Planning your workouts for what your body needs in this season of life is essential! Exercise is essential for maintaining a healthy body, but not all workouts are created equal. It’s important to remember that exercise is a form of stress so it is essential to plan your workouts based on what your body needs to achieve optimal results. In this article, we’ll explore how to plan your workouts to cater to your body’s unique requirements & energetic availability
Step 1: Assess Your Current Energetic Availability
The first step in How to plan your workouts for what your body needs is to assess your current Energetic Availability. This is part of the 10-step process that I use with clients to come up with the BEST Fitness Routine for them. This will allow you to check in with your body and help you determine what your body needs. A simple way to do this is by gauging how you feel most days. How you sleep, how you wake up, if you rely on coffee, how packed your schedule is, and what your body is experiencing. If you have pain & injuries this will be good insight to know you still can exercise because you will plan your exercise routine in a way this is in alignment for your body.
If you have trouble with your energy, please read this IG Blurb for some mild inspo
Step 2: Now Determine Your Fitness Goals
After assessing your energetic availability, it’s important to determine what your health & fitness goals are. Do you want to lose weight but aren’t sleeping that well? Want to gain muscle but feel injured? Or Perhaps you want to improve flexibility because you feel stiff & tight? Your goals will determine the type of exercises you need to incorporate into your routine.
Step 3: Choose the Right Type of Exercise
There are many types of exercise. Most of my clients prefer Strength Training. This doesn’t always have to include weights & the gym. Often floor exercises & body-weighted exercises are amazing to increase strength. If you want to get more flexible, sometimes yoga is a good option, but sometimes some of the moves can cause more stress on certain muscles & joints. It’s important to explore your options & always stay in honouring of what your body feels & needs and not get carried away in the Fitness Industry mindset of more = better.
Step 4: Create a Realistic Schedule that is Sustainable
A big mistake people make is overexercising. A good exercise routine doesn’t have to be 5 days a week, and if it is, it doesn’t have to be 1 hour in length. When people come to me wanting a routine, the biggest priority is to get them in touch with what’s possible. If they’re burnt out from their current life & routine, the program contains mindful (yet powerful) movements so as to not prompt the adrenals to release more adrenaline/cortisol. Some people choose running because it is the one that seems to burn the most calories in their eyes however, running places 6x the stress on the fascial system and joints so eventually the body speaks and the routine is not sustainable.
Step 5: Come up with a Time Frame for this Routine
One of the biggest pieces of feedback my clients have given me when they come to me to plan their fitness routine, is how having a time frame was so helpful for them mentally & physically. They found it motivating to know this wasn’t a never-ending program and there would be a point of re-assessment. This time frame is crucial for the body and brain to adapt and to stay present so that the fitness program can feel exciting and sustainable. All about that dopamine release!
Step 6: Listen to Your Body!
There are HUNDREDS of different ways to exercise. There is no need to push through and ignore your body’s whispers. Having progressions is something I give all my clients so they know if they’re not able to do progression 3, they can do progression 2. This builds BODY TRUST. When your body feels safe it will align. Again, it’s time to dearmour Fitness Industry mindsets that more & harder = better. In this season of life, we have a certain trait called wisdom. USE IT! The body is always whispering and speaking.
To end this lovely on How to plan your workouts for what your body needs discussion, I recommend honouring and being honest with yourself regarding what’s going in your body is the BEST way to see & feel results.
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