Most of us have trouble sticking to exercise routines. If it were easy, everyone would do it, and the world would be a lot healthier.
The reality is that sticking to your workout routine is very hard, and it requires a lot of perseverance. What people forget, though, is that good planning makes the whole process a lot easier.
There are things you can do on the front end to improve your chances of success. We’re going to look at some exercise routine ideas that will help you get physically strong, mentally fit, and keep you on track to meet your goals.
Let’s get started.
How to Create an Effective Workout Routine
The first thing to do is identify your primary goals. What are you doing this for? Do you want to exercise because you feel like it’s what you should be doing?
Are you looking to improve your long-term health and mobility? Do you want to learn how to get huge muscles? Maybe you’re looking to experience the mental health benefits of exercise.
In any case, you need to have a clear approximation of why you’re exercising in the first place. Without clear goals in mind, you have no guidelines on what exercises to do, how often you should exercise, the intensity needed, or anything else.
“Exercise” is a very broad idea. A person can exercise to try and improve millions of different things. There are myriad goals that a person could tailor their routine to achieve.
When you don’t have goals, you’ll just use the machines that everyone else uses, jump on random trends in the media, and fail to meet your goals. Even worse, a lack of clear goals leads to burnout.
Set Measurable Benchmarks
Once your goals are in place, it’s time to work backward and set benchmarks for yourself. Stretch these out for as long as you’d like to. For example, you might have a two-year goal of losing 50 pounds.
You might also have the goal of running a marathon three years from now. Whatever it is, pick an endpoint and create measurable points of success along the way. Work forward from point one or backward from the end goal.
Ensure that the goals aren’t vague and nonspecific. For example, “start feeling better” isn’t a benchmark. You could consider it an achievement, but it’s not one that is quantifiable.
When it comes to a plan that you’ll stick to, you have to have ways to measure your success so that you can see the benefits of the work you’re putting in Those concrete benchmarks also put the carrot on the stick in front of you to keep you moving forward.
There’s the double benefit of seeing results and motivation to move forward. A good goal might be to “lose 5 points in the first month.” You could also put it in terms of effort instead of results.
For example, “hit the gym three times per week for the first month” is a good benchmark that involves your output.
Think Through Your Workouts
Before you ever set foot in the gym, it’s smart to know which machines you’ll use, how many sets you want to do, and why you’re using those machines.
You might have to do a few workouts to establish your weights, but knowing what you’re going to use is essential. Select exercises that fit right into the picture of your overarching goals.
Make these selections based on insights you discover online, in exercise books, or with the help of a personal trainer. When you’ve got the right exercises in place, you conserve your energy in an efficient way.
You’re getting up and investing a lot of time and energy into your workout routine. If you don’t have the right application of that energy, you’re wasting some of that effort. The proper exercises ensure that all of your energy is going toward the achievement of your goals.
Trainers are a good investment for a few reasons.
For one, they help you perform the correct exercises with proper form. They have knowledge about what each exercise does, why it’s beneficial, and the boundaries to use that will keep you safe from injury.
Another benefit to trainers is that they keep you accountable. When someone is there to meet you and work through exercises with you, you feel a little more motivated to get out and show up. The fear of letting someone down is a great motivator in most cases.
Necessary Lifestyle Adjustments
Another side of the workout routine that’s often forgotten is the fact that there’s a lot more involved than hitting the gym.
Those mornings when you have no motivation to get up and work out, it feels like you’re just failing yourself at that moment. You might wonder why you can’t seem to motivate yourself.
Maybe you’re exhausted from the night before, and you have no idea how people can keep pushing through routines day after day. In those moments, take a second to span your view out to your general lifestyle.
What have you been eating before and after your workouts? How is your sleep schedule?
These are all things that play a massive role in the amount of energy you have to keep pushing through your routine. Further, the quality of those things makes a difference in how well your body can bounce back and recover from exercises.
Nutrition
Nutrition is arguably the most important outside factor to think about. The baseline diet for health should include a variety of natural fruits, vegetables, protein sources, carbohydrates, nuts, seeds, grains, and legumes. In other words, we should eat a lot of different natural foods of all categories.
We say “different” because it’s not healthy to just eat broccoli and chicken for every meal. Sure, those items are healthy in and of themselves, but the body requires more nutrients than those foods provide.
When you spread your diet out and include variety, you cover more of the bases. That also includes cutting out the majority of sweets, processed sugars, and artificial foods that you might be eating. You can get by if you still eat those things, but they’ll play a negative role in your energy levels.
The bottom line is that the better your diet is, the easier it will be for you to carry on with a regular workout routine.
It’s difficult to include every kind of food under the sun, though. That’s why supplements are a great option for you to try and offset deficiencies in your diet. Getting vitamins and minerals from the source is preferable, but adding a few supplements to your daily routine might be helpful.
Wilson Supplements has a number of excellent options for you to pick from.
Quantity of Food
You’ll burn a lot more energy than you normally would when you start exercising on a regular basis. That might require you to eat a little bit more each day to maintain enough energy to get up and exercise.
Further, you need more calories to produce more muscle mass. One of the best muscle-building tips is to eat more, giving your body the material it needs to produce the mass that you’re looking for.
You can still get physically strong without putting on a lot of mass, but building muscle requires that you adjust your routine and increase the volume of your diet.
Sleep Schedule
Sleep is essential for our bodies to rest and recover, especially when we’re working out. Inconsistent sleep kills energy levels, motivation, and physical ability.
If you’re trying to stay on track with a routine, getting a similar amount of sleep each night is very important. We don’t all need 8 hours of sleep each night, but many of us require somewhere between 6 and 8 hours to have enough energy for the day.
Note that regularity is important because exercise will start to play a regular part in how much energy you have at different points of the day. If you’re exercising in the morning, you might have a rush of endorphins before you head to work, and your body will start to get very tired in the afternoon when you get home.
You’ll need to get an adequate amount of sleep to recover and wake up for your workout the next morning. If you’re exercising at night, you might find that you’re exhausted when you wake up in the morning. That gets in the way of your productivity in life.
So, it’s important to establish sleep as one of the constant factors in your life. This is true regardless of whether you’re exercising or not, but an inconsistent sleep schedule might be the death of your workout routine.
Need More Muscle Building Tips?
If you’re looking to construct the perfect workout routine, there’s a lot more to learn. The more information you get on the front-end, the better the odds that you’ll be able to achieve your goals.
We’re here to help. Explore our site for more ideas on how to choose the best exercises, improve your routine, and stay motivated throughout the process.