“You want explosive power, strength, flexibility, endurance… how can you develop all of that at the same time? Maybe you had better stop and think what you’re actually training for,” Vedat commented to me a few weeks ago when we were discussing the impending changes to my fitness routine.
Vedat, my dear friend, seven years my junior (and quite uncannily the male version of me in drive and personality), brought up some points that I couldn’t ignore.
At that stage, my mixed martial arts group had broken up for the summer, so my routine had wound down to just predawn running and bodyweight exercises, then bodybuilding after work, and motocross/enduro on the weekends, so I started parkour classes (basically to learn how to do backflips) and wound up in acroyoga.
I always enjoy a variety–and my ketogenic diet keeps me so energetic I have trouble expending my batteries. But still, Vedat’s question needed an answer. Goals require focus; I didn’t know what my goals were, so how was I going to focus?
I really didn’t know what I was training for, I just knew that I had all this energy and a desire to advance my level of fitness. I know what I enjoy: the endurance of extreme sports, the stress release of martial arts, the aesthetic result of bodybuilding, the fluid flexibility of acroyoga, the core strength/balance/grace of gymnastics… And, well, just everything having to do with motocross/enduro.
I was still considering Vedat’s question when I came across this Ido Portal interview and found my answer. Epiphany.
What Ido talks about is everything that I’m looking for. Body control in movement.
Now I just have to understand what Ido Portal does to get to that point and that will be my new training program.