1. Have a Plan - You should have at least one specific goal in mind, otherwise why are you even spending your time at the gym? You goal can be anything that means something to you; gain lean muscle mass (hypertrophy), loose body fat, gain strength, gain power, improve athletic performance, get in shape, ANYTHING! Once you have your goal you can start personalizing a training plan specific to your goal. To find a plan, you can buy a book, pay for a personal trainer, or scour the web, just be sure you find something that will help you achieve your goal. I will lay out some very basic rules to putting together your own plan, but I recommend running your plan past someone who has a background in strength training to some extent.
2. Go to the Gym Prepared - Have your workout either printed off or written into a notebook that you can reference in the future. Have a designated gym bag with all your supplies in it and ready to go with little time spent before hand packing. I have a specific gym bag that I keep all my swimming gear, shower supplies, and a strength training gear in. The night before I head to the gym all I need to throw in there is a change of clothes for after my workout. I keep my training log right in my bag so I know its always in there. A second note about being prepared when you go to the gym is being properly fueled. If you go first thing in the morning you should consider taking in some form of fuel (food) prior to leaving to top off your glycogen stores (your 1st source of energy). Your pre-workout snack doesn't need to be a full blown breakfast, just a small snack of about 100-200 calories will do the trick. Some good examples include: banana, cup of yogurt, baked sweet potato, sports drink, instant oatmeal. Your pre-workout snack should be mostly carbohydrate, with a bit of protein, and low to no fat.
3. Dress Appropriately - Sounds obvious, but I can't tell you how often I see people wearing jeans and boots, khaki shorts, and other street clothes to the gym. I encourage you to wear active clothing - you will be 100 times more comfortable and the clothing will leave you less restricted in your movements. You will also be cooler as most active wear now-a-days is made to breath and absorb sweat better then most if not all general street clothing. You should never not be able to do something due to your choice of clothing.
4. Bring a Watch - Sounds simple enough but timing is everything. Not just for endurance athletes to time how long it takes to cover a given distance, but it should be used during all strength training sessions. You should know how long your in the gym and how much rest between sets is needed relative to your goal.
5. Stick to Your Plan, But Be Flexible - So your plan says you need to do Squats first then Bench Press, but all the squat racks are full? Go on to the bench press and come back to squats, don't sit around and wait to start. This is especially important when your in the middle of your workout, because down time becomes extended rest time which is not what you want to be doing. Also, do not become side tracked watching the attractive girl/guy in the spin class, stick to your plan and avoid excess breaks. You want to maintain a rhythm with your workout and the more excess rest you put into your workout the less you benefit from your workout. I don't want to sound like rest is a waste because that is not the case at all, in fact rest is extremely valuable, but if your plan calls for 90 seconds of rest between sets and your taking 5 or more minutes of rest, your wasting time and wasting gains!
6. Know or Learn How to Lift - As I stated at the beginning of this post very few people actually know how to lift properly. It's not their fault they were never taught. Most people see something done by someone else and do their best to copy that movement. I believe a combination of not knowing how to perform the exercise properly along with wanting to cheat to complete the lift lead to most if not all reasons why people have incorrect form. With the amount of information that is available to everyone now with resources such as YouTube and thousands of websites devoted to strength training, there is really no excuse for someone not to know how to perform and exercise. If you are unsure, do not be afraid to ask someone who works at the gym - that's what they are there for! A small word on cheating - It's very easy to do and most of the time you may not even know your doing it. But if there is any one thing that will inhibit your strength gains and put you risk for serious injury its cheating. Cheating can be done in the form of swinging weights to gain momentum, bouncing weights off your body, swinging your back/body to gain momentum or not going through the full range of motion. The easiest fix if you find yourself or your lifting partner doing any of these things is to lower the weight and slow down. Most exercises should be done slow and controlled, not fast and ballistic. Here is a great link to a website full of videos of exercise technique (from my Alma Mater!)
7. After Your Workout - Now that your done, its time to get outta there! Shower and leave or if your showering at home, wash your hands and head out the door. Fitness Centers are notoriously infested with germs. While your working out avoid bringing your hands to your face or head for this exact reason. But now that your out the door, its time to start thinking about recovery. Post exercise nutrition is important but not something to live and die by. Our bodies are going to uptake the most nutrients within the first 30 minutes after exercise is completed. Avoid the sugar filled high protein shakes served up at your local gym as they offer more calories then you probably just burned! Instead look to whole food options such as oatmeal with a nut butter and banana, a sandwich with lean deli meat, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or you can utilize a simple protein powder mixed with sports drink or water. Just remember carbohydrates! If you opt for mixing your protein with water, have a banana or other fruit along with it. The benefits of a protein powder is it's easy to take to the gym with you and allows you to drink it almost immediately following your workout. Try to avoid powders that contain artificial sweeteners, artificial ingredients, and other unnecessary additives. Look for a pure form of protein, it will be easier to digest and will actually be absorbed into your body to be utilized.
8. BASIC Guidelines to Creating Your Own Plan - Before I dive into this topic, I want to first say, I am going to be BASIC, very basic. I am doing this because there are literally thousands of full books written on this very topic. I took numerous college level courses on this very topic. Creating a workout is an art, it needs to take a variety of things into consideration. So, take this for what it's worth. Below are the guidelines to follow when putting a workout together for yourself.
- Know yourself, you real age, your training age (how long you have been strength training), your knowledge of exercises, your goal, your sport, and the reason your are wanting to train. This should be the first step in creating a workout. Every exercise should have a purpose that will help you reach your goal and should be reflected in your ability. You wouldn't have a beginner go off and do a full olympic lifting program and visa versa. Be smart here and don't get in over your head.
- Know your time frame. Don't schedule 12 exercises done at 4 sets of 12 reps each when you only have 30 minutes to workout. Make the most of the time you have available, don't create a workout that won't work.
- Order exercises from the more complex to the least complex, larger muscle groups to smaller muscle groups, or from most difficult to easiest. Always put core work LAST.
- Assign appropriate reps to each exercise
- 1-8 reps @ light to moderate weights = POWER
- 1-6 reps @ heavy weights = STRENGTH
- 8-12 reps @ moderate weights = HYPERTROPHY
- 15+ reps @ light weights = MUSCULAR ENDURANCE
- Assign appropriate weights for each exercise. You can do this based on a 1 rep max (1RM), found by using a sub max test (click here for a Google search of resources on this topic). Or, you can leave the weights unknown and play it by ear. If you do this the tendency is to go too easy. You should be able to complete the assigned reps with the ability to complete 1-5 more additional reps, especially during the first couple sets, but by the final sets you should be struggling to get the final reps but still able to get them. Here is a basic chart listing the percentage of your 1RM for each number of reps 1-12. An example of this would be if your exercise calls for 4x8 you would use a weight of 78% your 1RM.
- 1=100%
- 2=95%
- 3=90%
- 4=88%
- 5=86%
- 6=83%
- 7=80%
- 8=78%
- 9=76%
- 10=75%
- 11=72%
- 12=70%
- Assign appropriate rest periods for each exercise
- POWER = 4+ minutes
- STRENGTH = 4+ minutes
- HYPERTROPHY = 60-120 seconds
- MUSCULAR ENDURANCE = 0-30 seconds
- Do the workout and don't be afraid to make adjustments! You should be changing your routine in some fashion every 4-12 weeks (6-8 being a good range of how often to change). You can change the sets/reps, exercises, exercise order, anything really, but change SOMETHING. Otherwise you'll find yourself hitting a plateau.
I hope you learned something form this post, at least one thing, anyway. If you have any specific questions or would like my opinion on something, post a question in the comments section. Good luck with your training!
Be fast, be strong, & carry on!
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