I am about to enter the last day of my unemployment phase and my new employer will require me to work from office at least 3 days a week. I expect one journey to the office will take up to 50 minutes by car. At the same time I am passionate a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) hobbyist (in the Gi) and I try to keep up with tough individuals, that I am facing in competition and keep growing with my team mates in the gym. Consequently, I train at home to strengthen my body and to prevent injury.
The past 3 years I have worked entirely from home. There was no need to commute long distances between office and home. This made it easier to routinely do some calisthenics at home and take up to 3 BJJ classes a week. Ever since I have become father of a beautiful son, which I cherish most, time has become a scarce resource, especially time in which I am able to perform a fulfilling training routine. While a toddler brings the greatest of joys, he is also often sick as soon as child day care or Kindergarten comes into play, which will cause you to be sick more often, too. In addition, you have to entertain, teach, change diapers, and juggle all of the housework. Having a job and adequately caring for a child - maybe even sneaking in some housework - is enough to take up all of the time and energy you get for the day.
The only reason I am able to train as much is that I can rely on my partner to take care the child, when I am out training. To make up for it I try to get as much of the housework done in my remaining time and take over child care on other evenings. Long story short: In order to be able to train I need to juggle time, energy and sleep so I can train and recover trom taxing BJJ sparring and calisthenics at home.
I have a set minimum goal to take 2 BJJ classes per week. Apart from that I train at home as it gives me a lot of flexibility and I do not have to commute anywhere. I cannot afford to do long and exhaustive training sessions, because I want to still have energy left for housework and family. I have come to the conclusion that I can currently only stick to consistent training, if I keep it short and simple. As a result I established to do short sessions of 30 mins max. a day. I do bodyweight training and full-body workouts only, because I like being independent of equipment and bodyweight exercises still offer me plenty opportunity to grow. A session consists of a warm-up and a training circle of one push, one pull and one leg exercise to cover all bases. The circle is repeated only up to 3 times. On bad days I only do one set of each type. Sometimes I add some ‘accessory’ exercises to the end. Any set is done to failure and I do not bother tracking repetitions. Training to failure for me means, that I can no longer perform the exerise controlled and precise. Repetitions should use full range of motion and control as I want to strengthen my joints and avoid injury. During warm-up I need to prepare wrists, elbows, shoulders, knees and hips. The following table shows my planned exercises by weekday.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Push | Push-up (wide grip) | Push-up (shoulder-wide grip) | Push-up (narrow grip) | Pike Push-up | Spiderman Push-up | Dips | Anything |
| Pull | Pull-up (wide grip) | Pull-up (shoulder-wide grip) | Pull-up (hammer-grip) | Chin-ups | Rows | Pull-up (shoulder-wide grip) | Anything |
| Legs | Pistol Squat | Cossack Squat | Lunges | Pistol Squat | Cossack Squat | Lunges | Squats |
| Accessory | Nordic Curl & Tibialis Raise | Back Extension & Calf Raises | Nordic Curl & Tibialis Raise | Back Extension & Calf Raises | Nordic Curl & Tibialis Raise | Back Extension & Calf Raises | Anything |
In general, I avoid to do the same exercise 2 days in a row and try to perform each exercise only up to twice a week to target a wide range of muscle groups and avoid overtraining the same muscles. The goal is to do the training in the morning before commuting to work as I have read exercise in the morning might have positive impact on sleep - the book mentioning this was “Why we sleep” by Matthew Walker, I think. I try to dedicate 5-10 minutes to warm-up and another 15 minutes for the circle, so I can attend work early enough to be able leave for BJJ class in time. I allow myself to skip training entirely the next day, if I need more rest after hard sparring or I just really need the recovery. My major focus is to simply get to train consistently rather than having an optimized or exhaustive workout. I do not follow any repetition goals for any exercise. If I feel that I have reached a plateau in any exercise, I will simply progress to a harder variation.
This has not really happened for years though as I have discovered more and more tweaks for most basic exercises to make them cleaner and harder. An example are my pull-ups. 10 years ago I did over 20 repetitions of spazzy, quick, hammer-grip pull-ups. Nowadays I struggle to get 5 wide grip pull-ups. However I try to go all the way up and down, I try to keep an arched back, try to press my scapula down before moving up and move my chest to the bar in a controlled fashion. It feels like a long way to go in order to master the basics still.
What inspired me the most to do this kind of training is Calimove - they have an excellent YouTube channel and really great online training plans on their website. For the past months I used their Mobility Program 2.0 for warm-up and I do lot of the moves explained in there to warm myself up for BJJ classes. Another influence on my approach to training is the YouTube channel of Kboges - his videos inspired me to really focus on consistency in training and treat it as a form of ‘physiological hygiene’ as he phrases it. Basically, it means to treat training like brushing your teeth: to view it as necessary for your health and as a daily routine.