How to plan ahead
We are now a couple of weeks into 2017 and I’m sure many of you have set New Year’s resolutions and are on track with them. It is great to look at client’s updates on Facebook of their workouts and comparing the miles they are racking up on their Fitbits and various other trackers. You are all smashing your virtual runs.
Some of you may see the New Year are a fresh start with your training and where you want to go with it. It is a great time to sit down and plan out your training programmes and not have to think on the spot about what you are going to do when you go to them gym.
To try and make things as simple as possible try and break your year up. I tend to work in quarters and plan 3 months at a time to keep it nice and manageable and this year my plan is to have one big event each quarter, this big picture is called your macrocycle.
From this you can then split it down further, month one is the beginning, month 2 is the middle and month 3 is the end, this is called your mesocycle. All these phases link in together. For me I am currently in preparation mode, doing a lot of back and core stabilisation, building my endurance back up and looking at my flexibility after the Christmas break. Next month, my focus will shift away from endurance work and start to focus on muscle growth. My third month will see me looking at getting more running into my training and shift my training more towards specific strength work in relation to the race I will have booked.
I can then give myself a detailed plan of what I am going to do each week, and these weekly plans all form part of the microcycle.
Each week I then log all the weights I have used and my notes that will be useful for me to take forwards to my next session.
I go through this process with all of my clients and it really helps to focus them on what they want to achieve.
If you haven’t already done so, write down your BIG PICTURE plan, then your MONTHLY phases and finally your WEEKLY sessions. You will be amazed at how focused you become.
Let me know how you get on by posting in our facebook group.
Thanks
Gemma ‘ready to train’ Spackman
