We’ve talked before about the mental load of exercise — how hard it can be to figure out what to do, or where to even begin. I’ve also heard from some of you about how useful you’d find it to get a weekly workout in your inbox or Substack app. So: Let’s do this! Introducing How to Move’s Workout of the Week (sure, we can call it a WOW, if you insist) — each week I’ll be bringing you a simple yet customizable workout. Here’s how it’ll work, at least for now, but as you know, feedback and suggestions are always welcome.
Introducing Workout of the Week!
The concept
Each workout will involve a warmup (5 minutes or less) and a cooldown (5 minutes or less). Between those, we’ll do a circuit of about five exercises, performed for about a minute each, and go through it three times total with a brief break in between each round. The full workout will be around 25 minutes, but you can adjust the amount of time in a few ways:
Skip the warmup (especially if you already feel warm! whether you’ve just gotten back from a walk; you’ve been up and about puttering around the house; or you just literally feel like your muscles are warm and not too stiff to jump right into movement). This will save you about 5 minutes.
Perform the exercise circuit only one time (which will save you about 10 minutes) or only twice (saving about 5 minutes).
Skip the cooldown to save another 5-ish minutes. I love a cooldown as a little treat after a workout — stretching feels so nice! — and it may help reduce soreness, but you don’t have to do it in this scenario. In other scenarios, especially going all-out on a hard, high-intensity cardio workout, a cooldown is in fact pretty important.
It may seem funny to hear a trainer suggesting you skip a bunch of parts of a workout. And while of course I’d love for you to do the whole thing if it feels right to you, there are lots of great reasons to trim things down, from “I’m just getting started and want to ease in” to “One circuit is about as much as I have the energy for” to “I simply do not have 25 minutes.” These are all valid! The idea here, as always, is to focus on what’s doable and sustainable, not what’s “optimal.”
The format
The workout will be available as a video, but I’ll also present it as a written post with gifs in case you prefer to do it on your own (the written post may also have some clearer adjustments in case you’d like other versions of the exercises). I am… not a video editor? So bear with me as I get up to speed on this technology that literally millions of people have been using for literal years. I’m a one-woman band over here.
Before you ask, yes, I have ordered a wireless mic! Sound quality will definitely be improving soon.
The equipment
Let’s keep things really simple to start and focus on no-equipment movements. Pretty soon (like, two weeks from now) I’ll start incorporating some weights. To prep for that, it’s a good idea to get your hands on a variety of dumbbells: ideally some light weights (2–5 pounds), medium weights (7–10 pounds), and heavier weights (12–20 pounds). You can also just find some heavy stuff around your house, like large books, water or wine bottles, jugs of laundry detergent, cats, that kind of thing. I will always offer no-equipment modifications but I do want you to get comfortable lifting heavier things, so while it’s totally OK not to get dumbbells if it isn’t possible for you, I’ll enthusiastically encourage you to acquire some if it is feasible. Yoga mat also highly recommended.
The overall plan
I welcome you to return to this workout throughout the week, if that’s an option for you. Doing it just once is great, but if you want to aim for two or three times total, that’s a great way to improve your form on the exercises and get even more out of it (musculoskeletal-y, mentally, energywise, etc). Pairing it with other activities like walking, running, yoga, cycling — whatever else you love to do — can make for a great mix as well. Make it work for you.
Why this is for paid subscribers only
Maybe I’m burying the lede a bit here, but this is also a soft launch of premium content for me. It has been such a fun couple of months getting to know all of you and starting to build the How to Move community, and now there are 2,000 of you! As my audience grows, I want to keep pushing myself on providing useful, thoughtful, actionable content, and that takes time, effort, and expertise. While I will still be publishing free posts regularly, Workout of the Week is a highly labor-intensive offering that I am humbly asking you to pay for. And I hope you’ll find that four great workouts, free of diet culture BS, are well worth the $5/month.
If you love it, share it and encourage others to sign up for paid subscriptions! I’m trying this as an experiment for the next few weeks, and if I don’t see the growth I’m hoping for, I may adjust the frequency to avoid going overboard on the ol’ free (or just way too underpaid) labor.
One more idea
My paid subscribers are still a small group, but I think it would be really neat if some of you connect in the comments to find an accountability buddy or two! If you’re interested in doing this workout but might need a little encouragement to get it done, say so on this post, and see if someone replies and offers to be that buddy for you. It could be fun! I’d also be happy to open up a paid-subscriber chat if y’all think that might be helpful. Just throwing this one out there.
The disclaimer
It’s always a good idea to consult a medical professional to make sure you can safely start a new exercise regimen. If you try this workout, you’re doing so at your own risk.
On to the workout!
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