How to design your own training program!

Welcome to this week’s newsletter…

With so much information available about resistance training and programs it’s easy to get overwhelmed.

The GOOD news is your resistance training program does not need to be complex for you to get good results.

What matters most is the following:

• You are consistent enough to see progress.

• The program is suitable for you, your lifestyle and is sustainable.

• You keep a track of what you are doing in order to make gradual progress.

• The program contains exercises that work well for your body.

A basic program properly carried out consistently, will give you better results than a complex program carried out half assed…

With that being said let’s discuss how to lay out your program based on some common training goals.

We’ll discuss 2 different approaches that can be used…

1. Full body training:

Full body training can be used for both fat loss/body composition AND hypertrophy.

(Understand diet and nutrition are MAJOR factors depending on the goal you are going for…)

Here’s some basic pointers for program design:

• Pick around 4-6 exercises MAX each session.

• Perform 2-3 work sets after 1-2 warm up sets.

• Pick 2-3 multi joint exercises (squats, presses, rows, pull downs etc) and 2-3 single joint exercises (arms, calves, leg curls, shoulder rotation etc).

• You can add in 5-10 mins of interval training at the end of the session for fat loss (as long as session is not too long).

• Rotate through 2 or 3 alternate sessions over a training week depending on total weekly sessions (varying your exercises…).

• Keep session times to 60 mins or less.

• Keep total work sets to 10-15 MAX.

Here’s two different sessions based on the above to add more context….

Program A:

1. Leg press or squat variation/3 × 10-12

2. Lying leg curl/2 × 8-10

3. Flat DB press/3 × 10-12

4. Seated cable row variation/3 × 10-12

5. Triceps exercise variation/2 × 10-12

6. Calf raise/2 × 10-12

7. OPTIONAL finisher: 5-10 mins of bike sprints/20s on 40s off (fat loss)

Program B:

1. BB Romanian deadlift or 45 degree back extensions/3 × 10-12

2. Leg extension/2 × 10-12

3. Shoulder press machine or high incline DB shoulder press/3 × 10-12

4. Core or abdominal exercise/2 × 12-15

5. Lat pull down variation/3 × 10-12

6. Shoulder OR hip remedial exercise/2 × 12-15

The emphasis shifts between each session but over the training week you are covering most the major movements and muscles.

Understand these are merely examples but highlight how you could lay out your training program.

Depending on whether it’s possible you can also use an alternating set system where you pair exercises together.

This requires a bit of strategy and pairing exercises that don’t require lots of equipment.

For fat loss it can work well to pair upper body and lower body exercises together, but a general rule of thumb is NOT to use exercises that compete with each other.

It can be time efficient too as you can keep rest periods shorter as you rotate through two exercises rather than straight sets of one exercise…

Here’s an example below:

Program A:

1a. DB split squat/2 × 8-10 each leg

1b. Chest supported DB rows/3 × 10-12

2a. DB chest press/3 × 10-12

2b. Single leg glute bridge/2 × 10-12 each leg

3a. Arm (biceps/triceps) exercise/2 × 10-12

3b. Core or abdominal exercise/2 × 12-15

As you will see the total number of exercises is the same, you are just pairing them together.

This enables you to get more work done in less time as you can keep rest periods shorter (30-60s for example).

Rather than 1-2 mins rest if doing straight sets of one exercise.

Understandably though a busy gym at peak times can make this tough so it’s NOT essential.

To wrap up, full body training often works well if training 2 or 3 times per week as gives you good “bang for buck” in most cases.

2. Upper body/lower body training:

This can be effective when focusing more on hypertrophy or if you want to train a bit more frequently (3-4 times per week).

As mentioned full body training is quite tough so be mindful about recovery if you wish to train more often.

An upper and lower training split also means you can train on consecutive days whilst managing recovery and not overworking

Understandably your lifestyle or schedule might require this of you…

Here’s some basic pointers for program design:

• Pick around 4-6 exercises MAX each session.

• Perform 2-3 work sets after 1-2 warm up sets.

• Pick 2-3 multi joint exercises (squats, presses, rows, pull downs etc) and 2-3 single joint exercises (arms, leg curls, calves, shoulder rotation etc).

• Keep session times to 60 mins or less.

• Keep total work sets to 10-15 MAX.

Below is an example of an upper lower split:

Upper body:

1. Single arm cable row variation/3 × 8-10

2. Low incline DB chest press/3 × 8-10

3. Lat pull down variation/3 × 10-12

4. Single arm cable lateral raise/2 × 10-12 each arm

5. Rope cable face pull/2 × 12-15

6. Arm (biceps/triceps) exercise/2 × 10-12

Lower body:

1. Leg curl/2 × 8-10

2. DB split squats/2 × 8-10 each side

3. 45 degree back extension/3 × 10-12

4. Hip adduction or abduction machine/2 × 10-12

5. Core or abdominal exercise/2 × 12-15

6. Calf raise/2 × 10-12

IF you like strength training up to 4 times per week then you can repeat each session twice, OR vary the exercises slightly when you repeat it.

However, I would recommend keeping volume lower (10 sets) and exercises on the lower side (4-5) if training 4 times per week.

Especially if you are over 40 to maximise recovery as best as you can.

Planning your training week…

Lets look at some ways you can plan your training week based on the above options…

And how to do this based on how many sessions you a week you wish to do.

If training full body twice per week, you can simply rotate through program A and program B once each.

If training three times per week you can either add a third program (program C).

OR alternate weeks training program A, B, A one week and program B, A, B the next.

With an upper and lower split you have a few options:

You can train 4 times per week following an upper and lower split twice.

If training 3 times per week you can follow an upper, lower, upper split one week…

Then follow a lower, upper lower split the next week and repeat on this cycle.

If you can only train twice then simply perform one upper and lower body session.

The options are endless and hopefully you see it’s easy to tweak your overall plan depending on how hectic or busy you are on any given week.

To wrap up…

For most people the above two training splits work well when you have hectic lives and other commitments.

As mentioned at the start it’s more about consistency and gradual progression than having a super advanced program.

Here are some final program design pointers to finish up on:

• Throw in some single arm and single leg exercises (step ups, single leg press, single arm DB rows or cables rows) over a training week to manage right to left imbalances.

• Use exercise variations that suit your body (YES I know I repeat myself here..).

• Use a mix of both single joint AND multi joint exercises.

• Balance out movements/exercises and don’t over work any too much.

For example, don’t over work chest pressing exercises without balancing out with plenty (sometimes more) of rowing and upper back exercises.

Make sure you balance out training the glutes, low back and hamstrings as much as you train your quads.

Am sure you get the idea!

If you would like to know more about working with me and have any follow up questions on the above.

Reach out to me on LinkedIn, OR email me personally at [email protected].

An assessment is the best way to plan the most effective AND safe training program for you moving forwards.

For now thanks for reading today, and stay tuned for the next edition of Train For Life next Saturday!

Daryl