Prioritizing Within Your Exercise Plan

If you can’t get to the gym as often as you’d like, you need to prioritize within your workout to maximize your results.

For example, if your priority is building muscular strength, focus on weight training rather than cardiovascular training when you manage to squeeze in a workout.

By doing this, even if you only exercise two or three times during the week, at least you worked on your primary goal of building muscle.  If you are able to fit in another workout or two, that is icing on the (sugar-free/fat-free/gluten-free) cake!

I personally live by this code, as I never seem to have as many opportunities to work out as I would like. Given that I live a hectic life and have to do the best I can, when I finally do get to the gym, I follow these guidelines:

1. Make every moment count: no unnecessary talking, no excessive rest periods, and no milling around from exercise to exercise.  Stay focused and stay on task.

2. Make every repetition count: when I am lifting weights, I make EVERY rep of EVERY set count.  I take nothing for granted and treat every repetition as though it is important, rather than “throwing” the last few reps.  Your development is only as good as your form, so look in the mirror when you can and watch closely.  Success is in the details.

3. Choose exercises wisely: if I am pressed for time and have to kick out a workout pronto, I select hard-core exercises from my repertoire.  If I only can to do three different exercises, I select the three that will give me the “best bang for my buck,” so to speak.  I add on the auxiliary exercises when I have more time to spend at the gym.

Since the number one excuse that people use for not exercising is “lack of time,” ensure that you use your time wisely.  It boils down to prioritizing and making choices.  I know that you are busy; we are all busy. Winners do what losers are not willing to do.

Do the best you can, when you can, as often as you can, and your efforts will pay off!

Live with Simplicity,

TMS