Simplified Weightlifting Programming

This is a simplified guide to writing your own training program. Hiring a personal trainer is great but not everyone can afford it. In the majority of cases I believe the average person could and should write their own training programs. It is definitely worth while to get a qualified outsiders perspective occasionally but nobody !nows your own training goals better than you do. The internet has done a lot of positive things when it has come to e"ercise. It has also done a lot of bad. The spread of information both good and bad can now reach rapidly throughout the world. This is true when it comes to e"ercise. People jump from wor!out program to wor!out program thin!ing each one is the #magic bullet$ so to spea!. %verybody&s body responds differently so there is no one si'e fit all routine. In order to ma!e any type of real training gains you need to at least have a minimal understanding of your body. The best way to do this is to write your own training programs and get an idea of what wor!s and what doesn&t. So stop copying everyone else&s wor!outs and write your own. So without further ado here is the guide to writing a simplified weightlifting program What (re )our *oals+ ,irst thing to consider is what is important to you. Whether it is weight loss weight gain improving strength endurance or whatever you need to have some sort of goal. This needs to be realistic as well. It is impossible to attain goals at opposite sides of the physiological spectrum all at once. -eaning you are not going to be able to deadlift .//lbs and run a marathon within a few wee!s of eachothers 0sorry 1rossfit2. These are two completely different training responses which require a specific type of training program. So let&s say your training goal is to put on as much muscle as possible and all other goals can be damned. So with this in mind3 you just indirectly set up your repetitions per set and rest periods. We !now that to optimi'e muscle hypertrophy we need to train with sets in the 4567 range with less than 7 minutes of recovery between each set. If you wanted to train for strength we would drop the reps below 8 and rest 958 minutes per set. In this scenario your goal is to add muscle so I would not incorporate any cardiovascular e"ercise. If your goal is weight loss you can prioriti'e cardio much more. )ou can read my article on Simplified Weight :oss to get recommendations on implementing cardio. I am not going to get into e"ercise programming specifically for weight loss or endurance here. The principals I will e"plain will still help you set up a program however. How ;ften+ How many hours per wee! can you train. There are an optimal amount of sessions per wee! depending on your goal. )ou may not be able to achieve that due to wor! or other obligations. So you need to decide how often you can train and how long each session

can last. If you can set aside < days a wee! at an hour a piece that is how long you will train for. If we go bac! to our prior e"ample of increasing muscle we can now set up what group of e"ercises are to be completed on a given day. In order to train for muscle gain it is a good idea to train each muscle group more than once per wee!. So you can set up a wee!ly schedule that loo!s li!e this. -onday = >pper ?ody Thursday = >pper ?ody Tuesday = :ower ?ody ,riday = :ower ?ody Wednesday = @est

)ou can also use a split li!e PushAPull. ;ne day you train pushing muscles and another you train pulling muscles. Typically pushing muscles are chest shoulders triceps quadriceps and pulling muscles are bac! biceps and hamstrings. If the wee!ends wor! better for you to e"ercise your training split may loo! li!e this. Saturday = Push Wednesday = Pull Sunday = Pull Thursday = Push -onday = @est ,riday = @est Tuesday = @est

If you only have 9/ or </ minutes you can try supersetting e"ercises to save time. This is a technique where you go bac! and forth between two different e"ercise with no or minimal rest. Bust try and avoid wor!ing the same musclesAmovements within <4 hours of each other. How -uch %"ercise+ This is why I believe it is good for an individual to write their own training programs. I do not have a perfect answer for this. ?elieve me when a personal trainer writes you a training program they do not understand your body and its limits at all. ( good trainer will ta!e you through your first few wor!outs and either add or ta!e away e"ercises based on how your body responds. I personally do not feel the need to incorporate 68 different e"ercises in your training session. %specially if you are just starting out stic! to <5. basic movements that hit multiple muscles groups and add as you feel li!e your body is starting to plateau 0not getting bigger or stronger2. I personally never use no more than . e"ercises per session. (s far as how many sets you should incorporate+ I would recommend no more than 7 sets per e"ercise 0not including warm5up2 if you are a beginner or even an intermediate. When to (dd Weight+ This may be the most important aspect of achieving your goals. )ou need to ensure you are progressing when possible. ,or elite athletes there are multiple strategies to progress

which I will not get into here. ,or the average person I encourage you to add weight as often as possible as long as you are performing all of your prescribed repetitions with good technique. I personally li!e the 7 " 7 rule. This simply states if you can lift 7 more repetitions on your last set for 7 sessions add weight the following wor!out. (n e"ample of this would be benching 778 for 6< repetitions rather than 67 on your second of two sets for two straight wor!outs. I believe this is a very easy way for the average person to !eep trac! of their own e"ercise progression. It is important to remember if you are starting to feel beat down it is fine to give yourself a #taper$ wee! where you can decrease you training weight by a significant amount. Bust ma!e sure you go bac! to where you left off following that wee!. What %"ercises+ If you are a total beginner this is where it is a good idea to as! a trainer to show you proper e"ercise technique. This is really up to you what e"ercises you pic!. There is no wrong or right answer. If you were to hire a trainer most would be basically throwing darts at a board to pic! your e"ercises or you will be performing their favorite e"ercises or e"ercises that loo! cool to attract more clients. ;f course I personally would recommend incorporating multi5joint lifts li!e squat and deadlifts but if you hate doing them than don&t include them or if they have nothing to do with your training goals 0I don&t !now what goals they would be2 there is no reason to include them either. However your e"ercise selection should be related to your goals. It will be hard to get strong without performing squats and deadlifts. (lso if perform an e"ercise and it is uncomfortable or painful in anyway do not include it. Co not be afraid to try out a number of different e"ercises and see what wor! for you. (s long as you perform the e"ercises with good form and are ma!ing progress do what you want. @emember you understand your body than anyone else. Wrap5>p This is no doubt a very simplified way to write a training program. If you are interested in competing in a particular sport it is worthwhile to get a professional to at least loo! over your training program. (lso if you are a complete beginner it is also a good idea to at least get someone to loo! over your e"ercise technique. What I briefly described here was what a personal trainer should be going through when writing a program for a client. So this should give you an idea of how a training program is structured. Posted by Bohn *uers