A few thoughts on training frequency, and programming....If you are a normal human being that is training for life, then this post is for you. If you are a "real competitor", i.e., you actually are training for a competitive event, then you are putting your performance in front of your health. That is fine, just know this, and understand the difference.-First, we get better when we recover and rest. The training process breaks us down, then our body remodels and adapts to become a littler stronger, a little more efficient at a movement, etc.-We know we need a training stimulus, but our body doesn't give us an easy way to determine if we have overtrained. The primary way our body tells us it needs rest is fatigue. Other ways it tells us when we've done too much is lack of progress, and injury.-Its easy to have a strong work ethic, and think that more work will deliver more results. This is not the case. Diminishing returns happens quickly in the world of strength and conditioning.-The CrossFit prescription is this - 3 days on, 1 day off, repeat. CrossFit creator Greg Glassman found that on the fourth day of training his athletes were tired and the intensity died. Give them a day off and the intensity is back the next day. My time coaching athletes in the gym echoes this.-We are better off picking the right exercises, and having the right work load and intensity. Then rest and repeat the next day.-Dont feel bad for taking a day off.-We need "the minimum effective dose". Train to stimulate your system, to get a little better. We don't need to make "all the gains" in one day.-Listen to your body. If you feel bad after two hard days, take a day off and come back feeling refreshed and ready to go.-On the flip side of that, don't let taking a day off become your excuse to not train when you should.-Take note of other things happening in your life that have big time effects on your recovery - namely nutrition and sleep. If you feel tired but you know you got 4 hours of sleep the night before, don't blame your training. Make the choices that allow you to get more sleep. Same goes for food, hydration etc.-Remember that often times LESS IS MORE. Don't become addicted to over working, crazy long and heavy conditioning sessions. Allow your body to recover, it's the rest that makes the real gains happen! This is the prescription for living a healthy and useful life that will leave you enough energy to do the other things in life that really matter!