For those of you just starting out with your weight-training / bodybuilding program, a major question you might be asking yourself is how you should go about building your workouts.
By "building your workouts" I mean developing a lifting schedule to meet your fitness and aesthetic goals. This is obviously important to ensure that day to day and week to week you're completing the steps necessary to achieve said goals.
Not every workout plan will be the same. Bodybuilding, strength, weight-loss, performance, etc. workouts will all be different depending on what your goals might be. It pains me to see countless cookie-cutter workouts and ideals show up on my screen as I search the internet and overhear others talking about what may or may not actually be optimal and beneficial to the person wanting to achieve something.
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| Flickr.com / Joanna June / No Changes Made |
I'm not a cardio fanatic, and I'm not a professional in any kind of sport. I'm also not trying to be a competitive lifter. And so today I'm not sure I really want this post to be centric or all-encompassing of those topics because I am not as knowledgeable on the nuances and minutia of those realms of fitness. So for today, my focus on building a workout will solely be about lifting in terms of bodybuiding and developing muscle.
What I'm about to write is in no way the "right" way to go about this. In fact, whatever works for YOU is what you probably should focus on so long as you are getting a complete workout and covering all of your bases.
When I started working out, I followed a lifting plan on a website that instructed a 3-day split, meaning that three days out of the week would be devoted to working out / lifting (with nutrition obviously being a 24/7 affair). That meant that I had to find a way to fit biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest, back, legs, and abs into three days out of the week.
And that may or may not be optimal for you. If putting in the amount of time it would take to fit all of these muscle groups in effectively and then taking the other four days out of the week off is something that works for you, then by all means go that route.
But here are some things that I personally like to keep in mind when developing a lifting routine:
You have to workout every muscle group
When you're bodybuilding, every muscle group counts. And you can't take shortcuts. If you want superb definition and development coupled with a very symmetrical and non-cartoonish physique, you have to work out every muscle group to the max. The only exception comes with abs, which may or may not be more aesthetcially pleasing somewhere in between being underdeveloped and overdeveloped. For all other muscle groups though, push them to the max.
Lift on days where you can fully devote your time
I don't accept excuses. If something is important to you you WILL find a way to make it happen. So don't assume that what I'm saying on the heading here is that you should skip the gym if there's something more important happening that day.
However, if you're trying to decide which days you should work out and have room to play around with shifting days around, choose the days where you're most mentally and physically capable of giving it your all and killing the workout. If you don't want to do ANYTHING at the beginning of the week, maybe you take Mondays off. If you want weekends all to yourself, maybe you lift every day out of the week except on weekends.
Also important to note is to lift at the time of day where you'll have the best workout. Personally, I can hardly function in the mornings, and have most of my energy and focus in the early afternoon. So it would make no sense for me to ever workout at 5a.m. just because everyone thinks there's something intrinsically better and more valuable to working out at that time.
Lift for however many days it takes to optimize your lifts
Personally, I could probably get all of my lifting done over the course of 3 days if I really wanted to push it. However, I've noticed that I get out of the gym quicker, and focus my muscle groups harder / can push my muscle groups harder when I work out five days a week. Maybe five days a week would be absolutely terrible for you and your responsibilities, and taking the time it would take to finish a workout in fewer days is a better option for you. Whatever works for you and makes your workouts optimal, while not putting you at any risk for injury or anything, is what you should do. I'm a fan of the five day plan, but you might want to work out for three days in a row and take a break, or spread them out throughout the week to give yourself more frequent breaks and / or fit better with your schedule. Just make sure you're consistent.
Try saving your favorite muscle groups for last, and your second favorite muscle group for first
This is actually a mind hack that has REALLY helped me out. If I were to save my least favorite muscle group (legs) for the end of the week, I would not have the mental focus or willpower to really give it my all....especially after giving all of my energy to the rest of the muscle groups throughout the week.
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| Flickr.com / HA! Designs / No Changes Made |
So give yourself something to look forward to. Take a muscle group you love to workout whenever you can (everyone seems to have one), and save that for the end of the week so that you don't think that what you're about to do is a chore or some mountain in your mind that you're going to hate climbing.
Getting into the groove and priming your body to start preparing itself to workout for the week is also important. And that's why I recommend doing your second favorite muscle group first. Starting back up an exercise program for the week can be hard after you've had so much fun resting and relaxing. So one way you can get over that is to use a muscle group that generates almost as much enthusiasm as your favorite muscle group that you saved for the end of the week.
Try devoting a day solely to the muscle groups you hate to workout the most
This is another technique that has really helped me out. If you hate working out a particular muscle group, it will be SUCH a drag to go through a workout where you have to not only do that muscle group, but think about the workout you'll still have to go through for another muscle group...or vice versa.
So, one way to combat this is to devote an entire day to JUST that muscle group. For example, I'm not a fan of working out legs. So you better believe that on leg day I'm going to go in and focus all my attention and energy on just doing legs and then get out. I don't have anything else planned on leg days. And that really helps me focus on the legs because I don't have to worry about the anxiety of other muscle groups to come after being exhausted from high intensity leg workouts that drain your energy.
So those are some tips you can use to build around a muscle building routine. I'm sorry if it's not as cookie-cutter / clean cut as you may have wanted in terms of what to do and when, but again YOUR workout can be tailored to YOUR preferences to get optimal gains and lucrative workouts. The muscle groups you choose to workout and when also don't really matter, but I would advice not working out muscle groups that use too many of the same areas of the body to create movement (like shoulders and chest), as one may fatigue the other before you workout the second muscle group.
Workout for as many days and on the most optimal days that give you a workout that works every muscle group efficiently and effectively. And as always, supplement with proper nutrition and rest.
-Jtrain
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