Law Number 7

#7 The Plan


SCHEDULE ALL WORKOUTS IN ADVANCE. This creates accountability. Plan an entire month ahead of time. Try to schedule as many workouts as possible with friends who have similar goals. WOWY was developed so that we could find an easy and effective way to stay accountable and workout together. Now we’ve got people in Trumbull Ct. (my hometown) doing Power 90 with people in Hollywood at the same time. That is cool!

I believe that your workout calendar is your most important tool. Power 90 and P90X have everything you need to stay consistent. But for those of you that are having trouble with motivation and consistency, you need to place that calendar where you’ll see it often, every day. The bathroom mirror, refrigerator, next to the TV or right on your front door if you have to. I have a desk calendar that stares back at me all day long. After 25 years of training I still write down the type of workout I’ve done, and circle the day I did it. At the end of the month, I add them up. My goal (for the last 21 years) has been a minimum of 20 workouts a month--that’s 240 a year with 125 days off.

I've always said that you can focus on Intensity & Variety, but if you don't know what you're doing and when, you're toast. It amazes me how so many people wake up in the morning and don't know the exact time they're working out. We’re pretty good at scheduling when to go to bed, and when to eat, when to watch our favorite show on the tube, but for some reason we're trying to fit the workout in whenever we can. The "fit it in whenever" philosophy might work short term, but never survives the long term. You can't have a fitness lifestyle if you don't have a long term plan.

Beachbody provides the variety--and even the motivation through the boards. But you need to plan way ahead. In most cases, if you don’t plan when you’re doing your workout, you probably won’t do it. If you make a point to schedule your workouts in advance you’re chances of success will sky rocket. My calendar has been a simple and powerful tool for me for over twenty years. Without it…I’m lost. With it, I’m organized, committed and successful.

WOWY is another tool to help you lock it in because it creates accountability. Accountability: The obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions. I schedule 6 workouts every week. I am accountable to the people I schedule them with. Monday I take off. Tuesday I meet 4 guys at 5:00 PM for a weight workout. Wednesday I meet 1 to 3 people for cardio at 5:30 PM. Every other Wednesday I meet friends at 7:30 to rock climb. Thursday I do weights at 5:00 PM with the boys. Friday is cardio or leg/plyo day at 4:30 or 5:00 PM with 1 to 3 friends. Saturday is Yoga at 4:00 PM. I meet 2 to 4 friends at the yoga studio. It's Locked In!

Even at a million miles an hour, anxious thoughts and feelings take you nowhere. Stop the mind chatter and plan when to Push Play. Move your workouts way up the priority list. Don’t think about doing them whenever. Schedule them as if they were very important meetings or appointments. BECAUSE THEY ARE! You can love what you're doing & eat like a star, but if you don't plan those workouts (a month in advance) you won't go far.