Gym Workout Routines and Effects

Gym Workout Routines and Effects

Before you even start reading this document, I will warn you it is technical and dry reading. But if you are serious about your Gym Workouts it is well worth reading this document as a start point and further reading can be found in the references below.

Most of you will understand the terminology in this document, but for those that do not.Reps- repetition of an exercise or movement in a specific way or manner:

Set - A number of repetitions is a single set

One rep max - The single movement at max load capacity or the maximum you can lift in a single attempt. You can either attempt this (I will cover how to do this in other notes), but it is not advisable for a beginner. Better is to pick a weight that you can lift till failure (cannot push/pull the weight any further) around 6-10 times.

Then put it into the following formula. Where w is the weight and r is the number of repetitions.

1RM = w(1+(r/30)

We all know there are many ways of working out, using various routines and methodologies. Here is a quick breakdown of some of the more popular workout routines:

1) Three day workouts

This workout is usually followed as a beginner programme. Though there are variations of it, this pattern is usually followed:

10 reps, 1 minute break, 2- 3 sets, at 60-80% 1 rep max

Commonly with this workout, you would do one exercise per body part (legs, chest, back, abs, biceps, triceps, lower back and shoulders). These give you eight exercises in total and require ten minutes cardio at the beginning to warm up, as well as a five minute cardio as a cool down. Pre-stretching and post-stretching is also usually added to this workout routine.

Remember this routine is generally used by beginners. If you are new to the gym, you should use this for the first 3-12 months. This will enable you to build up strength, endurance, posture and the cardio-vascular system required.

At this stage you get the hang of the basics, and your training should fall in line with your goals. There are many ways to actually reach your goals, and we will cover the basics of these routines. Remember each routine can be further changed using different rep ranges, weights and rest times. I will go through the specifics of these in future notes.For now, we will look at which workouts we can use:

2) Split Routin

This is made up by four resistance based workouts a week and one cardio session a week, commonly used by bodybuilders. Depending on how it is used, it can develop muscle size and definition.

These routines are usually split based on one day upper-body workout (that is chest, shoulders, back, biceps, triceps), followed by a lower-body workout the next day (that is abs, lower back, calves, quads and glutes). You would then do one day of cardio, followed by the first two days split routine again.

These sessions are usually made up of the following:

2 Exercises per body part, 8 reps over 4 sets per exercise with 60-90 sec breaks at 80% 1 rep max

3) Isolated training

This is not to be confused with isolate sets. Isolated training is working out a particular muscle in as many ways as possible. You would work out your chest, for example, in five different ways. A chest workout may include bench press, incline bench, barbell chest flies, supine bench and press ups. This system can be used in two different ways. Firstly, you could follow it twice a day so you can go through the entire workout twice weekly, once for strength and once for endurance. This is how this routine would be broken down.