An exercise plan is the single most valuable asset you need for reaching your health and fitness goals. It keeps you accountable and motivates you towards meeting them on schedule.
Your workout plan can also be an invaluable way of tracking your progress with weights and reps, preventing you from missing workouts or performing too many sets or reps in error.
Plan Ahead
Planning ahead can make all the difference when it comes to your workout plan, and may eliminate excuses like “I just don’t have enough time”.
Planned workouts make it easier to stay on track with your schedule, keeping track of progress and motivating you to continue improving.
If your goal is to build strength, having an effective training schedule in place will help make sure that you put in enough effort to reach it.
Before scheduling any workout sessions, it’s essential that you establish the amount of time available per exercise – this may range from 10-60 minutes depending on how aggressively your plan is laid out.
Establishing a plan allows you to get the most out of each session and accomplish your fitness goals more quickly.
Set Goals
Setting fitness goals can be an effective way of giving yourself direction and tapping into motivation, while simultaneously making sure your workout plan aligns with your needs and aspirations.
As with any goal setting endeavor, setting fitness goals must be relevant and meaningful to you and fit within your life. When setting fitness goals it’s essential that they make sense in terms of lifestyle, resources, current fitness level, health conditions and available time before making a final decision about which goal best meets these criteria.
Setting SMART goals, or those which are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timebound can also be very helpful in reaching your objectives more quickly. When focused on reaching these objectives you’re much more likely to succeed!
Stay Motivated
One effective strategy to stay motivated when creating your workout plan is by setting long-term goals. Focusing on progress made and reminding yourself why exercise should be part of your lifestyle can keep motivation at a premium.
Altering your daily routine is another effective way of staying motivated. Becoming bored of repeating the same process each day can quickly demoralize, so switch up your schedule often to keep things interesting.
Modifying your routine can mean making small tweaks like switching up the exercises you perform or altering the environment in which you exercise, or it could mean taking on something larger such as trying a new sport or joining a group class.
If you’re struggling with staying motivated, try placing a bet on yourself or finding a friend to hold you accountable for completing your workouts for a set amount of time. This may provide extra incentive not to make excuses stand in your way and commit fully.
Keep Track
Tracking your workout plan is key to staying on the path towards fitness. Doing so allows you to stay motivated, accountable and focused while also preventing boredom with exercise routines that lead to quitting altogether.
Utilizing a workout journal is the best way to stay on top of your fitness journey. Keeping a physical or digital record is up to you – pen and paper notebooks or phone apps may both work effectively.
Some workout journal apps also allow users to track weight and body measurements as part of their training, providing a more in-depth view of how training affects your body, including strength gains, lean mass gains and fat loss goals. This feature can provide more of a complete picture.
Some apps allow you to record your workouts directly within them; others provide reminders about when it’s time for exercise, with interactive notifications showing whether a session has been completed from within the app itself or via interactive notifications. Some even sync up with Apple’s Health app to display charts showing your progress over time.
