96. Creating Your Perfect Fitness Plan: Workouts, Rest, and Home Gym Essentials

They actually weren't that spicy of questions like topics , so if we could do a little better next time , I would appreciate it . But seriously , I asked you know , what do you guys want to hear ? What can I help you with ? What questions do you have about me and my journey , or even just my life , whatever ?

And then you know things that I can help you with but also give my spin on . So I got a lot of really good questions . Today we are going to be talking about basically the work outside of things . Of course , I got questions about nutrition and just all kinds of things , but I'm going to be talking today about a couple different topics .

In regards to workouts , we're going to be going over , for example , how to create your own workout schedule , my thoughts , what I do , how to adjust your workout schedule on your period , lifting a tire , incorporating cardio , rest days and best equipment for your home gym . So those are a couple of the topics we're going to be talking about today .

Hopefully , if I can not ramble on and on and make this episode super long , because that's a lot of topics , but I kind of just lumped it together in a , you know , kind of a workout theme . Yeah , I'm excited , let's dive in .

So , as far as creating a workout schedule , I believe how it was asked was Christy , how do you create your workout schedule and how do you recommend creating a workout schedule based on whether I can work out three days a week , four days a week , five days a week ? So , how I do my workout schedule is currently .

Well , currently , I seem to have adopted this attitude of I saw a post the other day that was like nature rests in the winter and we are also supposed to rest in the winter . Like we , we also need rest in the winter .

And I'm like , maybe that's why I feel like I don't want to move , I don't want to work out , I don't want to do anything , I just want to , like , sit in my sweatpants and do nothing . Maybe I'm just resting , I am nature . So I'll be honest and be in a little lazy with my workouts right now , and that's totally fine .

But generally what I'm , you know , really getting after it . My , what my my favorite like . My ideal workout schedule is five days a week , all full body workouts , and I like to do three foundation workouts and two accessory workouts . I'll talk about this in a minute , but that's kind of my sweet spot . I know I like full body workouts .

I know I prefer five days a week with two rest days is going for a walk or stretching or literally doing nothing on those rest days . That's what my ideal schedule looks like . But I realized that we all don't have the same schedule and sometimes our our days can fluctuate .

There are times of the year when I pretty much can only work out four days a week . There are times of the year when I really want to move my body seven days a week . I do take my rest days . I don't work out seven days a week , but it depends on the season , right ?

What you want to keep in mind is , of course , the amount of days that you can work out per week or that you want to , that you're willing to , and then you also want to keep in mind your goals .

So , when putting together a workout schedule for yourself , those are two things you want to , you want to keep in mind is how many days a week can you commit to working out ? Commit to working out . Don't just put together a schedule and then not stick to it . If you can only work out three , four days a week , stick to that , it's fine .

You can make a lot of progress in three , four days a week . And then also keep in mind , like I said , your goals . If you are , if your only goal is like muscle gain , if you're in a building season , you want to be implementing progressive overload .

You want to be doing the same workouts for at least four weeks in a row and you want to progressively overload , which means lifting heavier weights or and or doing more reps , so always progressively doing more , week by week , by week for four to six weeks .

If you are doing progressive overload , like if your goal is muscle gain , if your goal is muscle gain and fat loss , you do not have to implement progressive overload , and you do . It doesn't require you to progressively overload week by week by week . This is my own experience . I usually am maintaining my fat loss and gaining muscle .

That's kind of where I'm at right now with my own body and my own journey , and I do not implement progressive overload every single week throughout the year . That's just not what I do . So for three days a week I suggest you do full body workouts because you can't hit it Period For three days a week .

You should do full body workouts for four days a week . I also think you should do full body workouts . I love full body workouts . You can also break it up into two upper and two lower body workouts .

I struggle personally with upper and lower body workouts , literally personally I struggle with them because I get so bored on upper body days I just I decided I can't do it . So I love full body .

But another reason I struggle with that is because if you're only doing four days a week , your upper body is going to have more parts technically that you're going to work . You're going to have your back , chest , triceps , biceps , shoulders , core for your legs , you're going to have hamstrings , glutes , quads and calves .

So there's just less , you know , parts of your lower body . So I personally just struggle with that and you know , call me crazy , but I would have to break it up a little bit differently to you know , make that work in my brain . Ultimately , do what works for you and make it work for five days a week .

Like I said earlier , I personally do still full body movements , even though five days a week is plenty of days to mix up all the body parts that I mentioned all not the body parts , all the muscle groups that I mentioned .

But I personally do three days of foundational movements , which are your big muscle group movements hip thrust , squats , deadlifts , shoulder press , chest press , really big , heavy movements . And then I do two accessory movement days where I work my biceps , lateral raises , my lats , triceps , calves , core , things like that .

So you can break it up into you know different . You can do chest and back , you can do . You can do shoulders and core , you can do hammies , hamstrings and glutes . But I personally just I don't like that , so I don't do it . So , most importantly , do what works for you .

That's the biggest takeaway from this part of the episode is , do what works for you , but keep those things in mind . If you can work out three days a week full body , four days a week can be full body or break it up to upper , to lower . Five days a week you can take those muscle groups and you can break them up as you want to .

I personally do full body , some foundational days and some accessory days . That's just in all of these years that I've been working out and creating my own programs like this is what it looks like for me and so for my programs . They're all different . Of course I have , you know , different workout programs that I've put out .

I have a shred , I have a workout program . They look different because the goal of recomb is to literally change the look of your body . So you are doing some progressive overload and then you are doing some multifunctional movements for shred . The goal of that program is to lose fat and to shred down .

So we don't implement really progressive overload at all in that program because that's not the goal . My Fit Club clients that program is different throughout the year .

So in the fall and winter months we are doing progressive overload , we are working on body recomb , we are doing a different kind of workout and then , more so in the spring and summer , we are doing more shred , we are doing a little more movement , we are lifting a little bit lighter , and so I break up my workouts for myself in that form as well , because

it takes us through this really seamless cycle of how to build a body and how to make it super simple . So that's how I would suggest to break up your workouts , as far as how many days a week you can give to it . Also , keep in mind , like what equipment you do have access to . That's going to depend .

That's going to make a difference on how you set up your workouts as well . Another question that I got was how to adjust your workout schedule to your period . I personally do not change my workouts , the workouts themselves . When I am on my period , when it's that time of the month and I'm tired and blah , I don't change the workout itself .

I will do the same moves , I will just do them slower , I will take more rest , I listen to my body , I lift lighter , I take longer rest periods between the movements , and I may even take a day off and just go for a walk and take more rest days . So that's how I personally do it and that's how I would recommend you do it .

Can you alter your entire workout program around your period ? Yes , I have done that for people before who are like I just want to do yoga , pilates , some stretching , go for walks like the entire week of my period , and that's amazing . That's great awareness . That's really , really good to know that that's what you want to do .

In that case , I would suggest lifting heavier right on the weeks where you're able to do that , more so in your cycle and then completely altering your workout program to your period . If that's something you want to do and if that's something physically you feel like you need to do as far as energy things like that , I personally don't think that's necessary .

If you're seeing accounts out there that are like you have to alter your workouts to your period like for me , I want to be doing the same workouts week after week after week . Like I want to be doing the same workouts week after week , I want to know what I'm doing . My life is crazy enough . Your life is crazy enough .

You don't know what's going to hit you on a daily basis , what your kids are going to need help with , what your spouse is going to need help with , what your friends are going to need help with , what's going to fall apart right over your day . That's how I'm always like what's going to fall apart today Because something is going to go not as I expected .

I want my workout routine to be seamless . If I feel like taking an extra rest day , I do . If I feel like resting more between my exercises , I will . If I feel like lifting heavier and or lighter , I will do that . I just take the workout that's scheduled for me and make it work .

I think that's a really good lesson in life Take what you're given and figure it out . Moving on to lifting a tire , I get a lot of questions about what shoes I wear , things like that . So let's dive into that kind of quickly . I recommend , of course , flat shoes for lifting . That's pretty much all I do . I have my own .

My daughter and I actually share a pair of running shoes because I don't run that often . If I'm going for a walk , I will just wear the running shoes . I think they're Brooks . They're really good , but for lifting , I personally you should only wear flat shoes for lifting . They do make lifting shoes . Nike Metcons are made for lifting .

Nike actually has a different style of shoe . I think it has lifting in the title . Shoot , if I can find them , I'll link them in the show notes , but I love Nike Metcons . There's that other brand . They really look like Metcons is why it caught my eye , but I think they're just called something lifting .

Shoot me a message if you want to know more about those . And then I love to lift in vans as well . It should have a wide enough toe box that your feet aren't crammed , so you have a really good base for your lifts .

Think about all your lifting as far as you know your squats , steds , you know things like that where you're literally the base of your body is your feet . So they should have a really wide base . I love knee sleeves . I use the XO brand . Exo . I need to use them more .

I was actually telling my husband this just yesterday or over the weekend that my knees have been kind of bothering me again and I need to be better about wearing my knee sleeves . I always think I just need to wear them when I'm lifting heavy , but that's not true . I mean , I'm 42 . So I need to start being more careful with my joints .

So I do like knee sleeves and I do recommend those . I do have a lifting belt . I use the rogue brand . It's cute , it's pink . That's very important to me . I also use gloves every single time I work out . They just help me to grip better . I feel better with them on . So I love gloves . I've used just a brand from Dick's Sporting Goods before .

I have some linked in my Instagram bio in my Amazon shopping cart , my shopping store window , whatever it's called . I have some things in there that you can go look at , but right now I'm using some Gymshark gloves . I love those , and I also really like lifting straps .

They are you either just slide them on your wrist and then , of course , the strap hangs down . You know your palm and you wrap it around the weight , the barbell , the dumbbell , whatever you're lifting , and it can really help take the pressure off of your wrist .

And so those are things that I really like as far as just helping you lift with ease and to keep your body parts protected . Like I said , it's really important to have good form , but it's also really important to take care of yourself . So using the belt is good for your back . Using the knee sleeves obviously really good for your knees .

Any kind of pressure you can take off of your joints , like when you're lifting . Right , my bicep should be doing the work on a bicep curl . So if the weight is really heavy and it's really wearing on my wrist , then all the movement is going to my wrist and that's not good for my joints . So be very careful .

Don't just fuck around and , you know , be stupid in the gym and lift heavy and try to look cool like that's . That's not cool . So get some lifting a tire . That will really help you out and make your lifts better , make your movements better , make your form better , which will ultimately create a better body for you and longevity .

The next thing I want to go over is how to incorporate cardio . I get a lot of questions about cardio and people are like I know you hate cardio but I love it , so how can I incorporate it ?

I do very much dislike cardio , but there are times when I also do like to go for a walk and go for a run and hop on my walking pad and like I do love the feeling that I get after cardio , which is doing cardio . It's actually really hard on my body . It's really hard on my joints . I have some autoimmune issues .

They're actually , I think , flaring up right now because it's so freaking cold here in Michigan . But cardio is just really , really hard on my body , nerve wise , not necessarily just like , oh it's hard and I don't want to do it Like it's hard in different ways , but always do , always do cardio after your lift sessions .

If you do cardio before your lift sessions , your muscles will be fatigued , obviously , and you won't be able to push as hard in your lifts . Your lifts is where the magic happens . So keep it fun . If you're running on the treadmill , you can run on an incline , increase and decrease the speed for intervals .

I've seen some really crazy things that I don't recommend you do on the treadmill . But just keep it fun . But also realize that it's just cardio . Not everything needs to be crazy fun and you don't need to invent the wheel right . Do some intervals , increase the incline , keep it fun , keep it interesting , but always , always , always , do it after your lifts .

Rest days you need at least two rest days from lifting . Each week I get a lot of messages about this too , and I believe the question that I got when I asked my stories was I really don't like rest days Now that I started lifting , I love rest days . I don't want to take rest days . You know why do people say they're so important ?

You need at least two rest days from lifting . I remember those days where , like , I thought I couldn't take a rest day because I thought go , go , go , hustle , hustle , hustle . Right , your body needs rest days . Forget that hustle mindset for a minute , like that's a very dangerous mindset in general . But muscle grows at rest .

So if you're just lifting and lifting and lifting every single day and you're not giving your muscle groups a break , you will not see the results you're wanting because you're not allowing the tissue to repair . So when you are lifting weights , you're tearing down the muscle and it repairs only at rest .

So as long as you continue to tear and repair , build the workout and rest , the muscle grows it fueled properly . So on rest days , be sure to stretch , go for a walk , a little bike , ride something slow . Do not do intense cardio . That takes the energy away from rebuilding and repairing your muscle and it puts it towards these cardio workouts .

Don't do intense cardio and call it a rest day . Mentally and physically , you need to rest . You deserve rest . You don't have to earn it . You just you deserve rest . You don't have to earn your food and like burn off the calories or anything like that .

You are designed to rest and you have to do so in order to see the changes in your body that you want that you're working so hard for . Rest days are important , so that's one thing that you can hinder you too .

If you're not eating enough and if you're not taking your rest day and you're just hustle , hustle , hustle seven days a week workouts , that's going to hinder your progress . I had another question about how to , you know , get in movement during the day . If you're working a 40 hour week sedentary job , what does that look like ?

So if you're working a 40 hour a week sedentary job , I understand that that obviously takes a lot of time away from other things , and then if you have a family , if you have friends , if you have other things to do , it can make it hard to get to the gym for one thing . So that's when I would probably schedule a three to four day workout week .

I love working out on the weekends . My weekdays are busy . Do I work a 40 hour a week sedentary job away from my house ? No , but I work a shit 10 of hours . So I don't want anyone to think that like people don't work or people aren't busy just because they don't work a 40 plus hour a week sedentary job , Like , I don't like that misconception either .

But if you are that person like just work out three to four days a week , try to hit the gym three to four days a week and then , while you are at your job and I know you're buckled down and you're tied to the desk and you can only have certain break periods . I know that whole corporate world bullshit . So get up , stand up , stretch .

When you can take bathroom breaks , walk around the building , inside or outside . These are things that I talked to my clients about , like whenever you can get up , if you have a stand up desk , use it . If you have a walking pad , use it at your desk . Get up , move around . When you're on the phone . If you're taking phone calls , get up .

Move around your office , move around your home . Whatever you can do to stand up , get moving . Take more bathroom breaks , like I said , walk around the building . Go to your car a couple of times a day , walk around your car , I don't care like , get movement in . When you can take the stairs , get up a little bit early .

I know that that sucks , but it is what it is . So just kind of take what you're able to do and really , really work with it . Another thing if I were working a 40 hour week sedentary job where I had to drive to the office , sit there all freaking day , get back in my car drive home .

I personally , if I was in a position to prioritize my health and fitness and my workouts and my meal prep and my macros , I'm going to say no to everything outside of work and my goals that I can . I know that probably sounds really shitty , but if I'm asked to volunteer at the school when my kids were younger , I was a yes man to that .

I probably had a little bit more time and I wanted to be there for all their little parties . Right now , when I get asked to volunteer at the school , it's something that I'm like I'll pass . Can I donate some cash instead ? Right , because time is something you can't get back . Time is the only thing you can't get back .

You can make more money you can do , you can create more of everything except time . So for me , that would be really important if I would get that movement in during the day . And then , on top of that , I'm going to hit the gym for my mental , physical health .

I'm going to take care of myself , so I'm going to have to say no to things that don't align with that or that take my time away from Right .

So that's another thing that I have made clients look at too is like If you don't have time to go for a walk during work , like if you don't have breaks , you don't have the ability to stand up , get outside and stretch . Make sure that you do have time outside of work to get your movement in .

And that's going to mean saying no to other things and other people and other events . And I use the school like volunteer as something , just because I know that's relatable and I know that's something that I get asked to do a lot of . And I used to feel a lot of shame and saying no , I can't help with that .

But now I don't really feel much shame in that because I can't help with that . I don't have time . I want to get my workout in , I want to get my walks in . I want to prioritize other things my family , my children , right Like . It just is what it is .

So in this situation , in this question of you know , how can I get movement in , how can I make this health and fitness thing work when I'm working 40 hours a week away from home sitting down on the job ?

That's how you can't change the job , so change everything else around it as well as trying to get movement in while you're at work , but a lot of that , if you can't change it , a lot of that is going to happen outside of the job . So make sure you're being very intentional with your time outside of work .

And lastly , let's talk about the best equipment for your home gym . I personally think I get this question a lot because I work out in my gym and I share , obviously , videos of that on social media , and so people are like how did you build your home gym ? What does that look like ?

What made you decide to not want to park your cars in your garage and build a gym instead ?

And we have a huge piece of equipment that we actually got from a local school wrestling club , so it was probably in their weight room I don't even recall at this point , but it's a big piece of equipment with leg press and cables and pull downs , and then we have a squat rack and then we have a full dumbbell rack .

So we have really built out a pretty decent size with good equipment enough equipment anyway . Of course we'd always like more , but I always say start with the basics . Start with the basics . You can make a shit ton of progress physically with dumbbells and a glute loop and booty band . Those are two basics and that's what we started out with as well .

We started out with really small adjustable dumbbells and some resistance bands and , you know , a yoga ball to lean back on because we didn't have benches . So dumbbells , glute loops and booty bands are number one . Then I would move to resistance bands . I don't love resistance bands myself , but some people love them so I put them in there .

Resistance bands , meaning the long ones with the handles or the loops , ankle weights I love very versatile . A step is really good to have for reverse lunges , for heel elevated , hip thrust , things like that . It gives you a little bit of a different angle on things and I really , really think this step is very versatile . Also , the stuff is pretty cheap .

And then a wedge for elevating your heel I literally think it's called a heel wedge , but I love that thing . Then I would move up to so those are things you can have that are just pretty cheap . They don't take up a lot of room in your home and you can get very , very good workout with those things . If anything , increase your dumbbells .

You don't need different equipment . You need more dumbbells , but once you have enough , then you could move up to a barbell and a squat rack if you have room for that . Kettlebells I personally don't have any kettlebells , but I think they are really good for the range of motion for your wrist .

So if you love kettlebells , definitely grab some of those , but that's all I would recommend honestly . I mean , we have our leg press machine . Like I said , in cables , that's a good thing to get . If you also have the room and the money , I think a cable machine would be absolutely great . But those things aren't necessary .

I have a really hard time saying to purchase things that aren't necessary . I don't use the cables very often , I'll be honest , and I just love dumbbells and maybe I should use the cables more often . They're probably better for my knees , better for my elbows joints , things like that . I don't know , maybe they're not , but I just don't use them very often .

But the basics are fine . I want you to know that they're actually preferred . I prefer them . More equipment doesn't make it better . More equipment won't make you more fit . Literally . Owning more equipment won't make you more fit . It won't make you even get out of your , get your ass out of bed . To use it right , you have to follow a plan .

You have to follow a progressive overload . You can add pauses , you can add half reps to make it harder , so you don't always need more stuff , heavier weights , more equipment . You don't always need the fanciest things that everything's coming out with . You can decrease your rest time . All of those little things matter .

I had a really hard time the end of my journey of being a Beachbody coach . Every single program that came out with required that you purchase a new piece of equipment , like a new tool . It was always something that you had to purchase to go along with the program that they were selling you , and it seemed like they made it .

They made you feel like , if you don't have this piece of equipment and or this next program like this is the next best thing . And how could you possibly get fit without having a step in your home gym ? And it just for me . That seemed so wrong because I personally knew that I changed my entire body with the first program we ever did , with just dumbbells .

I don't even think I had resistance bands or a glute loop at that . I know I didn't have a glute loop , I didn't even know what that was . So I completely changed the look of my body with my nutrition , changes in my nutrition and dumbbells , that's it .

So it was like the more that we kept coming out with these programs and saying , like you need this piece of equipment , you need this piece of equipment . I just thought every time I was like bullshit , you don't need that piece of equipment , you don't need every single level of resistance band . Like you don't need more things , you need consistency .

You need to get your ass out of bed and do the thing . You need to follow a program . You need to make sure you're taking rest days . You need to make sure you're doing cardio after your lifts . You need to make sure you're doing the right thing , not purchasing more stuff .

So that's my tips for best equipment for your home gym is dumbbells first and then a glute-loop booty band and then everything else . I think just having the littlest things can make a big difference . The ankle weights you can get in two , three and five pounds . You can actually obviously put those on your ankles for things like kickbacks .

Just even walking around helps with your balance , helps with things that you don't even think about Just having those on . Sometimes when I'm working out , I don't want to take them off and I'm like man . Everything's harder , obviously , with ankle weights on . You can actually put those on your wrists too .

So if you have 10 pound dumbbells and you don't have anything higher than that , throw some five pound ankle weights on your wrist and curl a 10 pound dumbbell and now you've got 15 pounds . So you can be very , very creative with things like that .

You can add resistance bands to the dumbbells and then like step on the bottom of it and it adds more resistance at the top of a movement , like a bicep curl , and so you can really really be creative with things . I hope that it's coming across how much I really don't think you need more equipment in your home gym . Keep it very simple .

The people that are the most fit literally the most fit use very basic equipment . If you think about , you know , in terms of just as many , so many exercises you can do with just a barbell or just dumbbells or just kettlebells , right , the ankle weights , the step , the wedge , those are just things that you can .

You know , heel elevated movements are really good for getting deeper in a squat , getting deeper in a lunge , getting deeper in those movements to work those muscles a little bit differently , and I really like that . I really like to work my muscles a little bit differently with the same movement , because my muscles used to that .

I have muscle memory , my body knows how to execute a squat and a lunge and a deadlift , and I want you those are functional movements . I want you to be able to execute those movements so freaking well that your body just has muscle memory and you don't get injured when you're just bending down .

You hear people say that all the time I tweaked my back and all I did was bend down to pick up my kid's toy . Well , if you had been working out and your body knew how to bend down properly , aka deadlift and pick something back up , you that wouldn't have happened , right .

But when you can step on a step or step on a wedge and elevate your heels and or your toes , it makes the muscle work a little bit differently and like that's where the magic happens . So I don't do anything super freaking creative . I use the basic equipment and that really , really works , and that's that's what I want you to know .

So the best equipment for your home gym are things that I mentioned , things that you need for your workouts , that you can create if you want to , and use the formula that I mentioned earlier in the episode . So I really hope you enjoyed this episode . All about workouts , different things , answering different questions .

As usual , I will put a story box in my stories on Instagram or question box and you can ask me questions over there . But feel free , I get messages all the time like , hey , I have an idea for an episode . I actually have one screen shotted from , I think , last week that I'm going to be talking about here in a couple of weeks and I'm excited .

So I love hearing from you and love hearing which episodes that you really really liked . And then I also like to know what you'd want to learn , because I love to teach and give you my thoughts on things . So hope you love this episode . I will talk to you next week .