You just joined the gym, you have everything ready to go and you’re looking forward to it, however, you still don’t have a good exercise routine to start training and change your life forever.
If you have not signed up for a gym and you are here, I recommend that you sign up, since for many people, such as the author of this article, it has changed his life completely and has made him improve his health, strength and aesthetics of your body.
In addition, going to the gym is becoming more fashionable all over the world, gyms and their routines are no longer reserved for massive bodybuilders, but more and more people have decided to join a gym to get a good workout and change their lives.
However, this has its good side and its bad side. The good side is that as the number of people who are going to train increases, gyms are becoming cheaper. The bad news is that many people have forgotten how to train, gyms being crowded with people doing postures, doing routines with colored weights or pulleys and, ultimately, wasting time and achieving nothing.
In addition, the world has also been filled with pseudo personal trainers who do not have much idea of what they are doing, giving you routines that do not work and not monitoring your progress in the correct way, which means that you do not achieve the expected results.
As for the internet, it is full of conflicting information and routines that only work on people with very good genetics or who use anabolic steroids, leaving out useful information for natural people with average genetics like you and me.
To the rescue and offers you an exercise routine that you can adapt to you, which will make it possible for you to achieve a great physique and achieve an improvement in health, an improvement in strength and also learn to enjoy the process of training and everything that goes with it.
What do you need to do an exercise routine?
- One Chantal.
- Join a gym.
- Willpower.
- A calculator (it can be the mobile one).
- You want to train.
- Not have any serious injuries that prevent you from training with weights.
- Recommended: A notebook to write down marks, weight…
Instructions for doing an exercise routine
- Basic explanation of the routine:
I am going to explain a little about what the routine that we are going to perform will consist of, so that you know a little about what this is about. We are going to train with weights 4 days a week, that is, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. We are going to perform mainly basic exercises with free weights, performing the big 4 exercises (one each day of the week), i.e. bench press, squats, military press and deadlift. We are going to do a 5x3x1 strength progression with the basic exercises in which we are going to increase the weight little by little each week (I will explain it later), since a stronger muscle will always equal a bigger muscle. To complete the day, we are going to do some isolation exercises related to the muscle that touches us, although it is not strictly mandatory. - Explanation of 5, 3, and 1:
Before starting with the exercises, we must explain what the 5x3x1 strength routine consists of, which we are going to do with several exercises. For a good 5x3x1 strength routine, follow these steps.- Calculate the maximum for one repetition: In each basic exercise, there is a maximum weight that we are going to lift and that must be calculated. Don’t put on heavy weight and do some warm-up sets and approximation of it first, to prepare for the final lift. When you have the maximum of a repetition well done and without help, multiply the mark x0.9 and write it down in a notebook, since it is the mark that will help you work.
- First week, 5 repetitions:
Once you have the mark, perform the training as follows. Do a couple of warm-up and approach sets first to prepare for the final lift. Now multiply what we have written down x0.85 and with the weight that it gives you, perform a series of 5 repetitions or more. When finished, lower the weight to a weight where you can do 3 sets of 5 reps without reaching muscle failure. - Second week, 3 repetitions:
Now we go to the second week, in which we are going to do the same as in the previous week, but multiplying the mark x0.9and doing three repetitions or more. Again, we will drop to a weight where we can do 3 sets of 5 without going to failure. - Third week, 1 repetition:
Let’s go with the third week, in which we have to do the same but multiplying by 0.95and doing one repetition or more, lowering the weight again at the end to do 3 series of 5 again. - The progression:
In the fourth week, we will do what we did in the first, but adding 5 kilos more and so on each week. - Stagnation and discharges: If you see that you are not able to gain strength, spend a week without training (discharge) and when you come back, recalculate the maximums and start again. Normally, when resting, the muscle can gain strength again.
- Monday: Bench press:
Once you have a clear progression of 5, 3, 1, we can start with our exercise routine. The first exercise we are going to do is the famous bench press, an ideal exercise for the chest, the shoulder and the triceps. We are going to lie on a flat bench, taking the bar and lowering it to the chest to go back up. Try to touch your chest, arch your lower back a little to gain some strength and go up explosively. When you’re done bench pressing, we’re going to do isolation exercises for certain parts of the chest and triceps.- Incline Press: It is the same as the bench press but with the incline bench, we will do 3 sets of 10 repetitions.
- Close grip press: Same as the bench press, but bringing the hands closer together to pull the triceps, we will do 3 sets of 10 repetitions.
- Pull-ups: A good exercise for the back, do 2 sets to failure.
- Tuesday: Squats:
Here come the squats, a complicated exercise to do well, but that has many benefits to enlarge the size of the legs, which you should train because it makes it ugly to have a torso and not have legs. To perform a good squat, we are going to place the bar on the part of the back, keeping it straight. The legs are placed shoulder-width apart, with the feet and knees facing out. When going down, go down to parallel or more(when a right angle is made with the knee and the buttock), trying to use the ass to go all the way down. When going up, keep your back straight and go up as fast as you can. Now we go with the isolation exercises.- Press: The 45 degree incline press is great for adding size to the quads. We are going to do 3 sets of 10 reps.
- Leg Curl: Of the few machines that really work, you’ll add size to the back of your leg. 3 sets of 10.
- Crunches: Do a series of abdominal exercises that contains exercises such as leg lifts, rollers or crunches (normal sit-ups).
- Wednesday: Rest or cardio:
If your weight is good, this day you rest. If you are too fat and want to lose weight, I advise you to dedicate this day to doing some low-intensity cardio, such as running, cycling or taking a long walk, to lose the abdominal fat that is left over. - Thursday: Military press:
The military press is one of the best exercises for shoulder, triceps and trapezius, for which we are going to include it in this routine as it could not be otherwise. For a correct technique, we are going to go up to the top of the bar, with a straight back and then down to the chest. As isolation exercises, we are going to introduce the following.- Side Shoulder Birds: A great exercise to work the back of the shoulder. 3 sets of 10.
- Z bar biceps curl: The best biceps exercise, 3 sets of 10.
- Pull-ups: Again we will do pull-ups for the back, another 2 series to failure.
- Friday: Deadlift:
We come to the end with one of the best exercises for the gym; such is its importance, that we dedicate an exclusive article toit on doncomos.com on how to do deadlifts that explains how to do it with the correct technique. As isolation exercises, we have the following.- Sit-ups: We will be doing the sit-up routine on Tuesday again.
- Calf: You can work this part of the leg by doing a machine like the standing or sitting calf machine. We will work it at high repetitions (the calf has slow fibers), doing 4 sets of 30 repetitions.
Tips for doing an exercise routine
- Summary and file of the routine: Here we have the entire routine summarized.
- Monday:
- Bench press progression 5,3,1
- Pull-ups: 2 sets to failure.
- Closed press: 3 sets of 10.
- Incline press: 3 sets of 10
- Tuesday:
- Squats progression 5,3,1
- Press 45º: 3 series of 10.
- Leg Curl: 3 sets of 10.
- Abdominal routine to taste.
- Wednesday.
- Rest or cardio.
- Thursday:
- Military press progression 5, 3, 1.
- Side birds: 3 sets of 10.
- Pull-ups: 2 sets to failure.
- Z bar biceps curl: 3 sets of 10.
- Friday:
- Deadlift progression 5, 3, 1.
- Twin: 4 sets of 30.
- Abdominal routine to taste.
- Monday:
- The diet: If you like sweets, junk food and ultimately, eating badly, I’m sorry to tell you that you’re training will not do any good. Good training must be accompanied by a correct diet, which includes the calories you need according to your goals and excludes junk food such as sugar, alcohol, Tran’s fats and processed meat.