Basic Pursuits

Hard work will get you very far in life, but hard work plus proper and smart planning will get you even farther. This is what separates the achievers from the over-achievers. One of my favorite forms of training is High Frequency Training (HFT). HFT allows you to achieve multiple goals at once and gives you the freedom of changing various aspects of your routine as you see fit.

The key to making HFT work for you is to start off from the basics. Get yourself training 3 days a week on a consistent basis. Make a long list of goals that you want to achieve, then narrow it down to the top three goals. For example:

Goal One:    Increase Push Press by 50lbs
Goal Two:    Lose love handles
Goal Three:    Run 2 miles in 14 minutes

As you can see, these goals are drastically different. In order to successfully achieve all three goals, you can set up your training schedule in such a way where you are addressing each goal on a different day. For example, day one you would address goal one, day two address goal two, and day three address goal three.

The lovely part about this system is that you get to understand how all three goals are interrelated. In order to increase your Push Press, you will have to do some maximal strength training, which will help you put on some muscle to help lose those love handles. In order to lose your love handles you may have to do some high intensity cardio or circuit training, which will help you improve your power for the 2-mile run. Running two miles will help you increase your aerobic capacity and aid breathing for when you push heavier weights.

This interrelation is the key benefit to High Frequency Training.

There are many mistakes that trainees make in typical programs, which are easily solved in HFT workouts:

1) Doing too much of the same thing    -    Performing the same type of workouts day in and day out stagnates your results and causes your body to adapt to similar stimuli. The key is to change up your training on a constant basis.

2) Lack of Balance in training programs    -    When you do the same thing over and over, you develop an overemphasis on one thing. For example, bodybuilders may be very big, but are they as strong as they look? Are they flexible? Runners can run long distance, but do their low levels of body fat give them a aesthetically pleasing look?

3) Lack of Intensity    -    Because we do the same thing day in and day out, and worry about conserving energy for the next day, we do not give it all we can in our workouts. HFT takes away this worry because we know that our next workout will be different than our current workout. This way, we can lift our maximal weights one day, then go out for a run the next day.

Once you can stick to an HFT program 3 days a week, the next step is to gradually increase your frequency. It wouldn’t by High Frequency Training if you weren’t training at a high frequency.

You can either add an extra day to your week, or add an extra session. Strive to perform 6 workouts a week. Make sure you are doing something different every day. Sometimes only one goal may take over all other goals. For example, my current goal is to get myself to single digit body fat. However, I still perform an HFT routine by changing up my protocols and training style everyday. This prevents boredom and adaptation.

Keys to success with HFT:

1.    Train for multiple goals at once
2.    Research and experiment with different training protocols
3.    Learn new exercises and use what works
4.    Focus on consistency
5.    Gradually increase your frequency

HFT for One Singular Goal

Lets say you are in my situation and wish to train for one single goal of losing body fat. How do you effectively use HFT? The idea then changes from training for multiple goals to training using multiple protocols and workouts. For example, here is a good fat-burning program using HFT principles:

Day One:    Rounds Training

Round One:    One-arm Kettlebell Clean and Press
Round Two:    One-arm Kettlebell Snatches
Round Three:    Turkish Get-up
Round Four:    One-arm Kettlebell Overhead Squat
Round Five:    One-arm Kettlebell Swing

Each round is one minute long. Perform the exercise for one minute straight through. After the minute, continue immediately to the next exercise. Perform 3 to 5 rounds.

Day Two:    High Octane Cardio

One Minute Shadowboxing
10 V-ups

One Minute Shadowboxing
20 one-arm dumbbell T-push-ups

One Minute Shadowboxing
30 Lunges

One Minute Shadowboxing
40 Leg Raises

Day Three:    300 workout

25 Pull-ups
50 Pushups
50 One-arm Kettlebell Front Squats (25 each side)
50 Floor Wipers (25 each side)
50 one-arm kettlebell Windmills (25 each side)
25 Squat Jumps
50 Kettlebell Bent-over Row    (25 each side)

As you can see, I tried not to repeat the same exercises. The training methods are very different, however are all conducive to a fat-burning protocol. Come up with your own HFT program using the principles that I have presented.