The search for the perfect workout is the Holy Grail of the fitness industry. Users go crazy looking for muscle building routines of great bodybuilders or famous people whose bodies they admire. What they often do not know is that this is a mistake, since there is no perfect training that works for everyone . Each individual is different, so when training each one will react differently to training routines.
However, if it is true that following the guidelines set by science, there are numerous training principles that are effective. Find out what they are and how to plan the perfect workout for you.
6 keys to scheduling the perfect workout for you
1. Set realistic goals
Before doing any training routine you should set real goals you want to achieve. These should be broken down into small parts that will serve as a guide and motivation as you get them.
Setting goals is a guideline that any user who practices any physical activity should follow, since without them the work is done blindly without following any type of pattern. Whether you are a novice or advanced, you should have a goal set in your mind.
If you are starting in this fitness, when entering the gym ask your monitor to advise you and help you find tangible goals so that in this way you stay motivated at all times.
Remember that you must be realistic, if you have been training for a week you cannot propose to be an Olympic champion, since it would not be a real goal.
2. Get a good warm-up
When we talk about warming up, we refer to the exercises that are performed prior to the training session. Warming up is your ally to prepare the body for a tough training session, since thanks to it it will increase the body temperature of the muscles, allowing the prevention of injuries and expanding the range of movement of the joints.
Heating should be divided into two phases: general heating and specific heating.
2.1 General heating
It is about performing exercises without focusing on any specific muscles. These exercises are in charge of increasing the pulsations and making us warm up. A good choice would be aerobic exercise like running on a treadmill or elliptical for about five or seven minutes, you can even dedicate 10 minutes if you need to.
2.2 Specific heating
Here we are going to focus the exercises on the muscles that we are going to work on later. That is, if you are going to do strength work on the bench press as the first exercise, you should focus on performing elbow and shoulder joint mobility exercises in addition to specific exercises for the pectoralis such as push-ups.
3. Respect the principles of training
The principles of training are a series of guidelines that are marked thanks to scientific studies that help us build our training plan . When building a training routine, it is based on these principles. Some of the most important are the following:
3.1 Individuality
All individuals are deferential by nature, so the same training cannot give the same results throughout the world. Therefore, it is a mistake to look for training routines of great bodybuilders for us, since those routines do not follow the principle of individuality.
These routines are for that athlete, for a specific moment and depending on their training, diet and rest mesocycles; ultimately based on your goal at the time.
Therefore, you should ask your gym room monitor for help in order to plan your training based on your characteristics. Forget about training with a partner without having previously studied and adapted the training routine to your characteristics and preferences.
3.2 Overload
In order to obtain different results, you cannot always work with the same face, you must gradually increase the load to provide work stress to the body that it does not get used to.
3.3 Progression
The training should intensify as time passes, since the organism is able to adapt to the stress that the same training provides for a long time. When we talk about progression we are referring to changes in frequency, difficulty of the exercises, load used, and so on.
3.4 Variation
The workouts must be varied in time, since if you always do the same, you will not observe any change.
Select different ranges of movement, change the number of sets and repetitions, relocate the training days to work the muscles on different days of the week …
4. Make a return to calm appropriate to the training you have done
The cool down is a key moment in training that most people who do some type of sports activity tend to forget.
In the main part of the training the organism raises the pulsations, increases the blood flow and the pressure. That is why a good return to calm will help us to establish normal values. For this reason, the return to calm is the best way to prevent post-training injuries since with this practice we will help our body return to the initial state in a controlled and progressive way.
Some of the best tips at the end of the training sessions are the following:
4.1 Gentle jog for about 10 minutes
It will help us to lower the heart rate and establish normal values for blood pressure and blood flow.
4.2 Stretching
It is a good way to cool down the muscles and relax them, although you should be careful not to stretch immediately after intense workouts, as some studies show the risk of muscle damage after stretching in intense training sessions .
4.3 Hydration
During exercise sessions there is a change in body temperature that is regulated by the body through sweating, which allows the regulation of body temperature through the secretion of sweat.
This sweating causes internal water levels to drop so they must be replenished before, during and at the end of training to avoid dehydration. Hydration after training sessions prevents muscle pain and possible cramps.
4.4 Post-workout meal
A good intake of protein and carbohydrates will help us to recover the glycogen and nutrients that have been lost during training. From here we recommend that after training you eat a meal composed of protein and carbohydrates.
5. Set a fixed training schedule
One of the most common reasons for missing your training appointment is disorganization and not planning your training hours.
Many of the users who go to the weight training rooms do not schedule their workouts and leave them to chance, adapting them to their rhythm of life and the moments when they feel most strongly. This makes a few days training in the morning and the next day at the closing time of the gym.
This, in addition to not providing an adequate recovery to our body, means that many of the days we end by not going to the gym, since we are postponing the training time according to the plans that are coming to us.
A good option to avoid skipping any training day is to plan weekly schedules. This will make us always keep the training in mind and plan to respect the time we have chosen, giving priority to the rest of the situations of our day to day.
Another benefit of always choosing the same training time is that we will always leave a minimum of 24 hours of rest, so that every day we can work at the same intensity.
6. Be patient
You must bear in mind that there is no perfect training , so you should not despair in trying to achieve your goal. Training is a trial and error, which we must try, being aware that it is a long way and that if we do not have patience we will end up giving up in our fight to be healthier.
Conclution
Forget the idea of finding the perfect training that will serve as an ally to achieve a specific goal. There is no such training, but it has been scientifically proven that by following any of the guidelines that we have proposed you will be able to get the most out of training.
Reference
- Sullivan, Dan. The Anatomy of a Training Program. For Breakingmuscle. ⌈Revised January 2017⌋.
