Body Plans

Running, strength and everyday movement, built around the days you can actually train.

  • Choose what you're planning for
  • Get a schedule, not a suggestion
  • Change it as often as you need

Start with a 7-day free trial · cancel anytime

Body · Running, strength and everyday movement, built around the days you can actually train.

Body: questions people ask

The full guide
5K, 10K, half or marathon: which should I train for first?

Pick the distance you can train for safely in the weeks you have. For most people starting out that is a 5K or 10K; a half or full marathon makes sense once you already run several times a week.

Read the full answer
How do I pick a realistic finish time?

Start from a recent race or timed run and scale it to the new distance. With no recent time, leave a rough guess or make finishing comfortably your goal; your plan will tell you how realistic it looks.

Read the full answer
Which starting level fits me?

Pick the level that matches the last four weeks, not your best season. Between two? Choose the lower one: a plan that starts too easy can catch up, and one that starts too hard is how injuries begin.

Read the full answer
Why do you ask about age and gender?

Both change what a realistic plan looks like. Age changes how long you need to recover between hard sessions, and both help the plan judge how realistic your target time is.

Read the full answer
Why does a running plan ask for height and weight?

To set a safe starting load. Every stride lands with a multiple of your body weight, so your size helps the plan decide how quickly weekly running can grow. They are never used to set weight-loss targets.

Read the full answer
How many weeks do you need to train for each distance?

From a base of running a few times a week, allow about 6–8 weeks for a 5K, 8–10 for a 10K, 10–14 for a half marathon and 16–20 for a marathon. Starting from scratch, add several weeks.

Read the full answer

How It Works

Three steps, and the two loops that keep them honest

How plans are created, divided and delivered, in detail

What Worked for Them

Three from each area of the catalogue.

  • Running Race Countdown
    The weekly check-in was the whole thing for me, honestly. I'd put in how the week had actually gone — not how I'd meant it to go — and the next one would meet me there, backing off when I was frazzled and leaning on me a bit when I wasn't. Twenty-six weeks of that and I came through in 1:48.
    S Sarah Half marathon · 1:48 · 26 weeks
  • Start Running
    Forty-one. Two stone over. Couldn't do ten minutes without stopping. What I needed was something that told me exactly what to do on Tuesday, and that is what turned up. No motivation talk. No mantras. Just Tuesday.
    MO Marcus O. First 5K · 9 weeks
  • Strength Foundations
    I came in sceptical, because the last "beginner programme" I was handed had me squatting three times a week on top of a full running load. This one asked what else was already in my week before it asked anything else — then built round it. Two sessions, four movements, progressed properly. Deadlift went 60 to 95kg without a single week where I felt wrecked.
    PR Priya R. Strength base · 18 weeks
  • Cook at Home
    Right, so: I could make three things. Pasta, eggs, and a curry that was not really a curry. This did not hand me a cookbook — it handed me one new thing a week and made me repeat it until it stopped being a project. Fourteen weeks on I have about twenty meals I can do without looking anything up, and the takeaway app has been off my phone since March.
    TB Tom B. Cooking from scratch · 14 weeks
  • Sugar Reset
    I failed the first attempt. Properly failed — a fortnight in and straight back on it. What mattered was being able to say so and get a plan that started from there, rather than from week one all over again. The second run stuck. That 4pm crash is simply gone.
    NA Nadia A. Cutting added sugar · 10 weeks
  • Balanced Plate Rebuild
    At sixty-three one grows rather tired of being told to start again from nothing. This did not do that. It looked at what I already ate, kept most of it, and changed the proportions — more vegetables, protein at breakfast, a smaller plate in the evening. My doctor noticed before I thought to mention it.
    MW Margaret W. Eating better · 6 months in
  • Sleep Reset
    Two kids under five, so "just get eight hours" was never going to be the answer and thankfully nobody suggested it. It worked on the parts I could actually control — when the screens went off, what the last hour looked like, getting up at the same time even after a bad night — and that turned out to be enough. I am not sleeping brilliantly. I am sleeping so much better than I was.
    DK David K. Sleep quality · 8 weeks
  • Calm Under Pressure
    My work is escalations. High stakes, short notice, people watching. The plan gave me things to practise when nothing was on fire, so they were available when something was. The change is not that I stopped feeling it. The change is that the feeling stopped making the decision.
    AC Aisha C. Stress response · 12 weeks
  • Meditation Foundations
    Look — I would have mocked this a year ago. Four minutes a day, sitting still, doing nothing? But four minutes is too small to argue with, which I now suspect was the entire point. It grew to fifteen on its own. I never once had to talk myself into it.
    JL James L. Daily practice · 5 months in
  • Quit Nicotine
    Nineteen years. Six goes at stopping. This one had a plan for the bad days written down before the bad days arrived, and that is the only difference I can point to. Day 214 today.
    RP Robert P. Nicotine-free · 214 days
  • Language in Daily Doses
    Fifteen minutes on the tram in, fifteen on the way home — that was the whole commitment and it never asked for more. Vocabulary Mondays and Thursdays, listening midweek, and one Sunday slot where I had to actually say something out loud to another human. I ordered dinner in Lisbon in June and was not once switched to English.
    EB Emma B. Portuguese · 7 months in
  • No-Spend Reset
    Embarrassing part first: I genuinely did not know where about four hundred a month was going. This made me look, one category at a time, week by week — instead of building some heroic budget spreadsheet on a Sunday and abandoning it by Wednesday. Card cleared in five months. Kept going anyway.
    HN Hana N. Debt cleared · 5 months
Important: Everyone is different. A plan should be tailored to your own starting point, health history, and goals. Following one that was not designed for you can lead to overtraining, fatigue, or injury. Always consult a medical professional before starting a new training or exercise programme, especially if you have existing health conditions.

Why Plan At All?

Six things that change the day you stop improvising

  • Progress in steps

    Too much too soon, then nothing for a fortnight

    Volume and intensity rise in increments you can absorb

  • Recovery built in

    Rest is whatever happens when you're too wrecked to continue

    Hard days, easy days and rest balanced deliberately

  • Effortless consistency

    Easy to skip a day when motivation drops

    Every day already has a purpose — nothing to negotiate

  • The right variety

    You repeat whatever you're already good at

    Different kinds of effort, mixed on purpose, off the plateau

  • Adapts to real life

    One bad fortnight and the whole thing gets abandoned

    Revise it and get a schedule that starts from today

  • Built around your goal

    No way to tell whether any of it is working

    Every entry worked backwards from your target and your date

Popular Questions

Tap a question for the short answer

Full Plan or Adaptive Plan: which should I choose?

Choose the Full Plan if you like to see everything up front and follow it as written. Choose the Adaptive Plan if your form or your calendar changes often and you want the plan to adjust from your notes.

Read the full answer
How does the free trial work?

Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial: your first 7 days of the plan plus its full analysis, with no card needed. If it ends unpaid, the plan is frozen, not deleted, and paying resumes it.

Read the full answer
How do I create a plan?

Choose what you are planning for, answer its questions (a few minutes), sign in and create. Then set when your plan arrives and start with a 7-day free trial, or pick a paid plan straight away.

Read the full answer
How long does it take to form a habit?

Not 21 days. In a well-known study of people adding one daily behaviour, the time for it to become automatic ranged from 18 to 254 days. Doing it consistently, in the same situation, mattered most.

Read the full answer
Why does a written plan make you more likely to follow through?

Because wanting to do something and doing it are different things. Deciding in advance when, where and how you will act closes much of that gap, and the effect shows up across dozens of experiments.

Read the full answer
Is this suitable for complete beginners?

Yes. Every plan asks where you are starting from, and that answer changes the plan: a beginner's first weeks are deliberately modest and build slowly, so your body and your calendar can adapt.

Read the full answer

Browse every answer in Knowledge

Pick Your Plan, Hit Your Goal

Start free. Upgrade when you're chasing something bigger.

Adaptive Plan
$9 / month

7-day free trial  ·  Cancel anytime

Training that changes with you. Each session is built from how your last ones actually went.

  • Daily or weekly sessions delivered to your inbox
  • Plan adapts based on your progress and feedback
  • Change your personal and target details
Full Plan
$34 one time

7-day free trial  ·  One-time payment

Your whole training plan, generated once and ready to follow from day one.

  • Your complete training plan, generated in one go
  • One payment — no subscription, nothing to cancel
  • Up to 5 changes to your personal and target details
  • Available as PDF, Excel or calendar

Ready when you are

Pick what you're working towards and have a plan in a few minutes. 7 days free, cancel whenever you like.

Start a plan