Saturday, May 3, 2014

How To Build A Workout Routine

There a number of known preset routines that you may follow and see good results, but ultimately I've found that simply following a routine can lead to injuries, and cannot account for your individual body's past experience and current health. The first part of building a workout routine is defining your goal. The goal is typically strength, muscle increase, endurance, or athletics. Each of those goals have their own rep scheme to follow which also determines the amount of weight used, which will also determine the frequency you perform the routine, and the amount of lifts.

A full body routine incorporates enough exercises to achieve development in each limb and body part. The sport of powerlifting uses three lifts: bench press, deadlift, and the squat. The reason they are used is because they are compound lifts that can represent the maximum strength in a man or woman. An overhead press is usually recommended for being in a routine as well, but the commonality of shoulder problems can prevent people from utilizing them. The fifth most common being a type of row - be it dumbbell or barbell.

Other options include a body split, which would let you plan on diving the full body routine to days of the week. For instance, chest and triceps on Monday, back and biceps on Tuesday, Legs and Abs on Wednesday, which could be repeated for Thursday through Saturday to hit each part twice a week. If you are new to a lift and need experience in form, you may want to plan for more volume or do it every gym session. If you injure a body part like a shoulder, you may want to plan for more leg work and skip deadlifts and pull-ups. If you want to prioritize a body part because it is less developed or you have desire for more development, you could hit that body part 2x a week and others 1x a week.

Progression should alwasy be interlaced with increased poundage or more reps or sets.