I finished my Monday workout on Wednesday.
I ran out of time on Monday, so I left a couple of sets and my core exercises for Wednesday, when I had more time.
Usually, my Monday workout stays on Monday. This week it needed a bit more room.
I spent a few years watching videos about how to build better systems. I could probably watch a few more.
But it took me a while to realize that a system is basically a set of rules I’ve made with myself.
For my workout system, those rules tell me when I’ll train, what counts as done, and what I can change when the week gets messy.
It took years of trying things to figure out which rules actually helped. A to-do list on my phone? Somehow invisible (and I have tried a bunch of apps over the years).
A Post-it on my monitor? Works beautifully.
For a few days.
Then that Post-it also becomes invisible, so I write the exact same thing on a different-coloured Post-it.
Apparently, my brain considers that new information.
I try new rules for at least a week, sometimes a month. If one makes my life easier, I keep it. And if it stops helping six months later, I can change it. That’s how I ended up with the workout system I use now.
- Pick a goal for the next 12 weeks. Maybe I want to do my first handstand push-up. Maybe I’m preparing for a half marathon. I borrowed the timeframe from The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington. Three months gives me enough time to work toward something concrete, and I can still picture what I’m working toward.
- Write down what I’ll actually do. Once I know the goal, I build the plan. For a Monday upper-body session, I write down which exercises I’ll do. When lunch break comes around, I can get started without spending half of it deciding what to train.
- Give each session a spot in my week. Monday lunch is upper body. Wednesday lunch is lower body. When I’m preparing for a race, I might run on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. Between races, I usually run on the weekend and cycle on Thursday or Friday.
- Move a session when the week changes. If my Monday lunch break disappears, I can move upper body to Tuesday. The calendar gives me a time to aim for. I can pick a new one when I need to.
- Decide what counts as done. We have a saying at the rehab centre. “A session started is a session done.” I borrow that for my own training. If I do two sets instead of three because I’m short on time, I count it. The shorter session still counts toward my week.
- Come back at the next session. I got “never skip twice” from Matt D’Avella. If Monday falls through and I can’t move it, I pick back up at the next session on my plan. This rule has helped me train consistently for years. Funnily enough, it has had considerably less success in the rest of my life.
- Have three versions of the week. My minimum is two sessions. My normal week is three or four. My ideal week is five. If I’ve only got room for two, I already know that can be a complete week. I can start fresh next week without trying to squeeze three missed workouts into Sunday.
I still have days when I don’t feel like training. What helps is knowing what I’m aiming for and having a fallback I’m happy with. If two sessions are all I can fit in, I can do those two and get on with my week.
Over the past two years, I’ve rarely gone a full week without training. When I do, it’s usually the week after a race, and I’ve already decided to take it off.
So if you ask me how training went this week, “I got two sessions in” and “I took the week off after my race” can both be followed by “Yeah, it went pretty well.”
🧪 Let’s Experiment
Which parts of your workout would you keep if you had half the time?
It’s easier to answer that now than when you’re halfway through a set and checking the clock.
🎯 Try This:
Pick one workout you’ve planned for next week. Put a star next to the exercises you’d keep on a short day, then decide how many sets you’d do. Give the workout a backup time in case your usual slot disappears altogether.
If the whole week gets tight, ask yourself whether this is one of the sessions you’d keep. If it is, you already know what the short version looks like.
If that rule helps, make it part of your workout system. Add another when you find one that works for you. That’s how I built my own almost bulletproof system.
🧠 Final Thought:
If you only get to the starred exercises, you can still tick off the workout.