Check Mihaly Safran's SunnyFitness training programme!

Since I’ve been doing sports for over 30 years and occasionally present some exercises in the online world, here’s a little more detail about my workouts! I don’t recommend following every part of it exactly the same, because it would be best to train with individual goals and plans for everyone, but for inspiration and comparison, I think it’s definitely good to read through!

Briefly about my past

I’ve been doing sport on a daily basis since I was a child. I started with swimming, pentathlon, tried ball games (handball, basketball, football, ice hockey) and then quite early, at the age of 8, I started canoeing.

Good results came quickly and I stayed in the sport for more than 20 years. Then since about 2016, the focus has moved away from competitive sports and into movements for the health of the body and the development of basic strength and movement skills.

MovNat-natural movements, weight (stone) and bodyweight strengthening, girja, pilates and other goodies like windsurfing or wave riding with SUP board. I also have coaching qualifications and since 2014 I have been giving training sessions for small groups or as personal training.

Present and future

The long term goal is to be healthy for life, enjoy regular training and any sport I like at the moment, be able to cope with everyday life and continuously improve in my chosen exercises.

In general, to be broadly strong, skillful and fit AF…

In OCR races, always finish at the front of the field if possible. I may check some additional more difficult calisthenics tricks (e.g. one-arm pull-up, human flag, planche, etc.). In weightlifting I would like to have nice round 3 digit performances, e.g. 100kg snatch, 150kg clean, 250kg deadlift.

In other words, achieve and maintain a high level of strength, speed, explosiveness, endurance, flexibility, movement culture, being a kind of movement handyman. I want to experience this for myself and help my students achieve similar goals in SunnyFitness trainings.

Recently, in autumn 2022

My training programme varies progressively from month/week/training to training, of course, and there are also some improvisational elements. Ok, for the last 3 months it has looked something like this:

5-6 workouts a week for myself, 20-60 minutes duration + 3 days a week of coaching morning-afternoon, leading kayak excursions averaging 1-2 a week + daily walking, biking, light few minutes MovNat movement snacks.

Too much or normal?

I feel like I could train even more if I didn’t have anything else going on in my life (work, social life, sleep, etc) like when we had 9-10 workouts a week in the canoe as a “professional” athlete (ok, I squeezed school in somehow back then).

So the weekly schedule has been about the following lately and it’s been working out pretty well! I’ve been able to improve almost every week, except for one or two stressful periods. The main goal was to develop maximal strength and explosiveness of the whole body. I’ve also just started practicing classical weightlifting regularly, I’d like to achieve high results in this at hobby level, but I think it will take 1-2 years to complete.

On Mondays, push/pull: one-arm chin-up variations (this is a hard to reach goal for me with my 90kg, long arms and previous shoulder injuries, but I’ll get there sooner or later!), dips with a stone bag, heavy push-up variations.

On Tuesdays, legday was on the menu in the morning, starting with heavy weightlifting (snatch, clean), followed by a few sets of squats or deadlifts for extra max strength and jumps (distance, heights, to side, one or two legged, with or without weights).

And then a second workout in the afternoon! A sprint interval run of 15-20 minutes. For example 10-15×60-100m, starting every minute. Super, fast and loose feeling run after the leg exercises that day! At this point you’re still fired up. By the next day, the post-workout recovery and inflammation processes, muscle soreness, are more active, and my running is sluggish.

Wednesday: rest (we all know this is an important part of the training programme, right?!)

Thursday: push/pull again, but with different exercises. Pull-ups with weights or stones (stone bag), handstand press, overhead press.

Friday: Another legday, with lighter weightlifting, more technique and the unforgettable gluteal muscle soreness giving single leg (Bulgarian) squat and again, colored with jumps.

Saturday: a slightly longer interval run of 30-40 minutes, e.g. 30×30″/30″ rest, 20×1’/1′ rest, 10×2’/1′ rest.

Sunday: rest (I know, I’m very lazy…)

Besides the main exercises, at the end of the workouts, if I have time, I usually do a few supplementary exercises, e.g. rotator cuff, lower trapezius muscle strengthening or 1 set of split squats, Jefferson curls for mobility.

Cool down

Now, at 37, I’m in the best shape of my life in terms of strength, explosiveness and looks. I feel like I’m just getting started, because I have a lot more knowledge and experience about training, nutrition, lifestyle and myself than I did when I was in my twenties! And it only gets better..

I’m already working on next year’s plans and the details of how to get there, and I’m open to new, effective training methods.

I think nature has given us a wonderful human body, a culture of movement and strength-endurance-speed potential, only a small percentage of which we use in the modern world. There is plenty of opportunity for everyone to develop, regardless of age, gender and experience the path to their goals, and then be happy with the results.

Improve your full human potential!

Let me know if you liked the article and I will continue with more details!

I hope I’ve given you some ideas and motivation to make exercise part of your everyday life!