Building up to 30 Days of Bodyweight Workouts
This post outlines a six-week structure intended to guide novice exercisers - and those who are coming back after a long hiatus - through building a consistent, manageable routine to facilitate regular, sustainable and effective exercise and build up to my new 30 day bodyweight plan
“Follow this plan for the rest of 2020 to begin the full program in January feeling empowered and confident”
The bodyweight workouts in my PDF are relatively accessible, require no gym equipment, and have plenty of notes outlining modifications, but they are definitely not easy! I believe that one key to a positive and sustained relationship with exercise is not go from 0-100 in one week. If you haven’t been moving much lately (hello, quarantine), starting with four challenging workouts per week might not be the best approach. Instead, I recommend you ease into it and add manageable habits periodically. It might seem small at first, but you’ll notice they really add up and result in meaningful change. Building up slowly to the full program will help you to feel more empowered and successful when the time comes to go all in on these workouts.
We have about two months of the year left, so this is a great time to build some good habits and start laying a foundation for a successful exercise regimen. Follow this plan for the rest of 2020 to begin the full program (or any other regimen) in January feeling empowered and confident.
This plan will help you to
carve out sufficient time in your week for exercise
build a solid foundation of cardio endurance, mobility, and core strength before jumping into more advanced workouts.
get comfortable with foundational movement patterns
get comfortable with me and my resources so you can actually use them.
It’s perfect you if
you’re completely new to exercise
you’ve exercised in the past, but it’s been a while
you’ve attempted to begin full workout regimens, but struggle with consistency.
you’ve purchased the Bodyweight workout PDF (thanks!)
you haven’t purchased the PDF (this will help you decide if its right for you!)
By starting this you aren’t committing to putting the workouts off until 2021. If you’ve already purchased the PDF, I show you how to incorporate the lower intensity workouts regularly. If you haven’t purchased the PDF, I give suggestions what to do instead. You can purchase it here if you’d like
Week one
Create your own copy of my basic habit tracker template. The next 7-8 weeks are all about building solid habits.
Your first habit will be 20-40 minutes of unstructured movement 4-5x per week, ideally at the time of day that you see yourself eventually completing your full workouts.
Habit tracker week one - just one habit to nail consistently! We build from there over the next 6 weeks.
Begin to schedule 20-40m of relatively unstructured movement 4x per week. Use your calendar to actually schedule this time, invite a friend for accountability. Ideas include:
morning walk
yoga - I love Yoga with Adrienne videos on Youtube.
bike ride
recreational dance class - virtual or outdoors!
hiking
light core and stretching work
This is clearly not a comprehensive list - the idea is to move your body in a less structured, low-barrier-to-entry way. Use your habit tracker template to log this and track your progress towards completing four days of this kind of movement. Feel free to share your progress with me!
Week two
Continue to schedule and complete the non-exercise movement 4-5x per week. Create new copies of your tracker each week, or simply duplicate the table to keep it on one document. This week we add some more structured light exercise. If this means decreasing the walk time by 10 minutes or so some days, that’s ok. One reason that we’ve carved that time out is to make space in your day to smoothly add in workouts. If you are liking the walks (or other movement) and can keep both, that’s even better!
If you have the 30 Day Plan
Add the warm up sequence and cool stretching sequence provided before or after your walk. Perform warm up for 2-3 rounds rather than the 1-2 suggested on core workout days. This warm-up can definitely function as a good workout in the beginning, especially if you add that extra round.
Schedule your warm-up sequence and stretching 4x a week to structure your schedule, build confidence with form, a base of strength, and adequate mobility that will allow you to get the most out of your workouts in the future.
If you don’t
If you aren’t quite ready to invest in the PDF, try this sequence to warm-up. This is similar to what we’ll be doing before workouts in the program.
30 seconds each move for 3-4 rounds (my Youtube video demos are linked)
Inch worm/plank walk out
Samson lunge
Lunge with rotation
PVC pipe/broom arm circles
Bird Dogs
Shoulder tap all 4s (knees elevated = advanced, knees down = moderate)
For stretching and mobility (what will be the cooldown), try this
Check out my Youtube channel for a full playlist of stretches, and my blog on stretching for guidelines on frequency, length to hold, and some info on why we even stretch. This will give you all the info you need for cooldown stretches. Write down the stretches you plan to do beforehand - focus on areas where you lack range of motion 2-3x per week.
If you’re into learning a bit more, this blog on training misconceptions also covers some interesting stuff on muscle tightness and the effect of stretching, among other strategies.
Weeks three-six
Continue to schedule 20-40 minutes of movement 4-5x per week. Decrease warm up rounds to the recommended 1-2 on two days per week as you begin to add two functional core workouts per week.
Continue to complete 3-4 rounds of the warm up on two other planned exercise days. This is where you’ll eventually add the full length strength and conditioning workouts! Feel free to split your work up if things are getting time consuming. Try the core work in the morning and save your walk for the evening or a lunch break.
Make the time spent warming up more flexible at this point. On core days, decrease time spent warming up. Aim to keep 3-4 rounds of the warm up moves on 2 other days.
If you have the Plan
On the two days where you’ve decreased the time spent warming up, add the Core and Abs workouts provided.
Keep this schedule for a full four weeks. At the end, you will have done all of the core workouts in some capacity. Please see notes for modifications if you need them and reach out to me for more if you need a more modified version, clarification, or an alternate move for any reason.
If you don’t
If you haven’t purchased the program, create two of your own workouts each week by writing down a select number of core and ab exercises based off of my Youtube channel “abs and core” playlist. Write these down beforehand so you can stay focused and you don’t back out of moves that you dislike as easily in the moment.
A good basic workout might be 2-4 sets of 10-20 reps each exercise following the structure below. Ideally, aim for a number where you feel like you might be able to do a couple more high quality reps after you’re done, but not much more.
Create your own core workout
Lower abdominal movement
leg drops, reverse crunches, flutter kicks
oblique movement
side plank, russian twist, cross body sit up
full abdominal wall + deep abdominal (transverse) movement
plank + plank variations, hollow hold, dead bug, bird dog and bird dog variations
posterior core movement
bridge variations, superman extensions + variations, back extensions (if equipment allows).
All of these are searchable on my Youtube. When you purchase the PDF, you’ll also gain access to the videos with more detailed text instructions, but I’m happy to answer questions in the meantime. These are basic core movement categories that I recommend hitting.
If you can’t find a video you need, just shoot me a message and I’ll provide an example. If you are sick of structuring them yourself and need a bit of a push…..get the PDF (don’t mind my self promotion..)
Week 5 (midway through core workouts)
Add one non exercise habit to support workout recovery. Drinking 1/2 my bodyweight in ounces means 70oz as I weigh around 140 lb. A great way to measure this is to get a classic Nalgene and drink it 2x (that plus a glass at dinner should do it).
Challenge yourself to add one new habit of choice to support recovery as you step into these strength workouts more regularly. The habit is up to you, you’ll see a number of suggestions on that habit tracker template if you’ve downloaded it - here are a few:
water intake - 1/2 bodyweight in ounces
steps - 7-10k per day
sleep - 7-9 hours
read 30m before opening your computer/phone each day
eat 1-2 cups of vegetables with dinner each day
Add a 20-30m run at a moderate pace once per week
Decrease alcohol consumption - limit to weekends
End of Week 6: prepare to do the program!
Review suggestions for scheduling your full routine in the PDF, replace one, and then two morning walks with the strength and conditioning work.
You will have already carved out the time and built a good base, begin to add in more demanding workouts. Prioritize the workouts and add other movement in afterwards when you have the capacity! If you find that a step goal is more achievable than a set time walking every day, that might be a good option to. A step goal will allow you to break that movement into smaller bouts throughout the day while still keeping track of it.
During this first cycle through the complete PDF, take the modifications into consideration and use me, my Youtube, and my exercise index provided in the PDF as resources. Use the workout tracker to note your numbers, perceived exertion, modifications taken, and more. You’ll be amazed at the progress you make if you choose to complete it a second time in the future and it is easy to forget if you don’t write it down.
Remember - don’t be shy! I am always happy to help with explanations, modifications, general support, and whatever else you might need. This is my favorite thing to talk about!