How to Take Charge of Your Fitness Schedule

Physical activity can reduce risk factors associated with many chronic diseases. For optimal health, the American Council of Sports Medicine recommends 150 minutes of cardio exercise, three resistance training workouts, two to three stretching sessions, and two to three functional training sessions per week. It can be difficult to find time to get all of that in with our busy lives. Setting and keeping a workout schedule helps keep you on track.

Instructions

    • 1

      Determine the priority fitness has in your life. List out the things that are important in your life such as family, career, and whatever else you value. For each, including fitness, list the reasons that they are important. Rank them in order from most important to least important.

    • 2

      Set daily exercise goals. Determine how many minutes of exercise you can commit to daily to meet the ACSM recommendations at the end of the week. Be realistic with these goals. Make sure the amount of time you can commit is attainable based on other commitments to your time and the priority of fitness in your life.

    • 3

      Schedule your workouts. Once you have set daily exercise goals, put them on your calendar as you would your dentist appointments, meetings or other commitments. Then treat them like appointments. You wouldn't just skip a meeting, so don't just skip your workout.

    • 4

      Find a workout buddy with the same schedule. Make sure that they are at or above your fitness level. A 2011 study found that you will adopt the exercise habits of the people around you and will adapt your exertion level to match theirs. In addition to motivation, having a training partner makes you more likely to keep your fitness appointments than if you are working out alone.

    • 5

      Set up a reward system. Use non-food rewards to celebrate set milestones. For example, plan to purchase new workout clothes when you hit your daily exercise goal for a week. Choose something that will motivate you to stick to your fitness schedule.