For your sake, I really hope it’s better than mine was a couple of months ago. Before that, I had fallen into the “the cobbler’s children have no shoes” category with workout planning. Each workout was scribbled onto a piece of paper and then shoved into the front pocket of my program folder. Some on post-its; some on scraps. Most do have a date and in theory there was probably some semblance of a plan from day to day, although not much more than that. It almost became a joke. Probably I should not have included “almost” in that last sentence.

It’s a bit of an irony (can you have degrees of irony?) because every one of my clients gets a program. Each program is good for 3 to 8 weeks, and is created to help them reach their goals while respecting the reality of their body. I think this is what everyone deserves and should have. And so it’s ridiculous that I didn’t have one. Not wanting to cling to the ridiculous, I made a plan! I have workout tracking sheets and everything. Cool.

Do you plan your workout? Do you have workout goals that you can plan toward? If not, what are you waiting for? Does your trainer have a plan for you? If you’re not sure, ask them. A good trainer would never be offended by that question, and hopefully will tell you that they do in fact have a plan.

Elsbeth Vaino trains athletes in Ottawa, Canada.