As runners, many of us may be accustomed to following a training plan when gearing up for a race…but what about your non-run days, or when you don’t have a race planned? Do you plan your workouts in advance or do you just wing it?
For this week’s Fit Five Friday, I’m sharing some of the reasons of why you might want to plan your workouts in advance.
Five Benefits of Planning Your Workouts in Advance
Hitting Your Goals — If you are a goal-setter, scheduling your workouts can help you to ensure that you will achieve your goal. Advanced planning allows you the opportunity to break down your goal and ensure that you are doing the workouts necessary to reach your goal by your target date.
Efficient Use of Your Time — If you know what your workouts are in advance, you’ll save time scrolling through an app looking for a workout or aimlessly wandering around a gym. And if you are facing a hectic schedule, having your workouts planned in advance ensures that you are more able to fit them in.
Balanced Approach — When you plan your workouts in advance you have a better chance to ensure that you have the right mix of cardio, strength, and flexibility work to help prevent overuse and the risk of potential injury.
Do you plan your workouts in advance? 5 reasons you should! #FitFiveFriday Click To TweetStaying Motivated — Having your workouts mapped out in advance helps you to stay motivated on days when you might otherwise consider phoning it in.
Adjust as Needed — If you do encounter an injury or a particularly hectic week, planning your workouts gives you an opportunity to figure out contingencies and make adjustments as needed.
Do you plan your workouts in advance or do you prefer to wing it?
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While I loosely plan out my workouts, I don’t always choose specific ones ahead of time.
These tips all make a great deal of sense though, Michelle! Thank you.
ah you are reading my brain waves!!! I’m all over the place with planning and don’t seem to keep appointments with myself lately! This is one of the reasons I am going to go back to the gym – it will FORCE me to plan ahead!
I don’t do any workouts.
Now at gym I use all of the machines. But some days I just do arms. I suppose that’s some planning.
Thanks for the tips.
well, you know I am a huge fan of planning my workouts. I stack up all the Peloton classes the night before and I am ready to go! It is a great feature
For the week ahead, I always know what days I’m going to run, and then I have a rough idea of what else I want to do, like 3 yoga classes, 2 lower body strength, etc. Then I decide the night before which workout I’m going to do the next day. I think I could benefit from more planning though, because sometimes it’ll be getting late in the week, I still have a lower body strength session to do, but I don’t want to be sore for my long run…. maybe this Sunday I’ll plan the whole week out and see how that goes. Great post- thanks!
I have a schedule and have been doing a better job of planning lately!
Fail to plan and plan to fail, right? I love having everything planned out in advance and workouts are no different.