How to spread Pilates and your other activities across the week
Do several activities? How to build a weekly training plan with Pilates: tell duration from intensity, alternate demands and know when to adjust.
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When you do several activities, organising your week helps you see how much effort you're piling up and where there's room to recover.
You don't need to fill every day with training. A useful plan should take into account your goals, availability and how demanding the sessions are.
Start with your main commitments
First mark the activities that have a fixed day or matter most to you: a strength session, a run, a bike ride or a group class.
Then consider where Pilates can add relevant work. The decision should start from what you already do, without assuming you always need to add more sessions.
Tell duration apart from intensity
A short class can be demanding, while a longer session can have a gentle pace. Look at:
- The areas worked;
- The effort needed to keep up with the exercises;
- How much similar work you do in your other activities;
- How you recover before the next session.
Consider the whole picture. Your body adds up the effort from all your activities, even when they have different names.
Alternate demands across the week
Try to spread out your most demanding sessions so you can do them well. In between, there can be room for lighter movement or rest.
One way to organise it is to:
- Keep the days when you have most time for your main training sessions;
- Put a Pilates class on a day when you've recovered from the previous effort;
- Add short sessions when their purpose fits the rest of the plan;
- Leave room for the unexpected and for recovery.
This is a way of thinking about the week, not a fixed sequence everyone should follow.
When does it make sense to adjust?
If tiredness builds up, your usual effort repeatedly feels harder or you start losing control of your movements, review the plan.
You can shorten a session, drop one or allow more time between demanding activities. If you missed a session, you don't need to cram all the work into the following days.
When you add a new activity, avoid increasing the frequency and difficulty of all the others at the same time. Gradual progression is a general guideline for physical activity.1
At DUO
At the start of each week, check the new plan and note the level, length and theme of each class. Spread the sessions around the activities you already have scheduled.
Because classes are refreshed every week, try to book your practice times in advance, without turning the end of the week into a race to get everything done.
Organise your movement, leave room to recover and adjust when needed.
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