A personal trainer reveals how to put together the perfect gym routine to sculpt and tone your body
I’m pretty good at motivating myself to go to the gym, but once I get there I often find myself at a bit of a loose end. If you’re not following a strict plan with a personal trainer or attending a class, it can be hard to know what to do, and visiting the gym ends up feeling slightly directionless.
One option to resolve this would be to work with a PT, but unfortunately many of us are finding it hard to justify even gym fees right now, let alone the extra cost of having workout guidance. Luckily, Carol Impey, a personal trainer and manager at Anytime Fitness has shared her advice for carving out a successful gym routine.
Firstly, it’s important to think about your goals and the body parts you’d like to work on or strengthen up through visiting the gym. For many of us the whole body is important, in which case ‘you could split your workouts into upper body and lower body’, says Impey. ‘For beginners, I recommend planning at least two to three workouts per week.’
To do this, choose around four to six exercises that workout the body part you are focusing on for that session. There are lots of exercise libraries online to help you with this – muscleandstrength.com has videos of exercises, and is divided up by body area.
‘Have a good look around the gym and familiarise yourself with what machines there are; lots will have a handy little QR code that you can scan with your phone, and this will show you a video on how to use the specific piece of kit correctly,’ says Impey. ‘You can always speak to a member of the gym team if you are unsure of how to use anything,’ she adds.
Then ‘keep it simple with the 3 x 12 method (three sets of 12 repetitions) and make sure you have adequate rest in between. Sixty seconds would be ideal; give yourself a little longer if needed,’ says Impey.
Another option is to find an online workout to follow – YouTube is a great source for finding workouts from qualified coaches. The You magazine team recommend Growingannanas, Kayla Itsines, MadFit, Yoga with Adriene, Izzy Samuel and Erin Sampson. Or, you can try taking a class that focuses around strength training or bodyweight movements, and then transfer some of the exercises you’ve picked up to the gym floor.
Writing down your workout and tracking your progress will also help give you direction. ‘Use a notebook or the notes section on your phone to track reps and sets, and also write down how they felt (too heavy, not heavy enough),’ says Impey. You can use this to help you slowly increase weights or reps, and see how you are progressing over time.
