Workout Plans in the Calendar, Schedule Changes! Now What??

Backup Workout Plans in a Pinch

It is a beautiful day and you have a kick-ass trail run planned after work, but just after lunch, the school calls and you little one is sick! Sure, you could just scrap your plans and TRY to make up another day. The alternative is contingency workout plan. They may not be ideal, but they are something. They keep you in routine and provide your body with the exertion it needs. Find 2-3 back-ups for those days when, despite your best efforts, you are completely knocked off your schedule.One of my favorites is the Scientific 7-Minute Workout, a compact, high intensity interval training routine developed by Brett Klika, and Chris Jordan, Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialists, published in the American College of Sports Medicine's Health & Fitness Journal May/June 2013 edition and made popular by the New York Times.All you need is enough space to do jumping jacks safely and a chair or steps for step-ups, well, and about 7 minutes. I do this one twice if I have the time.My audio presentation guiding you through the process is below. YouTube videos are also available to demonstrate form. I find value in monitoring the effectiveness of my workouts, so I wear my Zephyr HXM heart rate monitor[AMAZONPRODUCTS asin="B009XDTN80"]. I can then go back to my my fitness app and check my heart rate max and recovery to be sure that I am meeting my fitness needs, even when working on a contingency plan.[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/193912968" params="auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%" height="200" iframe="true" /]Another easy to carry and quick to complete workout is a PACE jump rope routine developed by Dr. Al Sears. It consists of 6 short sets of jumping using a weighted 2 pound jump rope with short rest periods in between. It can be completed in 10 minutes and really gets your heart pumping. As a side note, I have tried doing this without a jump rope, using my arms to "pretend" to spin the rope, jumping at each turn, but for whatever reason, I was left without much cardio response. The jump rope, particularly if it is weighted is the real trick. I will write a detailed post on this exercise with more about Dr. Sears' PACE at another time and link from this article.I'm sure you have found yourself running up and down stairs at home, the office, or parking garage for one reason or another.  But have you done it as an intentional workout? I first tried this in college when I took a running class requiring us to log our fitness endeavors for the once weekly class gathering. It was the dead of winter and I had no desire to bundle up to cross the infamous Michigan State tundra to log runs at the fitness center track. Instead, I opted to run up and down the good old West Wilson stairwell.  I have since refined this method following PACE and HIIT principles to train my heart for recovery. It may not be the quickest backup workout plan to complete, but it does not require you to venture from your location, which is ideal if the kids some parental companionship.  In fact, my kids cheer my on every time I bounded back down the steps.When worse comes to worse, I have even done 20 push ups or 30-45 second wall sits every time I used the restroom to do something on a day that I had no other alternatives. Write your contingency workouts down and pull them up to use them when necessary. You will thank yourself for being so prepared when you have reached your goals!What are your favorite contingency workout plans? Comment below.