Welcome to the Training Notes Newsletter.
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Midweek is where good training plans quietly succeed or fail. Not because you need a heroic effort, but because you either preserve capacity or you leak it with little “extras” that don’t look like much in the moment.
Today’s theme: downshift on purpose. Keep some movement in the day, but make it easy enough that you finish feeling more capable than when you started—like you’re keeping the engine idling, not revving it.
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TODAY’S TRAINING NOTES
Here are two options for today’s training session. Choose Strength if you want the more resistance-focused option or better lifting practice today. Choose Conditioning if you want simpler aerobic work or a lower-lifting-stress session. Pick the one that best fits your schedule, readiness, and goals. Feel free to make substitutions if you need to adjust the exercises.
Strength
Warm Up
- Worlds Greatest Stretch — 2 Sets × 30 Seconds
- Cat Camel — 2 Sets × 6 Reps
- 90 90 Hip Switch — 2 Sets × 6 Reps
- Quadruped T Spine Rotation — 2 Sets × 6 Reps
- Ankle Rockers on Wall — 2 Sets × 8 Reps
Main Workout
- Easy Cardio (any modality) — 1 Set × 25 Minutes
Cool Down
- Couch Stretch — 2 Sets × 45 Seconds
- Doorway Pec Stretch — 2 Sets × 45 Seconds
- Seated Hamstring Stretch — 2 Sets × 45 Seconds
- Supine Spinal Twist — 2 Sets × 45 Seconds
- 4 7 8 Breathing — 4 Sets × 1 Breath
Total time: 40 minutes
Conditioning
Warm Up
- Easy effort — 1 Set × 10 Minutes (50–65% max HR)
Main Workout
- Steady easy effort — 1 Set × 20 Minutes (55–65% max HR)
Cool Down
- Very easy effort — 1 Set × 5 Minutes (50–60% max HR)
Total time: 35 minutes
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Today’s Research Note
A useful recovery skill is being able to “hit the brakes” on demand. Physiologically, that’s shifting toward parasympathetic dominance—lowering arousal so heart rate, breathing rate, and muscle tone come down instead of staying stuck in a mild stress state.
The catch is that recovery isn’t just what you do after training; it’s also what you stop doing between sessions. If your day is packed with caffeine, constant task-switching, and late-night screen time, your body can stay keyed up even when you’re sitting still. That makes easy training feel harder, sleep less restorative, and soreness linger longer.
The simplest lever is a short, repeatable downshift: a few minutes where you deliberately slow breathing and let your attention narrow. It’s not magic. It’s just giving your nervous system a clear signal that the “work block” is over.
Practical takeaway: Pick one 5-minute window today to slow your breathing and fully downshift, then notice how your next hour feels.
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Today’s Final Note
On Wednesdays, I like a “preservation rule”: don’t add fatigue you didn’t plan for. That means you can still move, still train, still get a win—but you avoid the sneaky stuff that turns a normal week into a grind.
The test is simple: after you’re done, do you feel steadier and more capable, or slightly wrung out? If it’s the second one, you didn’t fail—you just overshot the point of the day. Keep the bar low enough that tomorrow’s work feels available, not negotiated.
Use today: Finish your training (or your day) with enough margin that you could repeat it tomorrow without a pep talk.
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Signing Off
That’s the midweek move: reduce drag, restore capacity, keep momentum. If you can downshift on purpose, you’ll string together better weeks with less effort. The Training Notes helps by turning readiness into a simple, adaptive plan so you don’t have to guess when to push or preserve. Come back tomorrow for a quality-focused day that keeps progress moving without forcing it.
Quote of the Week
It never gets easier, you just go faster.
Greg LeMond