The CEO of Clif Bar has planned his entire week of workouts on Sundays for nearly 19 years

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The CEO of Clif Bar has planned his entire week of workouts on Sundays for nearly 19 years

kevin cleary clif bar

Clif Bar & Company

Clif Bar CEO Kevin Cleary.

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  • Clif Bar CEO Kevin Cleary plans his workouts well ahead of time.
  • For nearly 19 years, he's planned his week's worth of workouts on Sundays to accommodate his schedule.
  • He finds planning ahead helps keep his mornings more streamlined and his workouts more consistent.

Clif Bar CEO Kevin Cleary plans ahead.

In "My Morning Routine: How Successful People Start Every Day Inspired," he told authors Benjamin Spall and Michael Xander that he takes his morning routine - most importantly, his workouts - seriously. Cleary is a father of three, and if he didn't take advantage of mornings, he said, "I don't know when I would find that time."

In order to work out consistently after waking up between 6 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., he makes sure everything is in order the night before. "It just makes everything more streamlined," he told Spall and Xander. "I lay out my bike stuff and my running stuff because I find that it gives me less to to think about and more reasons to get up and go do it without delay." He also preps the ingredients for his morning protein shake before bed.

About that bike stuff: Sometimes, Cleary commutes to work on two wheels.

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"One or two times a week I ride my bike into work; it's about a forty-five mile round trip," he said.

But Cleary is looking further ahead than the next day. On Sundays, he plans out his workouts for the whole week.

Here's Cleary:

"Every Sunday (I've been doing this for going on nineteen years now) I sit down and plan out my workouts for the following week - what I'm going to do based on my schedule, work, and kids. I always try to figure out what I'm going to be able to work on so I can manage my own expectations of what my workouts are going to look like for the coming week."

Much like meal planning on the weekend is a go-to tip for eating healthier, it makes sense that planning workouts ahead can help you stick to them (even if you only have 20 minutes to sneak them in). Business Insider's Erin Brodwin reported that if you want to see results, you need to work out three to five times a week. That's according to the exercise physiologist who created the viral 7-minute workout app, so clearly every session doesn't need to be a 22-mile bike ride.

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Despite his planning and cycling, Cleary doesn't get carried away.

If he fails to follow his routine, he told the authors, "I give myself a break and take the longer view of what's happening. If I can't do my workout later in the day, I'll tell myself I'll just pick it up tomorrow or the next day. Six months from now, my body and I won't know that I missed a day."

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