The perfect guide for putting together an effective training program Part 1

Putting together an exercise program can be an intimidating task - and for good reason. Quite frankly, there are a lot of ways to screw it up:

• There are a lot of variables you need to consider: your body, your goals, your schedule, your lifestyle, your preferences, your training experience, and more.
• As for the workout itself, there are a lot of other variables such as the choice of exercises, the set and repetition schemes used, the intensity, volume and frequency
• There are a lot of different opinions on what is best for building muscle mass and strength, losing fat and improving athletic performance - and many of these opinions completely contradict each other.

It's no surprise that gyms around the world are full of people using all kinds of strange and ineffective exercise programs. I should know, because I was once one of those people myself.

Fortunately, however, you don't need a degree in biomechanics and a few thousand hours of experience to put together an effective training program. The truth is that you only need to know and apply a relatively small number of training principles to get the most out of your training.

Of all the possible knowledge you could acquire about training and nutrition, 20% will deliver about 80% of the results. And that's exactly why I'm not going to overwhelm you with every possible training split and training plan in this article. I want to save you from the dreaded "paralysis by analysis".

So I'm going to keep things relatively simple here and present you with the opinions that work best for most goals and lifestyles. And by the end of this article, you'll know exactly how to put together an effective training program for yourself that fits your goals and lifestyle.

Let's start by putting together your weekly training split.

How to put together your weekly training split

Although achieving good form doesn't require nearly as much time in the gym as most people think, an effective training program generally meets the following criteria:

1. It includes 3 to 6 workouts per week.
2. Each training session lasts 25 to 75 minutes.
3. The training includes both resistance training and cardio training.

So if you can dedicate 4 to 6 hours a week to training and train 3 to 6 days a week, then we're in business. With that out of the way, let's take a look at a handful of training plans and see how you can use them to put together a training program that will help you reach your goals.

The 3-day training programs

I would recommend you stick with a 3 day training program...

The push pull legs training program

The push pull legs program has been around forever - and for good reason: it's simple, it makes sense from a biomechanical perspective and it works.

The whole thing looks like this:

• Day 1: Push
• On this day you train your chest, shoulders and triceps
• Day 2: Pull
• On this day you train your back and biceps
• Day 3: Legs
• I think this day is self-explanatory

In terms of the weekly time split, I would recommend taking a day off between each of the training days, so your weekly training split would look like this:

• Monday: Push
• Wednesday: Pull
• Friday: legs

Alternatively, you can also plan two days off between your upper body and lower body training days, which could look like this:

• Monday: Push
• Tuesday: Pull
• Friday: legs

Using the latter split, your legs will likely be more rested, as your pull day will include heavy leg training, which will put a lot of stress on your hamstrings.

(It's worth noting that soreness in the hamstrings is a more relevant issue for beginners, as they will generally experience slightly more soreness than more advanced or intermediate exercisers).

The chest & triceps, back & biceps, legs & shoulders training program

This is an old-school training program that has stood the test of time.

• Day 1: Chest & triceps
• As the triceps are heavily involved in your chest training, it makes sense to train them directly on this day too
• Day 2: Back & biceps
• The back & biceps relationship corresponds to that of chest & triceps, which is why back and biceps are usually combined.
• Day 3: Legs & shoulders
• These muscle groups are obviously unrelated, but they are what's left, which is why we combine them - and together they make a tough workout.

Which 3 day training program is best?

I wouldn't say that one of these training programs is objectively better than the other. Which of these programs is better for you depends on your personal preferences and your level of development.

If you feel that you still need a significant amount of development in your chest and shoulders, then I would recommend using the Chest & Triceps training program. Training your chest and shoulders separately will allow you to work each of these muscle groups more intensely, which will help you maximize progressive overload.

The 4 day training program

Here is a 4 day training program that I would recommend...

• Day 1: Chest & Triceps
• The same applies here as the corresponding 3 day training program
• Day 2: Back & biceps
• Day 3: Shoulders
• In this program, the shoulders get their own training day, giving them the extra work they need to grow in proportion to the rest of the upper body
• Day 4: Legs
• Training the legs is by far the hardest and most exhausting, which is why giving the legs their own day can help.

Isn't it true that training each muscle group just once a week doesn't work?

The question of the right training frequency is a very controversial topic and opinions vary widely. While this topic is very complex and there are a lot of personal variables (some people's bodies can do things that others are not capable of), this is the simple truth:

Regardless of training frequency, you can only do a certain amount of training for a muscle before more training becomes counterproductive.

This means that you can only force a muscle through a certain amount of repetitions before the body will no longer be able to keep up in terms of recovery. Regardless of whether you train a muscle group one session a week or five sessions a week, that muscle group can only cope with a certain amount of stress before it enters a state of overtraining.

No one will dispute this. However, there is a lot of debate about the best way to perform these weekly repetitions: Within one training session per week or split over two, three or even more training sessions?

Training each muscle group two or three times a week seems to be more popular these days than training each muscle group only once a week, but that doesn't necessarily mean that two or three times a week is better.

Let me explain this further:

Training programs that only train each muscle group once a week have developed a bad reputation for good reason: many of these programs aren't worth the paper they're written on.

They get so much wrong:

• They emphasize isolation exercises.
• They emphasize "high repetition pump training that often includes things like supersets, descending sets, mega sets and the like.
• They have you work each muscle group to death with 100+ reps per session.

Yes, this type of split program by muscle group is garbage. I should know, because I've used these types of programs myself for years with modest success.

However, a properly designed split program by muscle group is a completely different story. If you train each muscle group once a week with the correct amount of reps in each session and focus on heavy training with multi-joint exercises, then you can make exceptional gains.

I speak here not only from personal experience, but also from my experience with thousands of clients I have worked with. This type of training is consistent with the current scientific understanding of the relationship between training intensity, volume and frequency, which is as follows:

Scientific research suggests that total weekly training volume and training intensity are more important than training frequency.

This means that as long as you train each muscle group with the right amount of heavy repetitions, it won't make a significant difference whether you perform these repetitions within one or three training sessions.

And I would even say that a well-designed split program by muscle group is superior for slightly advanced and more advanced exercisers because it allows you to overload each muscle group to the maximum.

If you train the whole body two or three times a week, this means that you combine several large muscle groups within one training session. For example, you could use the pull push legs template and do it twice in 7 days or split your exercises into upper body and lower body workouts that you do several times a week.

Once you've built up a reasonable amount of strength on the push, pull and squat, these combination workouts will get really tough. And you simply can't do every heavy multi-joint exercise with the same intensity that you could use if you were doing them during different workouts.

For example, if you perform squats and deadlifts during the same training session with heavy weights, then the exercise that comes second will suffer. You simply won't be able to use as much weight on that exercise as you could if you performed squats and deadlifts on two different days.

And that means less progressive overload over time (a smaller increase in training weights over time), which will result in smaller long-term gains. True full-body workouts are even harder. While they are a viable option for beginners, they will become a real torture once you have built up significant strength.

Many people also struggle with time issues with workout programs that have them training each muscle group two or three times a week. Most of the better put together programs require you to alternate your weekly training days from week to week and they require additional weekend training.

This may be fine if you're 20 years old and can do whatever you want whenever you want, but it doesn't work for the majority of people who train and have to fit their training into a busy schedule that includes work, family and social commitments.

While I'm not against training muscle groups multiple times a week, I'm not going to recommend it at this point.

The 5 day training program

• Day 1: Chest
• Day 2: Back
• Day 3: Arms
• Day 4: Shoulders
• Day 5: Legs

This is my favorite training regimen for maximizing muscle growth and strength. Each workout lasts about 45 minutes, each muscle group gets maximum stimulation, your muscles and nervous system get plenty of time to recover and it fits perfectly into most people's schedule (Monday through Friday with weekends off).

The 5 day program also gives you room to add a few extra sets for your weak points. For example, exercisers who complain of insufficient chest development can add three additional sets of incline bench presses on day 4, which can be performed before the shoulder workout.

Many women are focused on improving their butt and legs and could add 3 sets of squats on day 2 after deadlifts and 3 sets of hip thrusts on day 5 after leg training.

In the second part of this article series, I'll go into more detail about the best exercises for building strength and muscle mass. I will then look at other things such as the best repetition ranges, the correct number of training sets and the length of rest intervals between sets.

Source: https://www.muscleforlife.com/how-to-build-a-workout-routine/

By Michael Matthews