Everything in life just seems to work better when you have a plan. You don't just wake up in the morning at any old time and rush out the door. You plan to wake up at a certain time (or if you're like me, plan to press the snooze button a certain amount of times). You plan about how long it will take you to shower, eat breakfast, get the kids ready for school, how long it takes to drive to work and amazingly, you seem to get there at a time reasonable enough that no one asks any questions as to where you've been. If your not planning to succeed then your planning to fail.
First of all, you should have some way for measuring your success. A few simple measurements you should be aware of is your weight, blood pressure, and body fat percentage. Most gyms will have a scale, BP cuff, and simple electronic device to estimate your body fat percentage. Retake these measurements every 6-8 weeks or so to see how your improving.
As for your exercise program, you can develop your own by following these general outlines that I think will give you a pretty decent, balanced workout. If you feel uncomfortable creating your own program, or need some extra motivation, then a competent personal trainer is what you should look for.
To start your exercise routine, you should warm up with 5 minutes of cardio, meaning a 5 min walk on the treadmill, elliptical, or bike. You could also follow that with a short five minute stretching routine.
Your strength training routine will consist of 5 different muscle groups that will give you a nice total body workout. I would perform 2 different exercise per muscle group, and do 2 set of 15 repetitions if you're a beginner, and 3 sets of 8-12 reps if you're a little more advanced. The muscle groups are:
1. Upper Body Pushing Muscles
i.e.- chest press, shoulder press, chest flye, pushup, shoulder raise, tricep extension
2. Upper Body Pulling Muscles
i.e.- back row, lat pulldown, back flye, bicep curl, pullup, bodyweight row, upright row
3. Knee Dominant Exercise
i.e. squat, lunge, step ups on bench, pistol's, wall squat
4. Hip Dominant Exercises
i.e.- deadlift, lying hamstring curl, romanian deadlift (RDL's), good morning's, bridges
5. Core Muscles
i.e. plank, physioball rollouts, birddog, superman's.
If you don't know what some of these exercises are, look them up online or have a personal trainer instruct you because the last thing you want is to injure yourself doing something that is supposed to improve your health!
Once you complete those exercises, I would end with anywhere between 10-30 minutes on any piece of cardio equipment. Keep track of the weights you use for each exercise by writing them down in a workout notebook. It's always a good idea to write out your routine so you know exactly what you have to do so you can use your time efficiently in the gym. You might also want to write down your goals or an inspirational quote on the first page of your notebook. Constantly being reminded of your goals will definitely give you an extra push of motivation on days when your just not feeling it.
Today is the FIRST day of the new you! Enjoy the process and have fun. Now there's nothing left to do, but to do it!
Should you switch up the type of cardio equipment you use?
ReplyDeleteYou certainly can! Variety in your exercise routine will keep you interested and engaged.
ReplyDeleteThe more you switch up your equipment, the more muscles you will use. Your body can get used to one type of cardio - You need to keep it guessing to fuel your metabolism.
ReplyDeleteThere is also a difference in exercising outside versus using cardio equipment. For example - Running outside on rough surfaces will encourage growth (hypertrophy) in the soft tissue (tendons and ligaments), whereas running on a treadmill will encourage replacement of damaged collagen fibers.