How To Create Your Own Workout Schedule I How to Create A Workout Plan For Beginners

Alrighty, what is going on? My name is Eric and I'm going to help you figure out how to set up your workout routine on your own. I'm going to give you step-by-step instructions to literally just plug in place and give you exactly what to do. Um, there's gonna be 2, 2 parts to this series. The first part, we're gonna cover kind of the principles behind your workout routine and kind of what you should be thinking about. And then we're gonna get into some how to set it up and, and what your exercises look like and all those kind of things. So, uh, welcome. Um, I did just get a haircut, so Kind of feeling myself in this video. So yeah, it's gonna be a good one. All right. So let's start off. Let's just dive right in. First and foremost, I put cardio blah, and I'm not saying cardio is bad. Cardio is very good for your heart health. It's very good for a few different things, but your exercise should be based around strength training. You should be basing your exercise around getting stronger, building muscles, you know, doing more reps, doing more sets, whatever it is, because There's a few different reasons for this. We'll go into some like scientific and we'll go into some like kind of mental things. Scientifically, the more, the, the more strength training you do, the more muscle you're going to build. The more muscle you're going to build, the faster your metabolism has to work. You're— when, when muscle is on your body, if you have, if you have muscle on your body, you have to— your body has to pump more oxygen to those muscles, right? So if your body has to pump more oxygen, That is more work your body has to do. If there's more work for your body to do, that means you have to burn more calories because that's what work is. It's energy expended, right? So the more muscle you have, the more calories you're going to burn. This means yes, if you are looking to kind of lean up and tone up, this is going to help your, your, your lean up process. You're going to look leaner, but also you can eat more food without gaining weight because you have a higher metabolic rate. And all that means is your body burns more calories throughout the day by doing nothing. And, and The thing I like to kind of mix in between here is like, think of cardio as your one-night stand, right? Like, people do cardio to try to burn calories very, very quickly, and they try to do a bunch of cardio to kind of lose weight. That's your one-night stand. That's like, hey, listen, like, you're going out to the club, like, that's your one-night stand. That's very, very short-lived. Strength training is your spouse for life. That's gonna be your wife or your husband or whatever it is. That is the person that's going to— that is the person and thing that's gonna be there the most long-term forever. Right. Right? So cardio is not bad, but in the sense of exercising, the most long-term benefit you are going to have is strength training. You're going to build muscles, you're going to build bone density, you're going to— and this segues into the next one— you're going to build your body up. You're going to build your body up. Think about that, because all of this, a lot of this fitness stuff, especially if you're talking about weight loss, is I have to lose weight, I have to look a certain— I don't like the way I look, I want to look this way, I don't look this way, I can't do this, I can't do that. All of that is tearing yourself down. You're just constantly thinking about, well, I can't do this, I don't look like this, I don't weigh this, my clothes don't fit this. And while I understand that obviously that's on your mind if you're looking to lose weight, what you need to think about is all that stuff is mentally tearing yourself down. You're just thinking like, I need to lose, lose, lose, as opposed to building yourself up, saying, hey, I was able to deadlift 150 pounds on deadlifts today. I was able to do more reps. I got stronger in my squats. I'm starting to see muscle definition. I'm starting to— my pants are starting to fit differently. All that stuff is building yourself up. And this whole fitness journey, if you are not enjoying the process, if you are not, you know, getting stoked about it, if you're not achieving, achieving goals, it's not going to last. You're not going to last because all the negativity of you just not being where you want to be and tearing yourself down and having to lose weight and this and that, that's going to overcome and it's going to make the process not enjoyable. And if the process is not enjoyable, you're not going to want to keep going. And if you don't keep going, you won't see any progress and you won't make a lifestyle change. So my biggest thing here is do both. Do cardio and weights. And we'll talk about kind of what that can look like over here. But the basis of your exercise should be based around strength training. There's no doubt about that. That's not up for conversation. And again, that's not doing HIIT workouts with some weights, right? This is actual strength training. And again, we're going to get into it, but making that very clear. So that's first and foremost. Again, Cardio is one-night stand. Strength training is your long-term spouse for life. Okay, so that's going to give you the most benefit long-term. Diving into the next one. When you are working out, I want you to think about this. Working out is a stress on your body. So like, for— it's fight or flight, right? You're lifting weights, you're doing the reps, you're doing the sets, whatever it is. Your body's going into fight or flight. It's saying, hey, there's a stress being put on my body. You know, I'm having to squat 100 pounds. I have to adapt to this stress. How do I adapt to this stress? I build stronger muscles. I build more defined muscles. That's how I adapt to the stress of you working out. So working out is a stress on your body that your body has to adapt to. If you, if you don't adapt to anything, there's no change in your body. Your body will look no different because your body does not have anything else to adapt to. So for example, this is what I want to get to. If you are lifting the same weight For the same reps, for the same sets, 6 months from now, your body's not going to be changing. You are not going to change the way your body looks. You're not going to build stronger muscles. You're not going to build more defined muscles. Because if you are doing the same exact thing you were 6 months ago, you're not putting that stress on your body that your body has to adapt to. You are not getting a high enough stress for your body to keep changing. So how do you overcome this? How do you make sure you keep Putting that stress on your body, your body has to adapt to. It's something called progressive overload, and there could be a whole separate video on this, and there's whole entire textbooks on this. But in the very, very simple terms, every time you go into the gym, or close to every time, you should be looking to either lift more weight or do more reps than what you did the day before. Good. Than what you did the day before, the workout session before, or get your form better. Those 3 things really, do more weight, lift more reps, get better form. If you're doing those 3 things every single time you go into the gym, or close to every single time you go into the gym, your, your body is going to change like crazy. Because again, it's going back to the principle I just said— you're putting enough stress on your body that your body has to adapt to. You have to give your body something to continuously keep adapting and keep recovering from, right? So again, look to do every time you go into the gym— and again, this is why I'm such a big advocate for you know, having a workout program you do for 4 to 6 weeks and track the weights and the sets and the reps you do for those 4 to 6 weeks. So you can see week 1, I started 100 pounds for 4 sets of 10. Week 2, I did 110 pounds for 4 sets of 10. Week 3, I did 110 pounds for 4 sets of 12. You'll be able to see week by week what are you doing. And that's something I do with my clients all the time, is if you don't track something, you don't know if you're getting better at it. So if you don't track the weights and the sets and the reps you do, You don't know if you're improving. You don't know if you're seeing change in your body, because I can assure you, if you were lifting 100 pounds for 4 sets of 10 and now you're lifting 140 pounds for 4 sets of 10 4 weeks later, your body's changing. It has to. It's just simple. Again, it's fight or flight. It's just simple science. Your body has to adapt and build stronger muscles. So you'll know that, okay, I'm on the right track. I'm making progress. I'm lifting more weights. I'm doing more reps, whatever it is. Every single time you go into the gym, have that plan. Have that plan of I have to beat last week or whatever it is. I have to beat what I did last week. Make sure I exceed that stress on my body so I can adapt and change. And again, this is why having a structured workout program is so, so important. Please do not just go into the gym and wing it because again, you don't know if you're seeing change. You don't know if your body's making change. You don't know if you're seeing progress because you're just going in and doing a couple machines and doing the elliptical and leaving. Like, that's not doing— I don't wanna say it's not doing anything for you, but you're not optimizing. You're not maximizing what you could be and should be doing. Because again, just have a plan. Have a plan of what you're going to do. And that's kind of where we lead into the next point here. So, um, hitting muscle groups 2 to 3 times a week. So for example, you should be hitting your muscle groups, whether it's arms, whether it's chest, whether it's legs, whatever it is, at the very least 2 times a week. That's what I like doing because that is getting enough volume. And volume in this circumstance is just sets and reps. So you're getting enough sets and enough reps on your muscle groups to see change. Okay? So for example, if you're doing your legs, if you, if you want to hit your glutes, okay, cool. You hit your glutes 2 times a week. You don't need to be working out 3, 4, 5, excuse me, 3 to 4 or 5 times a week of glutes. You're not, because going back to this right here, this is actually a very good point. If you're trying to work out the same muscle group 5 times a week, like you're trying to do full body workout every single day and go hard, bro, no days off. You're putting stress on your body, but you're not recovering from that stress. You're not letting your body adapt to the stress. What you do in the gym actually doesn't create change. In the gym, you break your muscles down. That, that's what you do when you work out. You tear your muscle fibers. That's how you build stronger muscles. But the only way you build stronger and more defined muscles is if you let your body recover from that teardown. So if you're tearing your muscle fibers down, And not letting them recover, you're not going to see change because you have to make sure you're recovering from your workout. And this is one of my biggest gripes with like the whole HIIT training. It's like if you're doing that 4 to 5 times a week, 6 times a week, and you're doing full body sessions, your body's not recovering from that. There's no way. It's just not possible. Your body cannot recover from that. So if you're not seeing change, that might be why. So value recovery. And I don't need you— no, I work out 4 times a week right now and none of my clients do more than 4 times a week. So it is not about the days you work out. It's about what you do on those work— in those workout sessions. It is not about how many days a week you work out. It is how much effort are you putting into those workout sessions? And by effort, I do not mean how much are you sweating or how out of breath you are. By effort, I mean, are you tracking your weights and sets and reps? And are you increasing week to week? Are you going in and getting better every single week? That is something that's very, very black and white. It's factual. It's either you did more weights or more reps or you didn't. It's very black and white. You going in saying, man, I feel like I've worked really hard this week. That's very fickle. It's very emotional. It doesn't lead to anything. Having concrete things saying, okay, I am getting better. I'm doing more reps. I'm doing more weight, whatever it is, that is very concrete. So again, please start doing that. Don't even know where I went off on that, but, um, oh yeah. So 2 times a week. So again, like I would not, I would not recommend working out more than 4 to 5 times a week max. And there's people who do. I've done it before. Once you get into that, you really have to make sure your recovery is on point. So 3 to 4 times a week, as far as how many days a week you should work out, is perfect. And also on top of that, it's sustainable, especially if you have a job, if you have kids, if you have other responsibilities, you know, like life, right? So you can still fit in 3 days a week. You can still fit in 4 days a week. Like me, myself right now, I'm, you know, I own my own business and I have a bunch of clients I work with and I'm trying to grow my business. So for me, working out 6 days a week right now, as much as I love working out, It's not smart for me. I'm not going to do it because I know it's not sustainable. And could I do it? Yeah, but then other things are going to suffer and I'm probably not going to feel as well. I'm not going to recover as well. So just no point to it. 3 to 4 days a week is perfect. So let's cover 3 times a week. If you were to work out 3 times a week, what I would suggest is going back to this right here, hit your muscle groups 2 times a week. So what does this look like? Lower body. On day 1, you do lower body. Okay? So you're doing your whole lower body. You're hitting legs, you're hitting glutes, you're hitting quads. All those kind of things. The next day you're doing upper body, right? So on on day one you're doing upper body, lower body. On day two you're doing upper body. This way you've already hit every muscle group on your upper body and every muscle group on your lower body one time a week already. Okay, so the last day of the week make it full body. This way again you hit every single muscle group two times a week, right? So and what would this look like? So for example, lower body would be on Monday. Upper body would be on Wednesday, and full body would be on Friday. Because again, you want to give yourself time in between workouts to recover. And now, so on the off days, what I personally— what I have all my clients do, or most of them when they listen, is walking. And I know people think like, oh, walking's not exercise. Getting 8,000 to 12,000 steps a day on your rest days is not only going to help you in your— if you are on a weight loss journey or just a health journey in general, walking is amazing. But what it does as well is it increases your NEAT and it helps you recover. It helps facilitate blood flow. It helps you recover from the workout you just did. So let's say on Monday you do lower body, on Tuesday you do 10,000 steps, on Wednesday you do upper body, on Thursday you do 10,000 steps, and then on Friday you do full body. And then on the weekends you can also do the steps if you want to. But that right there, you'd see absolutely amazing results. Again, as long as you're following a structured plan and and progressively getting stronger or doing more reps week to week, you are going to see results beyond your, your imagination. I promise, guarantee you that. You do not need to do, you know, 5 days a week of full body workouts. That's just— at that point, it's counterproductive. You're not, you're not maximizing your, your, your workouts in there. It's just, it's not going to happen. So that's what 3 times a week would look like. And again, you're hitting your muscle groups 2 times a week. Okay, so the next one, if you're doing 4 times a week, it's very similar. I would do like Monday, lower body. Tuesday, upper body. Rest Wednesday. Thursday, lower body. Friday, upper body. Right there. So again, you do lower body on Monday and lower body on Thursday. You're giving yourself Tuesday and Wednesday to recover between that. That's perfect. That's awesome. You're doing upper body on Tuesday and Friday. And again, you're giving yourself Wednesday and Thursday to recover because you have to recover in between these sets. I know I've already said it, but you have to recover in between these workouts because if you don't recover in between workouts, You're going to go into the next workout not recovered. So if you're not recovered, you can't put your maximum effort forth. And if you can't put your maximum effort forth, then you're not going to get stronger week to week. You're not going to improve week to week because you have not recovered. So your muscles aren't ready to push maximum limit, but you keep trying to make them. You're not recovered. So you're kind of just— again, it's like tearing the side down on your house, tearing your shingles down or whatever it is, and just putting some up at a time, tearing it down again. Putting some up at a time, tearing it down again. You're never actually letting them fully come back up. You're never letting yourself actually fully recover. And if you don't let yourself recover, your workout performance is gonna suffer, your body's not gonna change because you're not able to put forth energy to those workout sessions. So that's kind of how that would run. And again, just very last quick point, working out 3 to 4 times a week, I've already said this, but is amazing. You do not need to go super insane with your workouts. It doesn't have to be this all in or all out. 3 times a week. If you, if you want to go to my website, ericrobertsfitness.com, and scroll through some of the testimonials, like all those people worked out 3 to 4 times a week. And I can even put some pictures here, but all these people here, they worked out 3 to 4 times a week, including myself through the videos you've already seen. Like it does not have to be this like, oh, if I don't get to the gym 6 days a week, then I'm not doing anything. That's just completely asinine and just not true. So I'm taking that excuse away from you. Right? I'm taking that excuse away from you. You can no longer say, well, if I can't get to the gym 6 days a week or 5 days a week, then what's the point? Taking that excuse away. 3 to 4 days a week is perfect. Um, beyond that, guys, like I said, there's going to be a part 2. So the part 2 is going to go over exact, like how you should set. So if you're doing a lower body day, how you should set up that lower body day, not only with exercises, but reps and how to, how to progress those reps. I'm going to give you everything. Okay? So that is what part 2 is going to be. Look forward to that. Um, probably in the next week or so you're going to have that, but, uh, Yeah, guys, this is how to set up your workout routine, part 1. Part 2 coming soon. Thank you so much.