, but also in what my day shaped up to be like. First of all, I was lacking structure in my day particularly in my glass art and that overflowed in other areas. Next my training got to be a hamster wheel of excitement. In other words: boring!! Some people do well in day to day routine of doing the same thing day in and day out. That's purgatory for me. The third thing I noticed is that I have my UBBT yearly goals and my daily goals, but no weekly goals. For me, a weekly goal is a better measuring stick of how I am doing. So now that I've identified the issues, what are the solutions?
Solution 1: a weekly week-at-a-glance schedule of my core activities that include Kung Fu classes, I Ho Chuan classes, fitness classes, open training, Hot Yoga Classes, torching (glass art), and appointments. Of course my shows are scheduled in as well. These are the first things that go into my schedule. I have instituted the structure but also left it open enough so that I'm not micro-managing myself.
Solution 2: a color-coded week-at-a-glance schedule much like the class schedule I had when I worked at Nait. The purpose of this schedule is to theme my days. For example: Mondays are Kung Fu and Hot Yoga with the afternoons for the business side of my glass art. When I worked at Nait, I used both types of schedules and it worked really well for me so I'm implementing it here (good thing I still have the template). The beauty of this schedule is that when I wake up in the morning, and realize what day it is, I know what direction my day is going and where I can slot in my daily training.
Solution 3: speaking of daily training, I looked at my yearly goals and broke them down into weekly goals. Then I divided my activities into a daily and specific day schedule with Sunday being a total rest day unless I want to play around with something. Pushups and situps are a daily activity, Monday/Wednesday/Friday I do Kempo, combinations, horse stance, air squats, Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday I have hand and weapon forms, plank, squat thrusts, kicks. Getting back to pushups and situps: I have a weekly goal of 1000 per week, however, that does not mean 150 a day. I have a routine where 240 are done in a day therefor I have just about all of my pushups and situps done in 4 days. So what this looks like is Monday/Tuesday and Thursday/Friday are heavy numbers days. Wednesday is a light day (my chiropractor appointments are on Wednesdays and no training after) and so is Saturday where I can test myself with different positions and try other methods. By setting up my training this way I am giving not only giving variety but also inserting rest periods. I will also do an at-a-glance schedule specifically for training so at the start of my day I know what I have to accomplish.
Solution 4: I noticed a BIG difference when I took a break from Hot Yoga. My shoulders were crawling up to my ears and my hips were crankier. So I have now incorporated Hot Yoga after Kung Fu classes on Mondays and Wednesdays as well as on Fridays. A side note is that my Hot Yoga is before my chiropractor appointment so that should yield good benefit there. The buckets that I sweat during the class leads to fat loss (safer not to argue with me on this one) as well as a toxin flush-out.
I'm quite excited about my new schedule as it gives me direction and structure in my day as well as a guide to see how well my goals are being accomplished. As I see it, the only way to know for sure is to take this on a test drive. Nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Sherri Donohue
Silent River Kung Fu, Stony Plain, Alberta
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