Planning For Your Fitness
If you have a goal, you have to know how to get there. This goes for everything in life: Career, financial, and fitness. The problem is, too many people simply just “show up” to exercise but there is no clear plan on how to go from point A (where they are now) to point B (where they want to be).
My wife thinks I over think and over plan, and she may be right. But there is never any doubt in my mind about what I’m going to do when the time arrives. I have a plan in place, I execute the plan, and I see results.
Let’s talk about planning:
Often times people revolve their fitness around a date: A wedding, a vacation, a reunion, or something. They peg that date on the calendar and say, “I want to lose X pounds by this date” or, “I want to look hot in this dress for this event.”
They get their goal, they put a date to that goal, and then they just start exercising. Now, that’s good. I’m all for that! I’m a firm believer that some activity is better than no activity. I do believe that these people would best be served with a clear cut plan of action, either coming from a personal trainer or a program like P90X, Turbo Fire, or Insanity (or any other Beachbody workout).
I’m going to use my 2011 as an example. I have milestone dates in there that line up well with what I’m working to accomplish. I personally use Beachbody products because, like a personal trainer, they give me exactly what to do, how to do it, and instruct me on everything from form to nutrition.
My first big date is June 16 when I attend the Beachbody Coach’s Summit. I mark that on the calendar as the first big event. From the start of the year, that is 5 months and a couple of weeks away.
I started P90X and will finish it April 2nd. That gives me 10.5 weeks until I leave.
Now, I’ll be exercising at The Summit, but I have other tools in my arsenal other than P90X that I can incorporate. In this case, I’m leaning towards doing Insanity, a 9 week workout, giving me 1.5 weeks. In that time, I’m looking into doing the 5 Day Inferno Plan from Turbo Fire. That will take me almost up until I leave, which I will supplement my workouts until I get back.
My next big day is going to be around August 1st, when we leave for vacation to the beach. Now, most Beachbody programs run on a 60 or 90 day cycle (at least the ones I will do). After doing a 60 day cycle, I’m going want to do a 90 day cycle of something that includes resistance work.
I want to be working differently all year long, so at this point I will lean towards doing either RevAbs or a hybrid between Chalean Extreme and Turbo Fire. That will put me exercising on vacation, but I’m okay with that.
So a 90 day program starting June 19 (12 weeks for the hybrid, and either 12 or 13 for Rev Abs) will have me completing either September 10 or 17.
The next and final big date of the year will be December 17, when my lovely wife April and I are looking at going on a cruise. Which ever of the above programs I do not do, I will do the other. So I will be completing it somewhere in the middle of the holiday season, most likely around December 10. This will give me 5 days to do one more big burn before we leave for the cruise (again, leaning towards a Turbo Fire 5 Day Inferno Plan).
So there I have almost all of 2011 planned out. My goal is to not repeat programs and to continually keep my muscles and body guessing. I’m aiming to continually challenge my body in different ways over the course of 12 months, which should allow me to improve my fitness and reach the goals I want.
Some additional notes:
Yes, there is always the possibility for sickness or injury to occur. If it is injury I will stay on schedule and adjust to keep exercising the parts of my body not hurt (i.e. if I hurt the upper, I work the lower. If I hurt the lower, I work the upper. If I hurt both, I work the middle). Sickness will be the only thing that will slow me down, and I would have to be pretty sick to stop.
If I am doing something and not feeling challenged, I will add more. I know the first 5 months will not be a problem. I doubt the last 7 will either.
Finally, nutrition is always a focus. What I’m doing now is working well, and I’ll be continually making micro adjustments to it as I go along.
