Today I’m going to give you the BEST workout routine to follow.
Any guesses?
The best workout routine/movement practice is:
The one that you will follow
There is no one size fits all. There are no perfect exercises. There is no one way to be active. The best plan for you is whatever plan you enjoy and will do!
When it comes to program design, there are about a hundred different strategies to use. There are about a hundred people on the internet that are going to tell you that their way is the best. You can write someone the most prestigious workout program but if they don’t like it enough to do it, you aren’t going to get any results!
There are definitely guidelines to follow when program designing. Program designing is actually one of my favorite parts of the job. I get to be creative and really try to put something together that will efficiently address all my client’s concerns. Part of why buying premade programs online doesn’t work isn’t only because the exercises and movements themselves aren’t tailored to the needs of a client…but also because the person hasn’t been able to discuss with their practitioner what kind of exercise they actually enjoy doing!
If you scroll through our blog you’ll find me explaining tons of different exercises and their benefits and purposes. While taking and using all of these will absolutely help you! But to put together a program that will bring you long term results in your mental and physical health, habit changes, and lifestyle changes, you need someone who understands you as a person and who can consistently make changes to fit your goals and needs.
There are some general guidelines that many practitioners follow. It is usually advised to put the heavier lifts, harder exercises, and exercises you’re looking for the most progress in first so that you have the most energy. You usually want to try to address most movement patterns on any given day. This means including a hinge, squat, rotation, push, pull, etc. It’s common to aim for a 2 to 1 ratio of training posterior to anterior chain which I’ve written about a few times if you’re interested! None of these things are laws! It’s helpful to have some general rules to build a program around but you have to consider what is most important to the individual.
I hate doing core workouts! Hate them. Planks, dead bugs, pallof presses, etc… hate them! When I build programs I typically put a core workout or two at the end of the workout so that they’ve already expended their energy on bigger lifts like barbell squats, hip thrusts, bench presses, and pull ups. But in my own programming, I put core first! I do this because by the end of my workouts sometimes I don’t follow through with my core work because I’m tired and just really don’t want to. So if I get my core work out of the way at the beginning I have so much more fun with my workout because I’m not dreading doing core afterwards! I’ve noticed I push myself harder in my lifts when I do this and they get done!
Another reason I might put core at the beginning of someone’s program is if they really struggle with core activation. This way, before they go into heavy lifts that require intense core activation, they’ve already gotten that mind muscle connection warmed up.
Sometimes I program for a really challenging client who really doesn’t want to exercise but knows they have to. However, no matter what we try they just aren’t getting it in. In these cases, I’ll talk to my client and figure out what their favorite movements are; the ones they actually enjoy doing at least somewhat. Even if they aren’t my favorite ones for them and even if they take out the ones I feel are the most important, I’ll make them a program with just their favorite moves. Why? Because it’s more important that they are moving and exercising than not. As time goes on, often we’ll be able to add in some other things once they’ve developed a more regular routine.
Here’s an example: Say I have a client who recently had a heart attack and needs to lose a good amount of weight to be healthy and avoid another one! However, they are new to exercising and don’t really like it! Now let’s add that they have pretty bad posture with a lot of rounding of the upper back. If I had it my way, I’d have this client doing a lot of posture work with light weight while starting with heavier pulling movements like lat pull downs, rows, etc. to address their upper back rounding. But turns out, they hate all of those things! They just want to do dumbbell chest presses, lunges, tricep pull downs, and push ups! What do I do? I make them a program of those exercises and add in ONE thing I really want like some overhead stick passes to open up their shoulders. Is it perfect? No. But now they are actually doing it and that’s the most important thing here. I make sure they’re doing light enough weight that they won’t hurt themself and emphasize form. And in a few weeks, I see if we can add in a TRX row. Once someone begins to enjoy exercise, it becomes easier to include some movements that aren’t super fun because they can recognize the importance and understand how they make them even stronger in the lifts they like doing!
All in all, what’s important is that you’re moving. Movement is vital to our health! Along with a good diet, good sleep, and mental health, movement is a top priority to maintain good health and to live a long life!
So don’t let anyone tell you that you have to do exercise a certain way! Staying active can look however it needs to for you. Of course it’s important to practice good form and it’s ideal to be working on having good posture to avoid injuries. But doing something imperfectly is better than doing nothing perfectly.