Building Confidence for Open Gym
Off the back of our first Coached Open Gym session I wanted to make sure you gals have somewhere to refer back to when it comes to how to plan your weights sessions. It can be daunting to try to plan your own sessions but having a little better understanding of the how and why can go a long way in building the confidence to just give it a go!
Here's how I've laid this guide out..
- What to include
- What order to put it in
- Other considerations
- Example Sessions
It can seem overwhelming when thinking of what to do even do when you walk in the door but the best way to start narrowing down what to do is to think what will be most functional for you in your everyday life. Do you spend all day picking kids up from the floor? Lifting things down off shelves? Carrying around shopping, feed bags or compost? Painting your new house? To work out what exercises mimic these everyday movements we need to know what the basic movement patterns are and how they translate into exercises that we can do in open gym.
Structure your sessions around exercises from the 6 Basic Movement Patterns
Push (vertical - shoulder press / Horizontal - chest press, press up) - strong shoulders come from these, hello freshly painted ceiling!
Pull (vertical - pull up or lat pull downs / horizontal - all sorts of rows) - better posture found here!
Squat (goblet, barbell, sumo, narrow - you get my drift!) - getting things off the bottom shelf, this is for you!
Hinge / Hip Dominant (deadlift / hip thrust) - picking up kids or heavy things all day, this is where its at
Lunge (reverse lunge, static lunge) - going up or down stairs, walking, getting down onto the floor
Loaded Carry (suitcase / farmers, waiters carry) - lugging the weekly shop back to the car, carry toddlers!
Including single sided or "unilateral" work is also a great addition to your workout. Adding this type of movement helps address muscular imbalances, balance and mobility. They're really helpful if you have a job where you use one side of your body more (like your home office mouse) or for mums of babes/toddlers who need picking up and cuddling for long periods of time - I see you popping that hip and holding on for dear life! ;)
These are things like:
Lunges
Single leg RDL
Side lunges
Single arm chest press,
Single arm row,
Single arm shoulder press
Step Ups
Now you have the movement patterns needed to make up a functional program you'll want to put them into a workout. I want you think to of your session as a 5 course meal...
The Starter: Warm Up to prepare the body and mind for exercise, reduce the risk of injury and improve overall flexibility and mobility.
Things like:
Bear crawls
Glute Bridges
Cat Cow
Thoracic Openers
Rockbacks
Dead Bugs
Bodyweight Squat
Bodyweight Reverse Lunges
The Main Course: Compound Exercises
These are multi-joint movements that target more than one muscle group at once. These should go at the beginning of your session. They are more challenging and require more from you both physically and mentally. They are things like:
Squats
Deadlifts
Bench Press
Pull Ups
Overhead Press
Hip Thrusts
Rows
Lunges
The Side Dish: Isolation Exercises
Require the movement of one joint and one muscle group acting as the boss. They are things like:
Bicep Curls
Tricep Extensions
Chest Fly
Hamstring Curls
Quad Extensions
The Dessert: Core work
Our core is responsible for stabilising and support the spine as well as allowing us to move in all kinds of wild and whacky ways from tip to toe. Include things like:
Dead Bugs
Pallof Press
Front Plank
Side Plank
Slow Mountain Climbers
The Night Cap: Your Cool Down Stretch
Static stretches of the muscles you've used in your session. These are things like:
Hip Flexor Stretches
Quad Stretch
Pigeon Pose
Shoulder Stretch
Choose 5-6 exercises for each session and try to spread your main compounds out throughout the week. Some nice ways to split up your workouts are doing 2 or 3 full body days in the week (Example: Mon/Weds/Fri to allow for rest days so your body can recover in between) or an Upper or Lower body split (Example: Tues/Thurs). How many reps (the amount of times you do the exercise) and sets (the amount of times you do that many reps) can look different but generally a good place to start is to do 2-3 sets of 8-10 reps.
There are further considerations when it comes to how many reps/sets/rest, the total volume of all the work you do and managing it over time, progressions based on your skill level, personal goals and lifestyle but for now don't over think it. The main thing is to start! Your workout doesn't need to be perfect, you don't need to be perfect. The main thing is that you learn and onboard information as you go so you can make informed decisions about your own body. I'm always here if you want extra support, to answer questions about what to do and if you really aren't into the DIY approach (which is totally ok!) then I can always do you programming for you with our Hybrid Basic plan.
For now, as promised I leave you with some example sessions that you can crack on with straight away!
Complete Beginners Full Body Foundation
Workout 1
Bodyweight or Goblet Squat to bench 2-3x10-12, rest 1-2 min
Half-Kneeling Single Arm Row / Split Stance Row 2-3x10-12, rest 30 sec
Glute Bridge / Dumbbell Glute Bridge 2-3x10-12, rest 30 sec
Half-Kneeling Pallof Press or Tall Kneeling (with band)
2-3x10-12, rest 30 sec
Kneeling Front Plank 3x, 10 sec holds, rest 30 sec
Workout 2
Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift 2-3x10-12, rest 1-2 min
Half or Tall Kneeling Single Arm Overhead Press
2-3x10-12, rest 30 sec
Bodyweight / Dumbbell Split Squat
2-3x10-12, rest 1-2 min
Straight-Arm Banded or Pulley Pull-Down 2-3x10-12, rest 30 sec
Kneeling Side Plank
3x6, 5-sec holds, rest 30 sec
Example Upper Body Session
Band Assisted Pull Up or Band Lat Pull Downs
3x8-1 rest 1-2 min
Dumbbell or Barbell Overhead Press
3x8-10, rest 1-2 min
One-Arm DB Row 3x8-10/side, minimal rest Incline Press Up
3x8-10, rest 1-2 min
Bicep Curls
2x8-10, minimal rest Tricep Overhead Extension
2x8-10, rest 1-2 min
Farmer’s Carry 3x15 paces, minimal rest
Example Lower Body Session
Barbell Deadlift
3x8-10, rest 1-2 min
Dumbbell or Barbell Squat
3x 8-10, rest 1-2 min
Dumbbell or Barbell Glute Bridge
3x 8-10, rest 1-2 min
Split Squats
2x 8-10, rest 1-2 mins
Deadbug
3x 16
Clamshells
3 x 16, rest 1 min
Happy Training & Happy Friday my gorgeous girls. May you be well and strong as hell!
Tiff xx
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