Some people are natural “spur of the moment” people. They get an idea and they run with it. This is a great trait in many ways as I tend to think that these kind of people are naturally geared towards being easier to motivate. That said, spur of the moment alone rarely works when it comes to fitness as planning your workouts is much more likely to help you succeed and here is why:
Making Time
When you plan your workouts you commit to a regime that you know will take up a certain amount of time a day or a week. The benefit of this is that you can proactively organise your calendar to make sure you have time for workouts (etc) so that you don’t rush, have to cut things off short and what not. Make a plan, schedule your time and be in the zone when fitness time comes around.
Effective Training
One of the best things about having a training plan is making your time count. An effective training plan will incorporate your SMART goals, will help you assess progress and of course a plan can be altered if needs be. The plan is the starting point to helping you identify and work towards where you want to be health and fitness-wise. It’s all about focus.
Motivation
For many one of the key benefits of having a plan is motivation. Knowing what comes next helps you prepare, seeing what you’ve already crossed off the list is a sign of success and having an achievable plan for reaching your end goal will keep you coming back as it enables you to focus, and in turn motivates.
Habits
They say that it takes 28 days to make or break a habit. When it comes to training a plan is also required. Doing something over and over, making it a routine helps you build those healthier habits and these can be built into your training plan.
Help and Support
Having a clear plan of action for short, mid and long term goals is a necessity if you want to achieve everything you’ve set your heart on. What happens though when you hit a plateau or start to lose motivation? Having a plan in place is great because it gives those best able to help you something to work with and something solid to look at. They can be an outside expert pair of eyes to help tweak your plan, to get things moving again, shake things up a bit and to use your plan to help motivate you and get you back on track.
Plan for Everything
The thing with a truly great training plan is that it isn’t just about the goals or the workouts; it encompasses everything you need to help you build a healthier and happier you, including nutritional needs, habit changing /building and even mindfulness.
With so many benefits to having a training plan, it makes you wonder why you haven’t had one or used one as effectively in the past!
PS If you fancy a spur of the moment workout or run on top of your planned activity go for it, and enjoy!