Oftentimes when people begin training for a sport, or aiming to drop some weight they usually look to those they see as credible within that space and mimic what they do. "I see Athlete X or Influencer Y does A,B,C - should I? The answer is almost always...maybe? The toughest part of having a consistent training schedule is the constant trial and error in the first few months. Here are a couple examples of client's I currently train who all have similar work/life balances
Young Professional 1: Quick workouts made for them so that they can do after longer bike rides or runs - 3x/week.
Young Professional 2: Currently doing 5x/week Monday-Friday rehab/strength focused before or after work so on the weekends they can mountain bike/kayak.
Young Professional 3: This client has jam packed weeks so they shift a lot of their training into longer sessions on the weekend.
Young Professional 4: 5x/week hard circuit and strength workouts done between 7-9pm Monday-Friday.
Young Professional 5: 4x gym sessions done Tue-Fri so they can camp and volunteer on weekends.
All of these people work similar schedules and have similar goals - but approach them completely differently. If you're looking to build yourself a workout plan ask yourself a question that I am 100% stealing from Jon Goodman: "What would this look like if it were easy?"
If you were going to incorporate your training into your daily schedule - what would be the simplest way to make that happen? Here are some questions to ask yourself:
1. What kind of activity do you enjoy the most?
2. What days are you most likely to be motivated to train?
3. What times of the day are you most likely to be motivated to train?
4. What locations are best for the activities you want to perform?
5. What is your ideal # of sessions for your week vs. what is a realistic number?
6. Who is going to hold you accountable if you don't hit your targets?
If you are doing an activity you enjoy, on a day where you have time, at a time you're motivated, with someone holding you accountable - it's much more likely you'll succeed than if you're just saying "I'm going to crush it this week" with the wheels falling off by Tuesday.
Hope that helps - as always any questions just reach out!
Until next week!
Mylan Clairmont MSc, CSCS
P.S. I forgot to do a blog last week - Whelp. We had a good run! Hoping to be back on the horse now.