Workout Plan

Any workout routine will have limited benefit if you don't include it within a wider, workout plan. To create an effective workout plan, you need to determine the following.

What's Your Objective?

The first step in creating a workout plan is to decide what your objective is. This can be a general (but focused), statement about what you want to achieve from your workout plan. For example, is your objective to lose weight? Is it to gain weight? Perhaps all you want to do is lose a bit of flab around your middle?

It's OK to have more than one objective. For example, you might like to lose weight and improve your cardiovacular fitness.

Write down your objective/s. This is very important. Your objective might look something like this:

My workout objectives:

• To lose weight
• To improve my cardiovascular fitness

Your objective will determine what your workout plan will consist of. Your objective will ultimately determine the exercises you perform, how often, how many reps, how much weight you use etc

There may be times where you learn a new exercise or workout routine. It's times like these that you need to remind yourself of your objective is. Does the new exercise/routine contribute to achieving your objective? If not, then don't let yourself get side tracked with it. Stick to the routine that will help you achieve your objective.

Set Your Goals

It's important to have goals. In particular, you need long term goals and short term goals.

Long term goal

Once you have decided on your objective/s, set yourself a long term goal. Your goal is much more specific than your objective. It outlines measurable achievements and when they need to be done. Be as specific as possible. For example, your workout goals might look like this:

My long term goals:

• To gain 50 lbs of muscle mass by 20 December 2006
• To be able to sqat 400 lb by 20 March 2007
• To be able to bench 200 lb by 20 March 2007

Short term goal

Based on your long term goal, set yourself monthly, or even weekly goals. These short term goals help you to chunk down your long term goal into smaller "bite sized chunks". Every week or month, you can keep track of how you're going.

You may find that based on your progress through the smaller goals that you may need to adjust your long term goal. This is OK. Don't worry if you need to change the date on your long term goal - as long as you're truly putting in your best effort to achieve it.

My short term goals:

• To gain 5 lbs by the end of this month
• To squat 200 pounds by the end of this month
• To bench 100 pounds by the end of this month

The idea is to increase this amount over each subsequent month, say 230 pound squat for next month, 270 for the following etc.

Workout Routine

Once you've decided on your objective and goals. It's time to put together a workout routine.

Continue to Workout Routine >>