I’ve been doing push ups in the gym, and three sets of 20 with a quick break between each is about my limit, and haven’t progressed much beyond that in the last couple of months. Training to do 100 at once sounds like a good idea, and it’s something I can do at home too.

The plan seems pretty simple, and it’s customisable depending on your current level.

Ultimately, the goal is to provide a simple, structured plan to get someone up and off their couch and cycling for about half an hour three times a week. I’ve called it the Couch to 8k Cycling Plan, but really the distance isn’t too important - it’s the time you should be focussed on. The Couch-to-30-Minutes-Cycling-Plan just isn’t that catchy though :). If your pace means you do 10k in 30 minutes, then this plan is your Couch to 10k plan.

You will need:

1. A bike. Duh.
2. With a speedometer.
3. A place to ride.
4. Some sort of device to measure the passage of time (in seconds).

A quick note on number 3: I’d recommend starting somewhere relatively flat. The first few weeks are about waking your body up and getting into a routine - no sense taking the chance you’ll discourage yourself. An exercise bike would be ok, but there’s nothing quite like getting outside to really make you feel like you’re doing something constructive.

The plan is, much like its inspiration, a very simple one, involving three rides a week. Each week the rides get slightly harder, and if you feel like a week was tough, repeating it is never a problem. The ultimate aim is to get you cycling for about half an hour, three times a week. How long you take to get there is entirely dependant upon what you are comfortable with.

In the same vein, if you find the plan easy, try to avoid skipping ahead. The worst thing you can do is push yourself too hard too fast. If you try something, and fail, or you injure yourself, that might put you off, and that’s not the idea at all!

On With the Plan!

The plan is based on intervals, with the ultimate aim being to go cycling regularly (three times a week) at a pace that suits you - faster than a gentle family ride, but slower than your all-out sprint. Each run (at least in the beginning) involves cycling at one of two paces - a slower pace, equivalent in exertion to a brisk walk, and a faster pace. The faster pace should be strenuous, but if you’re incapable of speaking, you’re going too fast.

I’ve set these paces at five and ten miles per hour respectively in the plan below, however these are a suggestion - try and find paces that suit you (and feel free to share what works for you in the comments!). The slower pace doesn’t have to be half of the quicker pace, but the slower pace should be slow enough that you can catch your breath between the quicker sections.

Important! Make sure you warm up before each ride. A brisk five minute walk or medium-paced cycle should do the trick, and some stretches beforehand will reduce your chance of injury.

What Next?

Once you’ve finished the plan, the idea is to keep cycling regularly for half an hour, three times a week. You can increase the time and/or distance, but 30 minutes of basic exercise like this is the minimum most people should be doing to keep themselves healthy.

Plenty of people - myself included - find one of the more difficult aspects of getting fit, especially when you’ve been stuck behind a desk for a few years, the lack of direction or a tangible plan. Without a plan or a specific goal (or set of goals), running (or cycling, swimming etc) can quickly become boring. From there it is a very short step to simply not bothering doing any exercise.

Having a weight or size based goal is a good thing, but that’s not likely to be an encouragement when you are starting.

Anything over around 2lb per week is bordering on unhealthy and an average person going running a few times a week can realistically expect a sustained loss of around 1lb a week. That’s good progress if you can keep it up - but it does mean that if your long term aim is to lose, for example, 3 stones, then you’re going to be looking at the best part of a year of work to reach your goal. Similarly, size-based goals are not necessarily an effective ongoing encouragement.

And this is where the Couch to 5k plan is a winner. Rather than getting you to focus on weight or size, it gets you to focus on fitness and exercise. Long term, the trick to staying in shape is to lead a moderately active lifestyle and eat a balanced diet - and this exercise plan fulfils the active lifestyle part of that.

Not only this, but the plan gives tangible results in a very short space of time - not in terms of weight or size (which both will improve with time) but in terms of fitness. In a matter of weeks, you could be running a mile several times a week - a significant achievement for many people.

Overall, this plan looks to be an excellent starting point for anyone who is just starting to do something about their health and fitness.