I'm curious as to what everyone's weekly routine is. Do you wing it? Do the same exercise everyday? Cardio some days, weight training others? Go to a class religiously certain nights? Etc. just curious!

I'm a competitive Irish dancer so I take about 5 hours of dance class a week. I'm trying to work cross-training into my program right now as it has been easy to ignore. I have a little schedule I wrote down for the cross training pieces, though I'm sure life will get in the way at some point and things will need to be moved around or skipped.

Right now my week looks like:

Mon - Dance Class, Yoga
Tues - Dance Class
Wed - Run, Lift
Thurs - Yoga (active rest day)
Fri - Run
Sat - Class, Yoga
Sun - Run, Lift
Home dance practice as time/energy allows.

I drop the Sunday or Wednesday running if I'm feeling overtrained. Once it warms up I'll likely be doing some hiking or biking on the weekends and dance class will be moved from Saturday to Thursday evening so it will all need to be shifted.

The only thing I do religiously is my dance classes, but if I want to keep competing I need to do my cross training!

Oh I hate routine when it comes to sport!! I do not like sport at all, so i need to change activity all the time or i will quit very soon;-) I go to the swmming pool, walk and ride a bycicle;-) Try to do some fitness too (with dumbbells at home)

I run 6 or 7 days a week, about 4 miles every day with one long run a week 5 miles and above.

I weight train on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday for 50 minutes a session.

And I do boxing on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 1 hour.

Overtraining is mostly a myth, especially if you have a desk job. Your body tells you when it's time to say no.

Do as much as you can.

And wake up early.

My only rule is to never mix cardio and strength training in the same session.

i do a hard workout on the adaptive motion trainer machine (like skiing uphill, similar to elliptical somewhat) on as many weekdays as I can...I work a split shift and have a large gap of free time in the middle that I can go to the gym....some weekdays are busy all the way through so those are my rest days....i try to get outside on the weekends, for either a trail run, or a trail walk, or walking on the beach...i'm also doing the Plank Challenge but that's not the main focus of my exercise

I'm pretty new to exercise myself, but I've been using the C25K app pretty religiously which accounts for 3-4 sessions of cardio/week. I then mix in some strength/circuit training workout videos (usually Jillian Michaels...she kicks my butt).

Thanks for sharing everyone! Nice to hear other people's routines. There are a lot of runners here! I don't think I'm at the point where I could even begin c25k but I hope to do it someday.

I exercise 6 days a week. 3 days include strength training, all 6 include cardio.

I'm lost without my exercise. Who ever thought I'd be saying THAT!

Monday: Lifting (arms)
Tuesday: Lifting (legs)
Wednesday : rest
Thursday: Lifting (arms)
Friday: Lifting (legs)
Saturday: Cardio
Sunday: light yoga/rest

Ian,

I do like the routine. I was just wondering why you dont' mix cardio and strength training in the same session? Is that bad?

I do structured workouts 3x a week that consist of full-body strength training and HIIT cardio. The rest of time I walk/hike, do vinyasa or kundalini yoga, or sometimes a dance video. I was planning to take up snowshoeing this winter (and still hope to) but either there's not enough snow or it's -25 and I don't go outside in that unless I have to.

I workout solely at home, in the living room, in front of the TV, where I can play dvds or go to youtube and get workouts from there (Jillian Michaels, fitnessblender.com) AND I still have a VCR with one beloved Gilad tape

Just about any workout I do consists of a warmup, then some cardio, preferably HIIT (High intensity interval training) then strength. I do not see a problem with doing cardio and strength in one session.

I would love to attain working out 6 times a week, but usually get to 4 x's a week. I have handheld weights ranging from these pound weights - one, 3.3, 5, 7, 9, and 15.

I find that if you try to do both in one session, you don't get good at either (i.e. you don't get the best results).

In other words, if I weight train and then try to run I am tired for the run so cannot run as fast or as long. Or I hold back on the weight training and don't try hard and lift as heavy because I have a run coming and I try to save a little something for that.

So if I just weight train, I can go full out and rest before my cardio session in which I can go full out in that.

It depends, really. Sometimes I'm training for something (backpacking trip, 5K, or just focusing on building muscle) and sometimes I'm not. When I'm not, that's when I get lazy, because I don't have a goal to work towards. But even then, I do 2-3 cardio sessions (of about 30 min. each, stationary bike or elliptical) and at least one strength training session at the gym each week. With cardio, sometimes I'll do HIIT just to mix it up a bit. I also spend a lot of time outdoors hiking and riding bikes when the weather is nice, but that's not planned, I just do it because I have fun!

Right now I'm doing Couch to 5K, so that's three days a week of about 30 min. each on the treadmill. Plus at least one cross-training cardio session and one strength training session (I use the machines at the gym).

I usually do a short cardio session before strength training, only about 15-20 min., before strength training so I don't get burnt out like Ian mentioned, but I'm also only doing enough strength training right now to maintain my strength so it's not as much an issue for me.

When I was focusing on building strength, I cut out one of my cardio sessions and did 2-3 strength training sessions a week (one day upper, one day lower, and sometimes one day both).

I always do better if I make a goal in the monthly Exercise thread in the Challenge forum.

Also important to me? Doing something I ENJOY! Or working towards something I enjoy and making a plan on how I'll get there. I really don't like doing strength training, but I really liked being able to hike up that mountain in Colorado last summer, so that made it bearable.

I'm not too structured, because I got obsessed in the past (in a bad way!). So I usually go between 4-6 days a week, doing 2 days of weights and the rest cardio. The cardio is either on the elliptical, treadmill or stair stepper.

I try to be at the gym for a full hour.

I mostly listen to my body and ramp up on days I'm feeling good, and back off on days that I just feel tired/sluggish.