What’s your exercise plan?
Spring is here and with it comes a boost of enthusiasm and motivation as people begin peeling off the layers, heading out for walks and enjoying the sunshine. If you are about to ‘step up’ your exercise program, take some time to put together a considered plan before you get too far into it. What are your goals? What do you need to change to achieve these goals? What has worked well previously, what hasn’t work well previously? Here’s a checklist to help with your exercise planning process;
- Define your desired outcomes. These should be written SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timed). Outcomes can be focused on physical change, establishing a sustainable routine, working towards a target or an event as examples.
- Put a realistic plan in place to achieve these outcomes. This should specifically include what days/times you are going to exercise and these should be set up in your calendar as recurring appointments. Set up a schedule that you can achieve on a ‘bad’ week not an overly optimistic ‘good’ week.
- Share your plan with those close to you – your spouse, work colleagues ans especially anyone trying to book a meeting that conflicts with your exercise appointment!
- Review your plan regularly and see if you have been successful in following through on what you have set yourself. If there is room for improvement, try and understand what needs to change to get a better result – this may be reworking your schedule, getting more realistic about what you can achieve or being more disciplined!
The ‘sell’ – a good personal trainer should be providing you with this sort of input as part of your training sessions, can help you with this planning process and more importantly can help you stay accountable to getting it done and achieving the health outcomes that you are after.
-Kristin Lewis