Balanced Weekly Training Routine — Calisthenics, Swim, Weightlifting, Yoga, Run

[lizzielisaliz]

I wanted to share my workout routine that I’ve nailed down over the past few years. I’ve spent years of exposing myself to different working out methods. I swam in college, did the standard muscle group splits while weightlifting at the gym, I’ve gone months doing just yoga & calisthenics and I’ve ran a marathon.

Each of these had their own benefits and came with varying degrees of flexibility, strength and endurance. However, one thing that would always annoyed me was plateauing and the tradeoffs. I decided to try and combat that by constantly switching between the type of exercise I did. I wanted to see what the effect of consistently rotating between these would be on my strength, physique and overall fitness.

Anyway, few rules about the routine:

1. Make sure your nutrition is on point or it will hurt. I take a variety of vitamins and natural supplements and stick to an anti-inflammatory paleo diet.
2. Work out outside (sans weight lifting) and barefoot (sans running) if possible. Depending on your geographic location, this might be more feasible for some than others.
3. Once you pick an order of workouts/day, I recommend sticking to it so your body has time to recover.
4. Listen to your body and take a rest day if needed, especially in the beginning. Self-explanatory. If you take a rest day, make sure you stick to the order of workouts when going back into it.

As the title says, the weekly breakdown is 5 days of exercising with two days of rest. Each day should take between 40-75 minutes. My prefered breakdown is:

• Monday— Weightlifting (75mins)
• Tuesday— 5km Run (24-35 min)
• Wednesday— Rest, light stretching
• Thursday— Calisthenics (60min)
• Friday— 2.5km Swim (45-60mins)
• Saturday— Vinyasa Yoga (45-60min)
• Sunday — Rest

I chose this order because of the primary muscle groups and intensity involved, but you can obviously switch it around depending on what feels best. Keep in mind, you are working out your entire body every day.

Adjust weight/distance/reps for all of this as necessary based on your own level of physical fitness. Warm up as necessary for your body.
I used emojis (lol) to note which muscle group is being primarily worked with each exercise so you can have an idea of what’s being worked on when visually.
= push
🌪 = pull
⛰ = legs
= core
= cardio

A: Weightlifting

Equipment: barbell bench, squat rack, dumbbells, ab wheel.
Primarily strength focused day, but reps are still kept highish to get some endurance training in there too. Take rest between sets, but keep it moving.

3x Superset 1:
- 15 Flat bench @ 135 - 165lbs
- 12 bicep curls 🌪@ 20 - 25lbs
3x Superset 2:
- 12 Squats ⛰@ 135 - 165lbs
- 15 lateral raises @ 15 - 20lbs
3x Superset 3:
- 12 Bentover rows 🌪@ 135 -145lbs
- 20 calf raises ⛰@ 45lbs (each hand)
3x Set 4:
- 12 Deadlifts ⛰/🌪 @135lbs
2x Superset 5:
- 10 ab wheel
- 15 Side crunch (each side) @45lbs

B: Running

Equipment: none, running shoes, maybe a nice trail.
Endurance focused day, legs⛰ and core will obviously engaged as well. Keep pace comfortable but make sure its improving in future weeks.
It’s really a simple 5k run. If you can’t so that, start with 2mi and work up to it. If 5k is too easy, go for 4mi or 5mi. Try to do it outside and not on a treadmill. Stretch legs after.

C: Rest

This is one of your rest day. Make sure to listen to your body. If some areas are tight, take time to roll out or stretch them however feels right. Take an epsom salt bath.

D: Calisthenics Day

Equipment: flat area, pull-up bar, dip bar.
Strength and endurance focused day that is core heavy. 30s-2min between workouts. Rest, but keep it moving, the entire circuit should be done in an hour.

3x Circuit:
- 12-15 wide pull-ups 🌪
- 12 hanging leg raises
- 25 dips
- 20 dip bar leg raises
- 30 squats ⛰
- 20 crunches
- 12 narrow pull ups 🌪
- 30 Russian twists
- 30 pushups (5 close grip)
- 15 (per side) spider man plank
- 30 (per side) lunges ⛰
- 20 lying down leg raises

E: Swim

Equipment: goggles, speedo/trunks, pool, safety floaty (if you plan on doing open water).
So I know for most this will be a little challenging due to lack of a body of water or just because of intimidation both are understandable. I hop in and just do a slow and steady 2,500 yard swim, but I’ve also spent a good chunk of my life swimming.
For those new to it, I recommend just getting in the pool and swimming consistently to the best of your ability for at least 45 minutes. Your pushing, pulling🌪 muscles will be engaged and make sure to keep your core tight. Legs are meant to move from the hips while the knees are straight and are used to keep your hips on the surface of the water. They really shouldn’t be doing that much work. If there’s anyone interested in building swim endurance and baby steps, I can go into more detail.

F: Vinyasa Yoga

Equipment: yoga mat and/or towel, flat area.
Vinyasa is the slow, flowy kind of yoga that’s amazing for stretching and building strength. I personally just watch youtube videos and pick the kind of yoga I want to do that day. I mostly stick to deep stretching videos made by “Five Parks Yoga” or “Breathe and Flow.” Experiment with the kind you like. Keep in mind longer videos are usually better for stretching.

Anyway that’s pretty much the routine. After doing this for 2 years, I am quite happy with the results — my endurance is at a fantastic level, I haven’t plateaued in anything, I have been able to stay strong and fit while keeping pretty good baseline flexibility & endurance. I can also keep myself at my goal weight.m with relative ease.
Does this mean that I can do the splits or wake up tomorrow and run a marathon or deadlift 315lbs? Not at all. However, I do feel that I am at a solid level of overall fitness that gives me a good baseline to jump back into the extremes relatively quickly and do all the activities I love to do knowing my body will be able to support it.
Lmk if you try it out! Oh btw I’m 5-11 and like 193.