I get multiple emails and messages per day asking:
“Steve, what should I do for a workout?”
Well, partner, today is your lucky day.
I’m gonna help build you a custom workout program, step-by-step!
After all, a workout should be developed around a person’s training age, goals, injury history, free time, and available equipment, not to mention things you ENJOY doing!
Considering all those factors, it’s easy to overcomplicate this process. There are a seemingly infinite number of exercises, sets, reps, and programs to choose from. Don’t worry – together, we’ll cut through the noise and get to the good stuff.
Now, if you’re somebody that wants to skip all of that, and JUST be told what exactly to do:
We build customized workouts for our Online Coaching Clients and would love to have you. We get to know your story: your goals, challenges, and lifestyle. Then we develop a workout plan specific to your schedule and needs.
Now, if you’re more of a “figure this stuff out on my own” kind of person – we’re going to dig into how to build your workout plan today!
We’ve also created a free resource you can take with you, Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know, which covers all of this stuff in a single guide. You can download it here:
OKAY! Are you ready to start building your routine?
Great! Let’s do this:
Step #1: Determine your starting point
Step #2: “What exercises should I do to lose weight (or build muscle)?”
Step #3: “How many sets and reps should I do per exercise?”
Step #4: “How long should I wait between sets?”
Step #5: “How much weight should I lift?”
Step #6: “How long should I exercise for?“
Step #7: How to create supersets and circuit training workouts.
Step #8: “How many days per week should I train?”
Step #9: How to record your workouts and progress.
“Steve, just BUILD a workout for me!
Step #1: Determine Your Starting Point
As Coach Staci lays out in the video above, we need to answer a few key questions when designing a workout:
QUESTION 1: What are your goals?
Are you trying to lose weight? Awesome.
Are you trying to bulk up or build muscle? Great.
Are you preparing for your first 5k? Swell.
Whatever your goals are, it’s good to write them down and be aware of what you’re trying to accomplish.
These goals will shape HOW you build your workout.
An effective way to create goals is by using the SMART method, which stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely.
Specific – Specifically state what is to be accomplished. For example, “I want to gain 5 pounds of muscle.” (In this article we’ll cover how to build a workout to help you lose weight, build muscle, and get stronger. If you have specific goals like getting your first pull-up, getting your first push-up, or running your first 5k, we have articles covering each of these in detail.)
Measurable – Find a way to measure your progress. For example, you will need body composition equipment to assess your fat and muscle mass.
Attainable – Your goals should be realistically attainable. For example, a realistic rate of muscle gain is up to 0.5 pounds per week. To gain 5 pounds of muscle, 10 weeks would be an attainable starting point.
Relevant – Your goals must relate to your interests, needs, likes/dislikes, and abilities. Another thing to remember is that your goals need to be generated by you and you alone! For example, if you don’t care about gaining 5 pounds of muscle, or aren’t quite sure how this will benefit your life, then this isn’t a great goal for you!
Timely – Your goals must have a timeline for completion. If your goal is to gain 5 pounds of muscle then a reasonable end-point should be at minimum 10 weeks.
If you are struggling with your goals, revisit the SMART framework and see if you can tweak your goals to work better for you.
QUESTION 2: How much time can you devote to exercise?
If you can do an hour a day, that’s fantastic.
But maybe you have a wife or husband, three kids, a dog, two jobs, and no robot butler.
then maybe you only have thirty minutes, twice a week.
That’s fine too!
In the past 15 years of working with folks from all walks of life, we’ve realized there’s a warped sense of HOW much working out is needed to achieve your goals. For many of our 1-on-1 coaching clients, working out 2 to 4 times per week for 30 to 45 minutes is PLENTY to see some serious progress. (And as Staci mentioned in the video above, even 1 workout per week can work, especially for beginners!)
Another key thing to remember: your workout doesn’t have to happen all at once! According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), if you accumulate three 10-minute bouts of exercise throughout the day to total 30 minutes of exercise, then that is as effective as someone who does one 30-minute bout of exercise.
Now, no matter how much time you have, developing the most efficient workout is crucial.
Why spend two hours in a gym when you can get just as much accomplished in 30 minutes, right?
Here’s the good news: weight training is the fat-burning prize fight victor, and efficiency rules all.
So whether you are building muscle or looking to lose weight, a strength training workout will get you the results you’re after (when combined with the right eating strategy!)
While we’re talking about time, let me quickly mention something important:
Proper expectations!
As we cover “How Fast Can I Get the Body I Want,” make sure you are thinking about your journey with a realistic timeline:
As we mentioned in that guide, here are some realistic timeframes for weight loss or muscle gain:
For weight loss, a realistic rate is 0.5-1% of body weight per week. For example, if you weigh 200 pounds with a weight loss goal of 0.5% per week, your goal would be a 500-calorie-per-day deficit.
For muscle gain, a realistic rate is 0.25-0.5% of body weight per week. For example, if you weigh 200 pounds with a muscle gain goal of 0.25% per week, your goal would be a 250-calorie-per-day surplus.
QUESTION 3: WHERE do you want to work out?
At a gym? Here’s a Beginner’s Gym Guide with 6 levels of workouts.
At home? Have you tried our Beginner Bodyweight Workout?
In a park? Try our park workout. Or maybe some parkour.
Where you work out will largely determine if you are going to train with your body’s weight, or if you can start doing gym strength training.
If you’re paying attention here, you may notice I’m setting you up to work out no matter what your current situation is.
Why?
Because according to ACSM, the #1 reason people don’t exercise is:[4] They don’t have time for it.
But, with the information I’m hitting you with, technically you should have no excuse for not exercising unless (you’re injured or sick).
After all, your workout:
Can be accumulated with just 10-minute bouts of exercise throughout the day.
Doesn’t need to be done with a gym membership.
Can be done with exercises in the comfort of your own home or while outside (weather permitting).
Cool.
RECAP OF QUESTIONS – At this point, we have:
Determined your “get in shape” goals.
Decide how much time you have to train.
Picked WHERE you want to work out.
We can now start to build your workout routine, your daily workout plan, and your monthly workout schedule!
Let’s do it.
Step #2: What Exercises Should I Do To Lose Weight (Or Build Muscle?)
I like to follow the motto of “Keep it simple, stupid.”
(Note: I am not calling you stupid. You’re reading Nerd Fitness, which means you’re intelligent, good-looking, really funny, and most of all, modest.)
The best workout is the one that you stick with, and people make things FAR too complicated and try to target a bazillion different individual muscles with six types of exercises for each body part.
It’s exhausting, unnecessary, inefficient, and intimidating.
So keep it simple!
We will pick 4 exercises and get strong with those movements.
This is the ENTIRE philosophy behind our Strength 101 series.
Unless you’ve been strength training for years and know what you’re doing, we recommend a full-body routine that you can do 2-3 times a week.
You want a workout routine that has at least one exercise for your:
Quads (front of your legs).
Butt and hamstrings (back of your legs).
Chest, shoulders, and triceps: (“push” muscles).
Back, biceps, and grip ( “pull” muscles).
I have a trick for you: by targeting compound movements that recruit multiple muscles at the same time, you can build a full-body routine that uses only a handful of exercises.
How’s THAT for efficiency!?!
A compound exercise would be the yin to the yang of the isolation exercise.
Think of a push-up (compound):
Compared to bicep curls through a machine (isolation):
Compound exercises have been found to result in improvements in aerobic endurance, muscular fitness, and flexibility since you’re recruiting all sorts of muscle groups at once.[5]
Isolation exercises, on the other hand, focus on single-joint movements targeting one specific muscle group, like the biceps curl above.
Both compound and isolation exercises have a time and place in your training program.
As you get more advanced, isolation exercises are great for targeting specific muscles to promote further strength or development. They can also help beginners who struggle to “feel” their muscles working in specific movements learn more body awareness and control.
However, for people looking to lose weight, add some muscle, and get stronger – we recommend you start with predominantly compound exercises because of the huge return on investment for your time invested. These movements are the staple of the most effective training programs out there!
Want to learn more? Check out The 12 Best Compound Exercises For Beginners (How To Train Efficiently).
Here is a quick breakdown of which compound exercises will work for each of those muscle groups:
Quads – squats, lunges, one-legged squats, box jumps.
Butt and Hamstrings – deadlifts, hip raises, straight leg deadlifts, good mornings, step-ups.
Push (chest, shoulders, and triceps) – overhead press, bench press, incline dumbbell press, push-ups, dips.
Pull (back, biceps, and forearms) – chin-ups, pull-ups, bodyweight rows, bent-over rows.
Not sure how to do any of these movements? Want more examples?
Then check out:
The 42 Best Bodyweight Exercises You Can Do Anywhere!
Pick one exercise from each category above for your workout, and you’ll work almost every single muscle in your body.
Get stronger with each movement each week, and you have yourself a recipe for a great physique.
Here is an example of a great, effective simple gym workout:
Barbell squats: 3 sets of 10 reps.
Dumbbell Straight-Leg Deadlifts: 3 sets of 8 reps.
Push-ups (or dips): 3 sets of 15 reps.
Pull-ups (or Inverted Rows): 3 sets of 8 reps.
You don’t need to make things more complicated than this!
(Not that we humans tend to overcomplicate things to the point of paralysis and inaction)
Ahem.
If you’re not sure how to do any of the movements above, click on their links for thorough write-ups and video demonstrations.
Pick one exercise from EACH category above, specifically ones that scare you the least, and that will be your workout every other day for the next week.
The great news: the above workout routine will work whether you’re looking to bulk up and build muscle OR if you’re trying to lose weight.
You simply adjust your calories consumed – which is 80% of the equation – and that’s how you’ll start to change your physique.
Oh, and you’ll also want to focus on getting in enough protein, like in our Nerd Fitness Balanced Plate:
But you can check out our Guide to Healthy Eating for more info on that.
STEVE’S BIG PIECE OF ADVICE: GET STRONG
Get good at these basic movements and focus on getting stronger each week (I’ll cover how below).
If you get really strong at squats, deadlifts, pull-ups, and push-ups, you will build an incredible physique to be proud of.
Plus, building strength with these exercises will also help in other areas such as improving your performance in sports and decreasing your risk of chronic diseases (e.g., CVD) and premature mortality (an early death).
Picks Up Mic
Then, once you get confident in those movements, feel free to add some variety.
Why?
If you do the same exact routine, three days a week, for months and months, you might get bored, and start slacking.
Or you might hit a workout plateau.
So if you find yourself hitting a wall, feel free to stick with the above ‘formula,’ but change the ingredients:
If you do bench presses on Monday, go with overhead presses on Wednesday and dips on Friday.
Are squats on Monday? Try lunges on Wednesday and front squats on Friday.
Do deadlifts every Wednesday, but change up the sets and reps you pick!
If you hit a plateau or find yourself getting bored, pick a different exercise or adjust your sets and reps so you’ll stay challenged, and you’ll actually DO the workout!
Then, focus on getting stronger![8] (You are writing down your workouts, right?).
“But Steve, what about core exercises like sit-ups or planks? I don’t see those listed here.”
I’m so glad you asked! While it’s cool to add more specific core work to your program if you want to, squats, pull-ups, dips, and deadlifts all do a great job of challenging your core to stay stable all on their own. If you do add in ab work, we recommend doing so at the end of your program so that you aren’t tiring out those muscles before doing your other big, compound lifts. Also, abs are revealed in the kitchen.
I know it’s really easy to overcomplicate this process as there’s an infinite number of exercises, sets, reps, and programs to choose from.
And yes, we have a solution for people that JUST want to be told what exactly to do: our uber-popular 1-on-1 coaching program pairs you with your own Nerd Fitness Coach who will get to know you, your goals, and your lifestyle, and develop a workout plan that’s specific to not only your body but also to your schedule and life:
Step #3: How Many Sets And Reps Should I Do?
SIMPLE ANSWER: Not including a warm-up set or two, I recommend:
2 to 5 sets per exercise.
5 to 15 reps per set when starting.
As we cover in our “How Many Sets and Reps?” guide, a “set” is a series of repetitions that you complete without stopping.
For example, if you drop down and do 10 push-ups right now, you just did 1 SET of 10 REPETITIONS (or REPS) of push-ups.
Got it? Cool.
Some general rules on repetitions you can follow as you’re starting to build your workout plan:
If you’re looking to burn fat while building muscle, keep your number of repetitions per set in the 8-15 range per set.
If you can do more than 15 reps without much of a challenge, consider increasing the weight or the difficulty of the movement. This is true for things like lunges, bodyweight squats, push-ups, pull-ups, etc.
If you want to focus more on building strength, keep your repetitions in the 5-10 range per set. As you get comfortable with the movements, you can move into lower rep ranges – but we find for beginners that starting with slightly higher reps gives you more time to practice doing the movement correctly.
There are some other generally accepted ‘rules’ about how to determine how many reps you should target per set, based on your goals:
Reps in the 1-5 range build super dense muscle and strength (called myofibrillar hypertrophy).
Reps in the 6-12 range build a somewhat equal amount of muscular strength and muscular size (this is called sarcoplasmic hypertrophy).
Reps in the 12+ range build muscular endurance.
However, don’t think of these as hard and fast rules. For example, a 2015 study [10] called into question the best rep strategy for building muscle or size:
It appears that high-intensity resistance (sets of 3-5 reps) training stimulates greater improvements in some measures of strength and hypertrophy in resistance-trained men during a short-term training period [compared to sets of 8-10 reps]
Other recent studies have found that people built a similar amount of muscle with anywhere from 5 to 30 repetitions, as long as they worked close to failure.
What this means: Do not freak yourself out by worrying if you should do 3 sets or 4 sets of 8 reps or 10 reps.
Our advice would be to START with lighter weights and more reps as you learn the movement, and then decide if you want to stay at higher reps and lower weight or vice versa.
You do you, because either way will get you results!
The only thing you need to worry about: is getting stronger the next time you do that movement.
Either pick up a heavier weight or do 1 more repetition than last time.
“JUST GIVE ME THE ANSWER!”
Keep your TOTAL (all exercises combined) workout number of sets for all exercises in the 10-20 set range, with 5-15 reps per set:
4 exercises total, each with 2 to 5 “work sets” is a good start.
Remember, the most important part is to get started – you’ll learn how your body responds and you can adapt as you go.
What you DON’T need to do: multiple exercises for each body part with 10 sets.
This will result in significant fatigue during your workout increasing your risk of sustaining an injury. It can also result in overtraining, in which you will experience a decrease in performance and plateauing (will not see muscular improvements).
So calm down you eager beaver.
A BIG CAVEAT: How you eat will determine if you get bigger or stronger. Nutrition is 80-90% of the equation. So pick a range that feels good, and then focus on nutrition.
And if you don’t want to figure any of this out and just want to be told exactly how what exercises, sets, and reps to do, our online coaches can take care of that for you.
