I am totally serious about this.
As your coach, it is my job to give you a roadmap to change. There are enough “fitness professionals” out there selling you on the easy way. Truth is, there is no easy way but there are ways of making hard work easier.
Anyone who has ever made a lasting change to their health has made their daily training a habit. The best way to create a habit is to do it everyday. It is that simple and if you can wrap your head around this, you will make outstanding progress.
Is 7 days a week 7 days of hard workouts?
No, that would be counter-productive. What I am asking is that you do something fitness related everyday.
Here is what you have in your toolbox.
- Workouts with weight, bodyweight, bands and Kettlebells.
- Cardio sessions either walking, running, biking, rowing or elliptical.
- Mobility Work
- Stretching
- Recovery walks and runs
Momentum is very important to your success, especially early on. Not only are you getting back in shape but you are learning new movements, new techniques and hopefully a new way of thinking about things. That is a lot to put on your plate but the more you do it, the easier it gets.
Your brain loves to make habits. It doesn’t seem to care whether they are good or counter-productive, the brain is looking for a way to streamline any actions you tend to repeat. This is why you seldom have to think about driving. If you had to consciously make decisions as to how hard to press the accelerator or when to hit the brakes, you would never get anywhere. The brain has made a list of habits so you can get through your day and save computing memory for new actions. The more you do something right, the quicker the habit is formed.
It makes sense, doesn’t it? If you work out three days a week and take four days off, how easy is it to make that habit? I would make a strong argue that it is next to impossible. There is too much time off in between workouts. But if you schedule training time everyday, you can access that habit-forming function of the brain.
If you look at the “4 Week Get off the Couch” workout, you will see I have a workout every other day. On the days you don’t workout, I need you to do some form of cardio.
Cardio
Cardio can mean a lot of things to different people. As a basic idea, I am calling it anything that is getting your heart rate up without “Working out”. I break it into a couple of categories:
- Short, Intense 15-30 minutes
- Medium intensity 30-60 minutes
- Long and slow, low intensity 1-2 hours
- Recovery, short and low intensity.
How do you measure intensity?
Generally you go by Perceived Rate of Exertion. (Sometimes you see this as RPE or PER. Same words, different order). This is how hard you are pushing yourself on a scale of 1-10. Remember, your numbers are unique to you and will change over time.
Examples of PRE from 1-10.
1- Sitting on a couch
5- You are moving at a pace you can keep for a while. You can chat with friends and you are not out of breath.
7-8- You are moving fast, working hard and know you can’t keep this pace up for a long time. You can still talk but you use very short sentences and can hear yourself breathing.
9-10 All out sprint.
What I need you to learn is how to apply this perceived rate of exertion to your training.
More intense days need to be at a 7 or 8 for as long as you can. Drop back to 5 for recovery.
Longer workouts should be at a 5.
Recovery days should be at a 3-5 depending on how you feel.
Mobility Work
We all have mobility homework. I know I do. It only takes 5-10 minutes but it will make a world of difference to you. Pick one or two areas a day to work on. Do it every day until you start feeling better, then check every couple of days. The first phase is to get rid of old aches and pains. The second phase is maintenance and working on any new niggles you may acquire before they get to be an issue.
The Bottom Line
Do something everyday to create your habit. Some days will require more effort and work than others. The idea is to work hard but also recover. So never feel guilty about going easy on a recovery day.
