Are you fit? No seriously. Can you walk a few miles if your car breaks down? Can you do it while carrying your child? Being physically fit is also a part of physical preparedness. I don’t just mean running from zombies, and outrunning your slowest friend. I mean the day to day activities that might come up, that require physical effort. I work out to be healthy, but it also will allow me to be that much more ready in emergencies.
I break my workout in body sections, to focus on each. The other option is to do every day as mixed, and work them all together. I like this method because it works for me. Your body, your choice.
“A thing worth doing, is worth doing at least poorly.” ~ not sure where I heard it first. Lifting a tiny 2lb weight is better than lifting nothing. Starting small is a place to start, and since I think exercise is worth doing, it’s at least worth doing poorly to start. Because some day, poorly may become passable. Passable may become acceptable. And acceptable may become success! It won’t happen overnight, it takes work, but I think it’s worth doing.
My Workout Plan
Monday: Arms Day
Push yourself until failure. What I mean is…do bicep curls until your muscles give out and fail to curl. Then move to the next exercise. One the second set, you may have to move down in weight, or stay the weight but do less. This way you are pushing your muscles to give it all you got, and then on the next round, asking for more.
I aim for 10 repetitions of each exercise, at the highest weight I can do and just barely do the last 1-2 repetitions.
I am for 2 sets, given time allowances, maybe a 3rd set with lower weights.
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Tuesday: Core Workout
I usually do 2 sets of this workout on a normal day. 1 on bad day, and 3 on a really good day. But this is where I am at, modify to prevent injury.
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Wednesday: Cardio Day (Mental Willpower Day)
Cardio means working your heart. It will depend on your condition, and preferences of how your like to work your heart. For me, Cardio also means working your will power. I prefer to run most of the time. When running, I would hazard a guess to say 90% of the time, your brain wants to give up before your heart does. When this happens, ask yourself this very important question: What hurts? What wants to give up?
Do your legs hurt, and want to quit? Or is it just your brain that is tired of pushing, and wants to quit? Most of the time, my brain wants to quit first. Hence, I see cardio as strengthening my heart, but also my willpower.
“Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming.” ~ Dory
Thursday: Leg Day
Leg day is hard. No getting around it. Legs are *usually* our big powerful muscles, we use them to walk around, and they generally burn more when used. I don’t know why, but squats and lounges hurt me more than bicep curls and ab crunches, even when pushed to failure.
However, that being said, Leg day is also when I pick up the biggest weights to add to my squats or calf-raises.
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Friday: Make-Up Day
I use Friday’s as make-up days. What isn’t sore? Is the big question on my mind. Alternatively, if I missed another day due to life interruptions, I’ll use Friday to replace one of the other designated days. If everything is sore, I’ll add another cardio day.
Saturday: Cross-Train
On Saturdays I am usually active, like doing yard work, hiking or playing sports with friends. This isn’t a dedicated workout day, but often just life activities that active and encompass all parts of my body.
Sunday: Rest Day
I’ll admit, I don’t hit the gym on the weekends. So when I say Rest day, some people use rest days to recover and rebuild. Other people say rest day to mean, they were lazy or had to do laundry…
Conclusion:
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Do you have a physical fitness plan you use? Have you tried and loved any of the commercially available plans? P90x, CrossFit, FitnessBlender, internet video workouts? Let us know in the comments below.
Disclaimer: I have to add a disclaimer about this physical fitness advice. **insert standard words**
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