Plan it Out

Something that really helps a workout be really effective is to plan it out before you start. Figure out what part of the body you want to work, whether you want to focus on lower or upper body, strength or cardio....yadda yadda.

If you just go into the gym without a plan you are MUCH more likely to not push yourself past your "easy" point. I always sit down and write out a whole workout before I even think about going out and doing something. Then when I'm at the gym I have to push to do everything I wrote down, and its also much more methodical workout, keeps you from jumping to far off your goal.

For instance today I was thinking about heading to the gym, but it was so nice outside I decided to figure out a workout I could do at the park for my lower body. I knew I had to stray from some of my regular workouts because I didn't have weights to use.

Here's what I came up with....
1 min regular squats
1 min step ups right leg
1 min step ups left leg
1 min jump rope
1 min sumo squat
1 min regular squat
1 min jump rope
1 min push ups
3 min walking lunges
1 min jump rope
1 min butt raise
30 sec right leg raise
30 sec left leg raise
1 min jump rope
Then I did a full ab workout...about 7 mins total

But having it written down really helped me make sure I pushed through any tuff points. I ran to and from the park for a warm up and cool down and just carried a jump rope with me. You can always do jumping jacks instead.