Elf4Health Blog Swap - Fit 'n' Cookies shares her expertise on scheduling workouts

Hi everyone! I am so excited to be here today blogging for Jillian!  I am Heather, and I blog at Fit ‘n’ Cookies. My blog covers many topics, including lots of workouts, tidbits from my life, and all my crazy baking adventures.  

As part of #Elf4Health, our challenge today was to share our expertise. What better way than to swap blogs with someone and share something we are passionate for.   Today, I want to help you create a weekly workout schedule. This is something I am really good at as I do it every Sunday. If I don’t have a schedule with workouts figured out for me, I won’t get them done. You may relate; you are all ready, in your gym clothes, but have nothing to do. So you spent the next half hour finding a workout you want to do, and then you’ve wasted too much time to get in a great workout. Now you won’t have that excuse! Are you ready?

1. Get yourself a calendar for the week. Whether you use your planner, a calendar in the kitchen, or a blank schedule for the week. I usually print one out on Word that has the days listed, and a place for the workouts. 

2. Gather your schedule and fill in any important times. Write down a day when you can’t work out because you have another commitment or maybe you work too long that day. We all have those days, so plan them out. I typically write down when I will work out, whether morning or night, before school or after school, etc.

3. Schedule your rest day. Everyone is different, and some require one rest day, or some require a few. The best  thing for me to do is to physically schedule one in. I have a hard time taking days off from working out (I like it too much!) but if I schedule one in, I have no problem taking it off. My rest day is almost always Sunday. I enjoy making it a relaxing day!

4. Gather workout inspiration. I have a lot of saved workouts on my computer from various blogs, but feel free to use whatever! Maybe you want to come up with your own, maybe you are using some from a magazine, or maybe you are browsing Pinterest. However you have them saved, grab some. I have a lot of workout options here for you to get some ideas or new workouts! 

I have a binder full of workouts broken down by area - upper body, lower body, cardio, circuits, and a place for all my schedules I need some ideas of what I’ve done in the past!

5. Now it’s time to schedule. Write in when you want to strength train, run, attend a gym class, do some cardio. My schedule usually has 3 lifting days (sometimes with cardio, too) , 2 days of cardio with core, and one longer running day. Schedule your lifting days on non-consecutive days. I usually have an upper body on Monday, Full Body on Wednesday, and Leg Day on Friday. Tuesday and Thursday I do the Elliptical, various bodyweight cardio circuits, OnDemand programs, or run. I also try to plan out a core workout for after. There may be a few short cardio workouts I throw into the mix on my lifting days, just depends on my mood. 

6. Find a workout to match your schedule. Now that you have a brief layout of what you want to do, and you have your workouts in hand, match them up! Find new ones you are excited for, find ones you haven’t done, find some you have that are all-time favorites!

7. Do what works for you. Maybe you don’t like to do cardio and lifting on the same day; no big deal! Maybe you don’t want to lift 3 days a week; no big deal! Make it work for you and keep true to yourself!

I hope you all found something new to help you work out during the week! I promise it might seem like a lot, but it really doesn’t take much time, and saves you plenty during the week. I stick to my workouts a lot easier when I know it’s a lifting day, and I can’t just move it to the next day without mixing up the entire week. Now that you know how to schedule your workouts for the week, head over to my blog where Jillian shares her tips of sticking to a workout when things come up during the week!