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Having a workout plan is essential to getting back into shape. Sure there are people who would rather just do whatever they want as they please and they make that work. However, I would say most people need at least somewhat of a structure in order to get anywhere. Especially if you are coming from not having really worked out for a long period of time.
A workout plan can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. It can simply be I’m going to do some kind of exercise on days x, y, and z. Or it can completely lay out exactly what you are doing on what day. It all depends on the person and what they have discovered works the best for them.
Building a Habit
If you haven’t really worked out before or you’ve been out of the game for a while, I found the most successful thing to do is simply find something you really enjoy. From there, you don’t necessarily need more of a plan than just doing it. For me, I picked up rucking. I didn’t really have any plan and, because I enjoyed it, I didn’t really need one. I knew not to overdo it, but every other day or two, I would come home and just go for a ruck. It was simple and effective in starting to build the habit back up.
Finding/Creating a Plan
Once you’ve got the habit formed, it’s time to start a plan that’s going to drive you straight towards your goals. You can make up the plan on your own or you can find thousands of plans just by doing a simple Google search. Or you could do a little bit of both, that’s what I did and have liked the plan I created so far.
I created a plan that’s derived from a couple of different plans that I found or was given. I knew I wanted to have quite a bit of cardio in the plan since my main focus for the APFT was improving my run and because cardio is good for losing weight. So I took that and made this basic layout.
Even though I wanted Tuesday and Thursday to be strength-focused, I wanted there to be a cardio aspect as well. I would do that by either finding a workout that also involved some cardio like an AMRAP, a chipper, a cardio-focused warm-up, etc. I knew I should make my cardio days some time of running since that’s what I needed to improve but I also knew I didn’t quite have the discipline to go out and run just yet. I took the basic layout, found workouts from the various plans and subbed them in.
Reevaluating
It’s important to look at your plan and how it does or doesn’t work for you so you can change it up. Sometimes you start a plan and right away you don’t like it, so change it. If you don’t like doing something, chances are you’re going to stop doing it so find something else that you like. Or maybe you’ve been doing this plan for a while now and you’ve made little to no progress, find another plan to try.
I just reevaluated my plan recently. I’ve gotten the habit down enough now to throw in running workouts and actually go out and do them. So I changed Monday’s to a 2mi run or 8 sets of 1/4mi run at a certain pace and Wednesday’s to 8 sets of 100m sprints plus a set of 100m sprint, 100m jog, 100m sprint to end it. This will help me cut down my run time faster and since I’m only doing one ruck a week, it’s kind of like a nice reward to the end of the week.
Planning
It’s also good to look at what each week will hold while you’re doing your plan. If you know you have something every Wednesday night, plan to either do Wednesday’s workout in the morning or make Wednesday a rest day and something during the weekend. If you know you’re not going to want to do anything after work, plan all your workout in the morning or on your days off. If you already struggle to get up for work in the morning, don’t plan your workouts for before work. If you have something coming up, plan around it. You are responsible for your plan, you make the decisions. Don’t set yourself up for failure.
Find a Routine
This isn’t necessarily part of finding a workout plan but I think the two go hand in hand and the routine is just as important. Humans are creatures of habit, we like to have a familiar flow to things. My routine is pretty simple but it’s helped me stick to workout by making sure I get it done right after work which leaves me the rest of the night to do other things.
All my routine consists of is getting off work, making my pre-workout, and then when I’m about 10mins from home, I start drinking it. I have found that if I do this, I always workout once I get home. It gives me about 10-15mins to change and prep for whatever I’m going to do before Total War fully kicks in and I’m ready to go. There are two big motivators behind doing this, one, Total War gives a great burst of energy and motivation to crush each workout and two, if I take it and don’t workout, it’s a waste of money and a waste of supplement. If you want to try Total War out, check it and Redcon1 out here.
I encourage you to try different things out, find a plan that works for you and find a routine that motivates you to stick to it. Get someone to do the plan with you or talk to someone about it so they can help keep you accountable.
As always, I’m rooting for you! Go out there and do great things!