How does a personal trainer create a training program?
Many people really want to be beautiful, but they really don't want to work hard on themselves. This is why so many people suffer from “magic pill syndrome.” I would like to get some kind of “secret” program or technique, drink some kind of bodyag or pill and achieve results without extra effort.
That’s why beginners so often turn to personal trainers and ask them to write a “magic” training program that will turn them into Arnold Schwarzenegger in just a few months.
By the way, I wrote a great article about how often to change your training program.
But the result, friends, requires work on yourself, and miracles happen, as a rule, only in fairy tales. Therefore, you still have to work hard.
Personal trainers usually have a so-called. an “average” training program that they prescribe to all their clients, with minor adjustments.
For example, if a skinny teenager wants to bulk up, he will give him more repetitions in the approaches and fewer approaches themselves. And a fat person will be forced to use more cardio.
Is this bad? I think that this is not so bad, because... It’s almost impossible to choose the first training program for a beginner! This is the same as hitting a relatively small object at a great distance from a tank the first time. Those. you must first make a test shot, then another, and then, taking into account all the adjustments, make a direct hit.
So here too, it is not possible to immediately understand what will work best on a person, and only after several test shots (training schemes) can you choose an almost ideally suitable training program.
The most important thing is that your trainer is a qualified specialist, i.e. didn't start talking complete nonsense. For example, if you wanted to lose weight, I would not force you to perform 3-4 sets of exercises with 6-8 repetitions.
In short, the most important thing when choosing your first training program is to choose approximately the right direction, and subsequently make some adjustments. Therefore, if you have an approximate training program, it is still better than not having one. And now we’ll figure out how to choose the right further direction.
Workout
This is a real treasure for those who want to exercise with their body weight and don’t mind buying a horizontal bar or finding one close to home. There are programs from calisthenics monsters, tips on mastering various exercises, and translations of infographics from foreign sites.
Programs workout.su
In addition, past issues of the “100-day workout” program are freely available. Each of them includes several large blocks of information that will be useful to any beginner: training, regularity, technique, nutrition, breathing and much more.
“100-day workout”, basic block
All this is free and available without subscriptions or registration directly on the site. In addition, there is an application for iOS. True, it will be more useful to those who are going to participate in the “100-day workout”.
Workout.su →
WorkOut: City Street Fitness
Anton Kuchumov
Price: Free
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Price: Free
How often should you exercise
There are several important factors to consider:
- The size of the muscle group;
- Volume of load performed;
- Your fitness level;
So, as you know, our muscles can be divided into large (Legs, Back, Chest) and small (Deltos, Triceps, Biceps, Calves).
Large muscles take longer to recover than small muscles due to their size (larger muscle = more damage). Those. Large muscles will require one to two days more rest than small ones.
The next thing is the volume of load performed during training. The harder and longer you train your muscles, the more time it takes to recover.
The last thing to consider is your fitness level. There is a slight contradiction here. The longer you train, the better adapted you are to the load, i.e. recover faster. But the longer you train, the larger your muscles are, which means they require more recovery time.
Moreover, your ability to recover will noticeably lag behind the amount of necessary rest. For example, the volume of your arms was 35 cm, but became 50 cm. Your ability to recover has increased by 50%, and you now need 150-200% more time to rest.
This is usually not told to beginners, but when you learn this, you will develop faster because... you will know what you are facing.
Usually each trainer has his own ideas about rest between workouts, but I advise beginners to rest 2 to 3 days between training one muscle group.
This is not a particularly long rest, but it is advisable for two main reasons:
- Beginners' muscles are small, which means they require less recovery time.
- Beginners have not yet learned to contract their muscles with high efficiency, because... So far, the connection between muscles and brain does not work as efficiently as in professional athletes.
Briefly about the main thing
If you carefully study the material, it will not be difficult for you to create a training program yourself. I will list the main points:
- Decide on your goal: losing weight, maintaining muscle tone, building muscle mass.
- Choose one of the strength training options. Change the program at least once every 3-6 months.
- Choose the best cardio workout for yourself.
- Develop a workout schedule taking into account the required strength and cardio load.
- Make a meal plan for every day. Half of the success depends on its quality.
- Get enough sleep. You should spend at least 7-8 hours in bed.
That's all. Now you know how to properly create a training program. And be sure to keep a fitness diary that will allow you to track and analyze the results of your workouts in the long term.
How much rest between sets and how long should the workout last?
I have already discussed both questions in a separate article. Here is an article about rest between approaches, and here is about how much you can train.
The duration of the workout should be no more than 1 hour, unless you are using pharmacological support (AAS). The fact is that training is a strong stress for the body and at a certain moment (usually after 45-60 minutes) the body begins to release cortisol (a hormone that destroys muscles), as well as other catabolic hormones and substances.
If the workout lasts too long, then you will delay the time of their release, as well as slow down the release of anabolic hormones that help us recover after training and grow muscles.
Rest between approaches should not be more than 1-1.5 minutes, because in this mode you can do a larger amount of work than if you rested for 3-5 minutes.
You are the main difference with powerlifting. The best muscle growth comes from high-volume work with medium weights, and strength growth comes from low-volume work with heavy weights.
In short, when creating your training program, you need to focus on approximately 90-120 seconds per approach (30 seconds per approach + 60-90 seconds rest). If your training lasts in this mode, then you will be able to “shove” a total of 30-40 approaches into it, which is the maximum limit. As a rule, a much smaller number of approaches is sufficient.
Free Trainers
On this site you will find eight free programs for people with different levels of training. Classes for home and the gym, cardio training, a plan for muscle growth and strength, training with an expander and a fitness ball, circuit training and a program for those who come to the gym for the first time. All this is free, you just need to register to see the programs in your account.
List of Free Trainers workouts
Before you start training, the site helps you create a suitable schedule and select the load. You note your level of physical fitness, how many days a week you plan to exercise, what splits you prefer, and other parameters. The finished training plan is loaded into your calendar.
The program itself offers you two exercise options. You can choose to do just one, do both, or alternate them from workout to workout.
Exercises from the program
By clicking on any exercise, you will see a sign with the working muscles, rules of execution and a photo or GIF. If this is not enough, you can copy the title and watch videos on YouTube.
Exercise card
The site also has your training diary, the ability to save posts about your activities and add photos.
Adding an entry
And for those who like to develop in the company of like-minded people, there is the opportunity to create their own group. Can be useful for motivation.
Free Trainers →
Training split
Split is “splitting the body into parts”, i.e. We train each muscle group on a separate day.
You can train your entire body at once; this training regimen is most preferable for beginners, because... split allows you to load any muscle group more concentratedly, which is not at all necessary for beginners.
The more you break down your body, the more work you can give to each specific muscle, but there is a downside. The more you break down your body, the fewer full days of rest you have, during which our muscles grow.
For sufficiently trained athletes, this is not so important, because... their muscles may take longer to recover (7-12 days), and for beginners who need to train more often, this can be harmful.
Therefore, here is the main rule for creating a split: The less you train, the less you split your body by day.
In practice, this looks quite simple. If you are a completely green beginner, then you don’t have to split your body into different days at all, i.e. train the whole body at once (1 day training + 1 day rest).
If your fitness level is a little higher, then you can try splitting the body into 2 days (2 days of training + 1 day of rest), etc.
In general, the larger your muscles and the higher your fitness, the more days you can break down your body.
What muscles can be trained in one workout?
There is one interesting point here: absolutely any! True, it is necessary to take into account recovery, as well as the fact that while some muscle groups are working, others are included in the work. This can affect not only recovery, but also the result as a whole.
In addition to all this, some muscle groups require heavier and longer workloads than others. Don’t worry, it’s not all that complicated, I’ll explain now.
You can divide your muscle groups into pulling (Back, biceps, hamstrings) and pushing (Quadriceps, chest, triceps, deltoids, calves). Although it is better to train your legs separately.
If, for example, you train your triceps first and then your chest, then this is a bad idea because... These are both pushing muscle groups, and the triceps are activated when the chest is working, i.e. will already be tired, and also the triceps is a small muscle group that will be tired and you will not be able to properly train your chest.
Another rule: when you train any muscle group, always start with large muscle groups!
Those. first the back, then the biceps, first the chest, then the triceps, etc. It is very important! First we train large muscle groups, and then small ones.
Muscle groups in descending order:
- Legs;
- Back;
- Breast;
- Deltas;
- Triceps;
- Biceps;
What if we train two muscle groups in one workout? Let's say chest and back? The same rule applies in this case. The back is larger than the chest, which means we train the back first.
In general, combining large muscle groups in one workout is not advisable!
It is better to connect one large group with small ones. For example: Chest + arms, Back + deltoids, and legs separately, because largest muscle group in the body.
Exception: you can train your back + chest in one workout, because these are antagonist muscles (perform opposite functions).
Antagonist muscles
In our body, many muscles perform opposite movements. The pectoral muscles push the arms forward, and the back pulls them back, the biceps flexes the arm at the elbow joint, and the triceps extends it, the hamstring biceps bends the leg at the knee, and the quadriceps extends it, etc.
Such muscles are called antagonists. The trick is that when you, for example, perform chest exercises, your back is also passively involved in the work, because blood is poured into these parts of our body.
All this contributes to better recovery of the opposite muscle group. Thus, by training antagonist muscles in one workout, you increase the efficiency of their work, and also due to the fact that blood clogs both muscles, the pumping effect is very pronounced and your muscles feel as if they are about to burst.
How to train your legs?
I wrote an article about the anatomy of the legs, as well as about their training. I described everything there in great detail.
To put it simply, the legs are the largest muscle group in our body, so it is better to set aside a separate day for this group. Many famous athletes act this way.
Types of split training
The best types of split training are:
- “Pushing groups - pulling groups” (Back + biceps, Chest + triceps, Legs).
- “Upper body – lower body” for beginners (torso, legs).
- “Antagonist muscles” (Chest + Back, Biceps + Triceps, Deltas, Legs).
- “Professional” (Legs, Back, Chest, Deltas, Arms).
You need to rest between training days, as I said above. The general rule is that if you are not growing, then you are training too little or too often. Therefore, it makes sense to “play around” with the load in one direction or another.
People often mistakenly overload their training split with frequent workouts and don't recover enough. You must understand that you need to learn to listen to your body and if you feel that you are overtrained, then it is better to add another one or two days of rest.
Where to begin
To create a training program, get a training diary. This could be a classic notebook or an electronic application on your phone.
In addition, you will need to thoroughly reconsider your diet. Now you will have to eat completely differently. There is simply no other option. Go to the gym and eat
