I'll be honest, as a personal trainer who makes a living out of telling people how to train to reach their fitness goals I shouldn't really be writing a blog on how you can create your own workout plan...however I hate seeing beginners purchase the first workout plan they see on a YouTube video or Instagram page and moving onto the next workout plan before realising that they're just wasting their money. The fact is, the reason why us Personal Trainers are in demand is because our programmes are Personal - Key word, and this is why a lot of people can never find the right workout plan for them. Instead of fishing around for the "right" workout plan, I'm going to tell you how to go about building your own personalised workout plan. Read on.
Three key questions
So as i mentioned before, when building a workout plan you want to make it personal. Start by asking yourself a few questions:
What do I want from my body? Gain muscle and size, lose weight?
What are my weakest body parts?
How many times a week can i consistently dedicate to training?
You may have noticed the bold consistently word there. Consistency means dedicating the same amount of time each week religiously to training, so you have to answer these questions as realistically as possible. If you can only dedicate 3 days to training then make a plan around it. Don't try and fit more in when you know you won't be able to commit.
Training splits
Knowing how many days you can dedicate to training, your weakest body part and what you want from your body will also help you to figure out how to split your workout. A few examples could be:
If you want to put on muscle mass on your whole body as you're quite slim, and all parts of your body aren't particularly strong, and you can only train 3 times a week, then you'll want to do full body training 3 times a week, or maybe a push (chest, shoulders, triceps), pull (Upper and lower back, and biceps), legs split
If you want to lose weight on your whole body and can train 4 times a week, you may want to consider two cardio/HIIT/plyometric training days, along with 2 weight training days, such as an upper body and lower body split. Or four full body and cardio days
If you want to put on lean muscle, with a keen focus to build your legs and can train 5 times a week, you can consider dedicating two days to building your legs and the other three days to the rest of your body
Volume
These are just a few ways you can split your workouts, but it all depends on those three questions above. Now depending on whether you're training for brute strength, hypertrophy or fat loss, one important thing you want to make sure you're getting in your workout if volume. You want to make sure you're getting enough volume from either your sets or your reps:
If you're training for strength, you'd be lifting close to your 1 rep max (maybe around 80%) for around 3 - 5 reps, so you want to make sure you're getting a few sets of these in to add volume as the rep range is relatively low. Anything around 5 sets or more tends to be enough
If you're training for hypertrophy, you'll be lifting around 67% of your 1 rep max for around 8 - 12 reps. As you're doing more reps you won't need to do as many sets. You should generally be getting enough sets so that you feel a good pump in your muscle - whether this means doing 3 sets or 6 sets is completely your call
If you're training for endurance and toning, you'll be lifting at maybe 50% of your 1 rep max for anywhere from 15 reps upwards. 15 reps is plenty of volume per set, so again you'll want to keep going until you feel your muscle is really worked.
In either of these cases, more reps = more volume, which inevitably equals more muscle gains, so make sure you're maximising your sets and reps regardless of which training style you use.
In order to include more volume, you can also think about adding a drop set or super set. These are great for adding that extra bit of volume to your muscle and definitely burn more calories.
Rest and Recover
You've also got to factor in rest and recovery time. Resting time between sets differs depending on your training style. If it's strength you're looking for then give yourself 3-5 minutes between your sets to allows your creatine-phosphate system to reset your energy levels. If it's hypertrophy, about a minute or two of rest is needed, and for endurance no more than 45 seconds should suffice. In terms of recovery days you definitely need to factor these in depending on your training schedule. Your muscle won't rebuild unless you have adequate rest, in the form of enough sleep and at least 48 hours for your muscles to repair. You may choose to progressive overload, particularly if only train 3 days a week...or even 6 days a week. In my book there's absolutely nothing wrong with this, but if you choose to progressive overload 6 days a week with only 1 day of rest, you need to make sure that you're adequately hydrated at all times, taking the necessary supplements and sleeping the right amount of time (you should be doing all this anyway) to maximise muscle recovery.
Compound and Isolation workouts
Now regardless of how you split your workouts it's crucial to include compound workouts. These are workouts which require 2 or more muscles to contract simultaneously. If two or more muscles are working at the same time, you're building more volume and size in your muscles. At the same time, you're burning much more calories so it's also ideal for fat loss. It's important to work your compounds first and utilise your fast-twitch muscles fibres, i.e. the muscles which provide maximum force in a short space of time, as they will raise testosterone levels in your body to keep your strength up throughout the rest of the workout. Compounds include workouts such as squats, deadlifts, bench press, shoulder/military press, bent over rows and incline chest press.
Once you've hit your compounds, you can then start to focus on your isolation movements and your slow-twitch muscle fibres, i.e. smaller muscles which fatigue less over longer periods of time. These will generally be muscles which you can train continuously to feel a pump, such as your biceps and triceps, rear delts, traps and calves. Any workout which focuses on these solely are isolation movements. Whenever you structure your workouts, also put your compounds lifts first, then isolation movements after.
Other things to consider
Warm up and cool down - Now i get it, when you're new to the gym or when you're young you probably don't see the significance of warming up and cooling down, and you can probably get away with going into your workout cold, and going straight home after your workout. What you'll realise when you're much older and you try to train is just how much of a difference it makes to your body when you warm up before a workout. Your synovial fluids are released during a warm up, which means your joints are lubricated, your heart rate is up and your body is ready to face resistance. Going into a workout cold means your body is not at its ideal level which may affect your performance. Not cooling down after an intense workout can lead to blood pooling - your blood and heart rate suddenly goes from high to low and could lead to fainting and dizziness. Think of it as your body going from one extreme to another. It has to gradually work its way up to a workout and down from a workout
Stretching - whether this be dynamic stretching at the start of your workout or static stretching at the end of your workout, stretching improves flexibility and range of motion for your muscles, which in turn means you'll get more out of your muscle during contractions. It also prevents injury and cramping
Cortisol - Cortisol is your stress hormone which is naturally higher during the morning. When your stress hormone is high it has adverse effects on your muscle stimulation.. Think about doing your heavier compound workouts later in the day than in the morning. If you have to work out early in the day,make sure you have a good nights sleep the night before to ensure your stress levels are as low as they can be
To summarise:
Before creating your own workout plan, ask yourself what goal do you want to achieve, which body part do you want to improve the most, and how consistently you can come to the gym each week
Figure out which training splits you'd want to do, depending on your answer to the three key questions
Add enough volume to your workouts to ensure you're getting the most out of your muscle
Make sure you have enough rest between sets and leave enough days to recover
Compound movements before Isolation movements, always
If you have any questions, send an e-mail to MOB FIT at mobfituk@outlook.com
留言