Rule #1: Build Around Your Commitments
Most of us also have commitments that frame our week, like a busy job or familial responsibilities. Therefore, an intense six-days-per-week workout program might be unrealistic or a recipe for burnout.
To counter this, set conservative goals for workout frequency. If you’re new to training or getting back after a long time off, apply the ‘every other day’ approach: If you didn’t train yesterday, train today. If you trained yesterday, take the day off and train tomorrow. It’s easy to follow and usually not so demanding that it overhauls your life.
Rule #2: Set Reasonable Expectations
Your fitness goals must be realistic. Most adults are going to have a set range of what’s possible. For an adult male, doing everything right in the weight room and the kitchen, without missing a beat, will result in about 2 pounds of muscle gain per month. Using that example, adding 6 or 10 pounds of new muscle in a 6- or 12-week plan is an unfulfillable goal—at least not naturally. For muscle gain, aim for 1-2 pounds per month. If you want to lose weight, one pound per week is possible if you have your training and nutrition dialed in.
Rule #3: Embrace Compound Movements
Always remember to customize your efforts. Keep in mind, the above didn’t say specific lifts like barbell back squats, barbell deadlifts, standing barbell overhead presses, or v-grip seated rows. Think of each pattern as a template under which you should operate. A deadlift pattern, for example, has several versions that customize equipment, loading, and stance, allowing great access to training your posterior chain in a way that works for you.
Keep a variation of all the prime patterns in your workout routine, and spread them out throughout the training week.
Rule #4: Tailor Sets, Reps, and Rest to Your Goals
The plans for building strength and mass are similar. But since the goal of strength is lifting heavier, those plans call for shorter sets that allow your body to move more pounds on each rep and longer rest to prioritize performance. Muscle-building plans that use higher reps with slightly shorter rest seek to maximize muscle stimulation.
For conditioning, fat loss, and weight loss, your main order of business is to trigger metabolic changes. That’s when you feel the burn through high reps and a spiked heart rate. Rest intervals are shorter to support that.
Use this as a general guide:
| Goal | Sets | Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Build Muscle | 3-4 | 6-12 | 2-3 min |
| Burn Fat/Conditioning | 3-4 | 10-15 | 1 min |
| Strength | 4-6 | 2-5 | 3 min |
Rule #5: Your Workout Space Determines What’s Possible
To build a serious home gym, I suggest that you invest in a squat cage, barbell, adjustable bench, and sets of dumbbells and plates. If your setup can’t facilitate heavy loading, you can still knock out great workouts. But instead of aiming to increase strength or size, focus on fat loss and conditioning with high-rep, lower-weight or bodyweight exercises.
It’s easier to program when you know your facility. Moreover, if you’re looking to design paired sets or circuits within your workouts, prescribe exercises that use similar pieces of equipment, or pieces of equipment that are in close proximity to one another. That way, if you’re in a gym, you’re not hogging space or wasting time traveling back and forth from one area to the next.
Rule #6: Hit the Big Lifts First
It’s a broad stroke, but for most people, this principle will apply: Focus on the larger, heavier loaded movements earlier in your workout, then move onto your supplementary lifts. If you have a push day session with a triceps press down, a barbell bench press, a seated dumbbell military press, and a med ball chest throw, start the workout off with the bench presses and military presses, rather than the throws or pressdowns. The former two movements will demand the most of your strength, high threshold units, and nervous system sharpness by comparison to the other movements that are either more isolated, or more lightly loaded. Make this a general rule of thumb and your performance will make leaps.
Rule #7: Choose a Workout Split for Your Goal
Here are a few ways to arrange your training split—how you divide your workout focuses during the week—based on what suits you best. This will depend on what your training goals are above anything else. Here are some loose examples:
Goal: Fat Loss and Conditioning With Upper/Lower Split
This is a good option for calorie burn and the use of compound movements, which are key for fat loss.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wedsnesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Push | Rest | Pull | Rest | Legs | Rest | Rest |
Goal: Fat Loss and Conditioning With Total Body
This is my favorite conditioning split since total body training makes things like circuit training, complexes, and other methods for metabolic demand much more possible to attack. It’s great for burning fat and building muscular endurance.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Body | Rest | Total Body | Rest | Total Body | Rest | Total Body (optional) |
Goal: Strength and Size With Push/Pull/Legs
This is a tried tested and true classic which gives respect to synergistic muscles and compound movements for the big testosterone boosters
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Push | Rest | Pull | Rest | Legs | Rest | Rest |
Goal: Size With Body Part Split
Here’s another old faithful. You can’t go wrong pumping volume in isolation from muscle group to muscle group.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Back/Biceps | Chest/Triceps | Rest | Legs | Shoulders/Arms | Rest | Rest |