How to build a lifting program pt. 1
So, you’ve decided to build your own program, eh? Normally I would highly suggest hiring a fitness professional BUT, in this economy, I understand your position. Because of that I have decided to make this two-part how-to guide for slapping together your own fitness program. Now, before we get started, I need you to understand that this guide will be just a starting point. It will be up to you to learn as you go. Make sure you pay close attention to your recovery, as that will ultimately be the factor that determines how much, or little, you should be doing.
Before we hit the template, let’s go over some things you should understand before diving into your own program.
Volume
Volume can be defined as the amount of work done in a given training session. For lifting weights this will be the total weight lifted, including sets and reps. For running this will be the distance or amount you run. You get the idea. Each person has a sweet spot for volume. This sweet spot will change as you become more experienced. Over time, your ability to handle more volume will increase. In a nutshell, too much volume too quickly = poor recovery. Not enough = no progression.
Intensity
Intensity is the amount of effort given for any exercise. In weightlifting it can be measured by how close you come to failure. In other exercises it can be measured by how close you get to your max heart rate. Whatever exercise you are performing, knowing when to go all out and when to reign it in is one of the most important factors in any successful program.
Frequency
Frequency is how often you perform a certain exercise or train a certain muscle. You may train certain muscle groups twice per week depending on your goals. You may run 2-3 times per week if you are focused on cardiovascular health.
Combining all 3
The amount of volume, intensity, and frequency will all depend on how quickly you can recover from a training session. Starting out, training each muscle group once per week with lower volume will be an easy approach. You can gradually build from there, increasing intensity and volume initially. Then, after gaining some experience in the fitness realm, you can start breaking up the volume into multiple days to increase frequency. For the purpose of this guide, I will cover training each muscle group once per week. I’ll cover how to increase frequency in a later guide.
Exercise selection
What exercises should you perform? Well, that is a question that you’ll have to answer yourself based on your goals. If your focus is to grow a bigger chest, then chest focused movements should be performed first on a push day. If you want to focus on growing your quads more than your glutes, then squats should be prioritized over hinging(deadlift) movements. One this is for certain though, the first movements performed during a resistance training session should be compound movements. Isolation movements should be performed towards the end.
Compound movements are also known as multi-joint movements. These movements require more than one joint to be utilized, like squats and presses. These movements will allow the recruitment of the most muscle and will be the building block for your physique and overall strength. Isolation movements should be used to provide additional volume to a muscle that may be lagging.
Putting it all together
Now for the hard part. How to figure out how much volume you need, how hard you should push, and how often you should train. To start, I recommend choosing a primary compound movement. Something you really want to improve, or just a movement you really like. Then, a secondary compound movement can be anything you want but I recommend choosing a variation of the first movement. For example, if your first movement is an incline bench press, the secondary movement can be flat dumbbell presses. Similar movement pattern, but different enough that the same muscles are getting trained just in a different way. A third compound movement can be added, provided you are able to recover from your workouts.
Isolation movements should be done to bring up any weaknesses you may notice. These weaknesses can be cosmetic, or strength related. Pecs seem to be lagging? Throw in some cable flyes. Triceps tiring first on your bench press? Add in some triceps work. There really are so many right answers that as long as you are attacking weaknesses, you are probably doing just fine.
Now meet me over at part 2 to get started.