What does your weekly exercise schedule look like?
 

Hi!

After looking around the exercise forum a bit, I'm really interested to see if everyone has a fixed weekly training plan or if you all do it all ad-hoc and also if you do more strength or cardio etc etc.

Mine looks a bit like this (in a perfect week when I don't wuss out of one or more!)

Monday - swim intervals (50m - 50sec recovery x 10-20)
Pilates class

Tuesday - run slow 10k on any empty stomach

Wednesday - swim intervals (same as Monday, working on getting the recovery down but I only started last week!)

Thursday - run intervals (10min warm up, 1km 5:15min/km, 500m recovery, 1km 5min/km, 500m recovery, 1km 4:45min/km 10 min cool down)

Saturday - same as Tuesday

Sunday - same as Thursday

Mon-Fri I cycle to work (45min round trip) and I cycle to go drinking with my friends/shopping/uni etc. I love Vienna because it's so cycle friendly!

I realise I do no strength training, but I really hate it with a passion. I am thinking about doing a few planks / press ups after my running sessions to ease my guilty conscience!

Like I said, I'm interested to see what everyone does!

Claire

I just do Zumba 3 times a week (usually Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday) and do some arm weights at home on my off days.

You make me feel like I should step it up!

Na don't feel like that, I'm training for a 5k and a triathlon, if I wasn't I wouldn't be doing all that! Plus, exercise is a nice alternative to writing my thesis at the moment ;)

I'd love to try Zumba but it hasn't made it this far yet. I'll be back in the UK from September, maybe I will have a look and see!

I just run 4 days/week 5.4 miles each run. I also do pullups and pushups a couple times a week.:D

I feel you with the thesis! I am a grad student trying to finish and graduate in 3 weeks!

I am a Zumba instructor...and if you go to Zumba.com you can type in your location and find classes. There are actually quite a few in the UK!

Claire-- you shouldnt run 2 interval sessions a week... may i suggest either a longer run (longer than your 10K run ) OR a tempo/LA Threshold run? If you are doing 1 KM repeats, you should be hitting your goal race pace for the repeats..... try stepping up the speed and running shorter intervals, like 400 meters, for instance. DO pyramids (200, 400, 800 400 200) etc.

my suggesstions for what they are worth!

Way to fgo on tri training.... my problem is with the swim, im awful at it!1 I would neeed a swim coach to teach me proper, and EFFICIENT technique!
I get lapped by the older ladies with the arm floaties

Great thanks for your suggestions! Why shouldn't I do 2 interval trainings? Is it bad for my joints? I have noticed my left thigh has been really uncomfortable the last few times. I'll sub an interval training for a longer run on Sunday. My race pace is 5min/km (which is probably a bit optimistic). I don't think i could do it any faster without more prep time (I've got three weeks).

What do you mean by tempo run? I do one of my 10ks at half marathon pace (6min/km) and the other one as fast or slow as I feel like on the day. Sorry to ask so many questions!

Ah I think I am a freak, swimming will probably be my best sport in the triathlon (unlike everyone I speak to!). I swam a lot at school so technique is no problem, my swimming fitness is completely shot to pieces though! If I can get that back I'll be OK. Cycling will be a nightmare for me, as will a 5k after all the swimming and cycling...

Thanks again for your tips - I was hoping for some new ideas in this thread :)

ps: razorbackbritt - thanks for the Zumba tipoff, will look it up when I'm back in London! Good luck with the thesis!

Not sure if you're specific to runners or triathletes. I do low-impact, high intensity aerobics with weights one hour each, four times a week. During the winter, I also walk 3-7 miles a day (depending on that day's work/life schedule). During the summer, I also add in urban biking which can sometimes lower walking amounts on some days depending on the weather.

I joined a gym only a couple of months ago & this is my schedule so far:

Monday - Work with trainer, what we do varies, but always includes ab work

Tuesday - Group Power

Wednesday - Zumba

Thursday - open

Friday - Group Power, Zumba

Saturday - open

Sunday - open now, but might add Centergy

That's about all I can take!..

hugs :hug:

Mon,Wed, Fri, Sun are my heavy days so I am working on 2.5 mile runs (I can do most of it, but I have been closing the distance to where I walk and to where I continue running so I can run the whole thing, but baby steps) on those days and then a few hours later I do my kettlebell presses. I can do five ladders of five rungs with my 35 pound kettlebell, and I am trying to get my time down.

Tues, Thurs, Sat I do kettlebell swings, and I up my amount of swings by ten. I do two sets of ten per minute, so I do 390 tomorrow. I also try to take a shorter walk with heavy hands that day.

Wow, Claire! Great mileage! I'm not a running coach, so I was interested in what mkroyer said. Cool to know peeps here got an eye for stuff like that.

I'm more in to strength training and wonder what you don't like about it. I love running, too, but my crappy knees don't and neither does my schedule since running distance takes up so much time, so I'm limited to 5K races. Which is so fun!

OK, so here's my week: (note: Boot camp consists of full body weight resistence training similar to P90X or cardio/core which is 2 miles of running mixed in with over 600 core reps- a balance every 2 weeks)

Mon: Teach/do Boot camp 5:45-6:45 am
and again at 4:15-5:15pm - I usually modify the 2nd time.
Tue: Recover or run no more than 5k
Wed: Boot camp 545 and 415
Thur recover or run no more than 10K depending on how my body is recovering.
Fri: Boot camp 545, take yoga at 8am
Sat/Sun: variations of recovery and just a nice long run, hike, ski, snowmobile, etc. and enjoy some good wine. :)

I'm starting my 'summer schedule' which consists of two shorter workouts a day spaced apart. I find I don't get at hot/tired and a get a better calorie burn on the second workout.

S~ hike with Hubby
M~total body weights
T~ cardio
W~ upper body weights + cardio
TH~ Lower Body + cardio
F~ LB + cardio
S~ UB + cardio

I like generic schedules so I can 'plug in' whatever I feel like doing. Weights can be anything from free-weights to barre, kettlebells, pilates, while cardio is usually treadmill but can be kboxing or HIIT.

This is the alternate schedule:

S~ Total Body weights
M~ hike with Hubby
T~ total body circuit or UB weights
W~ cardio
TH~ LB weights or pilates
F~ boxing
S~ UB or TB weights

Mostly it boils down to cardio one day weights the next!:D

When I see runners breeze past me with their ponytails bobbing, I envy them. I'd run -- I did run, for a while --- but I've got feet that are way older than my chronological age, with arthritic big toe joints and chronic plantar fasciitis in the left foot. Also my knees have felt crunchy after runs. I can't take the pounding. So instead, I stick with low-impact cardio.

Monday: Arc trainer, circuit training class (which alternates cardio, Pilates and strength training stations)
Tuesday: Strength training, spin class
Wednesday: Mat Pilates on my own or one-on-one Pilates training on machines, spin class
Thursday: Arc trainer or elliptical, Pilates mat class
Friday: Strength training, arc trainer or elliptical
Saturday: Spin class, Pilates mat class
Sunday: Strength training, spin class

On the strength training days, I warm up by rowing for 15 minutes, trying for my best time & distance.

Saef You said you had arthritic big toe joints? I see this in my future too, I have a really bad wonky toe and it sometimes really hurts. How old were you before you started having real problems?

fitness4life I don't like strength work for lots of reasons, but mainly I have a really short attention span and can't motivate myself to do things on my own at home. I also hate gyms and don't have a membership so all my workouts are done outside or in the local pool. My pilates class is about as much as I can manage, attention span wise and the social pressure of other people there stops me getting up and doing something else. Nightmare, no wonder I have to work with children under 10!

Nice to see what everyone does! I feel guilty for not doing more strength/weights :)

I don't have a 'schedule' really as I have a young baby and sometimes things don't go as planned but I do consisently do 4-5 days a week, primarily running short distances (1-3 miles) and weight lifting (mostly kettlebells as I don't have a gym this month but I will next month)

Great thread, thanks for starting, claire! It's a useful reminder to me to mix it up more than I am right now. My exercise routine is VERY static, alternating between running 5K and doing upper/lower/abs strength training. I really, really need to mix it up a bit.

Claire, when I was in my early 30s, and weighed about 250 pounds, I started noticing sometimes after a day of walking around the city for several hours, my feet would hurt at the base of both big toes. It felt like there was a metal rod jammed in there. But this didn't always happen; for example, certain weather seemed to aggravate it.

When I set out on my effort to lose weight, in my early 40s, I really began to notice it. And suspected then that something was wrong. For one thing, after my feet shrank, because I was losing weight all over, I noticed that I had really big knuckles at my big toes. This disgusted me, because it reminded me of the feet of some of my female relations. I am pretty sure my issue is at least partly hereditary. (What are peoples' feet like in your family?) My mother's mother had huge scary bunions, which I used to stare at rudely when I was a kid, because it looked like her feet were trying to grow a sixth toe. One of my mother's sisters had similarly bumpy feet, till she had them operated on. And then one of my cousins -- a girl just in her 20s, working as a hairdresser, and so on her feet for much of the day -- also developed bunions & at 25, had her feet operated on. That's three generations straight through in the female line. So it's just gotta partly be genetics.

When I started doing running intervals during my walk, my dogs really started barking at me. I ended up going to a podiatrist. The x-rays he took showed the enlargement at the joint. He told me he could scrape away some of the growth, but in the meantime, we addressed the problem conservatively with cortisone shots & by my getting custom-made orthotics. I changed up my exercise regimen to spinning classes & use of the elliptical & arc trainer. I just can't run; the pounding does me in. (Now & then I try it anyway, just to see how far & fast I can go. Maybe once a month or less.) I have also conceded that I need wide width shoes, and that there are some shapes of shoes that I just can't wear. Namely, anything too pointy. Yeah, often I see a cute shoe on the rack & have to acknowledge: "Sorry, that one's just not for me."

Saef - thanks a lot! I have bunions (one bad, one mild) on both feet and I am really self conscious of them. Sometimes the left one hurts a bit but normally it is OK but your story has prompted me to book an appointment at the docs, maybe for surgery. I've been thinking about it for years but never wanted to because I wouldn't be able to run/walk etc for 6 weeks. I'll go to the doc and see what he recommends anyway. Thanks for your reply!

Compared to everyone in this thread, my exercise schedule (if it can even be called that!) is seriously lazy!

I just run a couple of mornings a week (I run for half an hour, which is about 2 1/2 miles, with a five minute brisk walk either side). On many days, my boyfriend and I take a brisk 30 minute walk in the evening too, which is nice. I'd like to do some strength training, but I don't really like exercising in a gym and don't have the cash to spend on weights for home! I have a copy of the New Rules of Lifting for Women and would like to do something like that.

I want to add kettle bells this week, any links to work outs would be helpful. I am fairly strong and was considering an 18 pound bell to start with.

My current schedule is walking 60 min 2 times a day with 2-4 sets of stairs during each walk. Looking for more ideas, need to keep it easy and low cost.

Can you buy a resistance band? It should come with a list of exercises. Even if you can't, there are many ways to work the whole body just using gravity and your own body weight, and many of these exercises work entire groups of muscle so you get more bang for your buck!

Try Push ups: regular hand placement, narrow, wide elbows in for triceps as well as push up combo moves: spiderman push up, push up burpies, you name it!

Sit ups, crunches, planks, back extensions, dead lifts (try standing on one foot, too)

Wall sits in squat position, 1 footed wall sits, lunges in 3 directions and with back shoe laces on a chair, squats (wide stance and narrow).

Dips on chair, jog in place with arms shoulder pressing for 3 - 4 minutes, bicep curl a full gallon of milk.

T planks, Russian kicks on a mat, Inverted V push ups, walk on hands with feet up against a railing, wall or fence or feet on your bed.

I could go on and on. Make a list, do each for 30 sec. Try to do 3 sets. Then next week increase time of set, or you can do each rep 15-20 times. However it fits your liking.

I wonder if we shouldn't start another tri thread. I am also in training. Did a full "practice" tri last weekend and my first event for this year is on Saturday.

I run 5 days a week and put in anywhere from 35-55 miles during those 5 days depending on what I am training for at the moment. (I will be running an ultra marathon in two weeks.) I'm one of those crazy people! :dizzy:

I also play soccer one a day a week, walk with my dogs, and rollerblade on occasion.

Mon: am: arms & abs
Pm: spin class
Tues: 40min cardio 1hr Body Flow (yoga, tai chi, & pilaties)
Wed: am: shoulders\back & abs
Pm: spin class
Thurs: 40 min cardio 1hr Body Flow
Fri: Legs
Sat: 1hr Body Flow 1hr Body Attack (plyo)

Good luck on Saturday!!
I agree we should start a Tri thread!

I have been trying to do:

Monday: Run - Speed intervals
Tuesday: Swim, bike or run depending on time/weather/how I feel
Wednsday: Ab class at lunch; swim in evening
Thursday: Spin Class
Friday: Run - Hill intervals
Saturday: Run outside or Swim
Sunday: off

I want to do more core work. I have been slacking on the swimming - but I am not worried about it. I started with swim lessons when I was 10 months old. Spin class has been awesome. Running is improving. I am such a slow runner. As far as biking - My legs get tired long b/f my lungs do. (Luckily?) I live where it is hilly, so that will strengthen my legs.

I have heard mixed things about strength training. Mkroyer said in another post to do lots of leg stuff (weighted squats, etc.). A guy I talked with who has done iron mans says he didn't strength train for his first couple of tri's.

I am just doing what I can! And remembering to have fun and enjoy it!! I LOVE that I can slap on my sneakers and get outside in the sun and go for a run!

Here's my schedule! I'm currently training for the Russian Kettlebell Challenge in August :) I am following the Enter the Kettlebell program, which has been amazing so far to help me increase in my strength and endurance.

Monday- Variety day (kettlebell bootcamp)
Tuesday- Heavy pull/press day
Wednesday - Rest or Variety day (kettlebell bootcamp)
Thursday - Light pull/press day
Friday - Variety day (kettlebell bootcamp)
Saturday - Medium pull/press day
Sunday - Rest or Outdoor workout (stadium stairs, track, kettlebells, body weight, etc.)

This thread was such a great idea! It's nice seeing what everyone is up to! :)

Me too saef! But, I envy their bobbing ponytails! :D

Hello! *waves* My week looks like this...

Monday- run 3-6 miles- core work usually utilizing planks and a yoga ball.
Tuesday AM- Trainer (full body- learning to lift weights!!)
PM- Run 3-6 miles
Wednesday- run 3-6 miles- maybe core work- depends on how i feel
Thursday AM-AM- Trainer (full body- learning to lift weights!!)
PM- Run 3-6 miles
Friday- run 3-6 miles and then swim with my four year old! :)
Saturday- Mimic whatever workout my trainer did with me on Tuesday
or Thursday- he tells me which one. Run 3-6 miles.
Sunday- NADDA baby!! Lazy day!

I just recently started running, and I totally LOVE it! It is awesome!! Before all this, I was doing a bootcamp 2x's a day, but I think my body just got so used to it, I wasnt losing or changing at all.. in fact, sometimes I didnt even break a sweat! I am really excited about working with my trainer and running!!

I don't exercise as well as I should. I'm trying to get back in the hang of things. I've been trying to walk every morning or evening (sometimes both), for around 20-30 minutes. I will sometimes do a couple sprints, but I can't sprint very long. I also do some stretching. I was stretching every day for around 20-60 minutes. I need to get back into that. I'm just lazy, and lack motivation. :(

I'm an exercise addict. I love the stuff. Almost as much as food...

Sunday: 90 minutes co-ed adult soccer
Monday: 15 mile bike ride
Tuesday: At noon: Stiletto Stamina class, after work I teach a 60 minute Zumba class, lift weights, then go to a flamenco/Jazz dance class for 60 minutes
Wednesday: 90 minutes soccer & teach 60 minute Zumba
Thursday: At noon: Flamenco/Belly Dance class then after work 15 mile bike ride, then ab work.
Friday: day off
Saturday: 25 mile bike ride or choreograph Zumba, depending on weather

I don't really have a weekly schedule. I lack access to a gym but I live in the country so the world is my gym.

-M-F I walk a minimum of 5 miles every day to and from work/errands.
-I try to do "sweaty cardio" (running/jogging ~5K or 40 min Tae Bo Cardio DVD) at least 6 days a week. Sometimes I go for long powerwalks instead.
-I do pushups/abs/core stuff at home most days, avg 5-6 days/week.

The lack of variety is a little sad but this will do. I intend to join a gym when I move back to the US and I'd really like to get into weightlifting.

Monday - A.M. - HIIT cardio for 30 minutes, switching b/t 20 seconds of sprinting and 40 seconds of walking.
Monday - P.M. - 20 minutes of Pilates.
Tuesday - P.M. - 30 minutes of Kettlebells followed by 15 minutes of non-weighted core work.
Wednesday - A.M. - 2.5 mile run for 30 minutes.
Wednesday - P.M. - 20 minutes of Pilates.
Thursday - P.M. - Same as Tuesday.
Friday - A.M. - Same as Wednesday.
Friday - P.M. - Same as Wednesday.
Saturday - A.M. - Same as Friday.
Sunday - REST.