Random Exercise = Random Results

Whether you work out at a gym or at home, if you're walking into each workout without at least a loose gameplan, your results are likely gonna be hit or miss (and I'm betting on "miss").

To be clear, if your only health/fitness goals are to increase your activity, get your heart rate up, and get some blood flow into your muscles, you can pretty much do anything from jumping jacks to washing your car with a really small rag and you'll be getting HEALTHIER.

But if you'd like to see changes in your muscularity/definition/physique, you're gonna need to hit ALL your muscle groups with enough consistency and volume to force your body to adapt and grow new muscle fiber.

There are countless ways to split your workouts up, and almost all of them work to some degree if you do them consistently... but for the sake of time, I'm gonna give you a couple of simple ways to structure your workouts, examples of exercises that work each muscle group, and an idea of how many sets/reps you should be shooting for.

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SPLIT/SCHEDULES

PUSH/PULL SPLIT

It's basically what it sounds like... each workout will focus on either your body's PUSHING muscles (shoulders, chest, triceps, quads, calves) or your PULLING muscles (biceps, back, hamstrings, glutes). Instead of scheduling an isolated LEG DAY, I recommend sprinkling leg exercises into each workout with upper body.

This will prevent you from overloading your legs as you get started, and you'll see roughly the same results whether you do all your legs on one day, or split them up evenly - as long as you complete around the same amount of sets/reps.

The best part of the Push/Pull split - you can rotate back and forth so you're never training a sore muscle the day after you just worked it. For beginners, you can start with 2-3 days a week, and if you're more advanced you can go up to 5-6 days a week.

Although anyone can use this split, it's especially effective for people who are trying to simultaneously lose body fat and build muscle.

***If you're one of the sick puppies who ENJOYS leg day like I do, you can very easily shift all your leg exercises to one dedicated Leg Day, and then rotate the upper body Push/Pull muscles on the other workout days.

ISOLATED MUSCLE SPLIT

If you're more concerned with gaining muscle, you can split your workouts into 5 working days/week and spend the entirety of each daily workout training one muscle group.

This typically allows for shorter workouts, allows each muscle more recovery time, and ensures that you're challenging your body at least 5x per week. I recommend this structure for more experienced lifters, but beginners can still use this split as long as they start with just 1-2 sets of each exercise and gradualy increase the volume.

Example 5 day schedule:

Sun - OFF

Mon - Chest

Tue - Back

Wed - Legs

Thu - Shoulders

Fri - Biceps/Triceps

Sat - OFF

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WHAT EXERCISES WORK WHICH MUSCLES???

There are exactly 16,203 variations of every exercise, so I'm gonna give you some basic movements for each muscle and you can apply different angles/equipment/machines as you see fit. I try to avoid using the same exact variation of any exercise in consecutive workouts, but if you're just getting started it's ok to be repetitive as you learn the motions.

CHEST:

Presses (dumbbells/barbell/resistance band/cable)

Chest Fly

Push-up

Dip (leaning forward)

BACK:

Pullup/Pulldowns (assisted, bodyweight, or cable/machines)

Rows

Pullover

Shrug

Reverse Fly

Deadlift variations (not recommended for beginners)

QUADS:

Lunge variations

Squat

Leg Extension

Step-up

Leg Press

HAMSTRINGS:

Leg curl

Reverse Lunge

Romanian (or still-leg) Deadlift

Low sumo Squat

GLUTES:

Glute Bridge

Hip Thrust

Sumo Deadlift (not recommended for beginners)

Side Step-up

BICEPS:

Curl variations

Underhand Pull-ups/pulldowns

Drag curl

TRICEPS:

Overhead Extensions

Kickbacks

Dips (lean back)

Close-grip press/push-ups

CORE:

Crunch variations

Leg Raises

Flutter/scissor kicks

Knee raises

Plank

Lower back extension

Side Bend

Russian Twist

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SETS/REPS/INTENSITY

Knowing your schedule and your exercise list doesn't help much if you don't know how many times you should be repeating each movement, for how long, and how intensely.

For beginners, you'll wanna do each exercise for at least one or two sets, and if you're more advanced you can shoot for 3-6 sets of each. Regardless of your experience level, you'll get the safest, most efficient results when you aim for a rep range of 12-20 reps/per set. (This excludes bodyweight exercises, which may be more difficult to get more than 4-5 reps)

You might fail before you get to 12-20 reps, and that's fine - but if you can't get at least 12 reps, I suggest using a lighter weight. Conversely, if 20 reps is too easy, you can either slow down your motion, or move to a slightly heavier weight/resistance.

Once you've been training for 4-6 weeks, if you're healthy enough - you want to aim to where you can't quite get to the last rep on a given set before your muscles get exhausted and give out. Even if you're shooting for 20 reps and you only get 11 on your final set, you'll have more muscle engagement from those 11 reps than if you did 20 easy reps with an easier weight.

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Now you have a couple of examples how to structure your workouts, an idea of which exercises to use, and a guide for how to perform them safely and effectively.

If you need more tips on getting set up or have any questions, I'll be glad to help - just email me @ robbie@unclebod.com.

My fingers are numb from getting my ass kicked in Mario Kart by a 6 year old all weekend, so, no more type. Bye.