Fitting in all of the exercise you need to stay healthy and manage your weight can be challenging. With work, family and social obligations, having a workout schedule helps you stay on track. Designing your schedule takes some effort, but it will help you better achieve your goals and deal with the inevitable scheduling challenges that arise in your life.
Step 1
Write down your goals. Ask yourself if you want to become healthier, build strength, train for a race or lose weight.
Step 2
Devise workouts that help you meet your goals. Plan on five days of 30 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio per week and two full-body strength-training sessions per week for health, recommends the American College of Sports Medicine. Increase the amount of cardio to an hour or more if you want to lose weight. Plan on shorter, but more intense, cardio sessions three days per week and increase the number of weight-training sessions for strength development. Examine the distance of a planned race, and check out online training plans that will help you meet your goal.
Step 3
Study your calendar for the next month or two and identify potential conflicts with your workouts. Consider days that will consist of long meetings, travel or social engagements. Use these days as your rest days.
Step 4
Schedule strength-training workouts for the same body parts on non-consecutive days. Arrange your two total-body routines to occur on Tuesday and Thursday or Monday and Friday, for example. Plan a split session of weight training if you are more intent on gaining muscle, and schedule back and biceps workouts for Mondays and Wednesdays, chest and triceps for Tuesdays and Thursdays and shoulders and legs for Saturdays, for example. Consider which body parts take more time, and plan those workouts for days that you can spend a bit longer on them.
Step 5
Slot cardio into your schedule around your strength-training workouts. Make it occur at the same time every day, if possible, so that it becomes habitual. Split cardio and weight sessions or a long cardio session into two workouts--one in the morning and one in the evening--if you are pressed to find a full 60 or 90 minutes to dedicate.
Step 6
Leave at least a full day between your most challenging workouts. Try not to do a hard interval sprint routine and and intense leg workout on the same day or on two days in a row, for example. Use Monday for your intervals, Tuesday as a steady-state easy cardio day with upper-body work, and do legs on Wednesday, for example.
Step 7
Devise strategies to deal with unforeseen schedule changes or challenges to your routine. Have a back-up home workout plan at the ready in case you get stuck at home with a sick child. Invest in a few resistance bands and a jump rope to take on the road to perform strength training and cardio in your hotel room.
Step 8
Review your plan every four to six weeks. Change it up to keep your muscles challenged by adding miles, altering the form of cardio you use or doing different strength-training exercises. Cross training and variety helps combat boredom and prevent injury, according to the American Council on Exercise.
Tips and Warnings
- Even if you do circuit training that combines strength and cardio, plan resistance training to occur on alternating days. Your muscles need rest to recover, because this is when the work of repair and synthesis is done, according to Jim Stoppani in Muscle and Fitness in December 2009.
- Consult your doctor before beginning an exercise routine.
Things You'll Need
- Calendar
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