(Part 2) How Training Can Change Your Life

Designing your plan for success!

This is Part 2 on how training can change your life. I encourage you to read Part 1 first if you haven’t yet (today will make a lot more sense after Part 1).

Quick recap of action steps from Part 1:

1. Identify meaningful activities, experiences, or specific abilities that your physical training can impact for the better.

2. Come up with 3-10 KPIs that you can track and reflect on to gauge relevant progress.

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Planning for Success

Once we have our KPIs it’s time to get a plan in place to put us on an intentional path toward improvement of those metrics.

Remember when I said we don’t have a team of professionals dedicated to our physical success. Well this is your time to put on your performance coach hat and establish a plan through any of these methods:

• create your own plan

• find a plan that aligns with the progress you desire

• recruit a coach for guidance on your plan and effort

Whichever route you go just make sure you establish a reasonable plan that you feel confident you can start following now.

The best designed plan will have minimal effect for you if you are unable to consistently follow the majority of it.

“Reasonable Program” factors to consider are:

• Which days am I willing to dedicate to this plan?

• How much time on each of those days am I able to spend training?

• Do I have the tools for the job? (equipment/location suited for following your plan)

Generally speaking, less is more. You’re not going to solve all your problems and make jaw dropping progress on all your KPIs with one plan (especially your first one).

The most effective approach is to be honest with yourself and establish a plan you feel very confident you can stick to right now. This will allow you to get started.

Once you have started a plan and start collecting feedback (more on this later) you then afford yourself the ability to reflect and adapt your plan or how you approach it to make it a little better than it was before (or keep it if it turns out to be perfect for you right now).

Over time you will be able to target your KPIs with strategies that work well for you.

This planning step might sound a little overwhelming initially, but once you have a starting plan you won’t need to overhaul and start from scratch each planning cycle (unless you want to). Ideally you will make a couple tweaks or additions here and there and then “test” how effective it is over your next training cycle.

I would also like to highlight the value of either finding a pre-built plan to get started with or finding a coach to help you get started so that this initial planning is less overwhelming and easier to get started implementing! I’d only recommend creating your training plan from scratch if that excites you.

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My Fit for Life Training Plan Example:

I like to think of my Fit for Life Online System as your acting performance team. You are effectively outsourcing this planning step for me to step in as your performance coach and help guide your effort and training plan to make the progress you care about.

If your values/KPIs align with the design of Fit for Life - to be healthy, fit, and athletic through adulthood, while enjoying an active life - then I believe it’s a great system to utilize.

I personally utilize the Fit for Life design for my own planning step while using self-reflection to shape how I approach the programs (how I distribute my effort). Within the design (I use the Hybrid Athlete Program + I’ve added a focused speed day and two of the Longevity Booster sessions) I’m currently following:

(3) full body sessions, (1) speed focused session, (2) endurance + mobility sessions, and (1) grocery shopping day

I also periodically deal with some hip and back tightness from lifestyle and past wear and tear. So along with trying to incorporate a greater mix of standing and sitting while working on the computer and sitting on the floor more often when relaxing, I’ve also added a very quick Daily Back/Hip Mobility routine that takes me 5 min. to complete and helps me feel noticeably better.

What motivates me right now is to improve my top speed, vertical jump, and strength in some key areas I feel are weak for me.

So I approach the speed day with high effort and 1-2 of the full body sessions with high effort (depending on life and recovery that week).

I then approach 1-2 of the full body sessions with a feel good mentality and I use the 2 endurance/mobility sessions as active recovery days (because I’m fine with maintaining endurance right now).

Here is what my plan looks like on the Sheer Training App for the first two days of the week

By thinking through what kind of effort I want to approach each session with and by having my plan scheduled on the Sheer Training App for me to open and follow along, I know what is expected of myself and how to complete it.

I find this very helpful to remain mostly consistent with my training plan while trying to balance invaluable time with my family (including being a new dad now), owning a business I’m passionate about, and all the other fun and not so fun busyness of life.

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The second part of this planning step is to clarify your Plan of Action.

Training Plan = clarifying what you’re going to do

Plan of Action = clarifying how you’re going to follow it (consistently)

Your training plan should be selected with the confidence that you can stick to it, but then it’s important to know exactly how you are going to stick to it while juggling everything else you have going on in your typical week.

The main objective with your action plan is to identify the days, times, and location(s) you will show up to follow your training plan.

I highly recommend scheduling this on a calendar (unless you are against calendars in which case you could Habit Stack from Atomic Habits by writing down and declaring “After [current thing I do] I will go to [location] to follow my training program).

The hidden gem for really improving your action plan after you have clarified the day, time, and location(s); is to then think about how you can make your environments as easy as possible to follow your plan over the week.

What will make all of this planning easier to follow is

1. Reducing the amount of steps to get started training on the days you’ve determined

2. Trying to make the training more enjoyable through any and all controllable factors

Reducing the Amount of Steps - Make it easier to get started daily.

If you want a deeper dive, I cover this idea in a lot more detail in my HIA Series | Make It Easy to Be Successful article.

Here, I will give you the gist of it.

Main guiding question:

Fast = You want to reduce the amount of time it requires to start your training session.

This could mean finding a gym that is closer to you, or better yet connected to where you work or live (I’m a big fan of home gyms!). You could also identify a park or outdoor location you enjoy being in (but I’d still recommend a convenient indoor option as a plan B for rainy days).

The reasoning behind this is that the longer it takes you to get to where you will complete the session, the more commitment is needed to follow through with your training program.

The more convenient the location is, the less excuse you have to convince yourself you don’t have time/energy that day to follow through.

Easy = You want to reduce the amount of steps and decisions required to start your session.

You already have a training plan and plan of action to reduce many decisions. Now it's time to Prime and Reset your environment/*tools to further reduce decisions and minimize the amount of steps to get you from not training to training.

*I like the word tools for any equipment, gear, clothing, or resources you might use to get the job done. It helps me connect the utility of the items to helping me accomplish what I desire and value.

Prime Your Environment by placing items where they can be easily seen and used, such as:

• organizing a home gym with grab and use equipment

• setting your training clothes out the night before so when you get home you can put them on first thing without having to decide what to wear

or positioning items where they can be quickly taken with you, such as:

• pack a training bag the night before with clothes and any equipment accessories you like to train with so that you can grab it and go the next day (maybe block the front door with it so you always remember to take it)

• have your (digital) training plan on your home screen of your phone to quickly access or your (hard copy) training plan in your training bag to quickly pull out and use

Then once you’ve primed your environment with what is helpful and where it’s placed, you then Reset Your Environment by replenishing those items and placing them back to your determined helpful spot for them.

This might sound like extra work, but trust me once you make this a part of your daily/weekly routine it requires less effort and you will always have what you need, where you need it to be more successful following through with your training program.

Make it more enjoyable - ideally something you can look forward to

Making it easy is the first step because making it easier will make it less energy draining, which in and of itself is more enjoyable (or at least less unenjoyable).

We can take this a step further though.

Main guiding question:

When I think about this question, I think of variables such as:

• The music I enjoy listening to while training

• The podcast, audiobook, show, sports game I enjoy while doing easier endurance work

• The lighting, space, and natural energy of the environments I enjoy being active in

• The training equipment I get to use that I enjoy working with

• The protein drink I get to enjoy after a session

• (if you enjoy socializing) the person or people I get to spend time with while training together

• The shoes or clothes I enjoy wearing while training

• Using any training equipment accessory items or specialty bars to spice up the movements I’m training

I also want to reiterate from Part 1 that having KPIs that matter to you and knowing that you are working toward improving them can be enjoyable. I find that aspect of training enjoyable!

If you can get this part dialed in for yourself to start enjoying your training sessions more, you may just find yourself actually looking forward to most of your sessions throughout the week.

This is the dream! This impacts motivation.

You don’t need as much motivation to do something you enjoy doing.

Get creative with thinking about factors or places that would make your training more enjoyable for you.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a lot of good ideas right away. You may have some of your best ideas hit you while you’re training and can relate easier to what factors may make your session more enjoyable.

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I know I threw a lot at you with this planning step.

I wanted to try and be thorough to help you understand how to set yourself up for a successful training cycle.

The reality is that many of these variables you probably already have some idea of what works for you.

So as I lay out this planning step with the action steps to take, you can merge them with what you know already has been working well for you - filling in any of the gaps you see in your current approach with what you feel would be helpful.

Complete sequence of action steps to Plan for Success:

1. Identify meaningful activities, experiences, or specific abilities that you care about that your physical training can impact for the better.

2. Come up with 3-10 KPIs that you can track and reflect on to gauge relevant progress.

3. Find or build a Training Plan that aligns with your KPIs and you feel confident you can follow right now.

4. Clarify your Plan of Action so you know what days, times, and location(s) you will follow your training plan. Boost the effectiveness of this plan by answering:

   1. How can I make it as easy and fast as possible to regularly get started working through my training plan?

   2. Is there anything I can add to my training sessions to make them more enjoyable?

With these actions completed, you will have a great plan in place to start consistently training with purpose!

Another great thing to keep in mind is that once you’ve established your initial planning decisions you will have a solid template to work from when you cycle back to this planning step again.

This will require much less time and decisions to think through because you are just considering any tweaks or updates you’d like to make for the next cycle.

I hope Part 1 and Part 2 clarifies and encourages you to establish a meaningful plan!

Next week we will move into the meat and potatoes of the training cycle: addressing the Do + Collect Feedback step.

Thanks for reading!

Brian