Tips For Making Your Own Workout Schedule/Routine
I only just started my fitness journey in January of this year, so I still have a lot of learning to do but, when it comes to workout routines and schedules, I do all of mine on my own (with the help of Pinterest).
I am not a professional bodybuilder or instructor or anyone important for that matter when it comes to working out, I am just like the average person. Everyone is different and you should find what works best for your body and your goals. For my goals and my body type I decided to do cardio every single day but focus one day entirely for cardio and my core muscles. I want to build my lower body and upper body at relatively the same speed so I have 2 days set aside for legs, (glute and hamstring focused for one day and the second day would be glute and quad focused) and 2 days set aside for upper body (one day is back and biceps, and the other day is chest, triceps and shoulders).
Make sure when you are putting your schedule together you give your muscles at least 24-48 hours to recover. Especially the first few weeks when your body is getting used to lifting. Always take care of your muscles and stretch before and after each workout!
Let's break this up a bit.
How much time are you willing to commit to yourself?
Look at your schedule and decide how many days per week you can workout. If you think you can do 4 days a week, great! Make sure that you commit to that time you have given yourself and if you can't do it, cut it back a day or 2, every little bit helps! Next, look at the time you will give yourself to workout, there are so many different things you can do to build muscle and lose fat that don't take endless hours in the gym or at home. If you are serious about gaining muscle and/or losing fat you definitely want to give yourself enough time so you're not rushing through your workout and making sure your form doesn't suffer. Give yourself enough time to do a HIIT session and maybe a few weights, it all depends on what your personal goals are.
Make sure you keep track of everything!
Go here, print and laminate a weekly or daily schedule that you will come up with for your personal goals. For example, Monday you could focus on glutes and hamstrings. Find a few exercises that focus on those muscles and write them down with a 15 minute HIIT session or 25 minutes on the treadmill (some kind of cardio). You can continue this throughout the week for each section of muscles you want to work. Remember you don't have to use a gym, you can do everything at home with body weight or resistance bands.
Split your muscle groups into different days This is super important because you don't want to overwork your muscles. For someone who has enough time during the week to workout 4 or 5 times, this should be no problem for you, you can now workout the same muscle group twice per week and your muscles should grow faster. A good tip if you are trying to lose fat and build muscle, do your cardio last! It's hard to focus intensely on both weight training and cardio in the same session. Do not rob one to pay the other. Plus, you'll burn more calories doing your cardio last.
Now that you know how to put together your schedule, I am going to give you a list of exercises for each big muscle group so when you are trying to make your own workout schedule you can use this list. Use Pinterest or Google if you don't know what to do for the exercise. Good luck to everyone and I hope this helps!
Exercises
Legs
Squats Hip Thrusts
Deadlifts Lunges Leg Extensions Fire Hydrants Side Leg Raises Wall Sits Calf Raises Step-up Knee Raises
Back Superman Bent Over Rows Barbell Good Mornings Back Extensions One Arm Dumbbell Row Military Press Wide Grip Lat Pulldown Reverse Grip Lat Pulldown
Biceps and Triceps Bicep Curls Hammer Curls Overhead Tricep Extensions Skullcrushers Dumbbell Bench Press Pushups Tricep Dumbbell Kickbacks Tricep Dips
Chest Barbell Pullover Incline Dumbbell Bench Press Incline Bench Dumbbell Fly Pushup Butterfly Seated Chest Press Inchworm Decline Pushup
Shoulders
Barbell Front Raises Dumbbell Side Raises Dumbbell Overhead Shoulder Press Front Dumbbell Raises Seated Arnold Dumbbell Press Low Pulley Raise
Cardio
Walking Jogging Running Jump Rope Bodyweight HIIT
Here is an example of a split I just made, along with a couple routine breakdowns. If you have any questions please go to my Contact Me page and just send me a quick email.
