Have you ever questioned how a personal trainer creates a workout plan from start to finish? What kind of structure they have to follow? Today, I wanted to share with you the components that play a role to a balanced and effective exercise routine. This episode explains the standards we should follow in our workout routine, exploring the science behind various exercises, their impacts, and how they contribute to a well-rounded fitness plan. We also emphasize the need for workouts to be flexible and enjoyable, aiming to foster a love for activity rather than it being a chore.
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Shop our apparel! --> Love Your Body Now
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Have you ever questioned how a personal trainer creates a workout plan from start to finish? What kind of structure they have to follow? Today, I wanted to share with you the components that play a role to a balanced and effective exercise routine. This episode explains the standards we should follow in our workout routine, exploring the science behind various exercises, their impacts, and how they contribute to a well-rounded fitness plan. We also emphasize the need for workouts to be flexible and enjoyable, aiming to foster a love for activity rather than it being a chore.
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Shop our apparel! --> Love Your Body Now
Follow us on Insta: @loveyourbodynow.podcast
So when you are doing a workout program and you actually start to like analyze it and take a look at it and see what you're doing, you can start to understand. Okay, monday and Wednesday they have me doing strength workouts and then, you know, fridays I'm doing like a cardio or a HIIT type of workout. So those check those boxes. Is there another workout where they're incorporating your flexibility and mobility? Welcome to the Love your Body Now podcast, the podcast for women who are ready to feel confident in their body right now and redefine what health looks like for them. I'm Savannah, your host, and together we'll be having conversations about what it means to accept and love our bodies now, while simultaneously prioritizing our health journey. We'll be debunking beliefs that do not serve us and diving into misconceptions and unhealthy narratives in the fitness world, so that we can rebuild our foundation from a place of self-love. Hello, welcome back to the Love your Body Now podcast. And, if you were new here, thank you so much for checking out this episode today. I hope you stick around and I hope you like it a little bit. And, if you are a regular listener, thank you so much for coming back and tuning back in. I just have to say I was so upset that I did not get an episode out last week. So if you're a regular listener, you might have seen that we didn't post an episode out last week and I won't get too into it, but just had to do with a lot of personal obligations that I've been having going on. I feel like I've been so busy I mean I know everyone always says that, but I feel like I've been in such a busy season compared to usual and it's just been crazy. And I'm just glad that I have a moment to get in an episode recording and be able to post that out, because I love this podcast so much. I enjoy doing it and it kills me when I don't have time to prioritize it or work on an episode and get that out. So I'm happy to be back this week and do a recording on something that I've been wanting to do, a topic this topic for a while now, which is just all about how to set up your own fitness workout plan, especially for those of you who maybe are like I want to start working out but I don't even know what a workout plan looks like. Or maybe you're familiar a little bit with exercises but you feel like you're still kind of not really knowing what you're doing. So I want to give you a little bit of the structure behind, if you're working with a personal trainer or if you've got a fitness program that you're clicking into, where some of that strategy and structure comes from, when the personal trainer is developing a workout program, and how you can start to understand it as well in terms of what a body that is like.
Speaker 1:If you were looking to be the most functional and optimize your body as possible, then you really need to include all of these components into your workout program in some way, and also just some other holistic considerations as well. So the first thing that you want to know about your workout plan and just the amount of exercise that you're doing every single week is there actually is a minimum that is recommended for overall health, like what is the number that you should shoot for? So there's two different numbers, one being that you get in 150 minutes of moderate exercise every single week. Obviously, if this is broken down into the five days a week, that would be 30 minutes. The other number, if you want to go off this number is or it can be 75 minutes of vigorous workout every single week. So just know that that is like a number that always when trainers or anyone who's developing a workout program, they are using these numbers. So if they have you working out five days a week, just know that they're probably having it broken down and every single workout plan is different. Every single individual is different based on what they're looking for in a program. But you can kind of expect if they have you working out five days a week, then you're probably going to see that the workout plans for each single day are going to be around 30 minutes and they're probably going to be about at like a moderate type of level of fitness.
Speaker 1:If you're only working out maybe a few days a week, then you might start to see that the workouts that you're doing throughout the week are a little more intense, which is why you aren't being told that you need to work out seven days a week or five days a week because you're hitting that level of fitness that your but basically your cardiovascular health, needs to in order to continuously like, be healthy and get healthier, blah, blah, blah, however. So I'm bringing in the the structure side of it, but I also want to talk about like the holistic side of it and other considerations that maybe, like the science, doesn't say so, although those are like the standards that people individuals should be aiming for every single week in order to maintain their health and improve their health. The other thing that I like to add in here is, although that those are like the standards, I think it's important to recognize that we should be getting in daily movement every single day, and Obviously that type of movement looks very different for everyone, and it can be. It doesn't have to be continuous throughout the day. So what I mean by that is, let's say that you are working out five days a week, you're hitting that minimum of 150 minutes of moderate levels of exercise, so You're doing extra like workouts, 30 minutes every single day. That doesn't necessarily mean don't do anything on Saturday, sunday, and that's kind of where, like, the gray area of that standard is and that I want to get you to think about, is our bodies are designed to move and, unfortunately, in this modern world that we're living in, where everything is super duper convenient and meant to Make things like super easy for us, it can be super easy to start like Sitting more and not exerting energy anymore just because everything is so conveniently Done for us and handed to us. But it really is important to understand that our bodies are designed for movement and if we just like do our, do our workouts five days a week, but then on Saturday, sunday, we just like lay in bed all day or we sit on the couch every all day long and not do anything, then I would say that that's probably like kind of I don't want to say counterproductive, but in a way it kind of is. Because it's like if you're doing these With this workout plan, where you're working out five days a week and your overall goal is to get healthier, you like you want to basically improve your overall health, then it kind of makes like it, it goes, it goes together with okay, then I should be finding time for movement every single day.
Speaker 1:And that doesn't mean that On your Saturday, sunday, which technically maybe you call them your rest days it doesn't mean that I'm saying to go and do another Like structured workout routine. It just means like moving throughout your day, like you could be cleaning your house throughout your day. That counts as physical activity. It's not a structured workout or exercise, but you're still moving your body, or that could look like walking a little bit more throughout the day, whether you're like walking down to the mailbox, walking a couple times, like for ten minutes throughout your day, though Just like thinking about those types of activity when you're not just sitting and doing nothing throughout the entire day, and I think that that's where, like I, I struggle with it with my current job. Right now.
Speaker 1:I work an office job and Since we have moved to our new house, my commute has gone up significantly, so it takes me a minimum of an hour to get to work and get home from work and, like I just said, it's a minimum. A lot of the times that time does go up, so it's been very challenging for me. Doing that much sitting throughout my day, like it has actually really like drove me super crazy. I've been like really trying to figure out a way to make it work for me and I've shared on the podcast before that since I've started this job, I go to the gym that's right down the street, it's just a planet fitness, so you can get away with a membership for ten bucks a month and I just go there during my lunch to get in some form of movement because of the amount of sitting that I do, and it is really frustrating that our, our regular way of living today, just in this modern society, is that there are jobs where they want you to go and sit in an office for eight hours a day and just like not even question the fact that our bodies are really not meant to, they're not designed for this kind of lifestyle.
Speaker 1:And it is a little frustrating because I do have, like at home. I have like a desk that adjust. Um, I can have it so I can sit. I can have it so I can stand. I also have a walking pad and so, like, if I'm using my laptop and doing like office work, I can structure it so that I can do movement throughout my day and not just one portion of my day. So I'm getting a little off topic here, but, um, that is something to think about. Like, if you do work an office job, you have to be intentional and strategic about. Okay, how am I going to get in movement throughout my day? Because if you are just doing a workout in the morning, let's say you do an hour long workout or a 30 minute workout and then you go drive to work, which takes an hour, so that's another, that's an hour of sitting and then you have an office job, so you're going and sitting for an additional eight hours.
Speaker 1:It's it like, from a holistic approach, yes, maybe, maybe you're meeting the standards of like, oh, I got my workout in for the day, I'm done for the day, but it's like, again, our bodies are not designed to be sitting for that long, like consistently, so you need to find ways that you can break up the amount of sitting that you're doing. And it's it's interesting, um, depending on, like, the amount of awareness that you have, uh, within your body and just how you feel overall. I noticed it for myself is, when I've been sitting for a long period of time and I've been, you know, thinking really hard and like doing my tasks, whatever, I actually start to feel energy build up in my body, um, from, like, the prolonged sitting, and it actually like, after a while, I have to get up and do something, whether I go outside and walk around outside or, you know, I take my lunch break when my body is starting to feel it and I have to find a way to get that energy out of my body, because when we let it build up like that, like, think about it, like think about the stress and anxiety that our bodies like feel and carry. That's that kind of energy that's building up inside our body and we need to find a way to move and like basically get that energy out and burn it. So that is, um something to think about when we're talking about just hitting the standard numbers of oh well, I got in my workout for the day, I'm done for the day. Don't necessarily think of it that way. It's how can we find movement throughout our day? And even if you're not doing your structured workouts like the standard right now, you can still find ways to move throughout the day that aren't going to be super vigorous or really hard to do, and the more that you uh piece them into your day, the more that that's going to add up into maybe, maybe you would be hitting the standard of what, um, you know what we whether it's the 150 minutes, uh, every single week, whatever. So that is, um the first thing that I want to take it over.
Speaker 1:The next thing I wanted to talk about are the fitness components, and the fitness components are basically another form of standard that's basically personal trainers and fitness experts use when they are trying to design a workout plan and create a plan for you that meets these guidelines. And the fitness components consist of five different things. So the first one being body composition. So that's basically, you know, body comp basically tells you whether or not your body is overweight or obese or healthy, whatever, um. So that's one metric that it takes into consideration. The others are strength, endurance, strength, um, just like strength, and cardiovascular health, and flexibility. And I almost like, if I could add in one more, or if I could combine to I would say, flexibility slash, mobility is um, should be another, like it should be another component. In my opinion, or I guess maybe it's kind of considered to be the same thing, but they are a little bit different mobility and flexibility. So if I had to, I would say that those two kind of go hand in hand together, but if, if not, if we're not speaking about a mobility that it needs to be like its own thing, that's just me saying that Um. But these are all things that, when people are designing workout plans, that they should be taking into consideration, because all of these different things um are components or factors in our overall health.
Speaker 1:If you are loving the love your body now podcast, then I want to take a moment to tell you about the love your body now apparel line, and I think that if you are loving this podcast and you are someone who is like on your self growth journey, you are working on your body confidence and the whole body positivity are all behind that Then you're definitely going to want to go check out the love your body now apparel line. We have a link in the show notes where you can check it out. And if you're not someone who you know likes to buy a lot of shirts or hoodies or crew necks, we also have stickers for a majority of the designs that we have on our shirts as well. So if you are someone who likes to add cute stickers to your water bottle or your laptop or whatever else you like to customize, we also offer that as well. Some of my favorite little slogans that we have on our apparel so far are the anti-diet club slogans, the growing in progress and, of course, love your body now. Uh, all about what this podcast is about and this brand is about. So if you are into that and you want to check out some of the cute shirts and crew necks and hoodies and stickers that we have, be sure to pause this episode and click on the link in the show notes to the love your body now store. All right, let's get back to the episode.
Speaker 1:So when you are doing a workout program and you actually start to like analyze it and take a look at it and see what you're doing, you can start to understand. Okay, monday and Wednesday they have me doing strength workouts and then, you know, fridays I'm doing like a cardio or a hit type of workout. So those check those boxes. Is there another workout where they're incorporating your flexibility and mobility? And you know I'll kind of go into what these things specifically are. But that allows you to really take a look at okay, are they implementing these fitness components into my workout program or are they just basically hitting strength and cardiovascular health and they're kind of neglecting the flexibility and mobility component? Like, do I need to add in that myself? So those are things that you need to start thinking about. But let's talk about what these fitness components are. So we discussed what like body comp is.
Speaker 1:So let's start with strength endurance, and strength endurance and strength training basically are very similar. I mean, obviously they are. You are utilizing your muscles, you are going against a certain force, but they're a little bit different. Strength and endurance has more to do with how long you can go, like how long your muscles can go until they fatigue and completely like are done, like they're just exhausted. They can't keep going. Strength, specifically, has more to do with how much weight can your muscles handle and physically exert against. I don't think I use that correctly. So I think of, when we're thinking of strength and endurance, I think more of high reps, lighter weights, like you're doing the exercise for a longer period of time, so obviously it has to be lesser weight, like it's not going to be your rep max that you can do, it's going to be lesser. You're going to be trying to do more reps of them and really see how long you can take your muscles to the max without obviously like losing form and hurting yourself and everything. But that's really what strength endurance is. And then strength, on the other hand, has more to do with how heavy you can go or how strong your muscles specifically are. So if we're thinking about like a one rep max or like getting super heavy and doing lesser reps, like lower and reps, that would be more of the strength component.
Speaker 1:So are we implementing this in our workout routine and a lot of the times the way that you'll see this in a workout plan is you'll have like a main lift for the day and you know, sometimes so there's this thing called progression overload. So sometimes the program may not be super focused on your overall strength and it's really focusing on strength, endurance, and then it's working up as it goes. That is how we get stronger and our body improves. Is you continuously like keep challenging yourself and in new ways? So you may not see it in like it may progress into something different as you go, but sometimes what you'll see to is you'll have like a main lift. So let's just say, like bench press, for example, maybe you are going a little bit heavier on the bench press. Say, you're doing like five reps and you're going up and weight. So it is getting heavier as you go and like maybe the reps are getting less. And then the other part of the workout is you are doing some assist lifts. So, like you just did bench press, which is like an upper body type of workout, you're hitting your chest and then maybe you do chest flies, maybe you do some pushups and those are going to be higher and reps and you're really trying to go for as long as you can and you're not really doing a whole lot of weight. So that could be just one example. Maybe there's a ton of different variations that you could do, but that's like to give you an example of what that could look like in a workout program.
Speaker 1:And so then we've got cardio cardiovascular health, as another fitness component. I'm pretty sure we're all pretty familiar with like cardio, what it is. But I don't think that everyone realizes how you can actually like sneak cardio into a strength training workout. Cardio does not equal running or equal rowing or you know the Stairmaster like that. Yeah, that's, that can be your cardio. But there are other ways to get in cardio which basically means like getting your heart rate up. And again, when we go back to that other structure of it can be moderate, it can be vigorous. Just know, if you're doing moderate you're going to have to do it for a longer period of time. If it's vigorous, so maybe you're doing more of a hit styled workout where you're getting your heart rate up really fast and going pretty intensely for a short period of time. That's kind of how that that goes. But you can actually get in cardio during like a strength training workout, if you are.
Speaker 1:Sometimes what personal trainers or people who creating workout programs will do is they'll have you do the reps of an exercise at a certain pace. And let's say you're doing higher reps, a little bit lesser weight, maybe a moderate weight, and they're having you go with like a tempo for the like each rep that you do, and then they're actually having a certain amount of time for your break in between and then they're having you go again. So what that's doing is your heart rate is going up, right, and there are these things called zones. So basically the zones have to do with how high your heart rate is and like kind of like what level that you're pushing yourself at, like level of intensity. So there's like zone one, zone two, zone three, as it goes, and each zone obviously is getting a little bit more intense, like your heart rate should be hitting a certain level. There's also something called rate of perceived exertion and you rate that basically from one through 10. And so that has to do with basically how hard you're working as well and like how high your heart rate is going. So those are all factors that trainers will use when they're creating a workout plan and if they want to get in a cardio workout, like basically check off the box for cardio during your strength training workout they can strategically create the plan to where that's how you do it. That's one of the reasons why I really like doing I still use the beach body workouts, which now they're called body, but they're these on demand workouts and I like them for the fact that, like they, they are very smart about like having you get done, like you get done with the program, or I mean the workout in a certain amount of time, like they have everything timed, so you're taking a specific amount of time for a break and then you're going again and it just like keeps you going.
Speaker 1:Rather than I know when I do like a workout by myself that maybe I came up with I I don't always pay attention as much to like the amount of time that I'm doing a break or having a break, so it's like obviously your heart rate comes down and the workout isn't as challenging because you're getting more break time. So those are things to consider in your workout as well, and obviously you can do a cardio workout by itself. You know, sometimes people will do like a hit workout one day and or like a boot camp style or circuit or whatever it may be, really just focusing on getting your heart rate up and doing it in the main forms of movement. So those are cardio strength, endurance and strength. And then we also have flexibility and, like I said, I think that mobility should be included in there and maybe it kind of is.
Speaker 1:But so flexibility has more to do with your muscles, like how far in their range of motion that they can go, like your, like specifically your muscles, or as mobility is the same thing but it's for your joints. So like how far, like can your, your joints go through their full range of motion, type of deal. So they're both equally important and you need both. You can't have like really great flexibility and terrible mobility, or maybe you don't have any joint strength at all but you have like this insane amount of flexibility. Well, that that flexibility doesn't really like. It's actually kind of dangerous if you have like an insane amount of flexibility but your joints are really weak and they aren't super strong, so they can't safely like maintain that flexibility, you're more likely to get hurt, type of deal.
Speaker 1:So they're both, in my opinion, equally important and as I get older, I care almost more about mobility than anything else, because if you can't move your joints in their full range of motion but you are continuously like working to get stronger in your strength training workouts, it's counter productive in my opinion, because if you can't do, let's say, a squat in the full range of motion, which to do a squat and it's full range of motion. It would be like you're taking your squats you're hitting parallels, which means like your butt and your knees are like parallel. So if you can go all the way down to that, making sure that your back's not rounding at all, like making sure you have proper form throughout that squat. If you don't have that kind of form but you're continuously like going up and wait, it's like you're just asking for an injury to happen. And in my opinion, it's like why do we push ourselves to get super, super strong and like be able to lift all of this amount of weight when we can't even fully move in the full range of motion that our joints and our muscles should be able to move in? It's kind of silly to me. It's like building off of a weak foundation, in my point. In my opinion, because to me, mobility and flexibility is your foundation. You can't if you're not building off of a strong foundation of oh yeah, my body can fully and functionally move the way it is supposed to and then build the muscle off of that. That's the right way to do it, in my opinion.
Speaker 1:So what is kind of frustrating sometimes to see is that workout plans don't always include this, and I'm not talking about a warm-up before a workout or a cool-down. That's not the same thing as prioritizing flexibility and mobility. Like mobility and flexibility are their own thing. Like you have to prioritize them the same way that you would prioritize a 30-minute workout or a 30-minute just a 30-minute workout. Like you have to prioritize them the same way. And I am continuously learning ways that I can prioritize it and be smart about the way that I'm doing it, because obviously if you're just holding a static stretch for 20 seconds and then moving on to the next one, it's really not going to be very effective. So that has been a lot of.
Speaker 1:What I have mainly been focused on is how can I, if I'm going to spend 30 minutes doing flexibility and mobility, how can I get the most out of it? Because I think with flexibility and mobility, people think that they can easily just rush through it or quickly do something or hold a static stretch and think that they made an improvement. But it's really not like that. It is very similar to a workout plan that has progressive overload and you're continuously challenging your muscles. It's the same thing with flexibility and mobility, and something I've noticed with my mobility training is my hips.
Speaker 1:I've really been wanting to improve my hip mobility because I can feel it. I can feel that one side is stronger than the other. I can feel that they are getting harder and harder to move through the full range of motion without there being limitations. And one part of mobility is not just moving through the full range of motion but also being able to build strength with your joints. And I find that very, very humbling, like when I am sitting in a 90-90 position with my hips which if you don't know what a 90-90 position is like, just search it and then trying to make my joint work in that position, like in an internal rotation like position. It is extremely humbling because you start to realize how weak your joints actually are and how much they're just getting by by basically crutching off of your other bigger muscles. So I think that it is incredibly important to, especially as we age, begin to strengthen the joints, and those are like the tiny little muscles that we have that, again, we can get by without strengthening them because we have these bigger muscles that will take over if they have to, but as we age, it's only going to get worse and worse, because we always, like, as we age, we start to decline in muscle mass. So I know that that.
Speaker 1:I didn't mean to scare anybody, but that is where, like when I think of what I'm prioritizing in my weekly workout routine, those are all of the things that I'm thinking about of like, okay, did I prioritize this? Did I do this? Did I make time for this to make sure that my body is getting exactly what it needs to basically be functional and increase the optimization, because my whole goal is I want to slow down the aging process as much as I possibly can and prevent it from happening, because it scares the crap out of me to think about how my body is always just going to continuously decline as it ages, and I just don't even want to think about that. So that is what all the things that we should be thinking about when we are thinking about the structure of our workout plan. Now, there is one last thing that I want to add in that, again, is not part of that quote, unquote standard or structured which is finding enjoyment in your workouts. It is one thing to say like, hey, these are all of the things that we need to be thinking about when we are working out, like have we hit our? Have we done cardiovascular workout? Have we done strength training? Have we done some mobility? Yes, those are all super important and I do think it's important to have some structure in there, but I also think it's important to have things that we actually just enjoy, that kind of make us forget that we're even working out in the first place, which is different for every individual, and it's also important to have that incorporated into your workout routine because, from a holistic standpoint, enjoyment is a huge factor in our ability to stick with exercise overall.
Speaker 1:And if you're struggling to stay with a workout routine, I would say that If you can find more enjoyment in it over anything else, then you are better off, as opposed to just like completely stopping what you're doing because you're not enjoying it at all, you hate it, whatever, and you're having a hard time implementing it into your routine, then I would rather someone find stuff that they enjoy, that they can stick with, that maybe doesn't have a whole lot of structure to it and like really get that down as a routine first before they come back to finding like structure in their workouts. So I mean this can look very different for everyone. I mean some people enjoy going on walks every day because they find it therapeutic. Some people enjoy going running because it's a stress reliever. Maybe you enjoy playing golf or tennis or pickleball, whatever it may be. That is any kind of physical activity that you enjoy.
Speaker 1:Make time for it and make it a part of your regular routine, because if you can have that implemented as kind of your foundation, then you can start to build off of that. So, and think of it as, like you know, if you're someone who let me think so like right now I'm playing a softball league, it's like if I want to play the softball league or maybe I want to start playing more tennis with friends, I want to make sure that I can do that for a long time, like I have the option to play tennis until I'm, like, really old. Well, then I can start to think, okay, well, if I know that you know I'm going to it's it can be kind of hard on your joints Then I know that I want to spend time strengthening my joints and making sure that my body is well equipped to handle the types of movements and intensity of tennis. So maybe that is how I'm structuring my workout plan then, to make sure that I can play tennis for a long time because I enjoy it. It's super fun, I'm moving my body, I'm getting in a workout every time we do it. So that means that when I do do my structured exercises, I am catering them to make sure that I can play tennis and continue playing tennis. So that is sort of the holistic piece of it.
Speaker 1:That I wanted to add in is that, although exercise is, it does need structure sometimes and it needs, you know, if you want to really, like on a scientific level, improve your overall health and do it the way that the guide lines say to do it, then yes, like there is a piece of that, but there also is a piece of it that you know how can we find enjoyment in physical activity multiple times throughout the week so that we are able to find a way to maintain it and stick with it long term. Rather than dreading our workout and exercise, we want to find ways that we can enjoy it and stick with it long term. So I hope that this episode was helpful. I hope that it doesn't. I did not want to share it to overwhelm you, but I definitely want to empower you and help you grow in your education when it comes to determining what to do for exercise and how to start viewing exercise in a way that's a little more analytical, but also keeping in that holistic mindset of it as well, and not just kind of going through the motions of like what we always thought exercise is supposed to be because that's what we see on social media or that's what we see from advertising, whatever. That is currently what the guidelines are and the standards are for our health, and the more you know, the more that you can begin to implement this into your own lifestyle and improve your overall health in the way that works best for you. So that is it for today.
Speaker 1:I look forward to chatting with you next week and if you love this episode, please let me know, share it on social media, tag me, tag our. We have a social media account now on Instagram called the well it's called love your body now, I think, dot podcast. I should know we just created it, so if you liked this episode, go ahead and tag us on there so we can share, and let us know If you have a topic in mind that you really want to hear about and learn more about so that we can cover it on the podcast. But all right, I will chat with you later.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. You have no idea how grateful I am to have you as one of the love your body now listeners. If you are loving this podcast, it would mean the world to me if you subscribed and left a review. This helps me get the message out to more women just like you, who are also committed to their journey. And if you love this episode, please be sure to share it with someone who you know needs to hear today's message. Together, we can help more women recognize their self worth and build their confidence from a much deeper place, just like you're doing right now. Let's help change the world, one woman at a time. All right, talk to you soon, friend.