Programming your own workouts doesn’t have to be hard. You just need to have the right plan that works for you. I am going to lay out how to figure out what that right plan looks like.
At the end, I am going to give out some templates for your own workouts as well as different exercise variations
WHERE TO START
First thing is first, what is your goal? This is the main focus of your program. In most cases, people are looking to feel better and look good for beach season. This would entail gaining muscle and losing fat, the simplest way to look at it. Remember there is no toning, shaping, or sculpting. You are either gaining muscle, losing muscle, gaining fat, losing fat. That is it.
GOT IT, NOW WHAT
Okay, so your goal has been decided. Now you have to find out how many days you can devote to exercise. This is a big piece to the puzzle because it will force you to make a real schedule that you “have” to stick to. Remember consistency is king. A person on a crappy program who is consistent will get better results than someone on a great program but never uses it.
I PICKED MY DAYS, WHAT ABOUT THE EXERCISES
This is the part that everyone gets held up on. The meat and potatoes of your exercises should be the basics. This does not mean they have to be boring or easy, but there is a reason that these exercises have been around for this long, THEY WORK. Make sure you are doing some sort of: SQUAT, ROW, PRESS, HINGE, SINGLE LEG, CARRY. These types of exercises have hundreds and hundreds of variations which will make sure that you will never get bored with your exercise routine.
HOW SHOULD I SET UP MY WORKOUTS
If you are setting up your own workout program, a great option would be to create a template. It will keep you on track and give you the freedom to change things up as you please.
I am going to lay down a few sample templates for different days/week that you can use for yourself.
3-Days/Week-FULL BODY
Squat/Hinge
Pull
Push
Single leg
Rear delt/ upper back
Arms
Core/Carry
On a 3-day per week plan, a full-body approach can work tremendously. It gives you enough volume each week to progress at a good level and the amount of frequency will result in each muscle group being used every single workout.
4-DAYS/WEEK-FULL BODY
Squat/Hinge
Pull
Push
Single leg
Rear delt/ upper back
Arms
Core/Carry
The same ideas apply to a full-body plan even if doing 4-days/week. This is a great option to really practice these patterns and get good at them. Once you feel that you are ready to progress from this option you can split the workouts up on a different 4-day/week plan which will be the next template.
4-DAYS/WEEK-SPLIT
Day 1: Legs/Back
Squat
Row
Single Leg
Row
Single leg/Hamstring
Core/Carry
Day 2: Chest/Shoulder/Arms
Horizontal Press
Rear Delt/Upper Back
Horizontal Press
Delts
Arms
Core/Grip/Conditioning
Day 3: Legs/Back
Hinge
Row
Single leg
Row
Single leg
Core/Carry
Day 4: Chest/Shoulder/Arms
Vertical Pull
Vertical Press
Rear Delt/Upper Back
Horizontal Press
Arms
Core/Grip
Here are some exercise examples for each category:
SQUAT: BB squat, goblet squat, Zercher squat, isometric squats, 1.5 squat, box squat, speed squats, wall sit, hip thrust
SINGLE LEG: reverse lunge, walking lunge, split squat, isometric split squat, RFE SS, 1.5 RFE SS, sled push, sled drag, reverse sled drag, step ups, cossack squat, side lunge, elevated split squat, elevated reverse lunge
HINGE: deadlift, romanian deadlift, kb deadlift, DB romanian deadlift, SL romanian deadlift, Hip thrust, Split stance romanian deadlift, RFE romanian deadlift
HORIZONTAL PRESS: bench press, incline bench press, DB bench, DB incline bench, floor press, alternating DB bench, single arm DB bench, pushup, ring pushup, neutral bench press, close grip bench press
VERTTICAL PRESS: Overhead press, DB overhead press, 1/2 kneel overhead press, landmine overhead press, pike pushup, push press, high incline press
VERTICAL PULL: Pull-up, chip-up, neutral pull-up, lat-pulldown, supinated lat-pulldown, neutral lat-pulldown, X-Pulldown, single arm pulldown
ROW: Single arm row, chest supported row, inverted row, ring row, kb row, seated row, cable row, BB row, pendlay row, isometric row, ring row hold,
DELTS: Front raise, lateral raise, Cuban press, bus drivers, deadstop lateral raise, band lateral raise, plank tap
REAR DELT: band pull-aparts, ISO hold Y-W-T, blackburns, face pulls, reverse fly, scap pushup
CORE: plank, side plank, pallof press, hollow hold, Russian twist, cable rotations, straight leg crunch, DB situp, pot stir, plank rollouts
CARRY: Farmers carry, single arm carry, overhead carry, rack carry, trap bar carry, zercher carry, contralateral carry
This should be enough to set up a nice template for your own workouts. I do want to add one more point before you go and write up a plan. Too much variety can be a detriment to your program. Make sure to PRACTICE these movements, get good at them, and progress with them before moving onto a new one.
Now get your ass to the gym with your new program and get some results!
