We’ve all been there.. You get to the gym and maybe have an idea in mind of what you want to accomplish, but have no real game plan.
Maybe you just want to make more GAINS, or improve performance and strength, but how?
What exercises should you do? How many sets or reps? Also, how do you measure progress over time to know you’re going in the right direction?
The best way to answer these questions, and to reach your goals properly, and faster, is to construct and follow a workout program.
In doing so, you can have that specific game plan ready to execute every time you enter the gym. Knowing exactly what to do, and knowing why you’re doing it.
Following a program also allows you to track and see your progress over time, and teaches you ways to manipulate your workouts to maximize progression.
If you’ve never done this, we’re going to cover the important aspects to help get you started!
PROGRAMMING 101
- KNOW YOUR GOAL
Your goal could be general, such as building muscle and losing fat, overall, or more specific, such as building bigger legs, or a bigger chest, or a stronger deadlift, etc.
Either way, having some goal in mind to aim for is the first step to building a program. Once you have that, the building process will be much easier.
The more specific the goal, however, the easier the programming will be, just a side note.
No matter what your goal is, now you have an idea of what to work for. The next step to navigating the gym is to pick your lifting split.
- PICK YOUR LIFTING SPLIT
A lifting split is simply taking the muscle groups and/or specific lifts you will be training, and breaking them up throughout the week.
There are many different variations of lifting splits you could choose, depending on your goals, exercise preferences, personal schedule, etc.
Common lifting splits:
- Upper/Lower: This breaks up the upper body muscles, and the lower body, leg muscles. It can be done in iterations of: upper/lower/off/repeat, or 1 upper, 1 lower per week, or 1 upper, 2 lower per week, etc, depending on goals.
- Push/Pull/Legs: This one breaks up the muscles involved in “pushing” movements – chest, shoulders, triceps – “pulling” movements – back, biceps, rear delts – and the leg muscles. Can be done in iterations of: push/pull/legs/repeat, or push/pull/legs/off/repeat, or legs/push/pull, etc.
- Chest & Back/Legs/Shoulders & Arms: Another variation of this simply could be breaking up chest & back, and shoulders & arms, into their own separate training days.
These are just 3 common options, but again, there can be many different variations of lifting splits.
One important factor in choosing your split is making sure you have enough rest and recovery time between hitting the same muscle group, or exercise, multiple times in the same week.
If your workouts are longer, and you’re performing multiple exercises per muscle group, try to get at least 2 days in between hitting the same exercises/muscle groups, to maximize the recovery process.
If your workouts are shorter, or you’re following a full-body type split, try and get at least 1 day of rest in between hitting the same exercises again. (ex. Full-body on: mon, wed, fri).
You could also have certain exercises for full-body one day, and a different set of exercises for full-body the next, and the third. (ex. Flat bench for chest Monday, then incline bench for chest wednesday, etc.)
Either way, choose your split that best fits you. The next step is to…. Drum roll…
- PICK YOUR EXERCISES
Of course, there are many different potential exercises per muscle group you could choose from.
The best way to start is to simply choose exercises, and also methods of performing them (sets/reps), that make sense for your goal.
Examples:
- Increasing strength: choose the exercises you want to get stronger at and perform them: 1-2x per week / 1-3 sets /w/ a load heavy enough to only hit 1-5 repetitions
- Increasing muscle size (hypertrophy): choose 2-4 exercises per muscle group, perform at least 10 (up to 20) sets per muscle group per week / 2-5 sets per workout / (ex. 3 sets of flat bench, 2 sets of incline bench on Monday / repeat 2-3 days later = 10 sets of chest for the week)
In the old days, it was thought that the best way to progress was to “shock” the muscles. This would typically be interpreted as changing up your workouts, or exercises all the time.
In reality, the best way to “shock” the muscle, is not to constantly change exercises or workouts, but to do the same exercises, and gradually introduce progressive overload to them week by week.
This way, you actually know whether or not you’re making progress.
So, in terms of choosing your exercises, the best way to construct your program is to pick a few specific exercises per muscle group, and stick to those week to week, focusing on progressive overload.
- BUILD A WORKOUT BLOCK, AKA, “MESOCYCLE”
A workout block, or mesocycle, refers to a period of several weeks (4-8) where you focus on just one, or a few, specific goals (Ex. focusing on squat strength, and also hypertrophy, everywhere else).
This makes programming even easier. And also a little more fun!
After you’ve chosen your workout split, and exercises, have an idea in mind of how many weeks you want your block to be.
Usually, if you’re making slower progress, the block can be longer – 5-8 weeks. However, quicker, more intense progress would most likely best fit a shorter block – maybe as low as 3, and up to 5 weeks.
The main reasons for ending a block include:
- Reaching a specific goal you might have set for the block (hitting a certain weight for a certain # of reps, or reaching a certain 1 rep max, etc)
- Avoiding monotony: If you get bored with the same routine, following workout blocks allows you to rotate exercises & specific goals every month or so, keeping things interesting
- Plateaus: you can only progress for so long before your body needs a break. Sometimes hitting a “wall” simply means you might need to take a few days, or a week off, or back-off the intensity, to allow the muscles and nervous system to fully recuperate before continuing progress
- PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD
You have your goal in mind, workout split you’re going to follow, specific exercises of your choice, and an idea of how to put them together into a workout block.
The next factor in attacking your goals is learning to incorporate progressive overload.
Progressive overload is simply “overloading” the muscles (adding more reps, sets, or weight to a lift) week to week – or workout to workout – in order to elicit progress.
There are so many different ways to incorporate progressive overload to a lift.
Adding more reps is one of the easiest ways. If you could only perform 8 reps with a certain weight, aiming for 9 or 10 would be the progression.
Adding weight: maybe you’re hitting the same number of reps, but bumping up the weight, or staying within a certain rep range that you completed with a lighter weight, and are now doing it with a heavier weight.
Weight jumps do not have to be huge. Simply adding 5-10lbs to a lift is all you need.
Adding sets: works well if you feel you’ve hit a plateau with a certain weight/rep #, also works well for adding overall volume (total work performed) per muscle group
Some of these changes can be made individually, or at the same time.
Individuals may differ, but progress doesn’t always happen fast. Some may need to make small incremental changes week to week, while others might be able to make quicker adaptations.
The more you follow and stick to a program, the more you will learn about all your strengths and weaknesses, and how to address them.
What helps the most with finding your strengths and weaknesses, and figuring out how to address them, is tracking your progress.
- TRACK YOUR PROGRESS
Not only one of the most fundamental to-do’s for following a program, but also for making progress in general.
You have to know where you are, so that you can figure out what you have to do to get you to where you want to be.
I spent several years winging my workouts, never tracking, and just assumed the effort I was putting in would get me to my goals.
If you’re genetically gifted, or a total newbie, you can probably get away with that. But sure enough, for me, those several years showed virtually no substantial progress.
Easiest ways to track:
- Writing workouts in notebook or workout journal
- Writing workouts in notepad on your phone
- Using a workout app
- Creating a workout document or spreadsheet
Tracking workouts can also be a motivational tool. Seeing where you started, and the improvements you’ve made will not only fill you with confidence and pride, but will also help you to keep making improvements, and motivate you to stay on track (no pun intended).
SUMMARY
If you want to stop winging your workouts, have an actual plan ready when you enter the gym, and be able to know if you’re even on the right track, you need to build yoself a program!
- Know your goal
- Pick your lifting split
- Pick your exercises
- Put them into a workout block
- Utilize progressive overload
- Track your progress