One way to keep focused and on track in the gym is to go in with a plan of attack. Now sometimes this could be following a plan you have been sent by your PT or a workout you’ve seen a fitness professional share over social media. I’m going to give you the basic tools today on how you can create your own.
You want to think about what movement pattern you are focusing on in the workout such as pushing, pulling, squatting, lifting as well as the area upper/lower/full anterior/posterior.
Start by warming up – this is vital for any workout because you need to get the body ready for what lies ahead. Begin with something to get your heart rate up for 5 minutes for example a walk on the treadmill, row or crosstrainer. Then you want to mobilise and activate the muscles you will be using. This can be done by doing body weight versions of the exercises, dynamic stretches and band work, if needed you can also foam roll at this point.
The Main Component wants to start with the compound lifts. This is a lift that uses multiple joints and more than muscle group and form the base of your entire workout.
The big main ones are Deadlift, Squat, Bench Press, Pull Up, Overhead Press. Then from there you would have rows, lunges, dips and other variations of the 5 lifts.
Next you have the isolation lifts where you use just one joint and muscle group, which brings a focus to that particular muscle group. These are used more for fatigue, working on imbalances and aesthetic reasons. Some examples are bicep curls, tricep extensions, leg extension and curl, flies and raises. I would also input any core exercises here as well.
Add on a finisher which would tend to be some conditioning work to help improve your fitness levels. No longer than 10 minutes it is done with maximal effort and you want it to be the last thing you do before the cool down.
Some examples for you:
Sprints 30 secs on 30 secs rest x 10
Row 100m – 20 Walking Lunges – 15 KB Swings No rest x 5
AMRAP in 10 mins: Burpees x 10 – Battleropes x 15 – Jump Squats x 20
Finally its time to cool down and stretch which can be done in 2 ways. One can be a light walk on the treadmill to bring the heart rate down for 3 – 5 mins before taking your body through a decent stretch holding each one for 10-30 secs. Second could be a stretching friendly yoga flow where you hold certain positions for longer.
For an hours workout I tend to have:
- A 5 minute warm up and 5 minute mobilisation
- 4 sets of exercises which would consist of : 1/ A single set compound lift 2/ Superset of 2 compound lifts 3/ Superset or Triset of a compound and isolation 4/ isolation to fatigue
- A finisher 5 – 10 minutes
- Cool Down and stretch 5 minutes
I hope this helps and as always if you ever have any questions please let me know. Also if you head over to my Instagram @vickimellard I have a load of workouts you can try on my highlights real and page.
I would love to see what you come up with so please tag me in your workouts !
Love Vicki xxx
