Hopefully by now you have incorporated some of the fundamentals from our last post introduction to your daily life and are starting to notice small changes. The next step and one of the best decision you will make in your life is getting into the gym. Although it can be intimidating, just remember that no one really cares what you’re doing so long as you’re not blatantly in their way. Most people in gyms like to see others trying to better themselves and will respect the effort and consistency. Find an affordable gym that is on your commute. This makes it much easier to go, you avoid going home to “change” which always leads to scrolling on the couch or a cheeky game of FIFA with the roomies or five. Convenience is king when starting this game.

A questions I get asked a lot is how often you need to lift to get results. The simple answer is around 3-5 times a week. It’s up to you to decide which split works best with your schedule. Whichever you choose make sure you can stick to it. You don’t want to fluctuate from doing 5 lifts one week and 3 the next. Pick one you can consistently hit. You want to do the same work out split each week with the same movements. This ensures you can easily track your progress(more on this later). Next question is how many movements per session? 4-6 should suffice. Closer to 4 if you are doing a 5 day split and closer to 6 if you are doing 3 day splits. Below are some examples of what a 3 day, 4 day and 5 day split could look like. Then how many sets and how many reps. To keep this as simple as possible lets say roughly 4-8 reps for 3 working sets (sets that aren’t warmups). A typical work out should take you roughly 45 minutes to an hour.

3 Day Split

Day 1 Push: Incline Bench, DB Bench Press, DB Shoulder press, Tricep pulldowns,

Seated Calf Raises

Day 2 Pull: Trap-bar Deadlifts, Chin – ups, Machine Rows, DB Bicep Curls, Hammer Curls

Day 3 Legs: Barbell Squat, Romanian Deadlifts, Leg extensions, Standing Calf Raises

You will want to take a rest day between each day to ensure your body has recovered before putting it under stress again.

4 Day Split

Day 1 Chest and Triceps: Bench Press, Incline DB Press, Dips, Tricep Press

Day 2 Back and Biceps: Trap-bar Deadlifts, Chin – ups, Machine Rows, DB Bicep Curls

Day 3 Shoulders and Upper Body: Military Press, DB Bench Press, Lateral Raises,

Face-Pull

Day 4 Legs: Barbell Squat, Romanian Deadlifts, Leg extensions, Standing Calf Raises

I prefer a rest day in between day 2 & 3 to let my shoulders fully recover before day 3. Again we are all different if you can do all 4 in a row go for it.

5 Day Split

Day1 Chest: Incline Bench Press, DB bench press, Dips, Tricep Press

Day 2 Back: Trap-Bar Deadlift, Pull Ups, Rows, Standing Calf Press

Day 3 Shoulders: Military Press, Lateral Raises, Rear Delts Flys

Day 4 Legs: Barbell Squats, Leg Press, Lying Hamstring Curls, Seated Calf press

Day 5 Arms and Upper Body: Incline Bench Press, DB curl, Hammer Curl, Skull Crushers,

Face Pulls

I would recommend doing these Monday – Friday and resting for the weekend. Its no big deal which split you pick so long as you can stick to it. Of course 4 days is slightly better than 3 days and 5 days is slightly better than 4 but consistency is more important than all.

Rest

I covered rest days for each split and now want to cover rest between sets. You want to wait until your heart rate and breathing get back to a reletively normal place. This is typically 2- 3 minutes and normally no more than 5. It may seem like a lot but you want to be sure you can give maximum effort during your working sets to get more reps or move more weight.

Tracking

I mentioned a bit about tracking earlier and want to revisit it. Tracking progress is a non negotiable, its easy, use your notes on your phone or the “stacked” app from Mike Matthews(who is a great resource). Its the only way to see if you’re making progress. You want to be either lifting heavier weight or getting more reps with the same amount of weight you worked with on the previous week. To find your

Progressive Overload

The bedrock of any workout plan thats worth a damn. Without it you won’t be going anywhere and will not see substantial progress. To put simply progressive overloading is to gradually increase the weight or number of reps on a certain lift. This is how you know you’re making progress and getting stronger. This does not equate to bulkiness, it takes years to get to the point where you look like a thumb. It also allows you to go to the gym with purpose, you know what you did last week and you want to beat it by either lifting more weight or doing more reps with the same weight.

Reps/Sets

To keep things simple you should do 3 sets per exercise and the reps should be whatever you can do for 4-8 reps. Which should be roughly 80-75% of your 1 rep max. When you hit 8 reps with a certain weight on all 3 sets you increase the weight by 5 lbs. a side the following week. Then work up to 8 reps a set with that weight and increase it again. Staying in this rep range allows us to lift a heavier load and puts the muscle under more stress signaling for more growth. You should be taking these sets close to technical failure. Technical failure is when you wont be able to keep good form for another rep. Do not go to failure without a spotter, the goal is not to risk injury

It may take a week or two to find your starting weights. If you pick a weight and hit 8 reps with roughly 3-4 reps in reserve then you should go up for the next set until you find something that is in that 4-8 rep range and gets you closer to technical failure.

Conclusion

Main takeaways from this post are:

• Get a gym thats on your way to or from work and go before you get home
• Pick a workout split that fits into your schedule and you can stick to
• Make sure to rest 2-5 mins between working sets
• Track your exercises either in notes or the Stacked App
• Do 3 working sets per exercise and 4-8 reps a set
• Aim to increase weight or reps from the week before