Why You Should Use a Fitness Planner
Do you use a fitness planner to organize your workout schedule? I have to admit, I’m not one to stay that organized with my workouts. I alternate between running, HIIT workouts, dancing, and… whatever I feel like at the time. This amounts to probably 1-2 workouts a week, which I know isn’t enough.
The things is… I have this big goal in mind that I’d like to run a marathon. And, you can’t just workout 1-2 times a week and then wake up one day and run 26.2 miles. It doesn’t work that way.
So, I decided I needed to get a bit more intentional about how I am working out. The best way to do that is to have a plan for what I’m going to do each day. I’m actually following a one-month “survival” marathon training plan, which means that I should be able to finish in at least 6.5 hours without injury.
Anyway, here are the 5 simple benefits I identified of using a fitness planner for your mental health (and your social anxiety).
One Less Thing to Think About
If you’ve got a busy life, you might find it hard to remember what workouts you’ve done or what you plan to do. Using a fitness planner can help to relieve this mental burden and give you one less thing to think about.
For my marathon training plan, I decided to post my workout list on the fridge so it’s front and center for me each day. I don’t need to think about what is coming next, it’s already laid out for me. This means I can spend more time just getting the workout done rather than deciding what to do each day.
Accountability for Your Workouts
Unless you have a personal trainer who meets you at the gym each day, or a friend who is also doing the same training program or workouts as you, chances are that you are lacking accountability for your workouts.
A fitness planner can help with this in two ways: First, if you check off the “completed” boxes as you do each workout, you’ll be motivated to keep going because you won’t want to miss a checkbox. And also, if you post it on the fridge and there are other people in your house, they’ll easily be able to check if you are sticking to your schedule. If you’re the type of person who is motivated by this, then that type of accountability could work in your favor.
Putting Yourself First
How often do you actually put yourself first? If you’re like most people with social anxiety or low self-esteem, you might feel as though you don’t deserve to treat yourself well or do things to benefit your physical health.
Using a fitness planner means you are putting yourself and your health first; this will have side benefits for your mental health, as you’re sending a signal to your brain that you DO matter and you DO deserve to be healthy and take care of yourself.
Builds Your Confidence
Along with putting yourself first is the confidence-building aspect of using a fitness planner. You’ll no longer be wishy-washy about what workouts you are doing in a week and what time you plan to do them. Using a fitness planner will help to build your confidence as you check off each workout and make progress toward your goals.
Tracking Your Progress
Do you sometimes lose track of whether you’ve exercised in a week or when was the last time you worked out? A fitness planner can help with this if you keep old copies in a binder. You can go backward in time and track your progress to see which programs you’ve done or how many miles you logged.
Saves You Money
How can a fitness planner save you money? Quite simply, it eliminates the need for a personal trainer (if you could afford one anyway). Your fitness planner can become your personal trainer, by keeping you accountable and helping you plan your workouts. If you’re not sure what to do when, I recommend Fitnessblender’s online workout programs.
To help you with your fitness planner needs, I went ahead and created a simple weekly fitness planner that you can access inside my resource library. Simply sign up for my newsletter through the form below and I’ll send you the password to access your own copy of the fitness planner so you can get started today.
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5 Mental Benefits of Using a Fitness Planner
Here are some of my favorite social anxiety tools
Thanks for reading! I hope you found some helpful tips. Since this site is about social anxiety, I wanted to also share some tools I use that I hope you’ll find helpful. Some of these are affiliate links, so if you decide to try them, I’ll earn a commission. However, I only recommend things I have used myself and would recommend to a friend or family member.
Online Therapy: For online therapy, I have personally used and like the service offered by Betterhelp. It's easy to get started from the comfort of your home. You'll even get a discount on your first month of therapy when you use my link.
Doctor Visits: For doctor visits, Web Doctors offers convenient online appointments.
Audible Subscription: I recommend a lot of self-help books on this site, but I actually prefer an audiobook subscription over print books! My favorite subscription service is Audible because it has all the best-sellers and they stay in your digital library forever (even if you end your subscription). You can sign up for a free trial and listen to your first two books for free.
Social Anxiety Masterclass: The Social Anxiety Masterclass is my signature course where I walk you through everything I know about how to manage social anxiety. If you're not ready to enroll in the course, be sure to subscribe to my email newsletter to hear about special deals!
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