Fitness Goals: Effective Workout Plans for Men to Kickstart 2024

I have to be honest with you. In 2023 I saw a massive dip in my personal fitness, and I struggled throughout the year to maintain any kind of rhythm with my fitness, I had no routine and I quite resigned to the fact that my fitness would be taking a gap year. Anybody moving home, or undergoing house renovations will be all too aware of the upheaval it can cause. Not to mention me losing Charlie last year, everything in my life was upside down and inside out. My personal fitness was not a priority to me. Now looking ahead to 2024, with Tuula expecting our first child, I'm looking to install regimented fitness practices that will put me in good stead for when chaos inevitably arrives.

Your New Year's resolution might be to get on the fitness train, and I'm here to help you.

Firstly, you might want to double back and read my article on building your home gym for under £1000. You will spend as much money on that in a year, subscribing to a local gym. Which by the way, I encourage you to do also if money allows. Having a community of people encouraging you to work out, and helping you obtain your goals can only be a good thing.

I don't believe everybody should be training in solitary confinement if they can help it. Talking to people, picking up more tips, more inspiration will give you the fuel you'll need on your personal fitness journey for 2024. If you build your own home gym and also get a gym membership, maybe you can split the weights at home and do the cardio in the gym, or vica versa. Up to you.

When putting together an effective Workout Plan, I always say you must start the day with a good stretch. I set a ten minute timer on my phone, put the kettle on and some news in the background and limber up those muscles. Once I've stretched I will do ten minutes of floor work is mainly planks, some crunches and some crawls. (These crawls I do as a new method. I get in the plank position, throw the ball across the room and the dogs run around and climb all over me. I crawl on my toes and elbows, like a soldier does underneath a cargo net, making sure my stomach or my knees don't hit the floor. Then once I get the ball from the dog, I crawl backwards and have them chase me. You should try it, it kills).

Before your day is started, you've already done 20 minutes of effective stretching and core work, and now it's time to get serious. When I do my weights at home, I make sure, that I have a good hour set aside where I'm not going to be interrupted by nobody. If I'm staying in a hotel that has a gym, I go to view the workout space the night before, and map out my routine in my head. What if the bench is taken when I go in? What if someone is using the dumbbells I want? I think of a lot of scenarios and try to be as flexible as I can. If someone is on the equipment I need, I will do pull ups. Or Kettle squats, or continue my floor work but focus on squats so I can get a leg work out in instead.

I know guys that come up and tell me all the time, they just want to lose weight. They are not interested in building muscle, as lifting weights is hard, or boring. I used to think the exact same thing, until I realised that building core strength will help improve your fitness overall and give you a more balanced aesthetic. What's the point of just losing weight and being skinny, and having no strength?

When it comes to lifting weights I write everything down. I chalk everything up on a little pad. The amount of reps, the type of exercise and the size of the weights I am using. Seeing the numbers getting chalked up, gives me a boost and I aim to improve it all every time. Arnold Schwarzenneger did this when he was Bodybuilding in Austria, and talks about it in his books and in the Netflix series, Arnold. Sometimes you just don't have it in you to beat personal records. That's not the idea. But at least you showed up. You made fitness a priority. And it could be that a good solid workout is all that you achieve that day.

Next up I want to talk about your cardio. I have recently spoken to my friend Peter who I know is a crazy cardio fanatic. He's done some reviews for me in the past about the Peloton and I contacted him to see if he had any tips on how to get a good cardio based rhythm into your workout routine.

Here is what he replied back with…

Carl, I actually envy you. You have the punchbags all set up in your barn I see, and I'd love to have the space and the dedicated room you have to focus on my workouts. Cardio especially. What I would say is you have to make the most of what you have, and stop giving yourself excuses.

I have the Peloton which I get on everyday I'm at home. If I have a full day of work, I'll get up earlier and get on it. Or if I'm working from home, I'll sometimes get on the peloton whilst on calls as I know I don't have to be on camera for all of them. Recently I've fallen out of running outside because of the weather, so I make sure that I spend at least 30 minutes on the peloton. Rather than aim for time, I aim for distance and calories. I know in 30 minutes I should be hitting the 9 mile mark, whilst also going over 300 calories burnt.

A trick I have adopted for the Peloton to make it more interesting, is to pick a subject every month that interests you, and watch YouTube tutorials whilst cycling. For me I've gotten into Russian history, Oligarchs, the Rise of Putin etc. I'm learning something new whilst working out, and after I make sure to write a few things down that I've picked up. I've nearly filled an entire notepad now. The more I want to learn about Russian History, the more I want to work out so one is feeding the other.

Thanks Peter, and thanks for the push. This is a longer article than I normally do. But I have a lot on my mind when it comes to fitness right now. But it's also important start doing and stop talking. Which is what I plan to do, so I'm off to hit the heavy bags.