Is it worth creating your own training plan? Often, when we are impressed with the training achievements of another person, we decide to imitate their regimen - the type and frequency of training, diet even for some people the clothes they wear at the gym. If it helped them, it would help us, goes the rationale/ This is completely the wrong thinking. No two people are alike training ...
Real expectations are the basis
Every amateur training person - in a home gym, club or in the open air - alternates between moments of full mobilization and moments of discouragement or fatigue. Of course, this is also experienced by professional athletes, but they, above all, “have to”, because this is the way of life they have chosen, and, they have a team of specialists to support and help. The amateur must deal with all the same problems alone. That is why it is extremely important for us to "feel like it" at every stage of our training. This is what a proper training plan is supposed to help and encourage. It should be based on real expectations. Losing 10 kg in six months? Real. In a month? Unreal. Workouts 5 times a week, while right now you only train only once on Saturday? Unreal. Any unrealistic plan will quickly be abandoned or drastically truncated. The end effect? Dissatisfaction, frustration and ultimately, failure. This can and must be avoided.
A good plan - what is it?
- Guaranteeing progress - not spectacular and sudden, but gradual and visible whilst giving you the satisfaction
- Adapted to your abilities - professional and household duties
- Adapted to your skills - knowledge of exercise, muscle strength and endurance
- Tailored to your needs - focused on what you care about the most - improving your condition, overall fitness, strength, reducing body fat.
- Versatile and interesting - so you don't get bored after two weeks.
- It must meet all the above criteria to be called a good plan. A plan you "borrowed" from someone else or saw on social media has no chance of fulfilling these requirements.
Create your plan step by step ...
- Determine how often and for how long you can train. For a beginner, two training sessions a week is not enough. After two or three weeks, you can increase the intensity by one more workout. And stop there. Watch the effects.
- Come up with different forms of training. Even if they are all at your home gym, try not to make your workouts the same - one day focus on endurance, another on improving strength etc.
- At this stage, determine the nature of the training and its duration. The next step will be to determine the type of exercise.
- Remember to regenerate between workouts. You will get much better results when training days are separated by days off or days with light cardio.
Trust the experience of others and ... your own intuition.
You must start somewhere. You can use the help of a personal trainer, or you can try one of the training plans for beginners available on the Internet. However, it is vital that you make sure that you can perform all the proposed exercises correctly, especially if you will be practicing alone, e.g., at home. If any exercise causes pain or is impossible, remove it and replace it with another. Listen to your own body. Workouts must bring satisfaction and ultimately leave you feeling great, not pain that does not go away for days.
Do you exercise three times a week? Use these tips.
Divide the workouts not by muscle groups, but by the nature and intensity of the exercise.
- One longer general development training - fitness classes, cross-country running, cycling (training, not walking). Intensity - Medium. Such training activates the whole body and will help build endurance.
- One high-intensity training of short duration (up to 40 minutes) - CrossFit, interval strength training or HIIT training.
- One strength training session where you take care of individual muscle groups. This training can be successfully performed in a home gym.
- As you can see, the above plan does not say anything about dividing trainings by muscle groups and is very similar to the schedule we use when we train in the gym. But, this way, it will activate all muscle groups, will not let you get bored, it will definitely improve endurance and boost your metabolism.