WHY ARE WORKOUT PLANS SO USEFUL FOR BEGINNERS AT THE GYM?

Having a workout plan is beneficial for a few reasons. For beginners, knowing what you need to do each workout can make your gym session go a little smoother as you can simply turn up, follow your plan, and head home, rather than making it up as you go along. Plus you can research your exercises beforehand so you feel confident in how to perform them. This can help to ease any gymtimidation you may be experiencing and make your gym sessions more comfortable.

Having a workout plan is also one of the best ways to achieve your fitness goals, as it allows for consistency and progressive overload, which are key to improving your strength and endurance and building muscle.

A workout plan can also help beginners to avoid overtraining and undertraining, allow for progress to be tracked, and mean you make the most of your time at the gym. You can download our free workout plan templates here if you need help shaping your schedules. 

WHAT SHOULD BEGINNERS CONSIDER WHEN CREATING A GYM WORKOUT PLAN? 

Creating a workout plan for the gym can be a useful way for beginners to set specific fitness goals and stay motivated as you progress. Here are some steps that you can follow to create a workout plan:

1. Determine your fitness goals: What do you want to achieve through your workouts? Do you want to build muscle, lose weight, or improve your cardiovascular endurance? Having specific goals in mind will help you to create a workout plan that is perfectly tailored to your needs.
2. Choose exercises: Select exercises that will help you to work towards your fitness goals. Consider choosing a mix of exercises that target different muscle groups, including exercises for the upper body, lower body, and core, and make sure to include a mix of compound and isolation exercises.
3. Plan your workouts: Determine how many days per week you want to work out, and schedule your workouts accordingly. Consider breaking up your workouts into muscle groups or focusing on different goals in each gym session, for example strength in one, cardio in another.
4. Set a schedule: Choose specific times of the day or week to complete your workouts. Make sure to set aside enough time to complete your workouts, and try to be consistent with your schedule.
5. Track your progress: Keep a record of your workouts, using either a specific app, making notes on your phon,e or even writing on a good old fashioned piece of paper. Make sure to include the exercises you completed, the number of sets and reps, and the weights you used. This will help you to see your progress over time and adjust your workouts as needed.

Remember to start slowly and gradually increase the intensity of your workouts as you become more comfortable and confident in the gym. Consult with a personal trainer or fitness professional if you have any questions or concerns about creating a workout plan. 

While these are the basics of how to create a workout plan, it can help to use existing gym plans as a starting point. We spoke to Doni Thomson, Personal Trainer at Pure Gym Aberdeen for some workout plan ideas that you can get started with today. 

How often should you workout each week? 

For beginners, I usually recommend starting out with three to four days at the gym per week max. While it might be tempting to go hard every single day, it is important to include rest days as these are when your body recovers and progress is made. This is especially true if you are new to exercise – if you go too hard too fast, you are much less likely to stick with a routine.

Always warm up

It is vital to include 5 - 10 minutes of easy cardio or dynamic stretching for a warmup, as well as either 5 minutes of easy cardio to cool down or some mobility/stretching. This will help to prevent and even relieve post workout muscle soreness, as well as reduce the risk of strain or injury. 

What to include in your exercise plan

A good, well rounded workout plan should include strength training, mobility work, and cardio. Strength training builds muscle, mobility and flexibility training improves how the body moves and feels and can assist strength training, while cardio is important for health and circulatory health.

The mix of these will likely change depending on your goals. If you want to lose weight, you may have more cardio sessions than someone who is sole goal is to build muscle.

There is nothing to say that strength, cardio, and mobility ca not all be in the same sessions, but it can be helpful to split your workouts to focus on different workout types depending on how often you plan on working out.