Gareth Philpotts
Avoiding the Christmas flu!
As quick as a flash, Christmas and the New Year have gone and were back to normality.
I noticed over the festive season how many people were ill again – I say AGAIN because I’ve noticed this pattern for the last several years.
Everyone thinks: “great I’ve broken up from work, I can enjoy some time with the family” and BANG! Flu hits you! Great!
This year I wasn’t going to miss my Christmas Turkey!
No chance!
So what did I do? And what’s Tim Ferriss got to do with it?
Just before the Christmas break, I had been struggling to recover from my training sessions, although I hadn’t been pushing that hard.
I had been eating and sleeping well but I just didn’t feel like I was recovering properly and I started to pick up a few joint issues.
I still wanted to train over the festive season but I needed a workout that wouldn’t tax my nervous system to much – helping me to avoid the flu and heal my aches and pains.
This is when I looked up at the book shelf and saw Tim Ferriss’ book The Four Hour body.
A light bulb went off inside my dimly lit brain!
The minimum effective dosage!
I took out the book and found a kettlebell programme that was about twenty minutes per session and only needed to be done three times per week! Awesome!
What’s the minimum effect dosage?
A kettle it will only boil water to one hundred degrees (centigrade), no more, regardless of how many times you switch it back on!
Your body works the same when you apply stress to it, such as exercise.
Doing three sets of push-ups (continuing until failure on the last set) may be enough to get your muscles to adapt and get the most beneficial hormone release.
Doing another three sets is just a waste of time and resources.
What’s the point unless you’re training to join the SAS or you want to improve your mental toughness? You’re just pissing into the wind! Sorry, that’s a technical term I like to use.
We all have limited time and resources. This is where the minimum effective dosage really helps. You get the most bang for your buck!
I used the kettlebell routine over the festive season and it worked brilliantly!
Although I still picked up a sore throat from the little one, I managed to survive without getting knocked off my feet and I was able to maintain my mental and physical health – the turkey was good too! 🙂
