plan for success

"Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success." ~ Stephen A. Brennan

How do you plan your workouts? Do you even have a plan? Or do you haphazardly throw things together while you are at the gym?

I sometimes follow guided routines, or workouts that are generated by fitness experts. But there are times when I write my own workouts. Either way, I am never at the gym without my notebook that has my plan of attack all written out.

Having a plan is one of the keys to success (I think). It gets you mentally prepared and helps you just focus on what you need to do at the gym. There is a lot of importance put on sets, reps, poundage, rest periods, etc. That can get pretty difficult to keep track of from workout to workout if you don't keep a log. After all, how do you know if you are progressing if you don't know what you were lifting last week, or last month?

And what about the actual exercises? Do you train your whole body equally? I think a lot of times, we tend to focus on the things we most want to improve (as we should) but we shouldn't forget about the importance of creating a good overall balance.

I used to be so focused on growing my hamstrings that I think I probably ended up working them too much most of the time. Yes, that is possible. Or so I've read. Training a muscle hard is one thing. Over training is another. It's counterproductive. It also can create imbalances that can actually end up causing problems later on.

I've heard that a typical scenario in men is that they are so focused on growing "mirror muscles" or the muscles they see in the mirror (chest, biceps, abs) that they completely neglect to balance it out with back exercises.

I try to prevent this as much as I can these days, now that I know it can be harmful. I work my back as much as my front. But if there was one muscle that I am guilty of neglecting, it's my calves. I have tiny calves and could give a rat's ass about it. But I know that I need to train them. And if they were more muscular, I'd look more balanced.

Also, changing the exercises in your routine can really do wonders for strength. To give you an example; I was mostly using lat pulldowns but switched it out for pull ups and I've noticed a significant increase in the amount of weight I can now use for lat pulldowns. I hadn't done a pull down for a good few months and I went to do one the other day because the pull up bar was in use and I was supersetting so it needed to be done asap. And I was AMAZED at how my usual weight seemed so light and I had to keep moving the pin down lower and lower!

It isn't really about how much weight I can lift, I'd much rather focus on hypertrophy than strength. Although it is nice to see the progression, knowing that lifting heavier is what is going to stimulate that muscle to grow. If it's not challenged, it's not growing. And I don't train to remain the same!