I know how many days to workout, but what exercises do I do?

Creating a well-rounded workout routine is essential for staying balanced, preventing injury, and making steady progress in your fitness journey.

Whether you’re training 3 days a week or 6, the key to success is structuring your workouts to include the most important elements every time you hit the gym.

Key Components to Include in Every Workout

1. Warm-Up (5-10 minutes)Warming up is crucial for preparing your body for exercise. A good warm-up increases your heart rate, improves circulation to your muscles, and enhances joint mobility, which helps prevent injury.
   • Dynamic stretches and mobility drills: Focus on movement-based stretches that activate your muscles and joints.
   • Light cardio: Something like jogging, jumping jacks, or cycling can increase your heart rate and loosen up tight muscles.
2. Compound Movements (15-30 minutes)These exercises should form the core of your workout. Compound movements engage multiple muscle groups at once, allowing you to build strength, burn more calories, and improve overall fitness.
   • Examples: Squats, deadlifts, bench press, rows, lunges, and overhead presses.
   • Focus on major muscle groups: legs, back, chest, and shoulders. Performing these movements regularly builds a solid foundation for strength and muscle development.
3. Accessory Work (15-20 minutes)After compound movements, you can shift to accessory exercises that target smaller muscles and work on any weaknesses or imbalances. Accessory work also allows you to improve stability and joint health.
   • Examples: Bicep curls, tricep extensions, lateral raises, hamstring curls, or calf raises.
   • Choose 2-3 exercises that complement your main lifts and help improve your overall balance and function.
4. Core Work/Carry Work (5-10 minutes)A strong core supports every movement you do, both inside and outside the gym. While compound exercises do engage your core, it’s important to include direct core work to ensure stability, posture, and injury prevention.
   • Examples: Planks, Russian twists, leg raises, farmers walks, front carry, sandbags
   • Aim for exercises that challenge both your abs and lower back for complete core development.
5. Cool Down (5-10 minutes)Cooling down helps your body transition from intense exercise back to its resting state. It can also help reduce muscle soreness and improve flexibility.
   • Static stretching: Focus on holding stretches to improve flexibility and calm your nervous system.
   • Foam rolling: Using a foam roller can help relieve tension in your muscles and speed up recovery.

Movement Patterns to Include Weekly for Balance

To stay balanced, it's important to train a variety of movement patterns that engage different muscle groups and prevent overuse injuries. Here are the key movement patterns you should incorporate into your weekly routine:

1. Squat Pattern: Squats target your legs, glutes, and core. This is an essential movement for lower-body strength and functional mobility.
   • Exercises: Barbell squats, goblet squats, Bulgarian split squats
2. Hinge Pattern: Hinging movements primarily engage the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back. This pattern helps strengthen your posterior chain, which is crucial for a balanced physique.
   • Exercises: Deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, kettlebell swings
3. Push Pattern: Pushing movements engage your chest, shoulders, and triceps. It’s important to include both horizontal and vertical pushing exercises in your routine.
   • Horizontal Push: Bench press, push-ups
   • Vertical Push: Overhead press, dumbbell shoulder press
4. Pull Pattern: Pulling exercises work your back, biceps, and rear deltoids. Like pushing, you should include both horizontal and vertical pulling movements.
   • Horizontal Pull: Barbell rows, cable rows
   • Vertical Pull: Pull-ups, lat pulldowns
5. Lunge Pattern: Lunges and split-stance movements target the legs and glutes while improving stability, coordination, and balance.
   • Exercises: Walking lunges, reverse lunges, step-ups
6. Carry Pattern: Carrying weight challenges your grip strength, core, and overall stability, mimicking real-life functional movements.
   • Exercises: Farmer’s carries, suitcase carries
7. Rotation and Anti-Rotation: These movements work your core in ways that help you stabilize your body during everyday tasks and sports. They’re key for injury prevention and overall functional strength.
   • Exercises: Russian twists, Pallof presses, woodchoppers

How to Stay Balanced Over the Week

• Full-Body Workouts: If you train 3 days a week, focus on full-body workouts that hit all of the major muscle groups. For example, one day could emphasize squats and presses, while another day focuses on deadlifts and pulls.
• Upper/Lower Split: If you train 4 days a week, you can alternate between upper- and lower-body days to ensure you’re getting enough volume on each muscle group while allowing recovery.
• Push/Pull/Legs Split: For those training 5-6 days a week, this is a great way to split up your workouts. Each day focuses on one main movement pattern (push, pull, or legs), allowing more focus on specific muscle groups.

The most important thing to remember is that your body thrives on balance. Overworking one muscle group while neglecting others can lead to imbalances, poor performance, and injury.

Including a mix of strength, cardio, flexibility, and recovery in your routine will ensure you’re staying on the right track.

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