You have joined the gym and your motivation to get in shape is high, you turn up on your first day, look at all of the different machines and free weights and all of a sudden your newfound motivation vanishes, you feel totally out of place and you have no idea where to even start. so you just get on the treadmill and walk for an hour then leave feeling like you have achieved nothing.
You are not alone, I felt this way when I first joined a gym and I know so many others that have too.
In this article, I am going to explain how to put together an effective full body strength workout that will get you the results you are after and without having to spend hours in the gym.
To get the most out of your time at the gym, your training session should mostly be made up of compound movements. These are exercises that involve using more than one muscle group at the same time, squats and pushups are a great example of compound exercises.
To make up an effective workout, these compound exercises can be broken down into movement patterns:
Squat - movements that involve bending at the hips and knees
Hinge - movements that hinge at the hips, and less bend in the knee
Push - pushing weight away from you either horizontal or vertical
Pull - pulling weight towards you either horizontal or vertical
Core- movements to strengthen the core muscles
There are many variations of these movements and it can still be quite confusing so here are a few examples of exercises for the different movement patterns:
Squat - Goblet squat, back squat, lunge
Hinge - Deadlift, single leg deadlift, glute bridge, hip thrust
Horizontal Push - pushups, bench press
Vertical Push - Overhead press
Horizontal Pull - seated row, bent over row
Vertical Pull - Lat pulldown, chin ups
Core - Plank, side plank, dead bug
These are just a few examples of each movement pattern to keep things simple. Practising these movements and getting good at them will give you a solid foundation of strength.
Now here is how to put these together to form a simple but effective training program that has you in the gym three days per week and under an hour each.
Workout 1 - Perform 3 sets of 8-10 repetitions of each exercise
Goblet Squat (squat pattern)
Dumbbell Bench Press (horizontal press)
Singel leg deadlift (hinge)
Seated Row (horizontal row)
Plank - 2 x 30-60 sec (core)
Workout 2 - Perform 3 sets of 8-10 repetitions of each exercise
Deadlift (hinge)
Lat pulldown (vertical pull)
Lunge (squat pattern)
Dumbbell overhead press (vertical press)
Side plank - 2 x 30-45 sec each side (core)
This routine can be done either 2 or 3 days per week. If you want to train 3 days per week, your schedule might look something like this:
Week 1
Monday - Workout 1
Wednesday - Workout 2
Friday - workout 1
Week 2
Monday - workout 2
Wednesday - workout 1
Friday - workout 2
Make sure that you use weights that are challenging, you need to push yourself to get results and improve your strength. Start with a weight that you can perform 8 repetitions of each movement with good form but is still challenging you. Stick with this weight untill you can perform 10 repetitions, then increase the weight and go back to 8 repetitions.
I hope this was helpful and you now have a better idea on what to do in the gym and how to put together a good solid strength training workout.
If you would like any further information or if you would like some more help or are interested in working with me, leave a comment or click here to contact me.
