It’s easy to decide to have a regular workout schedule, but in order to achieve real results that you desire, you need to create the right gym workout plan. One thing you should understand about creating a great workout plan is that there is no such thing as a perfect workout plan that works for everyone. You can’t just copy a workout plan that seems to be working for someone, because it may not work for you. Your perfect gym workout plan should be created based on your biological condition, age, fitness goals, eating pattern, free time, and many other factors that will help you determine the right kind of workout for you.
You know yourself better than anyone else, so instead of providing a detailed workout schedule for you to follow, this article will cover the basics so you can come up with your own perfect gym workout plan.
How much time do you have for a regular workout
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If you have 1-2 hours everyday to workout, that would be fantastic, but if you’re too busy, then maybe you should reduce the workout schedule to only 20-30 minutes. Knowing how much time you got will determine the intensity of your exercises and the timeline of your goals.
The more time you have to exercise every day, the less time you need to reach your fitness goals and also the less intensity you need in your exercises.
Create a full-body routine in your gym workout plan
Whatever your fitness goal is, you need to incorporate a full-body workout in your gym workout plan. So whether you’re planning on losing weight, improve your strength, build six-pack abs, or whatever it is, you will get the maximum benefits of the workout on your whole body. It’s important to keep a balanced workout, and you can only achieve that if you create a workout plan that covers your entire body.
Here are some areas that you can target with samples of exercises you can perform:
- Quads – box jumps, one-legged squats, lunges, squats.
- Butt and hamstrings – step-ups, good mornings, straight leg deadlifts, deadlifts, hip raises.
- Chest, shoulders & triceps – dips, push-ups, incline dumbbell press, bench press, overhead press.
- Back, biceps & forearms – dumbbell rows, inverse bodyweight rows, pull-ups, chin-ups.
- Abs & lower back – hanging leg raises, jumping knee tucks, mountain climbers, exercise ball crunches, side planks, planks.
If you just pick one type of exercise from each of the above categories, then you will have a full-body workout. You can add some varieties or focus on certain types of exercises more than the rest based on your fitness goals.
Include enough rest in your gym workout plan
If you want to build muscles fast, it doesn’t mean that you should spend many hours every single day at the gym. Resting is a vital part of any exercise program because that’s when your muscles are actually formed, not during the exercise. Make sure you give 48-72 hours for your muscles to rest properly before your workout again.
Sets & repetitions
The ideal total number of sets for all exercises should be between 15-25. Doing more than 25 sets often will do more harm than good, and if you need to do more than 25 sets in order to gain results that means your exercises are not effective enough and it’s time to give it a review.
If your gym workout plan is to lose weight while building muscles, the number of repetitions per set should be between 8-15. When you can do 15 reps or even more without difficulties, that means the exercise is not challenging enough for you, so you should modify it like adding weight to make it more challenging.
While for building strength and size, it’s best to vary your reps based on the workout. For example, you can start with heavyweight exercises on Monday with 5-8 reps, then you can continue with lower weight exercises on Wednesday with 12-15 reps and finally doing medium weight exercises on Friday with 8-12 reps.
The idea is to make your muscles easily adapt to changes, which will make them harder and stronger much faster. After each set, you should also have a resting time before continuing. The length of your rest should depend on the number of reps you do in the exercise, as a general guideline you can follow this rule:
- 1-3 reps you need 3-5 minutes rest
- 4-7 reps you need 2-3 minutes rest
- 8-12 reps you need 1-2 minutes rest
- 13+ reps you need 1-minute rest or less