Biohacking My Personal Fitness
Component 3
My One-Year Challenge 2020
My one-year challenge is where I build on all the knowledge and practice I have compiled together in this final project…
The most effective way I have found of bringing about positive change in my life is by adopting new habits and by holding myself accountable to consistently performing those habits over a significant period of time.
Therefore, now (at the close of 2019) that I have completed bringing together all the elements of this final project, I am going to start my One-Year Challenge at the beginning of January 2020.
Throughout 2020, I will journal and blog about my personal fitness progression and then at the beginning of 2021, I will return back here and provide a summative report on how the whole process went.
Below are the four areas of development my One-Year Challenge will focus on…
11. Dynamic Physicality
Developing My Ideal Physique with a Broad Range of Functional Fitness
My goal for this challenge is to develop a lean and toned athletic physique that is strong, flexible, explosive, controlled and fully functional in an array of activities.
With my current physical activity and diet program, I already possess and maintain the basic lean foundation of my ideal body type. Also, thanks to my yoga, HIIT, weightlifting and calisthenics my body is already very functional.
However, in terms of lean muscle mass and full dynamic functionality, my body is still lacking and not quite where I want it to be.
Currently, my weight averages around 65 kg, but I would like to build that up to 75kg and I want to possess all-round better explosive strength in all my body’s muscle groups.
As I want to transition away from long distance running, as the evidence is mounting for it really not being good for the long-term health of your heart, I have been focusing more so on short jogs and bursts of high intensity sprints as part of my dynamic runs.
However, I have also been attempting to teach myself freerunning/parkour, as this is something I wanted to be able to do for so long now.
The issue I am currently having, though, is my body is just not strong enough, in the right gymnastic way, to be able to perform freerunning properly. Therefore, this is one of the key areas I am looking to develop my dynamic physicality.
Thus far, I have been experimenting with different training orientations that have led to the summation of the Biohacking My Personal Fitness project.
However, I have been unable to develop my ideal physique and full functionality due to the lack of a consistent training program throughout.
Therefore, my One-Year Challenge is going to implement a coherent and complex weekly training program that will build on my already established physical activities, diet and psychological wellbeing concerns.
There are two key and specialised physical activity programs I am going to incorporate into this new weekly program. I will also adjust these programs to my needs where necessary…
The Year One Challenge for Men – Bigger Leaner Stronger by Mike Matthews
See an overview of the BLS Challenge The bodybuilding focus of The Year One Challenge works as a very good replacement for my current weightlifting regime (which was already developed from Mike Matthews guidance in his Bigger Leaner Stronger book). For the sake of simplicity and to differentiate from the name of my overall one-year challenge, I am going to refer to this program as the BLS Challenge. The BLS Challenge offers three weightlifting training options, a 5-day regime, a 4-day regime and a 3-day regime. I am currently on a 4-day weightlifting regime… Day 1 – Upper Body A: Chest & Shoulders I was going to replace this with the 3-day regime, but after trying out it out in September, 2019, doing it three days a week very quickly did my head in (just like doing it four days a week was doing my head in). What I really wanted was a two-day regime, so after chopping the middle day in half and giving a half to the two days either side of it, I now have two slightly extended days of weightlifting that I do on Sundays and Tuesdays. I have been doing this two-day orientation since the beginning of October, 2019 and it is working just fine. I can not complain! I started the BLS program a few months earlier because I wanted to give myself an opportunity where I could phase out my calisthenics for a while and focus on getting comfortable with more advanced weightlifting. I now feel very comfortable with this more advanced program and I have adjusted it and added to it slightly, but I am still pretty much following the program as set out in the BLS One-Year Challenge. While the point of including BLS Challenge in my training regime is to build and maintain lean muscle mass. I have no interest in becoming a bodybuilding beast that losses a broad range of functionality due to too much muscle getting in the way. As always, the point of including weightlifting in my weekly regime is to allow me to bulk up a bit, but not too much! The Shredded Academy 1.0 – Body Alchemy by Adam Frater See an overview of TSA 1.0 I’ve been looking forward to introducing calisthenics back into my weekly regime, because I have been missing it. The chap who developed this program, Adam Frater, is someone I follow on Instagram and you can see from his posts that he has an insanely jacked program for empowering his body with a functional fitness that defies the laws of gravity! As soon as I discovered he offered a structured program for reaching his level of fitness, I knew I was going to eventually purchase it and incorporate it into my weekly program. Not only because it ticked all the right functional fitness boxes (that my weightlifting really isn’t making up for), but it offered a means of getting into the shape I ned to be in to successful do freerunning. The Shredded Academy is an 8-week program with about 45-minute training sessions 6 days a week, with a slight variation in the training focus every two weeks. Admittedly, it’s a bit more than what I would have liked to have done, but if it gets me the results I want, I will make it work. The only downside is that I am going to have to double up two days a week, where I have to do calisthenics and weightlifting on the same day. My feeling is that I am going to have to adapt and change this program slightly, I won’t yet where and how until I have tried out for a few weeks, but I have a suspicion that I may have to incorporate more of an emphasis on plyometrics, as the plyometrics promised in TSA program seem to be lacking slightly. I don’t think they are going to give me the explosive power I am looking for. I also have a worry that weightlifting and calisthenics of this intensity, together with everything else I have to get done on a weekly basis, may prove to be too much. Again, I won’t know until I have tried it for a few weeks. However, if it is too much, I will take my weekly program and split into a bi-weekly program, where one week I will do weightlifting and the next week I will do my calisthenics. In which case, this 8-week program will then become a 16-week program. There is also a more advanced follow-up program, The Shredded Academy Vol. 2, that I may invest in after the 8-weeks are up, because I need to keep these advanced calisthenics going for a year alongside my weightlifting. However, I may also just keep repeating the initial 8-week program over-and-over again at increasing intensities. My New Dynamic Weekly Training Program (that may end up being an alternating Two-Week Program) See the two variations of my new training program One-Week Program Day 1 – Sunday 06:10 06:20 06:30 Day 2 – Monday 15:00 Day 3 – Tuesday 10:00 23:30 00:10 Day 4 – Wednesday 10:00 10:30 Day 5 – Thursday 15:00 15:10 Day 6 – Friday TSA Calisthenics – Full Body Mobility (45 mins) OR Cardio (45 mins) Dynamic Outdoor Running (I can combine TSA Cardio with this) Day 7 – Saturday REST Two-Week Variation Week 1 – BLS Weightlifting + HIIT + Yoga + Dynamic Running + TSA Cardio Day 1 – Sunday 06:10 06:20 Day 2 – Monday REST Day 3 – Tuesday 23:30 00:10 Day 4 – Wednesday REST Day 5 – Thursday 15:00 16:00 Day 6 – Friday Dynamic Outdoor Run + TSA Cardio Day 7 – Saturday REST Week 2 – TSA Calisthenics + HIIT + Yoga Day 8 – Sunday 06:10 06:20 Day 9 – Monday 15:00 Day 10 – Tuesday 10:00 10:10 Day 11 – Wednesday 15:00 15:30 Day 12 – Thursday 16:00 16:10 Day 13 – Friday 16:00 Day 14 – Saturday REST
Day 2 – Lower Body: Legs & Core
Day 3 – Upper Body B: Arms & Back
Day 4 – Mid-Section: Abs & Core
HIIT Maintenance – Rowing Machine (10 mins)
TSA Calisthenics – Chest (45 mins) OR Push + Pull (45 mins)
BLS Weight Training – Back + Biceps + Abs + Chest (100 mins)
TSA Calisthenics – Legs (45 mins)
TSA Calisthenics – Back (45 mins)
HIIT Maintenance – Spin Cycle (10 mins)
BLS Weightlifting – Triceps + Calves + Legs + Shoulders + Abs (120 mins)
Yoga (30 mins)
TSA Calisthenics – Shoulders (45 mins)
HIIT Maintenance – Elliptical (10 mins)
TSA Calisthenics – Arms + Core (45 mins)
HIIT Maintenance – Rowing Machine (10 mins)
BLS Weightlifting – Back + Biceps + Abs + Chest (100 mins)
HIIT Maintenance- Spin Cycle (10 mins)
BLS Weightlifting – Triceps + Calves + Legs + Shoulders + Abs (120 mins)
Yoga (1 hr)
HIIT Maintenance – Elliptical (10 mins)
HIIT Maintenance – Rowing Machine (10 mins)
TSA Calisthenics – Chest (45 mins)
TSA Calisthenics – Legs (45 mins)
HIIT Maintenance (10 mins)
TSA Calisthenics – Back (45 mins)
Yoga (30 mins)
TSA Calisthenics – Shoulders (45 mins)
HIIT – Elliptical (10 mins)
TSA Calisthenics – Arms & Core (45 mins)
TSA Calisthenics – Full Body Mobility (45 mins)
22. Green Eating
Clean and Sustainable Eating with a System That Works
I have already tried this one out in different shapes and forms over the past couple of years.
Eating clean is not the problem but eating consistently clean AND sustainably has always proved to be a challenge.
I am in a somewhat advantageous position because I live in Bristol, which is already a very green city (apart from the air pollution) and provides access to many green resources therein, including clean and sustainable food.
The issue is not access to sustainable food products, the issue is that I am just not very good at sticking to a consistent routine or buying and eating clean and sustainable food.
So I intend to spend 2020 doing, establishing a consistent buying and eating food routine.
33. Mindfulness Mastery
Consistent Meditation and Eating Mindfully
Mindfulness meditation is a huge part of my calm as a person, but I still feel that it is lacking in two key areas.
Even after completing a year of doing it daily, I am still struggling to do it daily.
I want to be much more mindful when I am eating and I would like to place more of an emphasis on developing this skill. Not only because it will allow me to enjoy my food more, but because it stops me from mindlessly overeating when I am bored or worried.
44. Pete Be Journaling
Keeping detailed records of my health and fitness data
So with this one, I am going to be…
Self-tracking all my biometric physical activity and diet data.
This is not complicated, just have to remember to keep my tech with me and to use it correctly.
Keeping detailed notes in my OneNote fitness journal about my progress throughout my One Year Challenge.
This is especially important because it keeps me orientated towards what I am doing on what day (keeping my Google Calendar up-to-date will also help here).
It also provides me with reflection and suggestion space for tweaks and improvements to my training program.
Occasionally post an update and reflection post on my blog about my One Year Challenge progress and how my fitness regime and personal fitness results are evolving.
This is one of the reasons while keeping my self-tracking and OneNoting up-to-date is so important because they provide snapshots of my performance on each day and week.
Also, this blogging can only happen once I have got my personal website with its blog finished and live online; I am looking at you MTA Concentration 10 Final Project, I need to get it finished!