To achieve your fitness and health goals, you need to create a workout routine that fits into your schedule and challenges you in the right ways. Doing random exercises whenever you’re in the mood is unlikely to bring satisfying results. Fitness is a long and arduous journey that requires consistency, commitment, and discipline. You have to go to the gym regularly, and you have to spend your time at the gym wisely to meet your goals. Physical exercise can ward off diseases, increase your life expectancy, and make you feel alert, energized, and happy. So, building a workout routine that works for you is vital.
Read on to discover how the build the perfect workout routine and get in the best shape of your life. Before you start the workout routine, remember to choose high-quality workout clothing, which will keep you dry throughout the workout.
Define Your Goals
To create a good workout plan, you have to set clear and realistic objectives. Consider your current fitness level and the amount of time you can dedicate to your workouts. Define your primary goal. Do you want to lose fat or gain size? Do you want to increase strength or improve cardiovascular health? Do you want to get lean & toned or only lose weight? Think about your ideal body image.
Determining your primary goal will give you direction and purpose. However, it’s crucial to remain realistic about what you can achieve in a set time frame. Aiming high is admirable, but the harder it is to achieve your goal, the more likely you are to lose motivation quickly and feel overwhelmed. After deciding on a primary goal, you can choose other secondary objectives that complement the primary one. Defining and setting goals is crucial because, without knowing your destination, you cannot choose the right exercises and the right training intensity.
Choose Your Exercises
After defining your goals, it can be helpful to assess your fitness level realistically. Choosing exercises that are too strenuous may cause you injuries, so it’s good to know where you’re standing. If you train too hard, you may experience unpleasant consequences such as muscle pain, headaches, and even insomnia. Another important detail to remember is that you should find exercises that you like. If you don’t enjoy an exercise, or you discover that it’s causing you pain, you can choose an alternative one that focuses on the same muscle group. For example, if you often experience shoulder pain, dips may not be for you. But you can easily find an effective dips alternative to improve your upper body power.
When choosing your exercises, establish whether you want to focus on full-body workouts or body part splits. Include the following types of movements: upper-body push (push-ups, bench presses), upper-body pull (chin-ups, rope climbs), quad-dominant leg (squats, lounges, vertical jumps, split squats), and hip-dominant leg (hip thrusts, springs). Add exercises like planks, crunches, face pulls, and lateral lunges to your every routine workout. Do you have bad posture or experience shoulder, neck, or lower back pain? Then add specific exercises to your workout plan to improve your posture and fix all additional issues. Ignoring these problems will cause severe damage to your body in time.
Establish Volume, Intensity, and Frequency
After choosing your exercises, you have to determine the volume, intensity, and frequency that best align with your abilities and goals. Volume refers to the number of reps you do for a certain muscle group. To calculate volume, you multiply the number of sets with the number of reps and the weight. You can choose a high volume or a low volume training, depending on your current fitness level and goals. However, remember that volume is directly correlated with strength. If your goal is to get stronger, high volume is the way to go, as long as you don’t over-exert yourself to the point of injury. The second variable is intensity. To get results from your workouts, you need to gradually increase exercise intensity to make sure your body is expending real effort. High-intensity workouts can be more challenging, which is why you should keep them short and give yourself ample time for recovery. The last crucial variable is frequency, which refers to how often you train each muscle group. To set frequency, think about your goals and how long it takes you to recover after a workout.
To build the perfect workout routine, set realistic, achievable objectives that take into consideration your schedule and fitness level. Use the tips above to create a sustainable workout plan and reach your fitness & health goals. For real progress, be consistent and commit to a set routine.