15) FITNESS: How to Craft Your Perfect Fitness Plan - Mastering the 2 Essential Components for Success

"I don't know where to start"

"I don't know what to look for"

"I'm not sure who to trust"

"I just want to know how to make my own workouts"

If you've ever thought or said any of the above ^ this episode (and the show notes) is for you!

Join me in this conversation about what specific & SIMPLE details make a great workout program, how to have repetition AND variety so you can adapt without getting bored, and examples of how I structure a week of workouts for some of my own clients.

FIRST COMPONENT: 6 MAIN MOVEMENT PATTERNS: 

1. SQUAT: From a functional perspective a squat is a movement to keep forever if you want to be able to do things like get off the floor, sit down in any chair and be able to get out of it, use the toilet independently as you age, and more comfortably play with your kids as they get older and bigger. From a training perspective, squats are an all inclusive movement that engage lots of different muscle groups depending on what you squat with and how you do it. For example, a super heavy goblet squat will also target your abs in a big way. And a barbell squat will get the muscles in your back a ton, as well as abs. 
   Goblet squat, front rack squat, sumo squat, back squat, tempo squats, squat with pulses, overhead squats, heels elevated squat, toes elevated squat.

2. HINGE/DEADLIFT: Being able to hinge at your hips the way a russian deadlift demands is suuuuuch a great skill to have. This stretch and strength makes the low back happy when you do it well. From a functional perspective, hinging is great for doing every day tasks that are more likely to injure you and create pain.
   Conventional deadlift, russian deadlift, good mornings, hip thrust, hip extensions.

3. PUSH: Push movements usually target the muscles on the front of the body, which makes it easier to remember and visualize. Push movements, like an overhead press or chest press are great to balance and pair with PULL movements.
   Overhead press variations, chest presses, chest flys, push ups, push presses, sled pushes, squats.

4. PULL: Pull movements generally target the muscles on the back of your body, like row variations and lat pulls/pull ups. The back of the body is easily forgotten and probably the most potent in terms of managing common every day aches and pains. Most programs that are bodyweight or band oriented wont be able to target the posterior chain (aka back of body) and so youre more likely to struggle with low and upper back aches, posture, hip and knee pains due to overuse of the front muscles, and it’ll be harder to get a true strong core! 
   Bent over rows, sumo rows, cable rows, lat pulls, pull ups, banded pulls, trx rows, conventional deadlifts, sumo deadlifts.

5. SINGLE LIMB: Single limb movements, like single leg glute bridges, squat to box, or rdls and single arm presses or rows, are perfect ways to find imbalances in the body, discover where you’re compensating more, and build up strength in a more balanced way. I love single limb work for helping to improve joint stability, mobility, and aches associated with compensations. 
   Single leg squats, single leg rdls, single arm overhead press, single arm arnold press, pallof press, side plank, copenhagen plank, single leg glute bridges, single arm cable rows/pulls, single arm chest presses, incline row.

6. CARRY: This one is more of a bonus! You don’t need to stress if you’re not adding this in BUT it is an excellent addition to a well-rounded training program and the benefits are vast.  A carry is exactly as is sounds. You get something super heavy, like a kettlebell or a dumbbell, and you walk around with it in one hand, maintaining posture. This would be called a suitcase carry – easy to remember! Carrying one suitcase in one hand. Another carry variation is called a farmers carry – I imagine this is from carrying a bucket in each hand. So this is carrying something heavy in EACH hand. These are the two most basic forms of carries and truly all you need to know. But for the sake of educating, there are also mixed-rack carries, so that means you might carry a heavy weight at one side (suitcase style) but then in the other hand maybe you have a lighter weight held up overhead. That’s mixed. My personal preference is the suitcase carry. It hammers your core, it improves your grip strength, it offers you more awareness of your posture and how to hold tension up your spine. It’s a nice, low impact way of exposing your body to load without a ton of risk. You can easily drop the weight down too if it’s too heavy or your grip fails.
   Suitcase carry, farmer carry, mixed rack carries, overhead carries.

SECOND COMPONENT: 

When I’m writing workouts for clients I like for them to repeat the main movements for 3-6 weeks with deviations and progressions in things like weight, reps and or tempo and pace. 

Repetition is VITAL for 2 big reasons:

1. When you repeat your workouts you eliminate a lot of the anticipatory mental load that comes with too much variety. When you KNOW what to expect it can make your workouts shorter, smoother, AND easier to notice progress in because you’ll be able to feel and see a difference in your movements, range of motion, weight choices, joint stability, all the things. It’s like learning a brand new recipe and having to look at the measurements and directions constantly. But if you make this same recipe a handful of times then it wont seem as long or complicated. You start to memorize whats needed and maybe you dont have to keep buying all the ingredients because you have some leftover from last time. Its always harder to make a recipe a single time than it is to repeat it and fully understand it. AND the more you make it, the braver you get later on to experiment with new things and put your own spin on it. Same goes for workouts.

2. Another benefit to repetition is that your body ACTUALLY gets the message to adapt. When you do a workout once and you’re all over the place, your body doesn’t get the opportunity to understand what you’re asking of it so it wont adapt. It will be confused. When this happens, you’re more likely to be too sore which means taking MORE days off, losing your momentum, and falling off. With repetition you get to adapt, eliminate soreness, and get real results.

Some of my favorite resources for workouts are:

• Peloton! They have GREAT workout programs with a variety of trainers and equipment. You can do Pilates, strength training, cycling, shadow boxing, even pre and postnatal programs. You can do one-off workouts or do a 4-6 week series. And you dont need a peloton bike to access these. They have an app!

• Kayla Itsine has some really great programs to follow.

• Bodybuilding.com has phenomenal programs that are NOT just for bodybuilding so dont be fooled by the name of the website

• I have a handful of premade programs available to anyone once they’ve worked with me 1:1 in my signature program, Hypefit Method.

• And then there are a ton of great trainers online who you probably already follow on social media and can reach out to to see what they offer!

www.chelsybarber.com -- if you're interested in working with me, come visit my website or find my on instagram! I'd love to meet you and get you started on your dream fitness journey ASAP!