What Do You Want To Know?

[Damer]

Fellow Bees, I am thinking about the next AMA. Is there something you feel you'd benefit most if I focus on that? In which case what is it? Or do you just want me to throw an open one like we did last time? Let me know in your suggestions below and those of you who want to support a particular suggestion someone else has made give it a thumbs up so you don't have to repeat it. The one with the most thumbs up will be the one I pick to focus on.

 

[J_o_h_n]

@Damer
Last month you provided some eye opening discussions and research report outs by Dr Galpin and Dr Huberman. I have listed to 4 or 5 of their joint podcasts at least once and a couple of those a second time so I could take some notes. It is a wealth of information! I wish they would write a book with a summary section that distills these sessions into more succinct pieces. They give some useful links and references, but something to tie it all together in a quick, actionable reference would be very helpful.

One idea that really hit home for me as a non-professional athlete exercise enthusiast was the idea Dr. Galpin presented here on creating a year-round, quarterly rotating program that likely aligns to how many of our lives progress during the seasons of a calendar year. 5 week loading, 1 week deload, 5 week load, 1 week deload = 1 quarter. I also loved the idea of how he mixed in indoor sports for cold seasons with outdoor sports/activities for warm seasons along with quarterly based training focuses (hypertrophy, strength, speed, conditioning, etc) based on the time an average person can realistically devote to training. It made me think about the training programs here on DAREBEE and wishing for a simplified way to arrange these into a year long program and maybe similar to the push/pull A B have some suggested workouts for each quarterly phase. As an example, after listening to that podcast a couple of times, I was thinking Amazon or Guardian align closely with my fitness goals now for the spring. In a month or so, I may want to move to more cardio/HIIT to lean down even further for aesthetic reasons as I think about summer vacation plans.

I guess my suggestion/thought for a topic surrounds the idea of how to think about creating a year-round, long-term focused, realistic goal oriented seasonal training for the non-professional athlete who wants new challenges and activities throughout the year to keep up motivation.

You like easy questions... . I know this one is not...and maybe not a short enough topic for the monthly AMA either, but you asked what I want to know .

John

 

[Montserrat]

Hi @Damer!

I've been thinking about this. I do not have any particular questions at this point. Darebee has so many resources available that a lot of stuff is very well covered.

But, in general, I would love to hear more from you about the following (broad) topics, just because they are things I am now trying to learn a bit more about:

• how to improve flexibility & mobility
• meditation & breathing

Maybe you have some thoughts on these subjects that can help!

 

[Damer]

Some really great suggestions here. I am thinking about them all. I will keep this open until the 28th April to give you all a chance to think about it and comment or vote. I will then announce which direction the next AMA will take. You guys are amazing!

 

[TopNotch]

I like both of those suggestions, but to @Montserrat 's suggestion about flexibility and mobility, I would add the questions of which types of stretching are best to do before and after (I read you should never do static stretching before MA training, and then I read that static stretching is fine... ), and is stretching actually really necessary before training as opposed to after.

 

[Damer]

I love both suggestions made here by @J_o_h_n and @Montserrat. The latter has the edge by one vote so unless anything changes drastically between today and tomorrow when I close this thread it looks like I will be focusing on stretching, flexibility, its effects on muscle strength and growth, mobility and range of motion that adds to power. @J_o_h_n's suggestion is also something that I feel we ought to discuss so what I shall do is open two AMA threads back to back so we have one in May that tackles flexibility and stretching and one in June that addresses how we can best train all year round, what considerations we can take on-board and what stumbling blocks we face. That way, at least, I shall be able to do justice to both. I mention all this here because, ideally, I also want you to start thinking about the issues you experience as you, first, try to become more flexible and also what you may need to know in terms of becoming more flexible.

 

[Fremen]

Flexibility, stretching and an annual training schedule... make for very interesting reading

 

[Montserrat]

Wow! Looking forward to all of this!

 

[Damer]

So, cool. We shall go as I suggested, guided by your preferences and votes: In May I will open an AMA thread on mobility, flexibility, range of motion (ROM) and how we can best incorporate stretching so that we benefit in terms of strength, speed and power. - Please start prepping your questions. And in June we tackle the 'how do we best train all year round' question which is a mountain to climb.

Thank you so much for participating in this thread, putting your suggestions in and voting on what you want to start with.