How to Find the Perfect Workout Routine for You

With so many workout routines out there, how are you suppose to choose?

When I was new to this all, that’s one the biggest dilemma’s I had. I would go on fitness forums and everybody would be swearing by their workout program which frustrated me even more.

As a fitness newbie, I wanted to start off strong. I wanted to start with the biggest, baddest workout routine out there so that I can give it my all and get results QUICK.

But as I stated earlier, the problem with that is that everyone had the “best” workout routine. Who was I to trust? There was so much conflicting advice to the point where I became overwhelmed and didn’t even start!

So I spent a countless amount of time scouring the web trying to find the best workout program. Trying to find out who really had the best program that will give me the best results in the fastest amount of time.

Then a month went by and I was STILL searching for my answer. What a waste of time!

What I learned from it – and what I want to hammer into you – is that, as a newbie, it really doesn’t matter all too much which program you start off with. What matters most is that you START.

With consistency and time, you’ll do fine with any workout routine you pick up.

Now, with that being said, the purpose of this post is to teach you how to do just that: pick a workout routine.

By the end of this, you’ll be able to look at a bunch of fitness routines online and pick one that best fits your goals.

DO NOT worry about building or designing your own workout routine from scratch. There are plenty of tried and tested workout plans posted online by experienced and professional lifters. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel.

So the reason I’m recommending that you find a workout routine online is because, at your stage, you wanna try what already works! Simple as that.

Why should I work out anyways?

It doesn’t matter whether you’re cutting, bulking, or maintaining weight…you should be lifting weights. Period.

People on a cut should especially be lifting because the main goal of going on a cut is to maximize fat loss and minimize muscle loss.

As mentioned in the Definitive Guide on How to Cut Weight, when you’re cutting weight, you’re in a caloric deficit. And when you’re in a caloric deficit, your body will SOMETIMES tap into your muscle stores for fuel since muscle mass has way more nutrients than your fat stores.

Now, the good news is that there are things that you can do to minimize the loss of muscle during a cut by doing two things:

Eating adequate protein (to find out how much protein you need, visit our TDEE Calculator)
Lifting Weights

I’m sure you’ve heard of the expression: “If you don’t use it, you lose it”.

Well that term especially applies here.

It’s kinda like when it’s the first day at school in math class and you realize that you forgot everything because you didn’t “flex” your math skills at all during the summer so you lost it all. Yea, same thing thing here!

That’s why it’s important to hit the gym while on a cut. By going to the gym and lifting weights, you’re stimulating your muscles and giving them a “reason to stay”.

In a way, you’re telling your body “hey, I use these muscles regularly so I’m gonna have to ask you to leave them alone and resort to feeding on my fat stores for fuel”.

Now, let’s go into what the building blocks of a workout routine are.

Every workout routine has some variation of these six factors:

Set and Rep Scheme
Progression Scheme
The individual exercises
The type of split
The Frequency

1. Set and Rep Schemes

A set and rep scheme is how you divide or split your individual exercises. Some workout routines have rep schemes of 3×8 (3 sets of 8 reps per exercise), some have a rep scheme of 3×5, others might have a rep scheme of 3×12, and so on.

To choose a workout routine with a set-rep scheme that suits you best, you have to know what the purpose of each scheme is. Then you have to figure out what your overall goal is. Once you know those two things, the rest is easy: you simply choose the rep scheme that matches your goal.

For the most part, there are two types of goals when it comes to lifting weights: Strength or Hypertrophy.

If your goal is to gain strength, then that generally means you care about getting stronger and lifting heavier weights rather than increasing the size of your muscles for aesthetic purposes.

If your goal is to lift for muscle hypertrophy (growth and increase of the size of muscle cells), then that means you care more about the appearance and aesthetics of your muscles rather than how much they can actually lift.

And each of these goals is paired with their own set-rep schemes. But before I reveal what those are, there’s one thing I have to make very clear.

It is VERY possible for someone to gain substantial muscle mass while on a strength-based set and rep scheme and, conversely, it is very possible for someone to gain a substantial amount of strength on a hypertrophy-based set and rep scheme.

The only difference is that one rep scheme emphasizes one goal more than the other. Meaning that a set/rep scheme geared towards strength will still produce muscle mass gain, but its emphasis will be in increasing your strength and will be more efficient at doing so than increasing muscle size.

Alright…do you have your goal in mind? Good. Now you can see which set/rep schemes below best suit your goal. Keep these in mind the next time you’re trying to choose a good workout routine you find online.

Set and rep schemes geared towards strength gains:

3 x 3 (read as “3 sets of 3” or “3 sets of 3 reps”)
3 x 5
5 x 3
5 x 5

Set and rep schemes geared towards hypertrophy:

3 x 8
3 x 10
3 x 12+
4 x 6
4 x 8
4 x 10
4 x 12

2. How do I know when to go up in weight on my exercises?

That’s what a progression scheme is for.

A progression scheme tells you exactly when you can move up in weight. A progression scheme provides you with a set of rules that let you know exactly when you should add 5 more pounds onto your lift.

It takes the guessing out of the equation. And when it comes to adding more weight to compound lifts such as bench press or squats, the last thing you wanna do is to add more weight just because you “think” you can handle it.

There are tons of different progression schemes that tell you when to up the weight in your lifts and quite frankly, no progression scheme is better than the other.

When it comes to progression schemes, it really just comes down to personal preference. So I’m just going to show you just one: my personal favorite.

I use a First-set Progression Scheme.

First-set progression schemes tell you when you’re allowed to move up in weight by putting all the emphasis of the FIRST actual working set (not the warm-up sets) of the exercise in question.

Don’t worry if this sounds like Harambe talk right now. It’ll all clear up in a sec!

You’ll probably find a few variations of first-set progression schemes out there, but for the most part they go like this:

Each exercise will require you to do 24 – 30 reps per exercise—regardless of how many sets you do.

So whether you’re doing bench press, squats, deadlifts, curls, or whatever…the goal in this example would be to do 30 reps total for each exercise no matter how many sets it takes you to get to 30 reps.

Make sense? Cool, now on to the steps.

Start with a weight you can do 8 reps on the first set
Do 8 reps on the first set
For the next sets, do however many reps you can for as many sets as it takes. The end goal is to do 30 reps total
Each time you do that exercise, try to do 1 more rep on the first set than you did the last time. For example: the next time you do that exercise, try to do 9 reps on the first set
Repeat this until you are finally able to do 12 reps on the first set
Move up in weight by adding 5 lbs on each side (or 2.5 lbs if you want) IF and ONLY IF you are able to do 12 reps on the first set
Once you’ve moved up in weight, your goal for the first set goes back down to 8 reps just like when you first started. And thereafter, you have to work your way back up to being able to do 12 reps on the first set in order to move up in weight again. Rinse and repeat

Why do I choose this progression scheme over others?

Because it’s absolutely amazing!

Say that today I’m benching 185 lbs and currently my goal is to do 8 reps on the first set. Now, at this point I can’t move up in weight just yet since I’m barely going for 8 reps.

But by the time I’m able to do 12 reps on the first set, whether that be days or weeks from now, I’ll know FOR SURE that I can add 5 lbs on each side and go back down to 8 reps on the first set.

This progression scheme gives me security and confidence in knowing that I can move up in weight without a doubt because I’ve “earned it”.

Progression schemes that I’m not a fan of are the ones that tell you that you can increase the weight on your lift once you feel a certain weight has become “easy” for you.

I don’t like them because, at that point, it’s all subjective…you could easily be wrong and you might not even be ready to go up in weight and end up hurting yourself.

3. What exercises should I do at the gym?

The exercises you do at the gym will largely depend on the workout routine you choose and the workout routine you choose will depend on your overall goal, so don’t worry too much about this.

As stated before, don’t worry about the little things at this point in your fitness journey. They’ll only get in the way of real progress.

Worry about designing your very own workout routine way down the line once you have a few years of experience under your belt.

4. What type of workout split should I do?

When you encounter any workout routine, it will usually fall into one of two categories. It’ll either be a full-body workout routine or a split routine.

A full body routine is one that requires you to work out all of your major muscle groups in one day. These muscle groups include: chest, back, and legs. And usually, a full body routine will have you hit the gym 2 – 3 times a week.

A split routine is one that splits your muscle groups into days and requires you to hit the gym 3 – 5 times a day.

An example of a popular split routine is one that’s commonly referred to as the “bro split”. In a bro split, you hit every muscle group once per week in the span of 4-6 workouts. So for example, one day might be chest day, then the next day back, then the next day arms, etc. Whereas a full-body routine would hit all of those in one day as mentioned above.

When you browse for a workout routine, I highly advice you to choose a full-body workout routine.

Why?

Because if you’re just starting out in the gym, you don’t need a split workout routine.

Since experienced lifters are much stronger and can handle working out more intensely, they need to split up their muscle groups. And when an experienced lifter destroys his chest, for example, he usually needs 2 or more days of recovery before he can hit chest again—you don’t.

Another reason a newbie should start out with a full-body routine is because full-body routines are mostly made up of nothing but compound lifts.

Compound lifts (bench press, squats, deadlifts, barbell rows, etc) are lifts that stimulate entire muscle groups and multiple muscles.

And as a newbie, you NEED to be working on perfecting your compound lifts as they are the building blocks of weightlifting.

Now, you might be thinking:

“Do I absolutely have to start with a full-body routine?”

Of course not. In reality, sticking to a program and making steady progress over time is much more important than the type of split you choose. But to reap the most benefits, I highly suggest you do so.

5. How many days a week should I work out? (Frequency)

The frequency of a workout tells you how many times a week to hit the gym.

When looking for a workout routine, try to aim for one that requires you to work out 3 – 4 times per week. Someone who’s new does not need to workout with high frequency.

You didn’t didn’t just come out of your mom’s stomach walking, right? You first learned to crawl and then how to walk.

Same thing here! If you’re new and have never worked out, working out 5+ times a week will fry your nervous system and drain you of energy which will affect your performance.

So start off with a workout program with no more than 4 workout days per week, and over time, you’ll be be able to handle much more without any negative effects.

Recap: Choosing the Right Workout Routine for You

The biggest takeaway I want you to get from all this is to not let the many options that are out there overwhelm you. In the grand scheme of things, it really isn’t that big of a deal. And the quicker you realize that, the quicker you’ll be on your way to achieve the body you deserve.

Remember:

Choose a set-rep scheme that matches your overall fitness goal
You’ll be fine with any progression scheme, but feel free to use the First-set progression scheme if you’d like
If you’re new, try to start off with a full-body workout routine
Choose a routine that requires you to work out no more than 4 times a week (3 – 4 is ideal for a beginner)

That’s it!

Did I explain it well enough? Anything still a bit hazy? Let me know in the comments below. I read them all.

Cheers,

-John

P.S. Here’s a great website that shows you the proper form for almost every exercise out there and it’s one that I refer to often when I need a refresher: http://www.exrx.net/Exercise.html

And here are some good workout routines you could start using today:

http://www.nobsbb.com/starting-strength-workout-routine-program-results/

https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=169172473

https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=172565211

https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=159678631

https://www.bodybuilding.com/content/the-ultimate-beginner-3-day-full-body-routine.html