There should be motion in everyone’s life away from their desk. While everyone wants to exercise and exercise regularly, not everyone falls into the habit as easily as others. One simple piece of advice I can give, though, can easily change this for anyone: make a themed workout routine. Assign each day of the week a theme, and this can be much broader than “kick day”. Fix this 7 day rotation for yourself, and use the little mantra of the day’s theme to motivate your workout and drive yourself further.
For me, this theming paradigm was first introduced by my swim coach in high school. Each practice day had a theme, setting the tone before we even stepped on the pool deck for that day’s workout. The one I remember the most was “Old School Tuesday”, where we went old school: just a bunch of yards, as fast as you can go. Tuesday was by far the hardest day of the week, but because of it’s theme, I actually looked forward to it. Think of some fun themes for your work outs, like “Circuit Saturday” for a circuit based swim workout to mix things up on the weekends. An example full week for a competitive swimmer might look like (inspired by my 7-day routine when in high school swim season):
- Monday “Back to Basics Monday”: Focus on fundamental stroke drills and technique.
- “Old School” Tuesday: Hardest day of the week, don’t skip this lightly.
- Medley Wednesday: Have your hump day focused on IM (or FrIM), just mix it up!
- “Big Kick” Thursday: Big emphasis on leg power and speed in the water.
- “Suns out guns out” Friday: Sprint work, really get huffin’n’puffin and take needed rest to go fast.
- Circuit Saturday: Set “stations” up for yourself, rotate swim sets on a regular 15min (or 20, or anything you want!) basis to touch on whatever you feel weakest on.
- “Stretch Day” Sunday: This can be the day off, but otherwise get in and get some distance per stroke in, and maybe get in some hypoxic.
This routine and it’s themes should change as your life does. Also, when creating your sets for each day, you can always move around components to make up for any rest days you took. For example, in the above plan, if I missed a Wednesday, I’d just incorporate more IM and breast stroke kick in my kick workout on Thursday.
With MySwimPro, it’s as simple as sticking to the Workout of the Day. By going premium and gaining access to daily workouts, you can tailor your own plan to fit your own schedule (not many of us can swim 7 days a week).
TL;DR: Make a 7 day, themed workout cycle. Include the rest days you need. Stick to it!
I originally posted this on LinkedIn with a different spin, you can check it out here.
