Posted on April 02, 2018 by Jenny Cromack

Its Monday 26th and today was 40th consecutive day of training. During my Training Experiment, I had a target of doing some form of exercise over Lent and I have 5 days left. If I am completely honest it’s not been that difficult to maintain. Training every day, like many factors in exercise and health, has just become a habit and the ‘norm’. Although it has not been difficult, I am still undecided whether it has actually been beneficial or not.

The ‘stats’

– Maintained body mass of 79kg (±1kg)
– Clean and Jerk Improve from a 6 to an 8 (out of 10) and Snatch from a 3 to a 5 (both subjective measures)
– Body composition has improved – again this is subjective (well and based on photos of my body image…)
– Strength in Clean, Back Squat and Deadlift all improve by 10% (5RM).

Argument AGAINST training every day

– Decreased quality of each session. Due to the large volume of training per week, I feel that some of my training sessions took a hit in intensity. Especially in the big compound lifts, I felt sometimes because I knew I was training the next day or had trained the day before I was slightly holding back.
– Not enough recovery. I feared training my have a negative effect on my recovery, I can not prove this – but the worry is if you study the supercompensation model – I wasn’t training when my body had made positive adaptations. More than likely I was training whilst my body was still adapting therefore potentially reducing performance.
– Nutrition. The idea of training everyday was obviously to improve every aspect of my physical health and appearance. However, due to the fact of my training me so difficult, I think my nutrition and diet took a slight hit. I wasn’t terrible, but not as good as I could have been. Potentially the extra days to rest, means I don’t crave such big portions or the quality of food I consumed improves.

Argument FOR training every day

– Despite the above, I probably am in the best shape of my life. I feel fit, strong, quick (relatively for me) and in good ‘nick’. If I am honest, that is what I was looking for at the start of the training block. Although, potentially the quality of some of my sessions were decreased I still have improved in each major aspect of training. At the end of the day that is the main goal.
– Psychological health. Now, I am far from a psychologist – but I really do think mentally I am in wonderful place, training makes me feel great and improves my mood instantly. It doesn’t have to be a long workout to reap the rewards of the endorphins flying around my body.

Is there a ‘happy-medium’?

Probably. Honestly, I don’t know, as you could never run a test on the same person and compare one person training every day and the other having the odd rest day. My feeling is, however, that if you just listen to your body you’ll be just fine. After Easter I am going to aim to train most days, but slightly less pressure on myself to do so – Easter Sunday I may enjoy a lazy day!!!