While fitness is a passion of mine, and I do have a few formal trainings and certifications, most of what I know is through self-education and self-experimentation. I’m going to provide a very simple and basic fitness program that can be used by nearly everyone. In fact, it’s essentially what I put together for my son’s soccer team. Personally, I do a lot more than this, but these movements and the basic philosophy here is all incorporated into my everyday: joint mobility with a combination of strength and cardiovascular training and lots of core conditioning. Some videos can be found here.
Workout routine:
Here is a downloadable version of this basic workout program:
And a chart if you’d like to keep track of progress:
And I’ve also added some accompanying videos here.
Always start with what many of us in the industry call a dynamic warmup. This is to create some blood flow to the muscles and loosen up the joints. You may currently be inclined to perform static stretching before a workout, whether cardiovascular or strength training, but it’s better to save your deep static stretching for post-workout and on recovery days.
It’s also beneficial to blend your joint mobility movements into your strength training—focusing on the joints surrounding whatever muscle you are training. This will both help stimulate muscle growth, foster recovery, and help prevent injuries.
I’ll eventually post my own videos to supplement the workout routines, but in the interim here is a nice example of a dynamic workout.