Aleena

The best training plan may be the one that knows when to ask less of you.

Every year, usually during winter, I reduce my training for a few weeks. I do not stop strength training. I shift into maintenance with lighter weights, lower volume and two or three sessions a week.

Training for almost a decade has taught me that rest belongs inside the programme too.
This year, that maintenance month became something else.

I had the privilege, energy and friends willing to pull me out of the house to explore things I had wanted to try for years. Yoga. Pilates. Swimming. Sound work. Massage. Deliberate recovery. Good food. Beauty appointments. Time with people I love.

It quietly became a mini staycation and another layer of a question I have been studying for roughly a year and a half:

What is the optimum combination of strength training, Pilates, yoga, swimming, cardio, mobility and recovery for a woman’s actual body and her actual life?

Strength training is still my foundation. It builds muscle, improves strength and helps preserve physical independence.
But a foundation is not the whole architecture.

For one client, the right week might centre on three carefully programmed strength sessions. For someone managing a back issue, joint irritation or limited mobility, it might also include swimming, yoga, rehabilitation or lower impact cardio, depending on her symptoms, goals, recovery and medical guidance.

That is what I keep reading about, testing and observing. Not which form of movement is “best,” but which combination is most useful for the person in front of me.

Not everything in this carousel was an intervention. Some of it was pleasure, friendship and simply having the privilege to rest.

Maybe this becomes a formal research paper one day. For now, I am using what I learn about strength, cardiovascular fitness, mobility, rehabilitation and recovery to programme more intelligently.

My training focuses on holistic health (strength, rehabilitation and nutrition). If your body needs more thought than another generic workout template, DM me to check for available training slots.