Do you have a plan?

When you workout do you have a plan? A script? Or do you just wing it at the gym? I've gone both ways. I started with a plan. Had my little book of daily workouts and everything. Stuck with that for a little while and then just decided I knew what I was going to do so I'd leave the book at home. What did I learn? It really doesn't work for me. I get sidetracked, I get distracted, I forget one exercise and repeat others. And then I burn out. So it's back to the notebook, back to a plan and hopefully back to a better workout.

Today was the first day actually following a routine again. It seems to have worked well for me. I was more focused, I knew what I was going to do and I did it. I spent less time in the gym and accomplished more. I felt better. I didn't end the day feeling annoyed and frustrated or like I wasted my time. So I will be sticking with the book from now on. It's always up for a revision or three but will certainly be used.

So what is a plan? It's basically a list of what/how many times/how heavy. There are thousands of examples available online. Quite a few exercise webpages offer their own versions. Some let you modify them or adjust for your personal goals, abilities and what nots. Some of the sites I use are:

Bodybuilding.com 
Muscle & Fitness
Fitness Blender (though they charge for almost everything)
Muscle & Strength
Men's Fitness

There are many more. There are some webpages dedicated just to women too. Though Bodybuilder.com gives you the option to pick from genders if you wish to. You can specify what body parts you want to focus on, or not. You can decide how much cardio you want to do, if any. Or you can do all cardio. There are three examples at the bottom if you care to look at them.

So why keep a log? Why have a plan? If I had been logging my workouts and actually paying attention to what I was doing I would not have burned myself out so bad. I would have noticed that I was overtraining and adjusted. Having a plan and log allows you to make goals and then take note when you achieve them, or when you don't. Had I been logging and following a plan I would have realized just how sidetracked my workouts had become. Can you remember what you did last Tuesday? The reps, weight and how you felt after? I can't. Am I working the same muscle group again today? What was it I did yesterday? Having a plan and a journal ends these issues. And one more reason. In 6 months, a year, three years, you can look back and see just how far you've come. Just what you've accomplished and just what it took. And if you're a geek like me there are even apps for your phone that do all this.

So now I have a plan again. And I'm sticking with it this time. OK, there may be a little tweaking along the way, but I'll have notes on what and why.