Over the weekend, I sat down and came up with a new training program. A reason for this is I recently picked up a road bike, which means a new hobby to add to the list of fun activities to do. It was timely to re-evaluate how I’m spending my time in the gym and doing other things to make sure that I have a training plan that is both effective and allows me time to enjoy other pursuits.
It is always a challenge because there is just too much time to do everything that we want to do which means we have to start making choices around what we do and don’t do for me. I do want to pick up more cycling but also retain walking, climbing, going to the gym, reading, family, friends and so forth, so it was good to look at how I distribute my time with in the gym and other activities and make some changes there.
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The draft that we’ve come up with is different to what I originally envisaged because I really like going to the gym and as such I thought that I would continue to go for the foreseeable future four days a week. Looking at retaining climbing and walking and cycling and also looking at just how beneficial cycling can be for the legs, the new program is one that incorporates gym three days a week.
New workout program
My new program to trial is as follows:
- Monday – gym
- Tuesday – cycle, and climbing in the evening
- Wednesday – gym
- Thursday – walk and ruck
- Friday gym
- Saturday – cycle/walk/hike/climb
- Sunday – cycle/walk/hike/climb
Aim is still to do a lot of NEAT exercise and movement. Movement each day. A lot of the day.
For the gym, the current splits I’m trying is:
- Monday – push and pull with the view to superset so I’m doing both a push and pull
- Wednesday – push and pull again, with different exercises. I do expect the body to be a bit fatigued as I was climbing the previous evening, yet I do want to give my legs a break as cycling should give them a nice workout
- Friday – leg day
Another reason why now is the right time is that my yearly subscription to a fitness app is coming to an end I thought it would be a good challenge to take hold of the cumulative learning that I’ve obtained and start coming up with my own programs. There will be a lot of learning and adjustments on the way, and I’m excited to see how it goes. Yes, it is easy to use an app with a workout already included. It certainly helps if you don’t know where to begin, or if you want to outsource the decisions because you decision energy is being depleted in other areas. As my love of fitness has increased, my desire to do my own thing has too. Hence, it’s time to start my own programming.
Observations
This week was the first week of the new gym routine, and I already have a few observations:
- Planning on paper and then doing in reality are different things. Whilst a superset makes sense on paper, it can be a pain in the gym to move stations. I’m thinking about how I can change a few things to make it easier. One of my core rules is that it has to be easy. The lifting should be hard. If moving between stations is hard, it will become less enjoyable and then you also have to battle your mind as it doesn’t want to do it.
- I am fatigued after climbing, but I can still lift. Climbing is about the social element and climbing for fun, rather than climbing for a result or a personal best. Therefore, I do more volume and easier climbs so I can be ready for the gym
- There is a sense of not being quite sure as I’m so used to the app telling me what to do. What if I don’t get gains? Is that one me? I am enjoying working through my own program though and how it will evolve
- It’s fun to create your own thing and adjust over time
How can we stick to a new program?
Here’s a few ideas:
- Reduce the barrier to entry as much as possible
- Make it as simple as you can (that doesn’t mean easy)
- Start with where you are and improve from there. That may mean a 20min session and then add an extra set next week
- Keep it front of mind – put reminders in your phone to remind you of the new thing. I wrote out my program in a notebook that is always in my gym bag and I have a reminder to prepare the workout for the next day
- Focus on completing rather than the outcome – go and do the lifts – rather than focusing on hitting a personal best