How do you plan your workouts?

[travelingtortoise]

I've recently really found my groove with home workouts and for the last 3 weeks I've done 30-60 minutes, 6 days a week - all following YouTubers like GrowwithJo, Caroline Girvan, MadFit and Heather Robertson.

I started out all cardio and bodyweight but this week I started incorporating dumbbells – and I'm starting to feel like I could probably do with being more organised than "what do I fancy doing today?"

I know people talk about 'leg day' etc., but how do you actually plan out your week's exercise? Do you focus on a different body area each time? How do you mix up cardio and strength most effectively?

Would love to hear how you do it... to get some inspiration and guidance :)

I had a gym induction recently and got some advice. Also taken advice from NHS website.

NHS recommends 2 strength sessions focusing on all major muscle groups a week, and 75m intense cardio or 150m moderate cardio.

The gym instructor said it depends how many times you want to come, you could do 1 workout focusing on arms, 1 on legs and 1 doing both. Or if just 1, focus on all. Or if 2, do 1 arms and 1 legs.

My gut feeling is that initially you want to space it out, give arms a chance to recover, legs a chance to recover etc. I went full pelt and my hamstring has been twingeing. Simply not worth injury.

Anyhoo, so my week is based around work, so the basic routine is
M - walk to work
T - walk to work
W - power pump class (working all groups) or fitness rebounder (mostly legs focus)
T
F - gym (think I may switch up the focus each week) followed by swim i.e. cardio
S
S - legs bums and tums class (working all groups)

If I do stuff on the other days it will be more stretch based e.g. foam roller work, yoga.

I've got a peloton bike so, working around my work days, my schedule looks something like this. I try and do something most days, even if that is just 10 min yoga/ stretching:

M - 45/60 min ride

T - 10/20 min yoga (work day)

W - 20/30 min ride
Arms & Upper Body Strength

T - 10/20 min yoga (work day)

F - 20/30 min ride
Lower body Strength

S - Full Body Strength
10/20 min yoga

S - rest day - nothing or something like restorative yoga

I like that if something comes up I can rejig the sessions later in the week to still fit stuff in - so I was ... ahem ... a bit hungover last Friday so had that as my rest day instead, did my Friday session on Sat and my Sat session on Sun. Also, it is not the end of the world if I miss a few days - stuff I'm most likely to drop is lower body strength as I feel I do a fair amount of that on the bike anyway.

I use an app that plans it for me! I think with strength sessions, it's important to be consistently pushing yourself to get the best results so I follow a training plan that's in blocks of four weeks with 3 strength sessions a week. Every week there are more reps or slightly more complicated exercises or using heavier weights so you're always working more.

I use fitness blender. They have loads of free workouts on YouTube, but if you go on their website you can buy a programme for about £10 (it’s priced in dollars so that can fluctuate a bit) and they populate a calendar with 5 workouts per week and make sure you target different bits of your body each day. You then “own” the programme and can go through it as many times as you like.

Im now a premium member so I can access as many of the programmes as I like - it was about £60 for a year I think. But probably once you’ve done one of their programmes you could figure out a pattern for yourself, eg upper body, lower body, HIIT and core on rotation. I think you can use their calendar for free and add links to their workouts each day.

I use Jim Wendler 5/3/1 to plan mine. It's centred around deadlift, squat, bench and overhead with some accessories at the end.
I only do weights, I don't really like cardio, I walk lots and always walk up the escalators on the tube so that's the extent of my cardio.

I pay someone to plan it for me. I have squat, bench and deadlift days then those days all have other exercises to support those lifts. The best split is the one you enjoy and will keep doing. A popular one is push/pull/legs. But it really depends what your goals are and how often you train. Full body each time also works well.

Which app do you use? That sounds good!

Agreed, @FiftyNotNifty –@mynameiscalypso I'd love to hear more about this app too!

I actually use an excel spreadsheet which I'll update daily whilst I'm at work.
I plan for the next couple of weeks, calculating how much strength and cardio I'll do and on what day, also incorporating any events I have on that will prevent me from doing my usual exercise that day.
I try to alternate cardio and strength days, and also upper/lower body strength

Sorry for the slow reply! The app I use is called Give Me Strength. There's a bit too much chat at times but I like having an easy to follow programme so I don't have to think too much about it!

I do Heather Robertson's monthly calendar. If you sign up on her website you can download the calendar and then click on the links for the YouTube videos. I like it because it is well-structured, has lots of variety and is a good mix of strenth and cardio. I also like it because I don't have to plan it myself or think too hard about it! I see good results with her workouts.

Thank you! @mynameiscalypso