This week I’ve been at my rotation with another intern, and it’s been fun.

The best part? He is a personal trainer. And when we had some downtime the other day, he made me a workout plan.

I told him that I had been in a workout rut for a while, even though I’d recently found the motivation again with those morning workouts. We incorporated exercises that I like (running), but also made it something completely new to me: progressive.

Even though I’ve done progressive training with running (i.e. running 2 miles one week, 3 miles the next, and so on), I’ve honestly never done that with strength/weight training. I typically just stick to the weights or exercises I know until I get bored.

So here’s the plan:

Week one and two:

• 3 days of aerobic cardio for 1 hour (70% capacity)
• 2 days of strength circuit (full body) with only bodyweight or light 3-5 lb weights - key here is focusing on posture and form (hips forward, shoulders back, core engaged)

Week three and four:

• 2 days cardio intervals for 45 minutes (80% capacity)
• 3 days strength (push, pull, legs) with moderate weights - 4 sets of 8 reps

Week five (“power” week):

• 2 days cardio intervals for 30 minutes (full/sprint capacity)
• 3 days strength (full body) with peak weight - 4 sets of 4 reps

He made me a circuit for the first two weeks of bodyweight training, and gave me a list of workouts to include in the other weeks with strength training.

And for the cardio, if you hadn’t already guessed it, I’ll be running.

What I’m hoping to accomplish with this is to 1) whip me into shape for summer and 2) give me something to focus on for the next month until my internship is over. Once I have the ability to breath and have a life again, I’ll be able to give exercise the attention it needs. But for now I needed a little guidance.

Does that make any sense to anyone? Eh?

 

Do you have a personal trainer?