Easy to Follow Guide to Develop Your Personal Fitness Plan

I’m a personal trainer. Developing personal fitness plans is what I love to do. But I understand the urge to want to do it yourself. Not everyone wants a personal trainer all the time. This step-by-step guide will show you how to develop your personal fitness plan and get moving!

Your Fitness Plan

Simply put, a fitness plan is schedule of physical exercise – from cardio to strength training, from stretching to high intensity interval training – that you can follow to reach a specific goal.

Having a plan provides structure. No more wondering what to do next, or what you did last time. Your plan will lay out the ground work and the possible progressions you can make going forward.

Let’s talk lingo first. There’s some gym and personal trainer talk that might sound complicated. It’s not. Below is a list of words and acronyms that you should know while designing your personal fitness plan.

• Reps – short for “repetitions”; the completion of times you complete any given exercise
• Sets – the completion of several reps of a specific exercise in a row
• Superset – performing 2 exercises back to back, followed by a short rest
• Circuit – the combination of 3 or more exercises performed with short rest periods in between them
• Interval training – alternating short bursts of intense activity with intervals of recovery (either complete rest or lower intensity exercise); often known as HIIT (high intensity interval training)
• Tabata – a specific form of interval training in which the intense activity lasts for 20 seconds, followed by a recovery period of 10 seconds; repeat this interval 8 times for a total of 4 minutes of work
• Free weights – dumbbells, kettlebells or barbells used freely, without the guidance of a machine or cables

On to the guide. I’m basically breaking down most of the steps I take to build a client program from scratch.

Step 1: Assessment

Before you do any exercise or start your program, you need to do an assessment. This well help you determine two things. First, you can determine your current fitness level (your starting point in terms of strength level and cardio health). Second, you need to find out if you have any imbalances – tightness or overuse in any area of the body.

To test your current fitness level you’ll want to measure:

• Current weight and height – include body measurements and photos
• Health markers from your doctor – blood pressure, resting heart rate, cholesterol, body composition analysis
• Posture – use photos, a mirror or a friend to check your posture. When standing or sitting, do you have any aches or pains? Is it hard to stand up or sit up straight for any length of time?
• Movement – use video, a mirror or a friend to watch yourself do squats, pushups, etc.
• Strength – the easiest way to benchmark strength is to do a series of “1-minute” tests. How many pushups or sit ups can you do in 1 minute? How long can you hold a plank?
• Cardio – how long does it take you to walk/run a mile?

These are all tests that you can do again in the months ahead to test how far you’ve come.

Step 2: Set Goals

Before you start to develop your personal fat loss fitness plan, set some goals. What do you want to achieve with your plan? Do you want to lose weight? Build muscle? Run a 10k? There are no wrong answers but it’s important to have an answer.

Your goals will determine the details – reps, sets, rests, exercise choices – of your fitness plan.

Keep in mind that when setting goals, it’s okay to have some big dreams! In fact, those dreams of being your absolute best self are often when keep you going when the workout odds are against you. But you want to make sure that you break that BIG goal down into manageable parts. Keep it SMART. What can you realistically achieve in 6 months? How about 3, or 1?

Step 3: Determine What Strength Exercises to Do

The best workout to do is the one you can stick to. So keep it simple!

No matter what your goal is, increasing strength and muscle mass is important. That’s true for powerlifters, 10k runners, weekend warriors…everyone!

Your workout(s) should include foundational exercises that when put together, cover every muscle group.

• Quads – squats, lunges, step ups, leg extensions
• Hamstrings and Glutes – deadlifts, hip thrusts, leg curls
• Chest – presses, flyes, pushups
• Back – rows, pull downs, pull ups
• Biceps – curls of all shapes and sizes, chin ups
• Triceps – overhead extensions, tricep press downs, dips
• Shoulders – presses, front raises, lateral raises, upright rows
• Core – planks, leg lifts, crunches, twists

This is a list of the basics. I highly recommend mastering these before moving on to more complex exercises. That said, there’s no room for boredom here. A lot of the above exercises leave room for plenty of variation all on their own: dumbbells vs. barbells, flat bench vs. incline bench, cable vs. free weights, etc.

Step 4: Choosing Reps and Sets

A quick refresher on what reps and sets are:

• Reps – short for “repetitions”; the completion of times you complete any given exercise
• Sets – the completion of several reps of a specific exercise in a row

Now we need to circle back to your goals. Your goal will help to determine your volume (aka reps x sets).

Just getting started? Choose an exercise from each category and do 2-3 sets of 8-10 reps each, 2-3 times a week. If you’re an experienced lifter you can break your workups into lower/upper splits, or even body part splits.

But if you have some experience lifting weights and want a bit more personalization, keep these general rules in mind:

• 2-6 reps per set is ideal for building absolute strength.
• 7-12 reps per set is the best rep range for you if your goal is to build more lean muscle mass.
• 12+ reps per set builds muscular endurance.

There are 2 very important components to your lifts that allow the above rules to apply.

First, form always comes first. The rep only counts if it is done well, from start to finish.

Second, the weight that you choose is heavy enough to max you out by the top number in the rep range. That means that if your goal is to build more lean muscle mass, choose a weight that you can complete at least 7 reps with, but no more than 12.

Step 5: Deciding on Cardio

Cardio is important to general health and well-being. It has a place in every program. That being said, unless you are training for a race cardio should not be the center point of your workouts.

To maintain baseline health, the CDC recommends that you get 150 minutes of moderate intensity cardio each week. But you’re looking for more than baseline health maintenance. So we dive in.

For fat loss and muscle building goals, consider doing 2-3 moderate intensity cardio sessions a week, and 2-3 HIIT workouts a week as supplemental work to your strength training program.

If you are training to run a race, then your cardio will center around running, and will be more tailored to the specific race you plan on running. You’ll want to mix in hill training, pace and tempo training as well. Even so, make sure to include weight training in your personal fitness plan!

Step 6: Lock in Your Warm Up and Cool Down

Before you dive in, finalize your warm up and cool down. While these might be the least exciting parts of your workout, they are absolutely necessary to keeping you injury free.

Your warm up should consist of the following:

• Aerobic exercise (light cardio)
• Mobility
• Dynamic Stretching
• Bodyweight Warm Up Set(s)

Use this guide on warm ups to feel confident in your pre-workout plan.

Just as important as warming up your body to prepare it for work, is cooling it down and letting your system switch into recovery mode.

Your cool down should include:

• Gentle Cardio or Full Body Flow
• Isometric Stretches
• Foam Rolling

And of course, the all important post-workout recovery strategy.