Planning your workouts is a very important part of going to the gym and building muscle. Without doing so it is easy to get lost or confused at the gym, which is never a good thing. Planning workouts may seem difficult especially if you’ve never been to the gym before, but I can assure you that it is much simpler than it seems.
The first step to planning your workouts is to determine what body parts you are going to exercise on what days. It is unrealistic to exercise every body part on the same day as it would be far too time-consuming and would require a lot of energy. It is wiser to focus on certain muscle groups each workout. The two most popular workout splits are to either do the upper and lower body as two separate workouts or to do a push, pull, and leg split. The upper and lower body days focus on exercising your chest, back, triceps, biceps, and shoulders on one day and your legs on the other. This is a great choice if you want to train each muscle group more often. The push, pull, and leg split focuses on exercising one muscle group per workout. Push days are comprised of all the muscles that you need to push something. These muscles are your chest, triceps, and shoulders. Pull days are made up of all the muscles required to pull something. These muscles are your back and biceps. Finally, leg day includes your hamstrings, quads, glutes, and calves. There are a variety of exercises you can do for each day, so I recommend choosing between six and nine exercises per workout and doing three sets of each exercise.
Another important aspect of planning your workouts is ensuring that you stay organized. Being organized will remove any chance of confusion and will allow you to work out without any interruptions from poor planning. One piece of advice I have for staying organized is to use a calendar and a planner. A calendar is a great tool to plan what workout you are doing each day. I plan my workouts in my calendar up to a month in advance to ensure that I stay on track. A planner, whether on paper or virtually, is a great way to track the exercises you do as well as the weight you use for each one. Doing so will make sure you are not using less weight than last time or missing exercises from your workout.
Planning your workouts by splitting them up based on muscle groups is a great way to build muscle. Paired with effective planning and organization will make achieving your fitness goals so much easier. It only takes around an hour of preparation before your first workout and then will only take a few minutes each workout to maintain it. So long as you are consistent in doing so, this is a big step toward success in the gym.
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