Episode 18: How to Write your Workout Schedule

The hardest part of anything is getting started. Let's discuss how to make a doable and forgiving plan to get started.

7 Steps to Starting Your Workouts:
1. Reflect on what has worked or not worked before this
2. Set your duration: How long of a workout can you reasonably expect for yourself right now?
3. Set your frequency: How many days a week would you like to plan on?
4. Determine your non-negotiables: Which days are "nos" and which are "yesses"?
5. Write down the schedule somewhere.
6. Pick a "push it" and a "light" day weekly.
7. Track how you're feeling.

Advice: 
Start when you get the nudge to start. Don't wait until everything is "ready".
Your schedule is a scaffolding. Be ok changing the plans.
Build self-trust by delivering on your promises to yourself.

Abby is the owner of Forte Performance & Physical Therapy, where she works with musicians, artists, and performers to help them feel and sound their best.

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Disclaimer: This podcast episode is for educational purposes only and is not to be taken as medical advice.

Transcript

Good morning, World! Today’s going to be a great day!

Welcome to episode 18! My name is Abby Halpin. I am a physical therapist and coach who works with performing artists to recover from injuries and build fitness programs that are specific to their needs as a musician and as a human. I am here to help musicians play life loudly.

It’s been awhile since I released a podcast episode. It’s taken some adjustment to figure out this work schedule and daycare management and when is there time to do the creative parts of this work. But I want to start again. Because I enjoy it and it’s good for me! But it’s taken awhile to get the oomph up to get started. So I thought this would be a good topic to talk about from a fitness perspective. Trouble getting started is the most relatable topic ever. 

What is the hardest part about practicing? Deciding to start. The same thing is true in fitness and exercise. Most of my clients have a hard time getting going. They know that exercise is important to them, they know it’ll make them feel better. But they can’t or don’t know how to get started. 

If this is you, this episode is for you.

The best way to start is to… start. Don’t bother with the workout clothes and the shoes and the equipment. Just do a few minutes of some type of movement that feels good.  Do some squats and some push-ups. Congrats! You’ve started. Guys, the minutes are going to go by whether you add some movement in your day or not. You might as well use those minutes to feel better!

We aren’t going to talk about what kind of exercise to do. This is just the nuts and bolts scheduling bit.

Here are the steps to building a weekly exercise routine:

1. Reflect on other times you’ve done this. How often were you exercising and what type of movement were you doing?  What worked for you then? Why did it work? What didn’t work? Why didn’t it work?
2. Set your duration: How long are these sessions going to last? Will they be the same every days? Will you have a long day and a short day? What is the number of minutes you would like to be exercising. Pick a realistic number. More is not better. Enough is better. And whatever you can make happen consistently is enough.
3. Set your frequency. How many days per week will you workout. If you are just starting. Aim LOW. Don’t worry about what is recommended. Don’t worry about what someone told you you “should” do. Pick a frequency that week after week you are seeing yourself succeed. Build self-trust by setting realistic expectations and doing what you’ve promised yourself you’d do. We can talk later about what to do when you’re ready to change the frequency of your workouts.If you are an intermediate, imagine what your fitness life looks and feels like. Pick a frequency that fits that visualization. If you are an advanced athlete, your frequency is going to be based on your fitness goals. How much do you want to lift. How fast do you want to be. Etc. 
4. Determine the non-negotiables: Which days are definite nos. Maybe those are the days you have carpool duty or your work schedule is really long, you have too many rehearsals, or maybe you just will not ever want to exercise on a Friday. Whatever it is, mark off your “no” days. Those will become your recovery days. Which days are definite yesses. The days of the week that you have time and energy to work out. Those will become the days you’re comfortable pushing the intensity or duration of workouts. Are there any classes or workouts that have to happen on a certain day of the week? Do you take a ballet class on Tuesdays because you like that particular teacher? Keep that on the schedule.
5. Create a weekly schedule: Write out your non-negotiables. That might be all you need to do! Maybe you have created a schedule where you are going to go for a walk or a run on Mondays, take a ballet class on Tuesdays, and workout at the gym on Thursday and Saturdays. Your recovery days are Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. Great job! Go do it!
6. If you’re for some more nuance, pick a “push it” day and a “light day”. In this example schedule, that might look like a 60 minute workout on Thursdays and a 30 minute workout on Saturdays. Or on Thursdays, we lift heaviers weights and on Saturdays we pick more moderate weights.

Use this schedule as a scaffolding. And then be forgiving and flexible. If you have an event on your normal push-it day, swap it to another day. If you’re going away for the weekend, smush your workouts into the week days. Rigidity helps no one. It only serves to make us feel that we are failing. Instead, build the scaffold and then make it reflect your real human life. If you miss a day or even a week, let it go. Move on. There is no need to save your old workouts to cram into your life when you can double up some time. Just move on. Do the next day.

7. This last step is optional. But it makes a big difference if you have the bandwidth for it. Keep track of how you felt. Come up with a system that works for you. It could be a smily/frowny face system (True story, that is how I keep score when I golf). It coil dbe  a few words jotted down. “Did 30 minutes at the gym. Felt great” or “I went for a walk. Legs were tired from yesterday’s workout” When I was doing a lot of long distance running and cycling, my training journal was often a report on the weather for some reason. Just track something. It helps you to know what feels good and to mark down that you have promised something to yourself and delivered on it.

My biggest piece of advice is to start when you get that internal nudge to start. Don’t wait until you’re ready to do the most. If you’ve never lifting weights before, waiting to start until you can go to the gym for two hours 6 days a week does nothing. Meet yourself where you are at and build from there. It’s not sexy. But it’s doable and will feel good. And it’s enough.

Musicians deserve health and movement experts who know what they need. So if you liked this episode, please share it with a friend so we can get this information spread to those who need to hear it!

Until next time, Forte Fam, Let me know what you need!