The Ultimate Guide to Designing Your Own Workouts

Are you interested in getting into strength training, but aren't really sure where to start?

Are you wondering, "what do I do for a workout?" or "how do I make a workout routine?"

Sure, you could buy a workout program or hire a personal trainer. I do recommend every does this at least once. However, I understand not every one has the financial means and time commitment. Or maybe you're just the type of person who prefers to figure things out for themselves.

Trying to design your own workout routine can be scary at first. It's really not too difficult, though. Just stick to the basics.

As long as your healthy and safe, that's what matters.

Whether you're a complete beginner or you're just looking for some extra tips...

Here's the ultimate guide on how to design your own workout program:

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Step 1: Decide on your goals

Your ideal workout program will vary significantly depending on what your goals are. Ask yourself what you're looking to get from your workouts. Here are some important factors to decide on:

Fat loss, muscle gain, or body recomposition?

Honestly this doesn't have too much of an impact on how you plan your workouts. The main difference between these 3 goals is your diet.

Muscular strength, hypertrophy, or endurance?

This goal is what's most important when it comes to planning your workout. It's what you'll use to decide your rep ranges later on, so understanding it is important. Let's break it down:

Muscular strength: Your primary goal would be muscular strength if you're mainly looking to get physically stronger from your workouts. Your goal might be to increase your bench press max, be able to squat 150 lbs, etc. These are strength based goals.

Muscular hypertrophy: This might sound like a big fancy word if you've never heard it before, but muscular hypertrophy really just means muscle growth. You might think that would fall under strength, and while the two do usually correlate, you'll want to train for them differently. Your main goal is muscular hypertrophy if you're looking to grow your glutes, get bigger quads, have bigger biceps, etc. Basically anything where you want to increase the physical size of the muscle.

Muscular endurance: Muscular endurance is increasing the amount of work your muscles can do over time. Your basically putting off lactic acid build-up. Your goal is probably not endurance. People with this goal are usually athletes. I just included it because I felt I needed to if I was mentioning the other two. An endurance goal would be to be able to perform 100 squats, or more realistically make it through an entire football game.

Step 2: Choose your split

Decide how you want your workouts to be broken up.

How much time do you have to commit? Do you plan on going to the gym 5 days a week, or is it all you can do to squeeze in 2 workouts.

I recommend training each muscle group twice a week, but that doesn't mean you have to spend every day at the gym.

Only have time to get to the gym two days a week? Try doing just two full body days.

Have time for 4 days a week? Try dividing your workouts into upper and lower body.

Currently, I have mine divided up into push, pull, legs. I have two lower body days a week, which are usually on Mondays and Thursdays. I have a "push" day, which is chest/shoulders, and a "pull" day which is back.

There's really no right or wrong. The most important thing is that it works for your lifestyle and is something you can stick to.

Rest

One thing to keep in mind is that you need proper recovery. Ideally you should wait 72 hours before working the same muscle group again.

That's why I do legs on Mondays and Thursdays. That way they have plenty of time to recover between sessions.

Remember, your muscles are getting broken down in the gym. Proper recovery is what makes them grow.

Step 3: Choose your exercises

Compound Movements

Every strength training program should include compound movements. These should be done at the beginning of your workout, because they require more time and energy than isolation exercises.

Typically 80% of your workout should be compound movements, and the other 20% should be isolation movements.

People often get intimidated and overwhelmed when trying to design their own workout routine. They get caught up in all the tiny details. Really if you just pick a handful of basic compound movements, you're over halfway there.

With compound movements, remember form is key! We'll get to determining how much weight to use later, but it's so important that I'm stating it now too. NEVER sacrifice form in order to lift heavier weights.

Here's a list of common compound movements:

• Squat

- Bulgarian split squat

- Box squat

- Sumo squat

• Deadlift

- Sumo deadlift

- Romanian deadlift

• Lunge

• Hip Thrust

• Bench Press

- Incline bench press

- Decline bench press

• Military Press

• Pull Up

Pick a few of these for each major muscle group and write them into your workout split. For example, you might write:

Leg day

- Squat

- Bulgarian split squat

- Sumo deadlift

- Hip thrust

Do this for each workout.

Isolation Movements

While compound exercises target multiple muscle groups, isolation exercises target just one.

Think of it as squats vs. leg extensions. Squats use your quads, hamstrings, glutes, core, etc. The leg extension machine uses just your quads.

Isolation exercises allow you to focus on one area. For example, if you know your biceps are particularly weak, you can do bicep curls to work just that muscle to exhaustion.

Isolation exercises use less energy than compound exercises, so they should be done at the end of your workout.

Some common isolation exercises are:

• Bicep curls

• Tricep extension

• Dumbbell flyes

• Barbell shrug

• Leg extension

• Leg curl

• Barbell glute bridge

• Single legged glute bridge

• One legged cable kickback

• Calf raises

This is just a short list. There are a ton of isolation exercises out there.

For a much more detailed list of both compound and isolation exercises, visit www.bodybuilding.com/exercises. They also have videos demonstrating how to properly perform each exercise.

Choose a few isolation exercises that target what you want to work on and add them to your workouts. For example, if you want to work on glutes and hamstrings:

Leg day

- Squat

- Bulgarian split squat

- Sumo deadlift

- Hip thrust

*Add*

- Leg curl

- Barbell glute bridge

- Single legged glute bridge

Again, do this for each workout.

Step 4: Choose the number of sets and reps

Remember earlier when I had you choose a goal of strength, hypertrophy, or endurance? This is where that comes into play.

If your goal was strength:

• Do a higher number of sets with fewer repetitions. You want to do 6 or fewer reps per set. This is because if your goal is strength, you want to lift more weight. You can lift more for 5 reps than you can for 15 reps.

If your goal was hypertrophy:

• You want to be in the 6-12 rep range. You'll be lifting less weight, but doing more repetitions.

As long as you stay within the the rep ranges, you can choose the number of sets based on your goals and how much time you have.

If you want to specifically grow your glutes, for example, you could do 5 sets of hip thrusts while sticking to 3 sets of leg extensions.

3-5 sets is standard.

I wouldn't recommend doing 6 sets of every exercise because you would be in the gym forever and end up exhausted.

Remember to make sure your workouts are do-able.

Since your making them yourself, you can fit them to your lifestyle. A 30 minute workout that you'll actually do is better than a 90 minute workout that you never actually have time for.

How long should you wait between sets?

The general rule, again, depends on if you're training for strength or hypertrophy.

If you're in the 1-5 rep range (strength focused):

• Rest for 2-5 minutes between sets

If you're in the 6-12 rep range (hypertrophy focused):

• Rest for 1 to 2 minutes between stets

Don't try to overcomplicate things. Just stick to this rule and you'll be perfect.

Step 5: Choose how much weight to lift

Personally, I don't do this step until I'm actually at the gym doing my workout. I find that the amount of weight I can lift varies so much. If I'm dehydrated, tired, workout later in the evening, didn't sleep enough the night before, etc. I won't be able to lift as much. That's okay. it just makes it hard to plan out in advance.

What I like to do instead is during my workout, I'll write down how much weight I'm using for each set. That way I can look back and make sure I'm progressing over the long term.

You should lift as much as you can while still being able to stay in the ideal rep range and use correct form the entire time.

The second your form starts to suffer, stop! I see so many people trying to deadlift a huge amount of weight because they think it's impressive. Then when you actually watch them, you're scared their back is going break every time they do a rep. Don't be that person. Getting injured is NOT worth it. If your form is starting to suffer then you're using too much weight.

On the other hand, how do you know if you're not using enough weight? One of the easiest ways to tell is your RPE (rate of perceived exhaustion). On a 1-10 scale, think about how tired you really are? if you're honestly only at a 4-5, then you're probably not working hard enough.

Another way to tell is to guess how many repetitions you could perform immediately after you finish a set. Let's say you just did a set of 8. If you feel like you could've done 20 reps with the same amount of weight, then you should probably add more. You want to be only about 1-3 reps away from failure.

You could also go by the percent of your 1 rep max (the amount of weight you can lift just once). I don't really recommend this unless you already know your 1RM. You shouldn't try testing your 1RM until you are super comfortable with the exercise and have an experienced spotter with you. For hypertrophy you should be at 70-80% of your 1RM and for strength you should be at 80 to 90% of your 1RM.

If you're new to working out... start with body weight exercises! I know I've said this multiple times, but form is so important. Learn how to properly do each movement before adding resistance.

Step 6: Make little changes

A workout that looks great on paper may not actually be great at the gym.

You might realize that you underestimated how long it would take you to complete each set. Or maybe you overestimated how many exercises your legs can take before they feel like they're going to fall off.

If your new to designing your own workouts, then there will be a bit of a learning curve.

Another thing you might not have considered is how your gym is set up.

If you planned to superset Romanian deadlifts with leg extensions, that probably isn't the best idea if those are on completely opposite sides of the gym. You can swap exercises around until you find something that flows well. You don't want to be running around the gym like a chicken with his head cut off.

Continue making little tweaks if you realize there's something you want to change.

Over time you'll find what works for you and what doesn't.

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Let's review to make things extra simple...

• Think about your goals

• Decide how many days a week you can/want to workout

• Choose a f ew basic compounds movements

• Add a few isolation exercises

• Do 3-5 sets

• Do 1-5 reps if your goal is to build strength, and 6-12 if your goal is to grow your muscles in size

• Lift a weight that is challenging, but safe

• Don't be too hard on yourself - everyone messes up

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If you have any questions or suggestions for future posts, you can email me at barbelleswithbeth@gmail.com