Building Your Savings Account

The following is an original blog post I wrote on October 12, 2015. I was inspired to post it again after having this exact same conversation with the exact same client as she took on her first in gym workout after quarantining. After nearly 5 years of training, she’s built enough savings that a month off will do no harm.

Training for Life – Starting Your Own Savings Account 

This post was inspired by a recent conversation with a client. 

The client had been traveling and they had to take a week off. The week before they only got one workout in. So, it had been some time since they were doing their normal workout program.

After getting in all regularly scheduled workouts in this week, her body was pretty beat up. Since they have taken some time off, the readjustment to training took a toll Not a big toll, like they couldn’t do what they were doing a week before, but things that were normally easy weren’t as easy. Things that didn’t make her breath hard before were making her out of breath this week. 

 So what’s all that have to do with your savings account? 

Well, the client asked if they would have to keep up a training regiment of 3 days per week for the rest of their life if they wanted to keep reaping the benefits from this style of training. 

 That’s not the case at all. 

 Training is like building a savings account. This client has been practicing strength and conditioning for only 4-5 months. 

 Early on in your practice you will need to train more frequently. The more your practice, the more you have in your savings account. 

 For example, I have been training for over 10 years now. I have a big savings account because of this. I’ve put in enough money (hard work) to be able to take a week or two off here or there and not have it effect my strength or conditioning very much. 

 While initially you must keep up the frequency to see the desired benefits, eventually, once you build a large enough savings account, you will be able to live off that savings more.

For every person, the necessary frequency is different. Some it is 3 days, some it is 4, others it could be 1. 

 The point is that training is part of your lifestyle. It is something that you should want to do for the rest of your life. But as you increase your training age (how long you have been doing it) the benefits are more likely to stick around – and you’ll be less sore when returning to workout out after a brief hiatus. 

 No matter how big your savings account is though, there will always be a point where it runs out. Never stop. Train for life.