Make a Plan!!!

[Natural_Teen]

i keep a whole weeks workout on an excel spreadsheet and just have two of then in a lil presenation folder. It keeps things organized and i know what i have to do at each workout. Having it all planned out is the only way to go.

 

[2Shy]

It allows me to look at what I have to do in advance, what I did last week, and what I will do next week. It requires me to sit down and think about what weights to use, how many reps, what exercises, and how I will progress...WEEKS in advance. It requires thought, planning, and for you to rationalize WHY you do ever single exercise and where to place it in your program...

I did this when I finally decided to own my workouts rather than blindly follow what someone else had told me to do. Because I'd never really learned the ins and outs of setting up a routine, I had a lot of learning to do (still do!).

I had to establish goals--real goals--for the first time. Made me think long and hard on what I was trying to accomplish. From there, I had to figure out how to achieve them. I realized that what I enjoy most about working out is strength and those PRs. My goals, then, would be to use the best form I possibly could and to go up in weight each week.

What type of split did I want? Which exercises? When to do them? How many? How long to rest? I wrote it all down.

This also encouraged me to jot down the results of each workout--not just weight/sets/reps which is all I'd really been noticing before.

I'm sure none of this is new to you old hands, but it really was a breakthrough for me.

Guess is boils down to the fact that I agree with B!

 

[BodybuildingUniverse]

week-in week-out same old same old is not progress. Got to have a plan and realistic goals.

 

[Tarheel]

For my first ~7 months of training I simply kept a log of what I was doing, and sort of had the exercises that I wanted to do and reps and such in my head.

In middle October I decided by Dec 15th I wanted to deadlift twice my body weight, which I did on about Dec 10th or so. I did change around my workouts some at this point, but I was still just logging them really.

Over the holidays I came up with a new goal, to become the best all around athlete I could by next August (start of club football season). I still dont have hard numbers I'd like to achieve by then. I looked at my strengths and weaknesses. I read 2 books by Tudor Bompa ("Periodization Training for Sport" and "Serious Strength Training") along with numerous articles online and a book my Nebraska and North Carolina's strength coaches about training for football.

Then with all this information I took Dave Tate's 9 week Westside primer and then spent about 4-6 hours over the course of a few days muling over all of it, adding some movements that I wanted and taking out ones that I didn't like. Changing up some of the rep schemes, thinking about what equipment I have access to, etc.

When I finished I had every exercise for 9 weeks typed out. I have almost every set and rep scheme typed out as well (on some movements like ab work I just put "open rep scheme" while on others such as Dynamic effort movements I have strict reps and sets and weight percentages). Not sure what I would call my program though, but I believe its a very good sports-oriented program that stresses the posterior chain and explosive movements.

What I *dont* have right now are concrete goals that I want to reach (long term or short term). I am still just lifting the weights I feel comfortable with, doing most of my squatting (2 different forms) good mornings (2 differnt forms) and flat benching in the 70-85% of 1RM range on ME days to stimulate the most serum somatotropin. I'm slowly breaking PRs and every now and then I will go for some heavy singles that get very close to my PRs, but I dont have it written down that on March 1st I want to be able to lift XXX and YYY in the bench and squat.

Before I go workout I write down what I plan to do in my workout log, and then as I do it I fill the log out. So now I have what I planned to do, and what I actually did. In the log I make notes as to why I changed from what I planned to do, how hard or easy something was, etc. I have also changed the order of some of the movements on each day from expirience.

Now've I've read a couple more books that I will incorperate into my next 8-9 week training program, which will start at the earliest on March 10th but I will probably take around a week off, so probably on March 17th. I have started to come up with a loose outline for that program but I haven' t put anything on paper yet. I also keep records of weight, measurements, and all my lifting records, but I still dont know what concrete goals I would like in lifting poundages for March 10th, or for the end of my next cycle.

 

[argent]

I have a 5 subject notebook that I keep at my house. One section is ME Squat/DL, one ME bench, one DE squat/dl, one DE bench, and the fifth is just for general bullshit. I plan out my lifting cyles 9 weeks in advance b/c it that allows 3 3-week waves in each workout. I also have a 1 subject notebook which I copy down the days workout intio and take that to the gym, so my Workout Tome doesn't get fucked up.

 

[JDarty6173]

I basically follow a 6-8 week plan.. That is how long it takes for a particular ME exercise to come back around in my rotation. For instance after tomorrows 4 Board Presses which I "WILL" PR on, I will know the minimum PR I plan on hitting 6-8 weeks later when 4 Board Press comes back around again.. And I do this will all my ME work as well as Accessory movements.