Training plans

A training plan is a ready-made sequence of days: you know what you are doing today, what comes tomorrow, and where the rest day falls. You do not have to decide how to spread the load across the week, or whether cardio can follow a heavy leg session — and that is the most common reason training assembled from single videos quietly stops after a few weeks.

Plans differ in length, level and aim: losing weight, building strength, returning after a long break, working on one area, general conditioning. Each states who it is for, how long it runs, how many sessions it contains and what equipment it needs, so you know all of that before you start rather than halfway through.

You work through a plan at your own pace. If a day slips, you come back to it and carry on — there is no need to start over or to make it up with a double session.

If you would rather work to a date and start alongside other people, look at the challenges — some programmes run in both forms, and the difference comes down to whether you move at your own rhythm or a shared one.