Start at the end...
I quite often log into Twitter and try and answer questions that people have on health and fitness. By far and away the most common question I come across (besides people asking whether or not they should go to the gym today) is individuals asking for help on designing a gym program.
Now this is a very open ended question - one that can't really be answered in the 140 characters allowed in a tweet. But I always have the same piece of advice for them. Start at the end and work backwards.
This one piece of advice is aimed at helping them re-focus what they are trying to achieve. Most people who ask this question (be it on Twitter or to a real life person) tend to think that they just need a "workout plan" and that will be enough. In one respect that is true - you can get a great workout by following a plan, but in another you will not get anywhere fast.
You need to have a goal in mind before you start planning your workouts. For the majority of people that I work with this will be to lose weight/tone up/get ripped - it all comes down to the same thing. Drop the fat, increase the muscle mass.
Again start at the end - the goal you hope to achieve and work backwards from there. What do you need to do along the way to get to your end-goal? What types of exercise and nutrition changes do you need to make in order to achieve what you want to achieve?
Once you have understood what the journey involves, you can then plan some stepping stone type goals along the way. These smaller more "bite-sized" goals will help keep you motivated as you move along the path to your final goal.
So yes you do need a workout plan each time you head into the gym or start your home workout, but keep in mind that these small plans are part of a larger overall plan. As Lewis Carroll said in Alice in Wonderland: :"If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there".
If you would like help writing your training programme and/or help with goalsetting please contact me and I will be happy to sit down with you and work through them.
_________________________________________________________________________
Now this is a very open ended question - one that can't really be answered in the 140 characters allowed in a tweet. But I always have the same piece of advice for them. Start at the end and work backwards.
This one piece of advice is aimed at helping them re-focus what they are trying to achieve. Most people who ask this question (be it on Twitter or to a real life person) tend to think that they just need a "workout plan" and that will be enough. In one respect that is true - you can get a great workout by following a plan, but in another you will not get anywhere fast.
You need to have a goal in mind before you start planning your workouts. For the majority of people that I work with this will be to lose weight/tone up/get ripped - it all comes down to the same thing. Drop the fat, increase the muscle mass.
Again start at the end - the goal you hope to achieve and work backwards from there. What do you need to do along the way to get to your end-goal? What types of exercise and nutrition changes do you need to make in order to achieve what you want to achieve?
Once you have understood what the journey involves, you can then plan some stepping stone type goals along the way. These smaller more "bite-sized" goals will help keep you motivated as you move along the path to your final goal.
So yes you do need a workout plan each time you head into the gym or start your home workout, but keep in mind that these small plans are part of a larger overall plan. As Lewis Carroll said in Alice in Wonderland: :"If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there".
If you would like help writing your training programme and/or help with goalsetting please contact me and I will be happy to sit down with you and work through them.
_________________________________________________________________________
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