Creating Your Weekly Workout Plan!

    I started off my morning in a pleasant little wine & coffee cafe called Bacchus.  In the morning and afternoon, it acts as a coffee house with small, Greek-style plates of food and your typical coffee menu. At night, they play different music styles and people pour in to dance their hearts out! They have a jazz night, a salsa night, and a tango night! I "yelped" good places to study in Houston, and I was not disappointed in this place!

9-11am Latte, made with illy gourmet espresso. Fancy ;)

11am-12pm mint tea

12-1pm, Greek meatballs with tzatziki 

  I was there for 4 hours, and I only left because I was tired of sitting. I could have stayed all day. It was an adorable place and the staff were incredibly friendly.

Now on to today's main topic:

*These exercises and schedules reflect what works for me. Of course we're all different :)

I've spoken a little bit about the importance of moving frequently and being strong, but what does that look like from week to week? Where should you place certain exercises? How often should they be completed? What's more important: cardio or strength?

Obviously, the answers to these questions vary for each individual; however, there are certain types of exercises I believe are important to include consistently from week to week. Here's my basic breakdown of workout categories:

Yes, Mardi Gras colors.

Lifting/Strength (example)

• This category includes lifting weights (upper & lower body) or doing any other exercise that is going to tear down your muscles, like all-out sprinting.
• My frequency: Twice a week

Cardio (example)

• Running, walking, biking, swimming, or miscellaneous gym cardio. 
• My frequency: Once or twice a week

HIIT Circuits (example)

• High intensity interval training: giving all-out 100% effort through quick, intense bursts of various exercises followed by short recovery periods. The point is to get your heart rate up close to its max while performing each exercise and then allow it to lower during recovery before repeating.
• My frequency: Once a week, depending on intensity and recovery from lifting/strength workouts

Those three categories represent how I organize my week. Yes, the categories easily blur together. Sprinting tears my leg muscles apart, so I place it under the strength category. My legs are out of commission for quite a while! But a sprint workout is also technically a HIIT workout, too. Other types of HIIT workouts may also involve elements of cardio and strength. Whatever. The point is that I need variety in my workout routines, and these categories keep me from growing bored with exercising and ensure I'm not ignoring forgetting something important!

So use my categories or create your own :) Once you have your own set of categories, you can plug them into your workout schedule. Whether you have 3 days a week or 6 days a week to work with, keep these things in mind when creating your schedule:

• Include exercises that target your strengths and weaknesses.
• If you can spit out 100 squats with no problem, but you struggle to complete 5 push ups, there's a slight imbalance. If your upper body is weak, that's a PERFECT reason to make sure you get in an upper body circuit or strength session every week!
• Move every day! Walk. Stroll. Bike. Frisbee. Jog. Yoga. Dance with your kid. Mow the lawn. Just move!
• Listen to your body and take it easy when necessary.
• Mix it up! Try new exercises (there are endless examples on Pinterest!), find a different route, go to a new class, or create a new & different fitness goal.

Example- here's my workout schedule from the last two weeks:

This is my personal schedule. This is not a specific recommendation.

*Quick note: Strength workouts and circuits (green and purple) are accompanied by warm ups and cool downs  (usually walking or jogging) that may last an additional 30 minutes. And abs are included in every circuit!

This is how I organize my week: 2 lifting/strength workouts (upper & lower body), 2 cardio workouts (biking or running or an easy circuit), and 1 challenging HIIT circuit. (Sometimes I interchange HIIT and cardio.) I find two "off" days during the week to do something really easy, like an after-dinner walk with Ryan or a slow stationary bike ride while watching Mad Men on Netflix :) Even if you can't fit in an actual workout, move just a little bit. Moving everyday is important!

Yes...and chocolate.

 I have a number of ready-made workouts on my Workout page! So grab a calendar, write down some ideas, and go get sweaty!

Click here for a link to "Paleo Fitness," a great book on getting fit using Paleo/Primal principles!

Question: In which area of fitness are you trying to improve? Think about what kind of workouts can get you there! Like I said earlier, I really want to be able to do at least a few pull ups (real ones...not cross-fit style...sorry cross-fitters), so my upper body workouts now include some sort of exercise that will help me reach that goal!