Creating a Workable Fitness Plan

When most people think of self improvement fitness is usually one of the first things that comes to mind. This makes a lot of sense because improving fitness is the most obvious form of self improvement. The body changes in a way that is undeniable. Despite being an obvious form of improving one’s life, people still have trouble getting the recommended amount of physical activity done. This is apparent from the fact that less than a quarter of adults fail to get the expert recommended amount of physical activity. So the purpose of this post will be to give you the resources needed to take the first step towards starting and maintaining an active lifestyle. I’ll be going over the pros and cons of multiple categories of exercise in terms of health benefits, utility, and convenience. This way you can create a fitness plan based on your own individual circumstances.

Different Categories of Exercise

Weightlifting

Weightlifting is a pretty self explanatory concept. It mostly involves exercises geared towards increasing physical strength through use of weighted objects. The basic principle is to increase the weight lifted, repetitions done, sets done, or speed of repetitions over time. Weightlifting generally involves equipment such as dumbbells, barbells, or weight machines.

When starting weightlifting for the first time you should start at weight you can do a lot of repetitions of in good form. For creating a weightlifting routine there are a lot resources by people with a lot more experience than me such as this. Ultimately I would suggest searching for a routine that will work best with your specific circumstances. This is especially true if you don’t have easy access to a gym or equipment. In general you should lean towards routines that emphasize use of free weights over machines since free weights have much more advantages in comparison, and compound movements over isolation since compound movements target more muscle groups in the same amount of time. Also make sure to study on what proper form is for each exercise.

Calisthenics

Calisthenics is a form of exercise that involves weight training using only your own body. This is in contrast to weightlifting which involves moving separate objects. Some basic calisthenic workouts are pushups, lunges, pullups, leg raises, and planks. Like with weight training there are a lot of free resources online for beginners such as this. Unlike weight training, it is more difficult to add weight to calisthenic exercises than it is to simply increase reps. In order to deal with this people who have achieved a high repetition count for a calisthenic exercise should progress to a more difficult form of that exercise (such as going from regular pushups to diamond pushups to explosive to one handed).

Cardio

Cardio are aerobic exercises that emphasize consistent moderate intensity work over a longer period. The most common types of cardio exercises are running, cycling, and swimming. Most cardio exercises are pretty simple to do. When starting a cardio routine you should go at a consistent intensity that leaves you greatly fatigued after 30 minutes. As you get more used to doing cardio adding short intervals of increased intensity during your workout. It is also good to add variety to cardio workouts by doing different types instead of just doing the same type over and over.

Yoga

Yoga is a practice that developed in India involving physical, mental, and spiritual discipline. For the purpose of this post I will discussing the physical aspects of yoga. Yoga as an exercise involves moving between different poses for the purpose of improving balance, flexibility, and breathing. A good beginner routine can found here. As you are able to perform the basic poses easily you should move on to more difficult ones in order to progress.

Comparing Types of Exercise

Each of the different types of exercises have their own benefits based on how they improve your life. By comparing the different benefits of each exercise you develop a routine that suits your specific needs.

Utility

Utility here will be defined by observable benefits of the exercise such as practical ability.

In terms of physical strength, weightlifting is most beneficial. This is evident from the fact that with weightlifting you can train all different possible movement patterns as opposed to calisthenics which are limited based on moving your own body. With weightlifting you can gain the most amount of strength for general tasks like moving furniture or carrying things.

In terms of endurance cardio grants the most benefit due to being about doing an exercise over a longer period of time with little rest. Endurance can be useful for some blue collar jobs that require long shifts but otherwise generally doesn’t have much practicality in day to day life.

Ultimately based on some simple analysis the ranking of exercise categories in terms of utility seems to be 1. Weightlifting 2. Calisthenics 3. Cardio 4. Yoga

Health

Health here will be defined by elimination or prevention of physical or mental diseases. Most health benefits are shared between each of the exercises such as reducing risk of obesity, stress, blood pressure, diabetes and heart health as well as improving self esteem. However there are some benefits that are specific to certain exercises. For example high weight bearing exercise (so weight training and calisthenics) has been shown to increase bone density thus preventing osteoporosis and susceptibility to fractures. Cardio has been shown to significantly improve immune function even in the elderly. For mental health yoga seems to have the greatest benefits as shown by being able to improve symptoms of depression, ADHD, and schizophrenia. Ultimately most health benefits are shared even though each exercise category has its own benefits and there doesn’t seem to be one with with any significant edge over the rest. However there are still some unique health benefits to each category so you can take those into account when making your routine.

Convenience

Convenience is a basic measure of how easy it is to start each type of workout. If a performing a certain workout has other costs for equipment then that will reduce convenience. From this definition it is clear that weightlifting is least convenient as it requires either a gym membership which takes money and time to commute to, or space to store equipment in your own home. The second least convenient would probably be calisthenics due to needing to get some extra equipment to do pullups and other pull based exercises despite not needing as much equipment as weightlifting. Yoga and cardio are about even since both don’t have very high equipment costs and most equipment is not entirely necessary for them.

Creating and Executing a Plan

Setting Goals

Before creating a routine you should keep in mind what you want to achieve by creating and following a fitness routine. Your short term goal should be something you feel confident you are capable of. Your long term goal should be something that is generally measureable such total amount of time you spend working out or amount of weight you can bench. Ultimately by setting specific goals you give yourself something substantial to strive for rather than just a nebulous concept of better health.

Creating a Generalised Exercise Routine

First create a table like the one below to act as a general plan

Day of the week	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Exercise type	Weightlifting	Cardio	Yoga	Weightlifting	Yoga	Cardio	Weightlifting
Time	4:30-6pm	6:30-7pm	8-9pm	5:30-7pm	8-9pm	6:30-7pm	4:30-6pm

Try to keep up with the plan you make for yourself. If you find yourself missing scheduled workout times try and update your routine by either replacing the ones you miss with more convenient options or shifting the times. This way you can respond systematically to failures to keep up with your routine.

Avoiding Potential Pitfalls

Despite following a routine it is still possible to make some mistakes that are just as bad as missing a scheduled workout. When I was first started to do some kind of workout every day I was very strict in the times I exercised. This meant I would try and complete the exercise even if I was performing poorly. After learning about the cab driver’s fallacy[9] I wondered if this behavior self defeating since better performance is known to lead to better gains from exercise. So I decided to be more lenient with my time and spend more time on my exercise if I was performing better than average and less if I was was performing worse. After a few weeks I noticed a slight increase in how much I was gaining and overall I felt much better about exercising in general.

Lastly, it is important to note that gains from fitness don’t come while exercising but during recovery. So make sure you’re sleeping well.