In this short article, we literally do what it says on the tin – we string together all of the points raised within the other articles in this series, making sense of it all.
For this article to make sense, you will have needed to have read the following articles in this series:
You’ve got a great diet which not only looks after your long term health, but provides the essential carbohydrate to give you the energy to exercise hard, providing the stimulus for adaptation. You’re also regularly consuming high quality protein to provide the building blocks for repair and adaptation. On top of this, you’re fuelling your longer exercise sessions and thinking about the cumulative loading of the training sessions you complete as this determines which additional Performance Nutrition Products you need to consider. None of this changes if you’re wanting to lose weight either, you’re going to do exactly the same, just with a 500 calorie negative energy balance.
It may be that you’re not a cyclist specifically, but if you are and you own an indoor trainer, or have access to an exercise bike at your local gym, please take the time to look over our Indoor Training Plan document. We have put together some progressively harder weeks based on your self-assessed fitness. The low fitness weeks will require less nutritional intervention (meaning the use of specific TORQ products) than the harder weeks (for medium and high fitness). There’s a simple rule – if you’re not doing a huge amount, you will get little or no benefit from using specifically formulated energy or recovery products. If on the other hand you’re doing a lot, they will make a huge difference to your performance and fitness progression. This is essentially called ‘periodized nutrition’ and focusses on consuming the appropriate fuel for the work required.
If you advance to the ‘high fitness level’ session structure, remember to give yourself an easy week every now and then. Perhaps you could follow our ‘high fitness level’ plan for 3 weeks and then back off and follow the ‘low fitness level’ session structure for a week, before returning to the structure you were doing before. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, so don’t drive yourself into oblivion. This process is called ‘periodization of training’ and it ensures optimal adaptation to your exercise plan as well as mental freshness – the latter can easily be ignored. Work hard, give yourself some light at the end of the tunnel, enjoy your easier week and take the pressure off.
If you’re neither a cyclist, nor have the inclination to follow a cycling-specific plan, no problem. Hopefully the information provided in these resources will have been useful to help you rationalise your own personal exercise regime. All of the principles discussed still apply to you, whether you’re a cyclist or not.
If you need any help or advice, TORQ has been a Fitness Consultancy since 1999, so give us a call on 0344 332 0852 or email enquiries@torqfitness.co.uk and talk to us. Click HERE for further information on our Fitness Consultancy services.
