I also ended up burning out and giving myself injury after injury. JMadd and TB stepped in with some solid advice. JMadd suggested to me some ideas on reducing my TM. These principals were later released as the Old Warhorse Template in AA. In my old log I called this my "reset". This was mentally very difficult for a guy like me who generally trains balls to the wall, but it worked like a charm. I recently completed my "reset", and not only am I back up to my previous TM, but it now feels easy and I feel as strong as ever. All without any of the injuries, pain, and problems I had before. If you're contemplating the Old Warhorse Template, I can't suggest it enough.
During this time I also had a realization of what I did wrong with my shotgun training approach. I revised this plan with some brain vomit I called "Goal Based Training". The short version is: progress priority domains with specific goals, while maintaining non-priority domains. The long version is quoted below (feel free to skip it). I do need to state that all TB books address the problem with the shotgun approach, I just needed to do some re-reading.
I've completed my reset. It's time to set and smash some goals.Goal Based Training
When you're a multi-domain operational athlete, and you want to be good at everything, it's easy to lose focus. Most of us know that training multiple domains at once makes you mediocre at all of those domains. However, once we start seeing progress on programs like TB that do such a great job balancing multiple fitness domains, it's easy to lose sight of that.
Not surprisingly TB2 actually covers the issue:
"First, Base-Build. Then, advance high priorities and maintain low priorities. Build general strength and endurance first. After base building, prioritize your fitness domains. Start training certain attributes less, and others more, based on your goals. Some attributes you will do the bare minimum to maintain, others you will actively attempt to advance."
With all of the great information in TB it's easy to lose sight of that. I want to highlight that statement and take it a bit further.
Climb the Rope
Training multiple fitness domains at once generally makes you mediocre at all of those domains. The body only has so much ability to adapt to training stimuli. Focus on one particular attribute produces greater results.
This is especially true for trained athletes. If you're untrained it's a lot easier to get up to par, a.k.a. "newbie gains". If you're new to training you might be able to go full steam ahead on multiple domains. If you're farther along in your training age, in any particular domain, the less ability your body has to adapt to training stimuli.
Maintenance is different. Maintaining physical performance, once you have it, is easier for your body than improving that performance.
So how do we go from mediocre in multiple domains to good, or even great? Improve in one domain at a time, and maintain the other domains. Just as the above quote from TB2 says.
Climb the rope. Hold yourself in place on the rope with your feet, your non-priority domains, and maintain. Then reach up with your arms, your priority domain, and pull yourself up. Not the best metaphor, but hopefully you get the point.
1. Base Build
TB II goes into great detail on why you should base build. I'm not going to get into it too much. If you don't have any strength or any endurance to start out with, then you have nothing to maintain.
2. Choose Your Domains
Not every domain is important to everyone. Pick a handful that matter to you most. If a domain doesn't matter, then don't pick it. Chances are that domain will get hit indirectly by a related domain.
I think domains can really vary. They might be generic like muscular strength, strength endurance, anaerobic capacity, or aerobic endurance. I think they can also be slightly more specific, such as distance running, sprint speed, traditional barbell strength, kettlebell strength endurance, or GC's.
Domains only matter because they help you choose your baselines for maintenance. No need to think too hard about them.
P.S. If MS isn't a domain you're interested in progressing or maintaining then you're kind of missing the boat, and you probably aren't doing TB.
3. Establish Baselines
This is where maintenance comes in. A baseline is a metric of performance you should be able to hit at any given time under adequate conditions. Baselines are not PRs.
An excellent example of a baseline that TB already uses is a 90% Training Maximum.
What the TB books don't get into is baselines for other domains. If your domain focus is muscular strength, and you're going balls-to-the-wall maximum effort on every HIC, your performance increases on muscular strength may suffer. So pick a few baselines within your chosen domains.
Baselines should be within your chosen maintenance domains, specific, and performed regularly.
For example: lets say the domain I want to focus on is my MS, but I want to maintain my short distance running speed and my distance running. My maintenance baselines for short distance running speed might be 5 rounds of Hill Sprints in 15 minutes, and 6 rounds of 600m Resets with a 2:30 pace and 5:00 rest. My baseline for distance running might be a 20:00 Fast 5 and a 10k LSS.
Choose a baseline you'll perform with regularity. If a 10:00 1.5 mile is your baseline, but you only run a 1.5 mile once a month, it isn't doing you much good as a measuring stick for maintenance.
Choose a couple baselines within the domain so you can change things up. I think it's ok to throw in things that aren't baselines, like an occasional GC in our example, but you should be performing a baseline or two every week.
The goal here is performance maintenance. It's hard to know if you're maintaining performance if you don't have a baseline to measure with.
4. Set Goals
Now choose goals within the domain you want to improve. SMART goals are a great way to go about this. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Realistic, and Time-based.
Examples are:
-Taking your bench press from a 160lb 1RM to a 170lb 1RM in 2 blocks.
-Reducing your 2 mile run time by 1 minute in 3 blocks.
-Going from 15 to 20 pull-ups in 1 block.
One goal is best. But sometimes it's reasonable to set more as long as they are in related domains and they don't interfere with each other. Increasing your max reps of push-ups and air squats by a specific number at the same time is reasonable. Improving your 100m sprint time and 800m sprint time by specific numbers at the same time is less realistic. That's not to say your deadlift won't go up if your main goal is your squat, but you may see more success by focusing on one.
Just remember that the more goals you set, the harder they will be to achieve.
Just an opinion here, but I think 2 standard blocks for any specific goal is going to be your sweet spot. Anything shorter doesn't give you much time to adapt to stimuli. Anything longer and it's easy to lose sight of your goal.
5. Create a Plan
Create a training plan based on your goals. If your main goal is to improve your bench, then Fighter Green might not be the best choice. If you want to improve your bench but really want to maintain your distance running, maybe go Operator Black Pro.
Same goes for any assistance work. The vast bulk of assistance work should support your primary goal. Like the bench example, maybe choose floor presses and dips. If your main goal is the 100m then maybe do bounding instead of bicep curls.
6. Execute and Achieve
Enough said. Stick to the plan!
7. Re-Assess
Reach your goal and want to go for a new one? Set new baselines based on your new fitness level, make a new plan, and charge ahead. Didn't reach you goal? Take a look at your training plan, change if needed, and dig in.
Conclusion
The above method is completely untested. It's simply a plan based on what I know from my education and experience, and a desire to be better than what I am. I didn't achieve a 3xBW DL while training for a marathon, and I didn't run a half-marathon while pushing barbell PR's.
Episodes
I'm going to break up my training into, for lack of a better word, Episodes (if you can think of a better name let me know lol). Each Episode will have a SMART goal or two. Each Episode will have a specific plan on how to reach those goals. Each Episode will be for a specific number of Blocks (probably around 3). Each Episode will have Baselines.
My next post in this log will be my plan for Episode 1.
