As everyone knows I come from a bodyweight training background I don't lift weights, all I do is calisthenics and weighted calisthenics. The way most people get motivated to train this way is by being impressed with the fact that you can get strong and shredded in a very simple natural way using very minimal equipment like a pull up bar and a dip bar. I found this fascinating especially when I saw some of these guys who built amazing physiques and strength while only using a pullup bar and a dip bar. So this is how it all started for me, I would go to the park and do pullups, dips,squats, and pushups with no structure, just hit the bars, train hard and repeat the basic movements. The kind of vibe that I was having was a fun energetic mentally challenging vibe, where I would compete with myself on how many pullups, dips and pushups I can do. I like to call it the “Hard Core Mentality”.This vibe created passion and motivation to stay consistent because of how fun it was. But later down the road and the more advanced I got the more I started to realize that I need to implement more emphasis on achieving other performance goals. And when you have goals to achieve you naturally start researching to learn how to achieve those goals the fastest way possible. So I became very narrowed with my training and only trained to achieve specific goals. I let go of my “Hard Core Mentality” work and became very conceived with the amount of knowledge that was out there, hundreds of programs and ways on how to train and how to structure your training according to your goals. Here training became very specific to me where everything was scientific and protocoled to the point that it's not fun anymore. All of my workouts became very specific to whatever goal I would be working on. Every workout would be structured with specific sets and reps. In this stage I started to skip more and more workouts, leaving me less consistent and less motivated to train. At this moment I took a step back to process what's happening and how I went from being very motivated to the situation that I was in. I knew something had to change.

I decided to bring back the “Hard Core Mentality” and still work on achieving my training goals. And here is the stage that I became very into learning more about fitness and specifically programming so I learn how to mix those two. I started learning more and became certified by the International Sports Science Association with a very high score, and started trying different training methods and styles to learn more. I learned a lot from powerlifting, crossfit, bodybuilding, gymnastics and other styles of training. But long story short I ran into a periodization model that was a key-factor for me to be able to structure my training in a way where I can mix the fun free for all “Hard Core Mentality” workouts with the goal specific workouts,without affecting any aspect such as recovery. This model is the Concurrent periodization model which is simply training to achieve multiple goals at the same time. Also totally the opposite of the traditional linear periodization where you train in phases and cycles specific to a goal which is what I was using. So my training split changed and now I have a specific focus on each day of training and guess what? Now I have days for the “Hard Core Mentality”training. So this way I did not neglect my goals work nor I neglected what I love. And this was one of the greatest things that happened to me in my training career.

If there is anything I would like you to learn from my experience is to do what you love and don't fall into what you hear from hundreds of fitness experts you see everyday. Train the way you find it enjoyable because that's when you will be consistent and results will come. What's the point of having the best plan but you are not consistent with it?

And if you are someone like me who has goals and wants to achieve specific things the protocoled right way without letting go of whatever you consider to be your“flow fun vibe”  give the concurrent periodization a shot.

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