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 them 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.

During training or competition there will be times you are doing poorly by your conventional indicators. At times like these you can change your indicators to positive ones that you feel in control of. Focus your energy on the things you are doing well. Keep working on the positive things and the poor training session or competition will soon turn around.

Post training or competition, review how it went. Take time to establish the things you can improve and spend time reaffirming what you did well. By focusing last on what you did well, you finish in a positive frame of mind that you can carry through to the next session.

When you first start training you’ll likely be externally motivated. Wanting to lose weight, gain muscle, get healthier or achieve athletically are all examples of external motivation. External motivation is great at the start and if you set achievable short term goals it can carry you a long way.

There will be times those external sources aren’t motivating enough. Tough times indeed and you’ll need to look inside and inspire yourself. Inspiring yourself can be easy if you’ve kept detailed records about your training. Simply look back and see how far you’ve come if your destination seems too far away. You might also go back to a particularly good session and visualize how you felt during and after that session. For those that train in a group or with a partner use the energy of others around you to pick you up. Anything you can use to get you excited about training is a motivating force.

Motivation, whatever yours is make sure you make the most of it to ensure great performance.

Once you have your pre training routine in place continued focus throughout the session is much easier. Through the warm up, technique should be worked on. The more you properly practice a skill the more automatic it becomes. During the main part of the session small things will determine if the session is a success. Things like ensuring your hand placement is correct on the bar if lifting weights, making sure your shoes are tied correctly and won’t come undone and controlling your breathing pattern during every exercise.

Controlling the small things is what separates ok sessions from good and good sessions from great. Some days you’ll feel so good that everything will fall into place without even thinking about it. Other days will be a struggle and unless you concentrate on the things you can control they will be wasted training sessions. Reduce the difference between your best and worst training sessions by improving your focus and you can continue to improve even when things aren’t going your way.

Secondly you need a plan to achieve your goal. Great progress cannot be made without a plan. While your plan should be set out from the start it can and should be fluid. An exercise can be changed if it isn’t working, a diet can be tweaked if you are not progressing as you should. Just don’t stray to far away from your original plan and evaluate everything at the end of your designated time frame.

Finally we have preparation. Preparation comes in many forms, making sure you can’t fail your diet because you have everything cooked, packed and ready to go. Making sure you are physically prepared for each training session by getting enough sleep and following some sort of recovery system. Mentally preparing for each training session by reviewing what you have previously done and blocking out everything else to concentrate fully on the specific exercise you are currently performing.

Once you have a goal, a plan and prepare well success will be made much easier and come much quicker than otherwise.

It’s amazing how co-ordination issues, balance, body composition (less fat, more muscle) and the ability to move faster and further all improve as your physical strength is improved. The first step to physical strength improvement is mental strength improvement. You can’t just expect to grab something and heave it up any old which way and improve so you need to focus on the task and mentally have the strength to perform it properly.

Whether you are training for performance improvements, physique improvements or health improvements strength is the key to it all. You should prepare to improve some kind of strength every time you train.