Why Do You Need a Lifting Program
If you want to lift weights, going to the gym (or lifting dumbbells at home) is a good place to start. But if you want to get stronger over time, you need to think about it a little more. This is why you need a weightlifting program.
A program is a recipe for what to do and when to do it, and most weight lifting programs last from a few weeks to months. (I would say that the 4 week program is the shortest program I have ever seen, and the 12 weeks is the longer side.) During this time, you will lift a certain number of days per week, you will do certain exercises that the program requires, and you will follow the program’s directions to gain weight as you get stronger. This is all well and good, especially if you are a beginner.
While some intermediate to advanced athletes are able to program themselves, many still use proven programs or ask a coach to write a program for them. Where can I find the program? Well, for starters, there are many free programs that you can download online . If so, read the reviews – focusing on those written by the people who launched them and can comment on whether they are effective. Likewise, there are programs you can download for a fee, programs you can find in the book, and coaches and clubs that provide programming for a monthly fee, whether online or through a personal gym.
If you’re new to exercise, writing your own program is hardly the best option. Here’s more detailed information on what a good program will do for you, and why you should consider using a program developed by someone more experienced than you.
Do one thing at a time
We often have multiple goals to climb, but we can’t work on all of them at once. Maybe you want to get stronger and build more muscle, but also lose some fat, and you want to prevent injury when playing pickup soccer and you think maybe engage in powerlifting when you feel strong enough.
It makes perfect sense to have all of these goals, but you cannot work on all of them at the same time. You must first choose something to emphasize. In this case, you will probably need a program large enough to start building muscle mass, which (if versatile enough) will also help prevent injury and help you get stronger.
Later, when you change your diet to try to lose some fat, you may need a program that is easier to follow when you are working on fewer calories (or that allows you to adjust depending on how you are feeling that day). … And when your first powerlifting competition is approaching, you’ll want to run a block of training that prepares you to be your best on competition day.
If you just go to the gym every day and do what you feel, you don’t have to focus on the right things at the right time. Choosing a specific program for each stage of your workout will help you stay on track.
Do the right amount of work
If you’ve started on your own, you probably know one of two recovery strategies . Either you train different body parts every day (chest on Monday, legs on Tuesday, etc., Classic Splits), or you plan a day of rest after every hard day.
This is fine, but you don’t need to plan your vacation this way if you have a different way of managing your overall workload. For example, a 5-day weight lifting program can combine light, medium, and hard days, so you only need a full day of rest twice a week.
In addition, the program often changes the amount of work you do each week. This can mean that you need to do deloads or light weeks from time to time , and also set you up to go to the gym on certain days, ready to set PR .
Do the right exercises
Different goals require different exercise choices, and your program will take that into account. As you prepare for a powerlifting competition, your program will have a lot of squats, bench presses, and deadlifts performed to competition standards. But during the base building phases, you may not be as focused on these three specific elevators.
Beginners often look at exercise choices in terms of targeting every muscle group they can think of, but this isn’t always a good strategy. You may forget about something that is really worth working on (see: all these memes about bros who skip leg day ); you can also just choose exercises that are not suitable for your goals. The program will help you make sure that you are doing what you need to do.
Progress
A good program doesn’t just tell you what exercises to do; he will also tell you how hard it is to do them. Some programs dictate that the weight you lift must be a certain percentage of your maximum weight for that exercise; others use RPE , an effort-based scale where you select a weight that matches how heavy the lift needs to be.
There are also approaches that combine these ideas or modify them slightly, such as programs that give you a percentage of your “training maximum,” which is adjusted separately from your actual maximum, or programs that prescribe a specific range of weights per day, allowing you to choose the exact number. from that range depending on how you feel.
All of this contributes to progress because it makes you notice how much weight you are lifting over time. For an RPE-based program, the weight that was in the eight last year will be greater than the weight that was in the eight this year. For a percentage based program, you are expected to receive a new PR from time to time that will increase all of your working weights for the next training block.
In addition, there are programs that instruct you to add a certain amount of weight within a specific time frame: 5 pounds per workout for the beginner program, perhaps 10 pounds to your maximum training maximum every three weeks, or in other cases you can check how many reps you can do with a specific weight to determine if you will gain weight next week. All of this gives you the opportunity to achieve the progressive overloads that are necessary to increase your strength.
Develop consistency
When you fly it, there is no particular reason to go to the gym on Friday. Maybe you will, maybe not. But if you’re following a program and Friday is your deadlift day, and you’re really in the mood to improve your deadlift (or increase your glutes, or whatever your goals are), you won’t miss Friday because you know how important it is to you. …
Having a program means you have a to-do list. This means that you have a process goal (do all of my workouts) in addition to your long term goal (get more deadlift / glutes). Our brains respond very well to crappy rewards like schedule marks , and our bodies respond very well to consistency over time .
So if you really want to get stronger and have some goals – whatever they may be – find the right program and start using your time in the gym more wisely.