Your exercise routine is the structure on which you can build the body you want. This must be customised according to several factors such as your objectives or your level of training. However, when you are just beginning or do not have much experience and do not have the advice of a personal trainer, you can suddenly find yourself lost in the immense gym space without knowing where to start.
If that is your case, this article will help you to orientate yourself to program your exercise routine that allows you to gain muscle mass efficiently. You want to know more? Keep reading this blog.
Here at Push the Tempo we can help you adopt fitness habits to have a healthier life and help you obtain the results you want in other activities due to having a clear mind.
- Guidelines to schedule your exercise routine to win muscle mass
- Set up serious schedules for training
One of the main reasons why people often leave the gym or stop doing any other physical activity is the lack of time. When you start you go with all the desire following the routine that the instructor gave you or one of the ones you saw online. You get up earlier than usual and you intend to stay that way throughout the year.
Then, after 3 or 4 weeks, you start to face reality. You leave work late, you keep awake to finish the next day’s reports, you have together in your children’s school. So, you start missing the gym first 1 day, then 2 or 3, until you add a whole week without lifting a single weight. Until your motivation and desires are vanishing, you think it is impossible to continue with the routine because you do not have the time to devote to your training.
Now, before you throw in the towel you should see that many of the routines you find on the Internet are designed by professional instructors or competing athletes who have all the time in the world to exercise. It’s your job! So, unless you want to dedicate yourself to the physic constructivism in a professional way, your routine should be set according to other activities you carry out daily.
But do not worry, the reality is that with training 1 hour 3 times a week you can gain considerable muscle mass provided you apply thoroughly with the exercises. So before programming your routine, establish what the days and hours of your training will be, whether they are 3, 4 or 5 if you do not have problems with your schedule.
In the morning, afternoon or evening?
Many times, it has been said that in the morning is the best time to train since your body has the optimal hormonal environment, in addition to providing you with energy to continue with the rest of your activities. Although the latter may be true, there is no clear evidence that there is better physical performance during the first hours of the day. So, you decide when to exercise, whether in the morning to start with the whole day or in the evening to unload the accumulated stress. Just try not to do it 2 hours before you sleep because it can make it hard to get to sleep.
- The organisation of muscle groups
Once you have defined your schedule to train it is time to organize the muscle groups that you will work on each day. For practical use we will classify them in: Pectorals, Back, Shoulders, Biceps, Triceps, Leg, Glutes and Calf. Now let’s see the different ways to organize them.
Muscular group per day.
As the name says, is to dedicate one day to work each muscle group: One day chest, another day back, another day shoulders, another day biceps and triceps) and one for the entire lower train. This type of organization is not very favourable to gain muscle mass since you only get one stimulus per week per group (we’ll talk about this later) plus you need to at least train for 5 days. On the other hand, it can be a good option to obtain strength and greater conditioning, especially if you just start.
Full body training.
In full body routines you work all muscle groups or most of them during a session. The advantage of this type of training is that you only need 3 days a week to get a good number of stimuli in all muscle fibres. It is an excellent option when you have a few days to go to the gym and offers a great general physical conditioning although it may not be the best alternative when looking for maximum muscle development.
Inferior part – Superior part.
It is about dividing the days of training between the muscles of the upper and lower train so that on Monday you work your back, shoulder, chest and arm while on Tuesday you dedicate it to the buttocks, legs and calves to give an example. With this type of routine, you can organise your workouts between 3 or 4 days getting a good number of stimuli for your muscle groups.
- How much should you train?
Well, now that you’ve seen your schedule and the different types of organisation for muscle work you may already be thinking about what will be the days that you will dedicate to your training and when you will rest. But before this, I would like to delve a bit into these two topics precisely: The optimal frequency of training and breaks.
According to several studies, the optimal frequency to stimulate a muscle and optimise its development is 72 to 96 hours since this way a complete recovery is allowed maintaining a constant work. This means that the ideal is to exercise each muscle group at least twice in a period of 7 days – for example Monday and Thursday or even until Friday-.
Now let’s talk about one of the most important factors to gain muscle mass but that is sometimes underestimated: breaks.
When you exercise your goal is to stimulate and “damage” the muscle fibres but when you are really developing is during your recovery which occurs during periods of rest.
In order for a muscle to recover from the damage caused during an exercise session, it must rest for at least 48 hours, with 72 hours being the optimum recovery time. That is, it is not recommended to work the same muscle group for 2 days in a row (including the abdominals that many are obsessed with training daily) as overtraining can occur, causing only fatigue but limiting muscle gain.
In the same way it is necessary to take general rest days to the body during each cycle (week) of training depending on the routine that you choose. For example, if you schedule a 3-day program, you could exercise on Monday, Wednesday and Friday to rest on Tuesdays, Thursdays and weekends. If you decide to train for 5 or 6 days, it is common to rest on Saturday or Sunday or both.
Here at Push the Tempo we want to make an impact in your life and help you become a healthier person. Achieve your goals with our assistance, contact us today to make healthy habits in your life.
