Beginners Guide to Creating a Workout Plan

If you’re new to training and want some guidance for creating a workout plan you’ve come to the right place! Below are 4 starting points to devising the perfect plan for reaching your fitness goal!

1. Determine your goal.
Before you can create any kind of workout plan you need to have a goal in mind to cater it to. This goal needs to be personal to you and your fitness aspirations. Is it that you're looking to lose/ gain weight? Do you want to build muscle? Or maybe you just simply want to stay active. Whatever your goal is, it will form the foundations for your workout plan.

2. Be mindful of what equipment is available at your gym.
When you are planning your exercises for each session you should always be aware of what is available in your gym and plan accordingly. Fortunately, most of the time you will be able to adapt your session with great alternatives when machines aren’t available or equipment is in use, but by planning you can note down alternatives for exercises you know are popular so that you don’t get thrown off guard.

3. Devise a rep, set, rest plan of action. 
Depending on your goal, your rep, set and rest ranges will vary! A good starting point for beginners is to note that generally if you aim to work on your strength you should be working towards a 3-6 rep range for 2-3 sets with a 2-5 minute rest in-between. Muscles mass goals are typically between 8-12 reps for 3-6 sets with 30-90 seconds rest in-between. Where endurance-based goals are 15+ rep ranges, for 3-4 sets with up to 30 seconds rest.

4. Be realistic with your schedule.
Before you get ahead of yourself and start scheduling your sessions it’s important to determine how many days you can realistically get to the gym on average. All too often life can get in the way and unexpected changes mean your plan needs to be flexible. As well as that, you don’t want to be burning the candle at both ends or you will end up not being able to put 100% effort into your sessions.