- routines with anaerobic exercises (weights)My routines - routines that you enter in GymGoal. more
Bundled routines may be used for workouts, but they cannot be modified. They train all body. If you have a priority muscle you wish to train, please consider our recommendations
- routines with anaerobic exercises (weights)
- routines with aerobic exercises (cardio)
- routines with stretching exercises
- routines with plyometric exercises (explosive power)
1 Day, 2 Days... - routines with the selected number of split days. more
Equipment - routines that employ mostly the selected type of equipment. more
Difficulty - exercises in these routines do not exceed the selected level of difficulty. more
What's next? After selecting a routine you can either add it to your training schedule, or start logging your workout right away. more
Tap the + button at the top to enter your own routine.
You can also duplicate a bundled routine. Select a routine and tap the Copy button. The resulting routine can be modified.
If you have a priority muscle you wish to train, for example biceps:
When you become more advanced in your weight training (after the first 3-6 months of regular training), you can use split routines to intensify your workouts, and to give your muscles more time for recovery and growth.
Intensive training requires 2-4 exercises per muscle group. It takes too much time to do all exercises in one session. Shorter workouts (45-70 minutes) are more efficient than longer ones. The solution: split your full-body routine into several days.
If you are a beginner, you are resuming your workouts after some time off, or you have little time to exercise, select 1 Day (no split).
Free weights are dumbbells and barbells. Most serious fitness enthusiasts prefer to use free weight exercises to gain functional strength.
Cable machines have the same advantages as free weights. Unlike lever weight machines, they do not constrain users to specific, fixed movements, and therefore require more effort from the individual's stabilizer muscles.
As weight machines can go some way toward preventing poor form, they are somewhat safer than free weights for novice trainees. Moreover, since users need not concentrate so much on maintaining good form, they can focus more on the effort they are putting into the exercise. However, most athletes, bodybuilders and serious fitness enthusiasts prefer to use compound free weight exercises to gain functional strength.
Technical difficulty - how difficult it is to learn the proper form of the exercise.
Proper exercise form is vital to your success.
When you use correct exercise form, you are using correct muscles. When your form is not correct, you are using certain muscles more than they are meant to be used and other muscles less than they should be used.
If you're not performing the exercise correctly, you risk the chance of hurting yourself either immediately or in the long term. Another disadvantage is that you are not realizing the full benefits from your workouts. You are merely going through the motions. You end up using less weight, and you never progress because you just don't use the intended muscles the way they should be used.
Open a routine so that you see the list of exercises. Now you can either add this routine to your training schedule, or start logging your workout right away.
Tap the Calendar button to add the routine to your training schedule. The schedule will be displayed on the home page. You will need to tap on the schedule day to start logging this routine.
Alternatively tap the "..." button in the routine header to start logging your workout right away.
Reps and weights
We can recommend the number of reps, but only you can find out what weight to use. Telling you what weight to use is like us telling you how tall you should be.
First of all, decide if your priority is muscle size or strength. If you work out regularly for less than 6 months, choose "size" - your muscles are not ready for extremely heavy "strength" workouts. If your goal is "muscle toning", any physical activity will do. If you are working on losing weight, select "size". Ladies, do not be afraid of the word "size" - your muscles will not get bigger (due to lack of male hormones).
Now find your weights.
Lifting "to failure".
If you work out regularly 6 months or more, you should do at least the last two sets "to failure". This means: keep doing your reps until you cannot do the next rep no matter what. If you manage to do more than your target number of reps - increase the weight next time when you do this workout.
Warm up to improve performance and prevent injury! Warm up for 5-15 minutes prior to the actual workout. You should begin to sweat. Let only a few minutes elapse from completion of the warm up until the actual workout. Start every weight-lifting exercise with one or two warm-up sets (you do not have to schedule or record them). Use a weight that is one-third to two-thirds of the goal weight you will be lifting that day.
To lose fat, you need some sort of a calorie reduced healthy diet and a lot of aerobic exercise.
There are 2 types of exercise - aerobic and anaerobic. Anaerobic exercise is a very intensive exercise, that you can do only for a short time. This is the type of exercise that is used in weight training. Another example - sprinting.
To burn your fat, you need aerobic exercise - prolonged, low or moderate intensity work, like 30 minutes of jogging. You need oxygen to burn your fat.
What you need is 30-60 (or more) minutes of aerobic activity, like jogging, or steps, or aerobic classes, or swimming. The more often you do this, the faster you lose your weight. You can also do weights, but preferably on separate days. They will not burn your fat, but they will help to keep your metabolism rate up.
The original Plyometrics is a method of developing explosive power. It is defined as the shock method that focuses on maximum force in short intervals of time. The second version of plyometrics relates to doing any form of jump regardless of execution time. Learn more in Tools > How to work out > Explosive power.