Starting an exercise program seems like such a simple thing. You start working out and you should lose weight and gain muscle. This unfortunately does not always happen. There are many aspects...

...of an exercise program that you must consider for it to get results and to get them quickly.  The simple solution would be to hire a certified personal trainer and who work with you one-on-one.  This can be expensive though and may not be an option.  The goal of this article is to teach you the basics to design your own exercise program that will get results.

What is the first thing most people will do to find out what they what to do at the gym?  The most common answers are they follow a routine they found in fitness magazine, they saw a routine on TV that a celebrity does, or they just copy what other people are doing.  The problem with these options is it is imitating others and not creating a program that is specifically for them.  We all have different goals and different strengths and weaknesses.

The first step to building our program is picking the right goal.  When we strength train there are 4 main goals we can work towards.  These are endurance, muscle hypertrophy or size, muscle strength, and power.  These are the characteristics of muscle fibers we can change.  I know most of you are probably thinking, “My goal isn’t on here.  I just want to lose weight.”  Any program we put together is going to build some lean muscle mass and burn calories.  The problem is if we perform a typical “weight loss” program that will have you perform lighter weight for higher repetitions you will eventually adapt to this and not see additional gains.  Instead we will cycle through all of these goals to avoid plateaus.  Depending on your ultimate goal you will spend longer time in certain areas.  So regardless if you want to lose weight or gain weight you should be starting with endurance training.  This will build a base to the rest of your program.  If you are looking for a weight loss program you will spend more time with the endurance and hypertrophy training while a muscle builder would want to mainly stay with hypertrophy and strength training.  The number 1 reason people struggle with a weight loss or a muscle building program is they stay in one zone too long.  You should not be lifting the same weight for 15 reps every single time you workout.  It is time for a change.

The next step is to select the type of exercises to perform.  Regardless of your goal this will be the same for everyone.  We want to train the entire body as much as possible.  When most people start a program they split the body into pieces.  They might do chest exercises one day, then back the next, and legs a third day.  This is a traditional body building type workout and you are seeing this less and less.  If you are not trying to be a body builder you should not be doing this workout.  All of our muscle groups work together and need to be trained together.  There are 6 major movements that the body can do.  We create a program that improves these movements.  By doing so you will be training your muscles the way they actually work in real life.

These movement patterns include squatting, bending, pushing, pulling, 1 legged, and rotating.  If we train these movements you will train all major muscle groups.  These movements would be performed in the following exercises: barbell squats, straight-legged deadlifts, push ups, pull ups, lunges, and cable twists.  These 6 exercises would work all muscle groups.  If you needed extra work in certain areas, you could add more exercises like isolation exercises to complete the program.  Just remember to perform big movement patterns before doing isolation exercises.  You can perform these exercises as a circuit, straight sets, supersets, or a number of other combinations.

Once we understand how to train your body in your workout we can put in the final pieces.  These include how many sets, reps, and the rest periods that you need.    For this we need to go back to our goals that we are looking to achieve.  The following chart can be used to determine how much of each you should be doing according to your goal.

We can also look at how much load or weight should be used.  Many trainers will use a percentage of their 1 repetition max.  This can get confusing and you would have to periodically test your max in multiple exercises.  Instead use trial and error.  Select weights that are challenging.  We never want to lift light weight.  All weight should be difficult for you to lift but possible with good form.  Pick a weight and perform an exercise.  If you get to the number of reps you are shooting for with ease then you need to increase it.  You need to be getting close to fatigue with each set.  If not you will not see the results you are looking for.  \

The science of putting together an exercise program can get difficult but by following these basic steps you will be able to start something.  The main thing is to keep it simple at first.   Once you develop the basics you can go from there.  There is no need to be training longer than 1 hour, including your warm up.  Don’t follow someone else’s program.  Stick to a program that is built for you.  Follow these proven steps and you will be performing great workouts every time.

Mike Deibler is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, who has helped hundreds of individuals develop an exercise program to reach the fastest results possible.  He is the founder of www.myworkoutcreator.com an online customized workout generator.  To receive a free trial or to learn more simply visit the site and create an account.