How To Make A Workout Routine

Committed to a gym membership? If you're new to working out it can feel slightly intimidating and daunting, however putting a workout routine together is the best way to make sure you're A) getting your money's worth and B) sticking to a clear, consistent set of exercises which will allow you to see progress over the coming months. Seeing your own progression will also help keep you motivated and spur you on to achieve your fitness goals. We've created a top level guide on how you can create your own workout routine.

The first thing you need to ask yourself is what are your fitness goals? Are you training for something in particular? Maybe you've signed up for a 5K, a Hyrox or even a sponsored bike ride? If you have a specific aim, that is really going to tailor your workout plan. Then you also need to think about where can you fit the gym into your daily life. Will you have set days/times you're going to go? Are you going to add classes or personal training to your workout plans? These are some of the things you'll have to consider when putting together your routine.

Let's start with planning out your goals. Are you looking for weightloss? Or are you looking to increase your strength, build your muscle mass or increase your cardio stamina?

If you're just starting out, it may well be the case that you're looking to just ease in and become comfortable with the gym and it's layout. With this in mind, you'll be best off incorporating a mix of cardio and weight lifting exercises into your routine. Lots of people like to start their workout sessions by running before moving on to weight training, but it's up to you in which order you want to do it. We'd suggest switching the order around for your next two gym sessions and seeing which one leaves you with the most amount of energy in order to actually complete the full workout.

The next step in creating your workout schedule is deciding what days you're able to fit in a work out and how much time you can allow.

We all live busy lives so, don't worry if you can't allocate as much time as you think you would like. Typically gyms are at their busiest on Mondays & Tuesdays after people finish work, so if you're new and fancy going at a quieter time it's worth waiting until around 7:30pm onwards or going in the morning before work. Otherwise, keep in mind that if you're heading to the gym during peak hours, you may not always have access to the equipment you need straight away.

You should also consider which days you will use as your rest days to recover. It's good practice to do one day on, one day off. You don't want to go in too hard or too heavy for your first few weeks or months and end up injuring yourself.

This will differ from person to person as everybody has different goals they want to achieve. We recommend you have some variety in your routine so that you're not working one muscle group too hard and you don't end up boring yourself and crashing out. Keep these exercises and routines realistic, whether it's a simple exercise or something more complicated, remember -- consistency is the most important thing.

We'd recommend trying to workout around 3 days a week, though once again this does depend on your fitness goals and lifestyle. For example, if you're looking to tone up or increase your strength, here's a good weekly model to start off with:

By focusing on two muscle groups each gym day, you'll be able to consistently train these areas each week. To start off with, we'd recommend picking two/three different exercises for each muscle group.

Using this model, you'll be able to squeeze in other workouts you don't necessarily have to do at the gym, such as different workout classes. If you've got the energy levels, you might be able to fit in a 20 minute run or perform three sets of sit-ups and crunches into your daily routines, to really ensure you're targeting as many areas of your body each week.

Keeping track of your progress will enable you to see if you are on the way to completing your goals, it will also allow you to see what is working and what isn't so you can adapt your plan accordingly.

There are a number of things you could be tracking:

Over time, you'll likely find that the exercises get easier to complete, so it's best to start upping the weight you're lifting, adding an incline to your runs, or exercising for longer, this is called progressive overload.