Many people begin training without ever seeing steady progress..
A workout program should be tailored uniquely to an individual’s specific goals or purpose. Many factors should taken into consideration prior to beginning a workout regimen. We must consider factors such as age, weight loss, building lean muscle mass or prepping for a specific event or competition.
Way too often we see people 40 and over training like a younger person, causing injuries and delaying both progress or good results. Accepting that you are no longer Superman is a start. You can gain muscle mass at any age, as long as you complete workouts with proper form, not overloading weights or jumping into high impact exercises without being accustomed to such.
Than we have people under forty not putting in the time to learn proper form of completing exercises, rest periods, and the importance of time under tension when lifting weights. Not to mention the time spent staring at a phone and not focusing on the task at hand. It is very obvious when you see the lack of positive results.
If your goals are to gain lean muscle mass, weight training is a must. If all you want is to get skinny. Calorie depletion and lots of cardio will do. I recommend the latter, as gaining lean muscle will burn more fat while tightening the skin.
Workout programs involving weight training can be high reps, low reps or a combination of both will do in most cases. Than again, your specific goals should dictate which way to move forward.
Examples below are the most common rep ranges used:
Sets of 4 per exercise, 10 to 12 repetitions. Moderate weights.
Sets of 5 per exercise, 3 to 5 repetitions. Heavy weights
Sets of 3 per exercise, 12 to 15 repetitions, Light weight.
Some workout programs will have a combination of all rep ranges, such as power building.
Another important factor would be time under tension and rest periods. The slower the repetitions, the more time under tension the muscles will be. Rest periods are another factor to take into consideration. If you are staring at your cellphone for five or ten minutes, it defeats the purpose of training. Resting periods average from sixty seconds to three minutes on heavy lifts. You must listen to your body when it comes to rest periods. Enough rest to recover for the next set is crucial.
Workout programs should start with compound movements, followed by isolation of muscle movements. Examples of compounds are, Bench press, Squats, Shoulder presses, barbell curls and barbell rows.
Which workout programs should we do? There is no one workout for everyone. There are cookie cutter programs which can be a start, but adjustments will need to made for progress to be achieved. In the end, a workout should be made to the individuals needs and goals.
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