7th Law of Exercise: The Plan

By Tony Horton

SCHEDULE ALL WORKOUTS IN ADVANCE. This creates accountability. Plan an entire month ahead of time. Try to schedule as many workouts as possible with friends who have similar goals. WOWY SuperGym^® was developed so we could all have an easy and effective way to stay accountable and work out together. Now we've got people in Trumbull, CT (my hometown), doing Power 90 at the same time with people in Hollywood. That's cool!

I believe that a workout calendar is your most important tool. Power 90 and P90X^® have everything you need to stay consistent. But for those of you who are having trouble with motivation and consistency, you need to place that calendar where you'll see it every day—on the bathroom mirror, on the refrigerator, next to the TV, or right on your front door if you have to. I have a desk calendar that stares back at me every day. After 25 years of training, I still write down the type of workout I've done and circle the day I did it. At the end of the month, I add the workouts up. My goal (for the last 21 years) has been a minimum of 20 workouts a month—that's 240 a year with 125 days off.

I've always said that you can focus on intensity and variety, but if you don't know what you're doing and when, you're toast. It amazes me how so many people wake up in the morning and don't know the exact time they're working out that day. We're pretty good at scheduling when to go to bed, when to eat, and when to watch our favorite show on the tube. But we find ourselves trying to squeeze workouts in. The "fit it in whenever" approach might work for a little while, but it never survives in the long run. You can't have a fitness lifestyle if you don't have a long-term plan.

Beachbody^® provides the variety—and even the motivation through the Message Boards. Your job is to plan ahead. If you don't lock down a time for your workouts, they won't happen. If you make it a point to schedule your workouts in advance, your chances of success will skyrocket. My calendar has been a simple and powerful tool for me for over 20 years. Without it . . . I'm lost. With it I'm organized, committed, and successful.

WOWY SuperGym is another tool to help you lock in your workout schedule because it creates accountability. Accountability: the obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions. I schedule six workouts every week. I am accountable to the people I schedule them with. I take Monday off. Tuesday I meet four guys at 5:00 PM for a weight workout. Wednesday I meet one to three people for cardio at 5:30 PM. Every other Wednesday, I meet friends at 7:30 PM to rock climb. Thursday I do weights at 5:00 PM with the boys. Friday is cardio or leg/plyometrics day at 4:30 or 5:00 PM with one to three friends. Saturday is yoga at 4:00 PM. I meet two to four friends at the yoga studio. Sunday is a gymnastic workout with my crew. It's locked in!

Stop winging it and schedule when to Push Play in advance. Move your workouts to the top of your priority list. Don't think about doing them whenever. Schedule them as if they were very important meetings or appointments. BECAUSE THEY ARE! You can love what you're doing and eat like a star, but if you don't plan those workouts (a month in advance), you won't go far.

Peace,
Tony H.