Get Set Go!!

Setting up your workout

Over the next few weeks I shall be giving you some ideas to kick start your New Year’s fitness resolutions.  We will discuss food, drink and workouts. Here is a re-cap on a post I did last January about putting your sessions together......

Whilst in the beginning you may want to set a routine of doing something X times a week for X amount of time, the body will respond better if you work more like the sea – that is to say, sometimes stormy, sometimes calm, sometimes full tide sometimes neap tide.  This is how you put your workouts together.

First, aim to think of your workout over the next month and not the next week. There is always something in your diary that is coming up so plan around. One week of your month should be HARD. Yes, HARD – workout 6 days out of 5. One week should be easy – maybe only 1-3 workouts a week, with the other remaining weeks being medium with 3-5 workouts a week.

Within these weeks,  you should have one HARD session – that is to say, you train for longer (maybe add an extra class, or put in a run) or you increase the intensity in your workout for that session (such as more weight on your bar, longer in the plank, jump higher, push your running pace faster).  After your hard session, you have a rest day. The day after the rest day should be easyish – less time working out etc. Then the medium days should be your normal workout. Yes, you should still be puffed at all the sessions but the hard one needs to tax your mental strength as well as your physical one, so if you don’t feel like screaming half way through then you ain’t working hard enough chick....think Die Hard or Rocky when he is running up them steps ...

To summarise, within each week there has to be one hard session. Within each month there is one hard week. The hardest workout is going to be your hard session within your hard week  and the easiest will of course be your easy session within your easy week. I will put some pictures up in the comments box to help get your head round this.

Tell people when your hard week is so that you are less likely to bottle it. Get encouragement from your class mates or workout buddy. Tell me – I am happy to tell the whole class so that they can watch you do your stuff....

The magic of this – and its correct name is Periodisation (which I hate for obvious reasons...) – means that you will get better and FASTER results with reduced chance of injury, plateauing (not getting any more results), stops overtraining and of course, boredom.....

Shops have plenty of half price calendars at the moment – get one just for you and set up your month of workouts.

Good Luck!