Planning Your Exercise Routine

A key to beginning a successful exercise routine is planning what you are going to do. However, your initial goals and ideas may prove less successful as time goes on, so it is important to remain flexible. If you continue to set goals that are too high or complete exercises that you find boring, you may stop exercising altogether. Ultimately, if your exercise routine doesn’t keep you exercising, then you need to reevaluate your approach to exercising. The following lesson will help you identify the best exercise routine for you and evaluate its effectiveness in reaching your goals.

Step 1: Choose Activities

Go back through this guide and identify activities or ideas that sound interesting to you. Identify 1-2 each of the cardiovascular, strength-training, and stretching ideas and explore how each of them would work for you. Are these activities physically safe for you? Are you able to complete them in the time you have? Then rank those activities according to how helpful you think they will be.

Step 2: Try a Variety of Activities

The first week, record when you exercised and which activities you tried. You can record them in your own notebook or use the Weekly Activity Journal below. Beside each activity, rate how helpful it was on a scale of 1-10. Also rate how easy that time of the day and week it was for you to exercise. Try exercising at different times of the day to compare.

Weekly Activity Journal

Step 3: Choose the Best Activities for You

The next week, go over your activity journal. Notice what times of day were easiest for you to exercise. Why was that time easier for you? Was it related to your work schedule, having a friend available, or personal preference? Write down the most effective exercises for you and plan to complete those exercises this week at your “prime times.” You can complete this exercise again as your schedule changes and as you find new exercises to incorporate in your schedule.

Step 4: Setting Goals

After completing the above exercise program for 4 weeks, look over your activity journal and count up:

1. The amount of time you spent exercising
2. The exercises that you used most often

This information will give you a baseline so that you can track your progress. You may notice that you exercised less than you thought you did, which is a common experience when individuals track their behaviors. However, don’t be discouraged if you didn’t meet your own expectations. This baseline provides you with more realistic expectation that will help you decide on manageable goals. Remember, the important thing is that you continue to exercise, and setting reasonable goals is fundamental to this goal.

The following video addresses how to stay motivated as you continue your journey to become a more healthy person: