Adherence to the Plan

Any plan is better than none. In health and fitness even a relatively poor plan can create good results if you believe in the plan enough. Plans don’t need to be complicated to be effective in fact the most effective are simple and easy to follow.

There is simply no point in creating a complex plan that incorporates every possible training system and convoluted nutritional program. It is not enough however to say, “Just eat well and exercise.” The plan must have some specifics. The number of training sessions you’ll complete in a week or month even if you don’t necessarily designate the exact days you’ll train on. A list of food you can eat and a list you’ll avoid, without counting calories or macronutrient totals. These are the beginnings of a plan.

Next you need to plan the type of exercise you’ll do. From aerobic based jogging and swimming to heavy strength training you have a huge range of options and plenty of different approaches can be chosen. Find a few that suit you and your goals best. This shouldn’t be too hard using the internet, t-nation and men’s health have a huge range of articles and there is plenty of running and aerobics based sites out there. Once you’ve found the plans you like and established that you have the time and equipment to perform them, try following each of the separately for a month or two. At the end of each time period evaluate your results, what you liked or disliked, what worked or didn’t work and your adherence to the plan.

This process can be followed for nutritional plans as well. Make sure to give yourself enough time to evaluate each plan. If you change them around to quickly your body won’t be able to adjust and your results will be hard to judge. Once you’ve been through a few different plans you’ll know what works best for you. You can then take your knowledge and create your own plan specifically tailored to your needs.

Remember non-adherence to the plan is the same as no plan at all. Dr John Berardi, a noted nutritionist and exercise scientist works on the 90/10 rule which suggests you need 90% adherence to be able to evaluate a plan’s effectiveness.