Choose Your Focus

While there are many areas of strength to be worked on and we want to improve across the board, it can help to pick an area of focus. After a couple months the focus area may change to better suit your needs. Keep in mind that these are meant to be simple plans to get anyone started, but are by no means meant to be held up as the only options to use.

Guiding Principles

The main guiding principle of each different focus stream is "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass". In keeping with this these streams are designed to be very scalable such that they can easily be fit within five-minutes or built up to an hour. The key is to start small and build in automated consistency. This is more likely to create life-long patterns than false starts with stops and dashed hopes and further confirmation that you aren't very capable.

Endurance: Faith in Every Footstep

The Basics

The Faith in Every Footstep "stream" is designed to help you improve your aerobic endurance while multitasking to fit spiritual enrichment that meets your needs in a time-efficient manner to fit your schedule. You can choose any simple aerobic activity (walking, running, cycling, etc.) that you can do daily while listening to uplifting material (scriptures, general conference talks, music, etc.). In it's simplest form, based on the principle of small and simple things bringing about great things, you'll start with a very short bout of only 5-10 minutes that is super easy to maintain and you are confident you can commit to. If this is too much, consider even giving 1-2 minutes to start with and building from there.

Progressions

The key to improving fitness is to make progress. While it can be complicated with various plans, at it's simplest aerobic conditioning can either be progressed by going longer (more endurance) or by getting more done in the same amount of time (more power). The following progression models will explain how to simply work with either style and who it's best for.

Lengthen Your Stride (Endurance Progression)

In the "Lengthen Your Stride" progression model the goal is to increase endurance. This is done by simply increasing the time (but not the speed) of your activity. For example, if you are listening to the scriptures while walking on a stepper for five minutes five or six days of the week, you might try bumping that up to eight minutes or even ten minutes daily. For most people that are generally healthy a bump of three to five minutes a day will go over just fine so long as the sessions aren't leaving you too sore and tired. If you're finding you are barely keeping up with the time you are going for, then it is best to consider staying put or even backing off a little and giving your body time to adapt before ramping up. Too much too soon is a recipe for injury and derailment from your plan. It's better to start out too light and easy and just stay consistent then it is to come fast and furious but then stopping.

Sample

Week one: 5 minutes daily at a moderate pace.
Week two: 8 minutes daily at a moderate pace
Week three: 11 minutes daily at a moderate pace
Week four: 14 minutes daily at a moderate pace
and so on, adding three minutes each week up to a desired endurance time goal - perhaps one hour (this amount will vary depending on personal goals and time constraints)

Best suited for

The "Lengthen Your Stride" progression is best suited for those who have available time to progress to more challenging exercise durations. This can be more ideal for those who struggle to move fast, but find a slow and steady approach suits them just fine. It can also be helpful when recovering from an illness or injury where higher intensities could create a set-back.

Hasten The Work (Power Progression)

The "Hasten" progression is about getting more done in the same amount of time. Instead of increasing the amount of time as would be done following the "Lengthen Your Stride" progression, the time stays the same or can even decrease, while the work increases. The two primary ways to increase work are speed and load. Increasing speed can be as simple as walking, running, or cycling faster. Adding load could be adding a few pounds to a backpack while maintaining the same pace or increasing the tension on a stationary bicycle while maintaining the same speed. Another option is to increase the incline of a treadmill.

Sample

Week 1: 10 minutes walking 3.0 mph
Week 2: 10 minutes walking 3.2 mph/ or walking 3.0 mph with an extra 2-5 pounds, or at an incline of five degrees
Week 3: 10 minutes walking 3.5 mph/ or walking 3.0 mph with an extra 5-10 pounds, or at an incline of eight degrees
Week 4: 10 minutes walking 3.7 mph/ or walking 3.0 mph with an extra 8-12 pounds, or at a ten degree incline
Week 5: 10 minutes jogging 4.0 mph... etc.

Best suited for

This progression is best for those who simply don't have time to increase work, so need to get more done in the same amount or less time. It's also applicable for those who wish to be able to get more done in a specific amount of time.

Combining the power of both progressions

By alternating between "Lengthen" and "Hasten" a very effective training plan can be adapted. Suppose you have the ability to work up to 30 minutes, as an example, but you're starting out where even five minutes of moderate effort is taxing for you. You could start out with building up endurance by sticking to five minute bouts until they are manageable and then building up time in small increments of 3-5 minutes per session per week until you achieve your upper time limit of 30 minutes. Then you can increase the work load by either going a little faster, adding some load, or incline, but slashing the time such that you have a chance to adjust to the new intensity and gradually build up endurance there.

Sample

Week 1: 5-10 minute walks at 3.0 mph (could be a walk around the block that takes eight minutes)
Week 2-5: building up by five minutes per week, or an extra lap around the block each week until a target time of say 30 minutes is achieved.
Week 6: revert back to 5-10 minutes or one lap around the block at a slightly faster pace, or with some added load (i.e. two pounds in a back pack)
Weeks 7-10: build up to certain time or distance
Repeat with new speed/load

Best suited for

Those who have the time and drive to get a best of both worlds effect, with steady progression toward increased power and endurance.

Lift Where You Stand!

The Basics

At it's most basic "Lift Where You Stand" is focused on getting stronger physically using resistance training while working in some spiritual nourishment concurrently. Read below to get a sense of what option you may like to start with. The good news is that you can try various options to see what fits your schedule and goals best.

Spectrum of Options

Keep in mind that there are so many ways to structure a resistance program, that it can just get plain confusing for someone wanting to get going, but not knowing the "best" way to proceed. For our purposes, the "Lift Where You Stand" stream will be focusing primarily on time-efficient resistance exercise options. That's not to say that other resistance exercise methods aren't useful or effective (many are) but that our goal here is to use the principle of small and simple things and to look at scaling with the assumption that between work, family, church and other social responsibilities that you are looking for something efficient that fits your already packed schedule, but can still build into meaningful results over time.

Circuit, no counting

This option mirrors the "Faith In Every Footstep" approach of listening to uplifting content such as an inspirational talk/sermon, an enlightening podcast, or just tuning into the scriptures or some worship music. To accomplish this, just choose 3-8 exercises to hit a balance of the body (I'll be sharing actual plans at some point as well) and choose a time frame to work with. Let's say you have ten minutes to commit and have six exercises you'd like to hit (i.e. Push-up, body row, split squat right side dominant, Split Squat left side dominant, leg lever, and superman back extension) you can reverse engineer your circuit interval times from your available time. So for ten minutes, and six exercises, you might see quickly that you can do 30 seconds per exercise and complete a circuit of all six every three minutes. You can repeat the circuit three times tripling that three minutes to nine minutes, landing right in your time range.

Once you have your exercises and intervals chosen, simply set a timer, or use an interval timing app and turn on your favourite faith-promoting audio to listen to while you work through your circuit of exercises. So you can focus on what is being said, try to simply find a pace you find natural and that you can sustain with the load of the exercises for the given time. If you're focused on counting at the same time, It's hard to get much out of your listening experience.

Considerations for this plan:

The Circuit (no counting) option is great for you if you're on a strict timeline that needs to be met and you're happy to get a reasonable mix of physically strengthening activity with some passive listening to work in additional faith focused media for the day. This may also be just what you need to get a habit established without too much fuss. The key drawback to this model is that listening may still suffer as you accidentally find yourself counting reps in your head anyway, and performance won't improve as optimally as it might with more structured plans that do adjust load based on repetition counts. This is a good general physical preparation method, especially for those who aren't too worried about being very physically strong, but do want some of what there is to be gained from making consistent resistance training part of the week. This can also be a great option if you're craving variety or flexibility as you can swap out strength days with aerobic days and use different circuits on different days.

Circuit, counting

In this circuit format you will move from exercise to exercise, not based on the clock, but based on completing a target number of repetitions. Just as in the non-counting version choosing 3-8 exercises is a great way to hit major muscle groups and have enough variety that there is rest for said muscle groups while targeting others with other exercises. This saves time resting between sets as you simply work different muscles during what might traditionally be a rest period. This makes circuits very time efficient.

Considerations for this plan:

The counting version of the circuit is a great time-effective way to hit some resistance exercise that is quite time efficient and can still be adjusted well based on goals for repetition targets, loads handled and so on. The key drawback in this context is that it is really only suitable for choosing to listen to soul-strengthening music as talking can't be effectively processed while counting at the same time. You'll either lose count listening, or lose listening counting. Thus, this option is best if you have already developed an effective spiritual practice (scripture study time, prayer, meditation, etc.) if developing balance between the spiritual and physical is important to you.

This option may also be beneficial if losing some weight is important to you as it packs more work into a given time commitment keeping your heart rate elevated. Keep in mind the most impressive changes to bodyweight are brought about by food intake though.

Strength Snacks

Strength Snacks are a super time-efficient way to work strength exercises into the day. It works best with exercises that can be done wherever you find yourself, so ideally requiring no equipment. Strength snacking is done by taking an exercise you can do for a given amount of repetitions, but only doing half that many reps at one time to stay fresh, but multiple times per day. I find six bouts to be an excellent number as it yields three times your max repetitions per day which is enough to yield some real gains, but any one set throughout the day is always easy and likely won't even break a sweat.

Every week or two you can do a new max test and adjust your max reps divided by two. For example, let's say you can do 30 push-ups before giving out. Aim to sprinkle six sets of 15 repetitions throughout the day most days of the week, ideally 5-6 days per week. The sets should not be clustered to close together like in a traditional workout as the goal is to avoid fatigue, while still building up appreciable volume. This could be each set on the hour over six hours, or my personal favourite way is to do two sets separated by at least five minutes around meals. Basically, I do my exercise before and after eating and get my six sets throughout the day, never having more than two sets clustered closer than an hour. Whereas if I tried to do all six sets with only two to three minute breaks between, I might still burn out before completing all the sets preventing me from building up that volume of exercise everyday.

This method also works very well with scripture breaks. Do one morning set with five to ten minutes of scripture study or prayer right after followed by a second set. Repeat this mid-day and evening for three sessions of beefing up your scripture knowledge and exercise prowess.

Considerations for this plan:

This plan is best suited for exercises that are very accessible so you can do them even at work on a quick lunch break and so on. It is a great way to increase repetitions, so for those looking to do more repetitions this is a great way to go. It's also awesome for those seeking a more focused approach to spiritual development such as actively digging into reading a chapter of scripture vs passively listening while they exercise.

I Can Do All Things

Where to start

The "I Can Do All Things" stream is focused on building spiritual health and strength. This can represent a number of things such as a better relationship with Jesus Christ, better confidence before God, improved moral character, increased understanding of scripture, a more secure testimony of truth and so on. As such it's less formulaic than the other streams and may require some more introspection into what areas may be the most impactful. On the flip side, progress in one area will almost always lead to improvements in other areas in this as well, so if you're unsure it likely doesn't hurt to just pick an area to work on either.

Some potential target areas (by no means exhaustive):

Actions:	Attributes	Faith in/Knowledge of?
Prayer	Honesty	Jesus Christ as personal Savior
Scripture study	Wisdom	Restoration/Church history
Ministering	Love	Priesthood keys
Tithing	Faithfulness (covenant keeping)	Prophetic revelation
Church attendance	Obedience	Personal revelation
Family History	Patience	Plan of Salvation
Teaching the gospel	Judgment	Light/Spirit/Truth
Temple work	Courage	Doctinal Mastery Scriptures

Just as with the physically focused first "streams" it is best to look at sustainably small goals based on an area that you see a need to improve. Perhaps you realize that you are inconsistent with your prayers. Simply set a goal to make sure to say a quick prayer at the same time every day, maybe right when you wake up, or just before bed. Once you have that down, you may look at improving those prayers: Are you kneeling and bowing your head? Are you able to find a quiet place? What about preparing a list of things to discuss, like setting an agenda for an important meeting? Do you simply rattle of "go to" statements of gratitude and ask for things, but give no attention to listening for an answer?

Perhaps you struggle with an aspect of church history. I've had several family members leave activity in the main body of the church and go down a different path based on issues with church history. Concerted efforts to be well-versed in this topic that isn't necessarily covered in great detail in Sunday School classes can go a long way to fortifying you against attacks on your testimony from those playing fast and loose with church history.

Whatever the area you feel to start with, try to choose something you can do about it daily to establish an ongoing pattern so it becomes routine. For instance, ministering may be an area you struggle and it's not something you might "do" every day. But you can absolutely bring it into focus daily, by making sure that you're praying over those you have a stewardship to help watch over. This will absolutely help you find ways to connect that is meaningful in the more traditional sense of "doing" this, such as sending an email or scheduling a visit or looking for opportunities to serve.