Scheduling your workouts is NOT a sign of poor body image or lack of self-love.
Keep scheduling your gym time, treadmill time or fitness video time, whatever your mode of exercise is.
Some “self-love” and body-positive influencers tell their followers that they shouldn’t schedule workouts.
You should not take this advice.
Of all the things you schedule in your life…why should exercise be left out of this practice?
What DO you think it’s okay to schedule?
• Bath time for the kids
• Feeding time for the baby and older children
• Housecleaning
• Balancing the checkbook
• Reviewing expenditures for the household
• Oil changes for the car
• Showering
• Shaving the legs
• Washing the hair
• Haircuts
• Walking the dog
Do you do any of the above only when “you feel like it”? Of course not! There is a component of scheduling to every one of those tasks.
Without any scheduling, there’d be big problems, not to mention filthy hungry children and hairy legs.
There Is No Evidence that Scheduling Workouts Prevents Self-Love or Body Positivity
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When I was a personal trainer, my clients’ workouts were scheduled. Well, of COURSE they were, because I was providing a service, and they were my business clients.
But that aspect aside, having them work with me two or three times/week on the same days and at about the same time helped train their mind to assimilate the concept of sticking to a fitness regimen.
If you decide to do your workouts “whenever you feel like it,” guess what will happen!
Remember what I said about filthy kids and hairy legs? Not to mention a dog pooping all over the house and an overdrawn checking account.
Important events need to be scheduled: business meetings, PTA meetings, HOA meetings, doctor appointments, job interviews, and on and on.
So to think that an appointment to do your body good should not be scheduled is utter madness.
If you refuse to schedule your workouts, you’ll end up not doing them often enough to progress in your level of fitness.
If you want to increase your cardiovascular fitness, muscle and joint strength, low back and knee integrity, improve glucose metabolism, improve bone composition, enhance vascular health, firm up and lose body fat – you absolutely MUST schedule your workouts.
Just like you schedule your pedicures, manicures, haircuts, teeth brushing and anything else in life.
Spontaneous Unplanned Workouts
Hey, I’m all for spontaneous, non-scheduled ventures of physical activity such as that unplanned bike ride, zip-about on your inline skates, hike or some spur-of-the-moment sprints down the street.
But these would be in ADDITION to scheduled exercise sessions. Without scheduling you’ll lose sight of commitment, focus and progress.
Aim for at least three structured exercise sessions scheduled per week.
If something comes up and you miss one of these workouts, then you should do it the next day.
But to eliminate scheduling altogether? This is utter nonsense.
