Creating a weight lifting routine

Growing up, I was never the most athletic, but I was always active in some way. It's easy as a kid. Ride your bike to the park with your friends. Try some scooter tricks in the cul-de-sac. Run as fast as you can at recess. Join the swim team. etc...

It's much harder as an adult.

Trying to balance appointments, relationships, finding time, staying motivated, and then on top of all that: what do I even do? What routine do I follow? Where do I begin?

I decided I wanted to have a weight lifting routine that's ready to go when I am.

I've worked out with people where I just follow their lead, specifically when it comes to weight training. I love lifting, but trying to keep the muscles and the workouts straight, and knowing which ones to do to alternate is a wee bit overwhelming.

SO, I did some research. I watched some videos, looked up some body building sites on recommended plans, and I started to map out a weight lifting routine.

(Note: I'm not an expert, I'm someone figuring this stuff out and making a routine that I like, and that works for me)

But why make one yourself? Aren't there a million online already?

Yes. There are a bunch online.

I've tried to work off of people's pre-existing plans, but I've found that if I don't like the exercises, I won't continue. Or I feel guilty not utilizing the equipment I have. Also, if I'm involved in making it, I understand it better. I wanted to be aware of what I'm doing, and make sure it works for me, in my space, with my equipment.

Step one: Assess what I already have.

I've accumulated quite a bit over the years, and I wanted to use them. I have a lot of free weights, resistance bands, a balance ball, and a bosu ball, a yoga mat, some cardio equipment, and an adjustable bench.

Step two: Dividing the days

I wanted a routine that separates each day based on muscle group. This was recommended in several of the videos I watched, and routines I had found. It's also very similar to what I'd learned when working out with others. I also went this route, opposed to an overall circuit each day, in part to get concentrated progress on each group, but also to help me differentiate days in this strange self-isolation/work-from-home world we currently find ourselves in.

Here's how I separated mine:

Monday: Legs day 1

Tuesday: Chest/Tri

Wednesday: Back/Bi

Thursday: Legs 2 (legs are such a large muscle group, and that's where I have a lot of my weight go to/power come from, so I wanted two full days a week on legs)

Friday: Shoulders/Abs

Saturday: Plyometrics

Sunday: Rest day (necessary to see results, and realistic to motivate)

Step three: Planning & researching the exercises

I decided each day would be comprised of 8 different workouts that I'd run through.

Each exercise for the days needed to fall within the day's concentration. Here's where I needed to do more research... I'm a visual learner, so I looked up posters that had pictures on what each exercise looks like, and has a small indicator of which muscles are being focused on. I also got these handy little cards

Step four: Deciding on the exercises

Each exercise needed to work with the equipment I had, and be something I'm comfortable doing on a regular basis. After I put the posters up, I pulled out little sticky tabs and started marking which ones I was familiar and comfortable with, and which ones I felt confident in doing.

Then I made notes on a piece of paper to map them out, based on the "8 different workouts a day" outline I had set for myself.

Step five: Putting it all together

I know myself. If this is just written down, or sticky notes on a bunch of posters, I'm not going to put the effort in each day to decipher my plan. I'll get bored with it. I need this routine to be lazy-proof. Each day needed to be on a piece of paper, with the photos in order that I need to follow them.

I put them together on the computer, using screenshots of the exercises, and labeling them 1-8. Seeing them visually broken up like this also helped me rearrange them based on what goes into each one. (I'm not doing a floor workout, then a jumping one, then back to the floor, I put floor ones together, etc.)

The pictures also help me remember what I'm doing. Kudos to those of you that can remember the names of each exercise, but that's not me.

Once I saw them visually together, I was able to weed out ones that were duplicates, or if I liked one style better than another that worked the same muscles.

And then I created a warm up that would also double as a cool-down, and gave that its own sheet of paper as well.

Here's the warm-up for example: 1. 5-10 minutes of cardio

2. Jumping Jacks

3. Plank

4. Crunch

5. Mountain Climber

6. Push-up

7. Cross-body crunch

8. Stretch (I have a few specific ones that I like to do, knowing my body and what tends to tense up/get injured)

Step six: Pick your sets

For this routine, I set it up as follows:

Warm-up: 25 reps of each exercise

Workout: Do 15 reps of each exercise (1-8) and repeat 3 times (3 sets)

Cool Down: Basically 2-8 of the warm-up

I felt really good about this routine once I put them all together, and I tested one just to see if it worked. It was a good workout for me. Hard, but good.

Step seven: Creating a log

From past experience, I know I don't remember my weight for each exercise. (Did I lift 12 lbs for this one or 20 lbs?) And I also know, when I have something written down for it, it's easy to refer back to, or jot down "move up in weight next time" Again, I know myself and where I come up short, and this routine needed to be something I'd actually use. AND if you don't keep track of progress, it's much harder to improve. So I created a little log for keeping track of each day.

Here it is:

Step eight: Doing it

This is where I'm at with this routine. I've created the plan, with my own shortcomings in mind. I've made it as simple as I can for myself.

I printed the routine days and put them on clipboards in my gym space, and now it's time to follow through, and do it.

Working out is often an escape and stress reliever for me, and making it easy for myself was a priority. I know I have the right equipment, and a good foundational knowledge, but have often become overwhelmed when it comes time to using it.

I will be using this routine in addition to other workouts, cardio, etc. This is so I can have an easy fall-back of "I need to workout, but I don't know what, and I don't feel like cardio right now"

Putting this together helped me understand the format for workout programs, and made me acknowledge what works for me. It took a lot of time, customization, and organizing, but I'm glad I did it.

Maybe I'll do a follow up post on this in a few months, or for progress, but for now, I'm going to focus on doing it.