It's all about scheduling...

Tonight I'm not thinking about form or technique. I'm thinking about scheduling, specifically how to get through a fitness program without falling off track.

I'm proud to say that I survived two rounds of Insanity, and hardly ever missed a workout. I worked out on holiday, in the morning, late at night, in the smallest hotel fitness room that exists anywhere on the planet - whatever it took. That said, I did not always follow the schedule to the letter. For me, I need some flexibility in order to successfully incorporate fitness into my life. Where do I draw the line? I make sure that I complete all of the workouts for a specific week during that week. If I had six workouts and one rest day scheduled Monday-Sunday, each of those workouts needed to be finished by Sunday, rest day included, with a double if absolutely necessary.

There are some people who would strongly disagree with me. They hold the view that the trainers design the program as it is to be done, and any deviation from the schedule disrupts the program. I respect this view, but I don't accept it. In my view, if I complete the scheduled workouts within the week, then I'm going to achieve gains in fitness and keep moving forward with my plan. If I refuse to deviate from the schedule, my motivation may start to waver when "life happens" and I may fall off track.

For example, I'm currently doing T25. I have a double workout scheduled for Friday. However, I know that we're going to have a house guest staying in my preferred workout space on Thursday night, so I may not be able to find a peaceful corner of the house for a 50+ minute workout session. So, I've decided to swap Thursday's and Friday's workouts, so I'll have a shorter session to fit in on Friday.

Every week, I think about the week ahead and plan accordingly. Even if the week ahead looks packed, don't plan to skip your workout sessions - instead, look at what's possible, schedule accordingly, even miss a couple of hours' sleep - and make your fitness and health a top priority.