[zoard.ehmann]

Program or Training Plan

Hi there,
I am doing workouts for years already (sometimes a bit off, sometimes more active, but it was always one of my main hobbies) and always trying to "make the best out of them". That said, I may sometimes overthink, rather than actually doing them. Now I am in the same rabbit hole and trying to decide whether a training plan or a program would be a better fit. Thing is, I am interested in a lot of stuff. Mainly in strength, but also nowadays something that lifts my heartrate for a better overall health. Yoga is also important for stretching and overall mobility, so yeah, my biggest issue is, I like to do a lot but hard to manage them from time perspective. I usually work from home - office work of course -, but 2 times a week I travel a lot to the office, so limited time for workouts those days. My another issue is that I am a "perfectionist", so there are no rest days for me, only active recovery. If I take "off-days", I tend to just lose motivation and quit eventually from whatever I was doing.
Now I decided to stick to DAREBEE once again - did that many times in the past - because of its simplicity and effectiveness. Thanks for that to the DAREBEE Team!
Thing is, I cannot decide whether to start with a training plan, like Maverick or rather do programs after each other. My only concern with the programs is that due to my schedule, sometimes I cannot really do contiuous 30 days and then I feel like I am failing. But then again, this could be the same with Maverick as it's also a 7 days training plan. And as said, some plan below 7 days is not for me by nature.
I would be very happy to hear and see your thoughts, suggestions or whatever you would give as feedback.
Thank you all!

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Welcome @zoard.ehmann !

Since you have a tendency to overthink, I would go with a Program. It eliminates the problem of indecision paralysis because it tells you exactly what to do each day. All of DAREBEE's Programs are designed to be done every day, and have active recovery days built into them. So they fit very well with how you like to train.

Although Programs are designed to be done every day, it is fine if your schedule forces you to sometimes miss a day here or there. It's not failing to take more than 30 days to finish a 30 day Program. But since you do want to be doing something every day, I would suggest doing an Add-On Program and/or a Challenge alongside your main Program. This would also fit well with your interest in covering multiple different areas of fitness training.

You could, for example, choose a strength training Program to be your main workout. Then, alongside this, add on a Challenge with a cardio focus, and possibly a yoga or stretching Add-On Program. Add-On Programs typically take less than 10 minutes per day to complete. Many Challenges take 5 minutes or less per day. So on days when you have lots of time, do all three. But on days when you're pressed for time just do what you can. Even on the busiest of days you can squeeze in a 5-minute workout. So you'd have that consistency of doing something every day, with a flexible time commitment that fits with your schedule, without ever needing to overthink anything.