How should my weekly exercise schedule look like?
It’s always good to mix up the type of exercise you do throughout the week. This will help you to create the best overall conditioning for your body and develop the various physical components of health.
‘Health’ is the general term used for several individual factors that make up a person’s overall wellbeing. It is considered a combination of good physical, mental, social, nutritional and medical wellbeing. It’s important to give some attention to all aspects of our health in order to encourage the best possible quality of life within our own boundaries and circumstances.
Physical Fitness
The physical aspect can be broken down into subcategories. Let’s look at what those components comprise of:
- Cardiovascular fitness
- Flexibility
- Strength
- Endurance
- Motor fitness (balance, coordination etc)
When we look can those words, we can quite easily team them up with an exercise style or two. For example, the term ‘flexibility is commonly linked with Pilates or Yoga because these forms of exercise are known for promoting this particular aspect of fitness. And ‘Cardiovascular’ and ‘Motor fitness’ can be linked with Aerobics because Aerobics is famously known for focusing on the cardiovascular system and coordination. And so on.
It terms of how much we need to focus on each of these components is very individual to each person. Other health factors can also impact your physical fitness for better or worse. So it’s vital to understand that one person’s weekly workout schedule, could and most likely should look different to another’s. It’s also good to understand that motor skills also have a subcategory of their own! (That’s right, a category, in a category, in a category!).
Skill Related Fitness
These are the kinds of physical skills that athletes may have to work on to progress in their individual sport. These skill-related components are as follows:
- Coordination
- Agility
- Speed
- Power
- Mobility
- Balance
How should we schedule our week?
We are all different, therefore we all benefit from varying levels of physical activity. But, in general, we should be looking to include a variety of workouts in our weekly workout schedule if we’re looking for overall physical fitness.
Here are three typical at-home schedule examples using InstructorLive programmes, which could be applied if you’re looking to include and improve on cardiovascular, strength, flexibility, endurance and motor fitness:
BEGINNERS
MONDAY – Aerobics Introduction
TUESDAY – Wake-up Workout
WEDNESDAY – Rest Day
THURSDAY – Beginners HIIT
FRIDAY – Introduction to Pilates
SATURDAY – Walk (30+ minutes)
SUNDAY – Rest Day
INTERMEDIATE
MONDAY – 20-Min HIIT
TUESDAY – Aerobics Level 1
WEDNESDAY – Yin Yoga
THURSDAY – 20-min HIIT
FRIDAY – Aerobics
SATURDAY – Rest Day
SUNDAY – Rest Day
ADVANCED
MONDAY – Advanced HIIT
TUESDAY – Advanced Pilates
WEDNESDAY – Hardcore Aerobics
THURSDAY – Advanced Pilates
FRIDAY – Advanced HIIT
SATURDAY – Advanced Pilates
SUNDAY – Rest Day
Bear in mind that you should do as much as feels comfortable FOR YOURSELF. If you can do more, do more. In case you’re completely new to fitness, then maybe take out one of the active days and replace it with another rest day. If you’re partway into your fitness journey and have already established a certain level of fitness, try adding a walk to your rest day. The most important thing in all of this is LISTENING TO YOUR BODY.
Mix up your exercise styles so that you can cover the various components of fitness to some extent and don’t forget to DO WHAT YOU ENJOY! Exercise can be seen as a reward in many ways, so find the workouts that inspire and motivate you!
Which workouts focus on which component?
All workout schedule and styles will cover most areas of fitness, to a degree. Especially if you include a real cool down and stretch post-exercise. But here is an example list of some popular workouts, along with which fitness components they focus on the most.
Aerobics – Motor skills, endurance, cardiovascular
HIIT – Motor skills, strength, endurance, cardiovascular,
Pilates – Motor skills, flexibility, strength
Yoga – Motor skills, flexibility, strength
Dance – Motor skills, flexibility, cardiovascular