Workouts

There are a million theories for how to best workout but the key is to find what works best for you and keeps you motivated. At the end of the day, the most important thing for getting and staying fit is consistency.

Below, we’ve linked to a large variety of workouts that we’ve put together here at PreWorkout.org but before we get to those, here are ten key pointers to get the most out of your workouts.

10 Keys To Effective Workout Planning

  1. Aim for 3-4 days per week of resistance training.
    This is the sweet spot for most people unless you are a beast of a body builder looking to squeeze out every last gain. Resistance training offers you the most long-term bang for your buck. By activating all the muscles in your body and building muscle mass, you will burn more calories during the day. Plus as you age, muscle mass is inversely correlated with mortality. In other words, resistance training is the best anti-aging pill you can take.
  2. Get 60 reps per muscle group per week.
    For optimal results, aim to get 60 reps per muscle group per week. You can spread this out however you like. Some studies suggest that hitting each muscle group twice a week, for 30 reps per session, will give you the best results.
  3. Don’t Ignore Cardio
    It’s easy to focus too much on resistance training and ignore cardio. The two best forms of cardio are going to be at the extremes: all-out sprint work and moderately paced walking. There is good evidence that getting an hour of high-intensity VO2 Max work per week has huge health benefits. This can be spread out into three chunks of 20 minute interval type work on a bike, rower, etc. or you can do hill sprints.
  4. Walk a Lot
    Try to walk at least 30-60 minutes a day minimum. Walking at a moderate pace actually helps increase your overall cardio capacity. Plus its a great way to burn calories in a painless way. Walking gets you outside, exposes you to the benefits of the sun, lowers stress, improves your cardiovascular and nervous sytems.
  5. Get Your Protein
    Protein helps you recover, reduces soreness and also helps you burn more calories and lose weight. It takes more energy to digest protein than it does carbs or fats, so just to process the protein, you lose some weight. We recommend about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day. So if you weight 100lbs, then aim for 100g of protein. 200lbs, aim for 200g.
  6. Set A Goal
    Challenge yourself by establishing a goal that you can work through. Goals keep things interesting. It could be as simple as saying you want to be able to hip-thrust 200lbs. Or, maybe you want to joing the 1000lbs powerlifting club.
  7. Use a System
    Setting a goal is nice but without a system that you can believe in and follow, you are likely to stop before hitting the goal. For example, if your goal is to hit the hip thrust at 200lbs and you’re only at 170lbs, then make sure you’re hitting 60 reps per week on the hip thrust at 170lbs and after two weeks, move it up to 175lbs. Then repeat. If you’re eating your protein and getting proper sleep, and you follow this system you should be able to get up to 200lbs in about 12 weeks.
  8. Be Consistent. Directionally Consistent.
    Missing a week due to sickness or vacation doesn’t ruin consistency. What matters is that over months and years, your workout system is the norm more often than not. To stay consistent, you’ll want to schedule in your workouts and make them your highest priority. Don’t give up when you miss a single workout. Just show up next time and keep moving in the right direction. Start getting worried when you’ve missed more than two weeks.
  9. Use Progressive Overload
    Always push yourself. You won’t make progress if you’re lifting the same weight for months on end. Aim to add weight or reps every two weeks. While “gains” are hard once you reach a certain point, there is always something you can improve to move yourself forward. When you’re happy with where you are, it’s ok to stay in maintenance mode, and you definitely shouldn’t ever push yourself so hard you risk injury. Sometimes when I’m plateaued for strength, I’ll focus on improving other modalities like flexibility.
  10. Get Your Sleep.
    If you’re actively working out and challenging yourself then you need plenty of sleep for proper recovery. Lack of sleep will result in lackluster workouts and possibly expose you to injury.

Here are a list of workouts our experts have put together to help you on your fitness journey.

Muscle Specific Workouts

Other Workouts