The Complete Guide on How to Build Your Strength Training Workout Routine

If you’re struggling with what to do for your own strength training workout routine then consider this your lucky day.

I always get asked,

“Austin, what exercises should I do for a workout?”

“Austin, how do I design my own workout routine?”

“Austin, can you design a workout program for me??”

Well, today is your lucky day.

In this article, I am going to show you step-by-step on how to build a strength training program for overall strength and muscle.

Now, I do want to preface the rest of this article by saying this, it doesn’t matter if your goals are to lose weight or gain weight, strength training should be a staple part of your exercise routine.

Why?

Because the benefits of strength training go so much farther beyond getting yoked or getting strong.

Even elite endurance athletes do strength training (which is considered to be on the opposite spectrum to their main sport).

Now, let’s say you don’t care about being the biggest or the strongest person in the room, you’re the average Joe or Jane just looking to get fitter, get healthier, look better and feel better.

Why You Need To Do A Strength Training Workout Routine

You see, strength training goes way beyond just being a bodybuilder or powerlifter.

When you strength train, you not only strengthen your muscles, but along with everything else that your muscles attach to, such as your bones, tendons, and ligaments.

Now that I’ve convinced you as to why you should strength train, let’s talk about how they specifically benefit you regardless of whether your goals are to lose weight or to gain weight.

How A Strength Training Workout Routine Benefits Weight Loss

I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve heard:

“My goal is only to lose weight. I don’t care about building muscle or strength. I just want to lose fat.”

That’s great and all, but when you realize how much strength training can speed up weight loss, you’ll most likely change your answer.

How?

I explain exactly how in this other I wrote, “The Best Exercises for Losing Weight“, but in short, strength training can aid weight loss by:

• Boosting your metabolism which will increase the number of calories you burn at rest
• Helping to improve your muscle definition as you lose fat
• Being much more fun than doing hours of steady-state cardio

How A Strength Training Workout Routine Benefits Weight Gain

For most people, when their goal is to gain weight, I doubt they set their minds on trying to get as fat as possible.

Usually, you want to gain some muscle, look less thin, and be at a healthier and more nourished weight.

But in order to accomplish those things above, you must do some kind of strength training.

I often like to say that training is the stimulator for growth and improvement, whereas nutrition is the facilitator.

Think of it like this, training is the driver of your body towards those goals while nutrition is the navigator sitting shotgun to guide your body in the right direction.

Step #1: What workout routine best fits your situation?

The first step to determining what your training program should look like is by answering a few questions:

• What are your goals?
  • Weight loss?
  • Getting as muscular as possible?
  • Getting as strong as possible?
  • Training for a specific sport?

By answering this question, you can determine what specific exercises will allow you to specifically train to reach your goals in the most efficient way.

• How much time can you dedicate to exercising?

This obviously varies from person to person.

For those at the very top and are striving to be the best of the best or participate in a professional sport, training for several hours a day makes sense.

For the individual who doesn’t necessarily want to perform at an extremely high level, but still wants to maximize their own given potential while maintaining a mostly “typical” life, then training for a couple of hours every other day makes sense.

For the average gym-goer who is looking to get into better shape, look a little better, and feel a bit healthier, they might only want to dedicate a few hours a week to training.

For the average mother who has a spouse to tend to, a couple of kids to feed, cook and clean for, and working a full-time job, she maybe only has 30 minutes twice a week to train.

And these are all fine!

It doesn’t matter how much time you’re able to commit to the gym. What matters most is developing the most efficient use of the time you have in order to help you reach the goals you want.

Because why waste an extra 2 hours at the gym when you can get the results spending 30 minutes there?

However, this is NOT to be confused with long-term time commitment.

If you want to build your best body, you have to focus on changing your habits and lifestyle. By focusing on these, it will ensure you not only achieve the results but keep them for good.

So if you want to set yourself up for success, look at your timeline in terms of months and years, not days or weeks.

• WHERE are you going to be training at?

This answer will give you an idea of what type of equipment you have access to which will determine what exercises you can and cannot do.

At this point, we should have determined:

• What your situation and goals are
• How much time you can dedicate to training
• The ideal location you want to train at

Now that we have all of this information, we can start doing the fun part of actually building your workout routine!

Step #2: What exercises should I include in my workout routine to lose weight (or build muscle)?

I’ve always been a fan of the saying, K.I.S.S. or “Keep it simple, stupid.”

(I am not saying you’re stupid. I didn’t invent it the saying, I’m just the messenger.)

People often ask, what is the best workout?

Well, that depends. On many things. Like your goals, what type of exercises you like to do, and how effective an exercise is in helping you achieve said goal.

But most important of all, the best workout is the one that you enjoy and can stick to.

People often make the mistake of making things way too complicated by trying to do as many exercises and as many sets and reps as possible in a limited time frame.

Which is counterproductive because it’s unnecessary, inefficient, and exhausting.

Instead, Keep. It. Simple.

In fact, so simple that I’ve narrowed it down to 6 exercises! The game plan is to stick with these 6 exercises and to focus on getting stronger on these movements.

Your workout routine should contain exercises that train these specific large muscle groups for a well-rounded physique:

• Quads (front of your legs)
• Glutes and hamstrings (back of your legs)
• Chest, shoulders, and triceps (“push” muscles)
• Upper back and biceps (“pull” muscles)
• Core (midsection, abs, and lower back)

Now, this doesn’t mean that you should go to the gym everyday and do every single machine and smoke every single part of your body until it hurts.

Recall that we want to do things efficiently and intelligently.

Firstly, we want to pick compound movements, or movements that train multiple large muscle groups at the same time. This allows you to get a better bang for your buck in terms of time and energy spent working out versus working every single individual muscle group at a time.

Here are some examples of some different exercises that will work each the muscle groups mentioned:

• Quads – squats, lunges, single-leg squats, step-ups, Bulgarian split squats
• Glutes and Hamstrings – deadlifts, hip thrusts, glute bridges, Romanian deadlifts, straight leg deadlifts, good mornings
• Chest, shoulders, and triceps – overhead press, bench press, incline bench press, push-ups, dips
• Upper back and biceps – chin-ups, pull-ups, inverted row, barbell/dumbbell rows, pulldowns,
• Core – planks, side planks, mountain climbers, lying leg raises, hanging leg raises, Russian twists, bicycle crunches

Pick a couple of exercises from each category, train them consistently, and focus on getting stronger and you’ll end up with a pretty good looking physique.

Again, this may not sound like anything special, you don’t need to be jumping on the newest exercise trend if you want to get great results.

Keep it simple.

As for what exercises you should do on certain days, this is entirely up to you. When I program workouts for my clients, I like to group days into either upper body, lower body, or full body. This way, taking their own preferences and considerations into account, we can either focus on specific muscle groups or do a bit of everything to hit a “full-body sampler” if they are pressed on time.

For example, if you want an effective and simple gym workout:

• Squats: 3 sets of 8-12
• Deadlifts: 3 sets of 8-12
• Bench Press: 3 sets of 8-12
• Inverted Rows: 3 sets of 8-12
• Russian Twists 3 sets of 12-15

You seriously don’t need more than this!

And the best part is: you can use this same workout routine whether you’re trying to build muscle, lose fat, or both at the same time.

Again, your training doesn’t need to change all that much regardless of whether you want to gain or lose weight. Your nutrition is the facilitator of weight gain or loss.

However, regardless of whatever you workout you choose to do, here’s my BIGGEST piece of advice: GET STRONGER.

Because regardless of what training program you use, if you don’t apply this, you won’t see growth or changes.

Enter progressive overload.

Progressive overload is just a fancy way of saying “to increasingly challenge your body over time.”

This can be done in a multitude of ways:

• Lifting more weight
• Doing the same weight for more sets
• Doing the same weight for more reps
• Decreasing the rest time between sets
• Slowing down the time of your reps (increasing time under tension)
• Doing the same weight but with pause reps

What is so game changing about this?

You see, when you workout for a while, your body starts to adapt and become efficient at doing a movement. That’s why after a while of doing the same exact workout it doesn’t feel as challenging as the first time you did it.

If you want your body to grow and change, you must challenge it further by applying progressive overload.

Otherwise, if you want your body to stay the same, then keep doing the same workout with the same weight over and over again.

And don’t say I didn’t warn you, if you truly apply progressive overload…

IT WILL BE UNCOMFORTABLE.

You will really have to push your limits, challenge yourself, and get out of your comfort zone.

Because the comfort zone isn’t the place where change happens.

However, this does not mean pushing yourself to absolute failure until you break something or pass out.

You want to strive for the last 2-3 reps to be challenging.

Ultimately, regardless of what exercises you choose, as long as you implement progressive overload, your body will grow and change.

Step #3: How many sets and reps to do in my workout routine?

If you’re new to strength training this is what sets and reps are defined as:

For example, if you were to get down and do 10 push ups right now without stopping, you just did 1 set of 10 reps (or repetitions) of push-ups.

Now, for the appropriate amount of volume (total sets and reps per workout) most of the research points to 10-20 challenging sets per body part, per week. The more novice you are, stick to the lower end and the more advanced you are, stick to the higher end.

So depending on how often you want to workout (I recommend 3-4 days per week), this breaks down to 3-5 sets per exercise (not including warm up sets).

As for reps, you might have heard, “if you want to burn fat, you need to do low weight high rep” and “if you want to get big and strong, you need to do high weight low rep.”

And I’m here to tell you, this is complete bullshit. I used to believe in this too so you’re not alone.

One thing to keep in mind is:

You can get stronger, build muscle, and lose fat regardless of what rep ranges you train in.

However, certain rep ranges can certainly be better and safer depending on your goals.

As you can see, whether your goals are purely strength, purely muscle growth, or purely endurance, you can achieve all of these with various rep ranges, however certain rep ranges can more effective than others.

However, in my personal anecdotal experience and working with clients, I find that the most effective rep range for the general lifter is going to be in the 6-15 rep range.

Why? Let’s break this down.

From a goals perspective:

For the general lifter, their goals are to build some strength, build some muscle, lose some fat, and want to get healthier overall.

Therefore, from this, we can conclude that for the most part, this type of person isn’t all that interested in maximizing any end of the spectrum of either pure strength or pure endurance. They likely want to achieve somewhere in the middle.

From a safety perspective:

In order to get a similar stimulus from the weight we lift, if we lower the number of reps, then we need to increase the weight we’re lifting to balance it out, makes enough sense, right?

So, when we increase the weight, this number will get closer to our true 1RM (1 rep max) or maximum amount of weight you can lift for 1 repetition.

And as we know that the higher amount of weight you lift, generally, the higher chance you have of getting an injury. Think about it, is it more stressful on your body to carry 50 lbs or 500 lbs?

Therefore, if you want to maximize strength, muscle, endurance, and safety, I recommend training the exercises above with a variety of rep ranges between 6-15 reps.

Putting your workout routine all together…

For each exercise you want to 3-5 sets of 6-15 reps per set.

As long as the number of sets you do per body part add up to a minimum of 10 sets per week, that’s enough.

Again, don’t over think this.

If you’re still having trouble trying to pick where to start, always start off with less and you can always add more sets or reps if you want to increase the challenge.

This is better than overreaching, doing too much from the start, burning yourself out, and then giving up because you’re in so much pain the next day.

In most cases, more does not necessarily mean better.

Again, the sets and reps don’t matter as much as the application of progressive overload (seeing the theme here?).

The most important thing is to listen to your body and apply changes as needed.

Did your workout the other day feel too easy? Add more work. Go harder than last time.

Did your workout the other day feel a little too hard and you’re a tad too sore today? Cut down on the work. Go easier than last time.

Listen to your body. It’s a lot smarter than you give it credit for. Dial things up or down depending on what it is telling you. Just because some random YouTube video said you “have” to do 15 sets per exercise each workout doesn’t mean you “have” to if your body hates you for doing it.

Side note: You must have your nutrition in check if you want to maximize strength, muscle, or fat loss results. Training takes you part of the way there, but if you aren’t fueling your body correctly, then you’re only making your progress that much slower.

And if you don’t have the time or energy to figure any of this out, want to be told exactly what to do, be sure to check out my online coaching program.

Step #4: How long should I rest in between sets?

This varies depending on your fitness level and goals so there aren’t any specific rules. The research on this is also pretty muddy. We have a general idea but nothing is definitive or conclusive.

However, in my personal experience with myself and clients, here’s what I recommend (not hard rules):

• Lifting for maximum strength or power: rest 3-5 minutes between each set.
• Lifting for strength/size hybrid: rest 2-3 minutes between each set
• Lifting for endurance: rest 1-2 minutes between each set

One common mistake I see way too often is when people are working out at the gym and doing circuits with 10 different exercises trying to do as many sets and reps as they can while giving themselves as little rest as possible.

But the truth is, if you want to build a significant amount of muscle, you will need to rest in between your sets.

If you don’t give yourself enough time to rest, you won’t be able to let your muscles properly recover to push yourself hard and properly apply progressive overload.

To ensure that you get enough rest in between sets, rather than sitting around and going by feel, take out your phone (you’re probably looking at it anyway), pull up your stopwatch, and time your rest periods. This ensures that you don’t overshoot your rest period and have your muscles relax and get cold, or undershoot your rest period and trying to push yourself while your muscles are still fatigued.

Step #5: How much should I lift?

Again, don’t overthink this. (This isn’t the first or the last time I’m going to say this)

But simply put:

Lift enough so that you can get through the set with the last few reps being challenging, but not so much that you have no fuel in the tank at the end.

And I admit, that’s probably not the answer you wanted.

And quite frankly, I can’t give you an exact answer.

It depends. This amount will be done through trial and error.

And especially when you’re new to lifting, it is always safer to go “too light” than to go “too heavy.”

Because it is always better to say “I bet I could have done more!” rather than “I did too much, and I think I broke something!”

As for body weight exercises, there will come a time when your body weight can become too easy for you to just rep out sets of 20 in a row with ease. This is when it’s time to mix it up and add a challenging spin to it.

I’ve always been a fan of “if you can do something with two limbs, make it harder by doing it with one.”

Repping out 20 push ups on the regular? Try to learn to rep out one arm push ups!

Repping out 20 body weight squats with ease? Try to learn to rep out pistol squats!

Repping out pull ups? Try it with one arm!

You get the point, but the added strength and balance challenge will definitely keep you busy for a while 😉

Step #6: How long should my workout routine be?

Simple, 45 minutes to an hour. Unless you like living in the gym…

If you’re doing 15-25 sets of exercises (3-5 sets of your 5 exercises), then you can easily finish your workout in under an hour.

And if you’re factoring in a 5-10 minute warm up along with a stretching or cooldown afterward, you’re looking at a little bit longer.

However, if you’re able to go through the entire workout barely breaking a sweat, then you’re probably not working hard enough (not that sweating is a good indicator, but if you’re truly pushing yourself you’re probably going to sweat a little bit).

In that case, up the intensity, cut down on the sets.

Less time, more intensity, harder workout, better results.

And what if you don’t have 45 minutes?

Do the best you can. You don’t have to do every single exercise for that many exact sets and reps to get a good workout in.

As long as you’re able to hit every single muscle group at least once and are applying progressive overload, you’ll be getting some work done.

And some work is better than no work.

If you want a little bit more insight into working out as a time-crunched individual then keep reading. This next section is for you.

Step #7: Using supersets and circuit training in your workout routine to save time and STILL get a good workout in

Look, I know I said earlier in the article that people often make the mistake of doing circuit style training without taking enough rest time.

While that is still true and I meant what I said, most people at the gym clearly have enough time considering how much time they spend chatting and scrolling on their phones.

However, for the busy people who actually need a quick in and out workout that is both effective and efficient, this is for you.

A quick note that applying strength training with a circuit or superset routine is not necessarily used to maximize strength or muscle growth, but just a way to get more volume (amount of lifting work done) in less time.

However, strength training in a circuit and superset style can be extremely efficient if your main goal is just get a good workout in and improve overall health because:

• The very short rest times will give you a cardiovascular workout because little rest = elevated heart rate for an extended period of time.
• By pairing different muscle group exercises back to back, you’re able to simultaneously let a muscle group rest while working another muscle group. How’s that for efficiency?

If you want to ramp up your sweat glands and heart rate in a short amount of time, then this is for you.

Now here are the two types we’re covering:

• Supersets (or alternating sets)
• Circuit training

Supersets:

Supersets are the basic idea of doing one set of one exercise and then another set of a different exercise targeting a different muscle group with little to no rest in between each set.

For example, you do a set of deadlifts, follow it up with bench presses for another set, and then rinse and repeat one after the other until you finish all of your sets.

This works because you’re training two completely different (and usually opposite) muscle groups. This means that you can keep working one while the other is “resting.”

You can now do the same amount of work in less time.

And because you’re resting less, your heart rate stays elevated and you get a bit of a cardio workout too.

Let’s see how this could play out in a real-world example:

• First superset would be 3 alternating sets each of squats and dumbbell rows with one minute of rest in between each set.
• Give yourself a few minutes to rest, recover, catch your breath, and of course, put back your weights (you are doing this, right…?).
• Next superset is up, 3 alternating sets each of deadlifts and bench press, again, one-minute rest between each set.
• Rest, recover, catch your breath, put back your weights.
• 3 sets of hanging leg raises, stretch and cooldown, and you’re good to go do other stuff

Circuit Training:

A circuit, rather than alternating between two exercises, you get to alternate between several exercises in a row with little to no rest.

The goal is to eventually do all of the exercises consecutively with no rest, but I won’t snitch if it’s your first time 😉

Here are some example circuits I’ve written for clients:

Beginner Bodyweight Circuit (3 Rounds):

1. 20 Bodyweight Squats
2. 10 Push Ups
3. 10 Lunges (each leg)
4. Dumbbell Rows (use some sort of weight, milk jug, laundry detergent bottle, etc.)
5. 15-30 second Plank
6. 30 Jumping Jacks

Advanced Bodyweight Circuit (3-5 Rounds):

1. 10 One-Legged Squats (each leg)
2. 20 Bodyweight Squats
3. 20 Walking Lunges (10 each leg)
4. 20 Jump Step-Ups (10 each leg)
5. 10 Pull-Ups (or inverted bodyweight rows using your kitchen table)
6. 10 Dips – Bar Stools
7. 10 Chin-Ups (or inverted bodyweight rows with an underhand grip)
8. 10 Push-Ups
9. 30-60 Second Plank

Beginner Kettlebell Circuit (3 Rounds):

1. 10 Halos (each side)
2. 20 Goblet Squats
3. 10 Overhead Presses (each side)
4. 20 Kettlebell Swings
5. 10 Bent Over Rows (each side)
6. 10 Front Rack Reverse Lunge (per side)

Rather have a customized program for your specific goals and needs? Check out my online coaching program to learn more.

Step #8: How many days per week should I train?

This question is extremely common. Especially from those of you who are super motivated and excited to start working out. However, here’s the problem…

Most of you go from “watching The Office 7 days a week” to “exercising 7 days a week.”

While I have nothing against watching The Office every single day…

You don’t need to be training 7 days a week.

Unless you want to burn out and give up within the first two weeks of starting your new routine, don’t go from training zero days a week to every single day of the week.

Instead, focus on gradually increasing your healthy habits.

Rather than flipping your entire diet upside down? Start by adding in more vegetables or drinking more water.

Rather than working out 7 days a week? Start with 2-3 workouts a week.

For one, the muscle building process doesn’t actually happen when you’re working out.

When you’re lifting weights, your muscles are actually getting broken down, and then the rebuilding process happens when you’re resting (and probably watching The Office).

Research has shown that muscles need between 24 to 48 hours to recover between intense workouts.

Ideally, your workout schedule should have at least a day of recovery/rest in between each session.

For example, a typical workout routine I recommend to many is Monday-Wednesday-Friday, Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday, or Sunday-Tuesday-Thursday.

Personally, for the longest time, I’ve made some of the best results in my life sticking to a simple Monday-Wednesday-Friday full-body routine while focusing on the compounds movements listed above and really concentrated on getting strong at those movements.

Even at a more advanced stage of my training status today, I still only workout 4 days a week with a Monday-Wednesday-Friday-Saturday routine (note that my Friday and Saturday workouts target different muscle groups).

“But Austin, what if I WANT to work out on my off days?” That’s fine, too!

However, don’t pick a type of exercise that has a similar intensity level on your muscles like lifting. You still need to let your muscles properly recover.

Rather, pick a type of exercise that is fun, easygoing, and active for you.

For example, even on the days I don’t lift, I still do 20-30 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio or get my steps in by walking so that I still get some activity in, but don’t tax my muscles too hard.

Here’s a quick tip if you struggle with finding the time to consistently workout. Book your workouts INTO your calendar like you would a meeting or appointment.

This will help keep you accountable because it has already been planned for AHEAD of time rather than being a spur of the moment thing (like right after work when you’re tired and unmotivated).

Step #9: Keep track of everything!

Lastly, and I cannot stress this enough. TRACK. YOUR. WORKOUTS.

I don’t care how ashamed you feel bringing a journal to the gym to write down your workouts.

Call it your “Diary of Gainz” or whatever.

This helps you keep track of your progress over time and keeps you accountable to get better each workout.

Whether it’s lifting more weight, lifting the same amount of weight more times than the last session, or finishing the same routine in a shorter timeframe, always focus on improving.

Personally, I don’t use any special journal, notebook, complicated Excel spreadsheet, or fancy workout app. My Diary of Gainz is just in the Notes app on my iPhone.

For my tracking, I note down the date, muscle groups worked, exercises, sets & reps, and the amount of weight I lifted for each set.

Simple and effective.

The whole point is to hold yourself accountable to improve each and every workout in some way.

Because this is how progressive overload is achieved.

Again, keep it simple:

1. Record the date, the exercises you did, the number of sets & reps, and the amount of weight you lifted.
2. The next time you step foot into the gym, look at your previous numbers and see if you can do better.
3. Do better. (getting stronger by doing more reps, lifting heavier weights, doing an additional set, etc.)
4. Repeat for more gainz.

As long as you apply all of these steps, I guarantee you will get results.

Final Thoughts

I’ll say it one last time.

Keep it simple.

You don’t have to reinvent anything or do something no one else has done before because chances are, it doesn’t work.

Why do something new and different when the same old thing has already been time tested and proven to work?

So let’s recap on how you’re going to crush your goals:

• ALWAYS warm up – you want to start off with 5-10 minutes of light cardio to get the blood flowing, warm up your muscles, and get your heart rate up and ready to work.
• Pick one exercise for each large muscle group – quads, glutes and hamstrings, push, pull, and core.
• Do 3-5 sets for each exercise.
• Do 6-15 reps for each exercise.
• Determine how many reps you’re going to perform and the rest time between each set for each exercise – try to beat your previous numbers if your goal is to build strength and muscle and rest 2-3 minutes between sets.
• Crunched on time to finish a workout? – throw in some supersets or circuits.
• Spend some time stretching and cooling down AFTER your workout.
• Track your workouts so that you can focus on progressive overload!!
• Don’t be afraid to mess up, learn to love the process, and always strive to keep improving!

And as with everything else in life, apply some patience and consistency and you’ll be able to build an impressive physique. One that people will look up to and ask “how did you do it?”

Hope this helps you build a workout program to build muscle, lose fat, and get fit!

And if you ever have any questions, please reach out and email me at chanaustinb@gmail.com with the subject line “Designing a Workout Program.”

Coaching Opportunity

I am currently taking on new clients for online coaching.

A few benefits of this program include:

• Customized nutrition plan tailored to your individual needs and goals
• Customized training plan to help you build muscle, lose fat, and get fit
• Daily accountability and support to ensure that you never feel “alone” or “stuck” on your journey to bettering yourself.

The best part: you can do this from anywhere in the world.

You can apply here for more info.