A training plan that survives a 50-hour work week

Plan for your worst week, not your best

The classic mistake is picking a plan that fits the week where everything goes your way. That week might happen once a month. The other three weeks you fall behind, and falling behind on your own plan is the fastest route to quitting. Pick the number of days you hit in an averagely busy week, and treat every extra session as a bonus rather than catching up.

One session a week is sacred, the rest is negotiable

Pick one session each week that serves your goal most and block it in your calendar like a meeting with your director. That one session decides whether you progress. The rest may move, shrink or disappear without your programme collapsing. Without that hierarchy every missed session feels like failure, and that feeling is exactly what makes people quit.

Shorten instead of skipping

A twenty-minute session you actually do is worth infinitely more than a sixty-minute one you skip. Not because of that day’s physiology, but because you keep the habit intact. Decide in advance what your short version looks like: usually the heavy compound lift plus one accessory, and nothing else.

• •More than four hours of meetings in a day: keep it to 45 minutes at most.
• •More than six hours: 30 minutes, the heavy work only.
• •More than eight hours: 20 minutes, or move the session and accept that.
• •Travel day: mobility and walking count too. Zero is the only wrong answer.

Morning beats evening, and not because it is better

Physiologically, late afternoon is the best time to train for most people. Practically it loses to the morning, because a morning session cannot yet be run over by an overrunning meeting. If your week is unpredictable, move your time slot rather than your motivation.

This is general training information, not medical advice.