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When you begin creating your fitness or weight loss program keep in mind the four steps that will guide you towards developing an effective program for reaching your desired goals.

Establish Goals

The first thing to do is to set up specific and realistic goals so you will have motivation, a target and a direction when designing your training program. Set long-term and short-term goals frequently and make sure they are not too hard but also that you will easily obtain them. Next, list exactly how you will achieve these goals including number of workouts, activity type, time in the day to workout, etc.

Quick Term Memorization

• Repetitions - are the number of times an exercise is done consecutively without rest.
• Set - is one complete series of continuous, consecutive repetitions.
• Workload - the amount of weight used in working a particular muscle or muscle group.

Begin to look at your lifestyle to see the changes needed to reach each goal in your program. Tracking your progress will assist you motivational and will aid in safety every time you workout to avoid over-training and injury.

Components of Strength Training Program

1) Frequency

Exercise each muscle group 2-4 times per week. Allow a minimum of 48 hours rest for each muscle group worked. If you are doing a total body workout, three training sessions per week, performed on every second day, is adequate.

2) Duration

A workout session should take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to complete.

3) Range of Motion

Moving through a complete range of motion (ROM) allows the muscle to stretch before contracting and increases the number of fibers being recruited. This produces maximum contradiction and force. By working the full ROM flexibility will be maintained or even increased.

4) Speed of Movement

Strength training movements should be slow and controlled. Do not use momentum to complete an exercise. Momentum puts unnecessary stress on tendons, ligaments and joints and does not develop increased strength.

5) Proper Form

Focus on the proper motion of the exercise, while concentrating on the specific muscles being used. Do not sacrifice proper form to lift heavier weight or perform more repetitions.

6) Rest Interval

Allow a brief pause between sets to give the muscles a chance to partially recover before working them again. For hypertrophy or muscle size development allow 1 to 1.5 minutes; for endurance allow 30 to 60 seconds; and for strength allow 3 to 4 minutes.

7) Breathing

Never hold your breath during any part of an exercise even though many people say to do so. Holding your breath may cause severe intra-thoracic pressure and raise blood pressure leading to dizziness, blackout or other complications. The rule of thumb is to exhale on exertion and inhale on the return part of the exercise.

Exercise Order

When strength training always remember to work larger muscles before smaller muscles. Exercises that involve more than one muscle group (compound exercise) should be at the beginning of your routine instead of exercises that only involve one muscle group (isolation exercises).

Order of Muscle Groups by Size:

1. Upper Body (Chest, Back, Shoulders, Triceps, Biceps, Forearms & Traps)
2. Lower Body (Quads, Hamstrings, Butt & Calves)
3. Core (Abs, Lower Back & Obliques)

Design Your Program

Go through each of the body sections in the exercise description section and pick out one to two exercises per body part. Write these exercises in your training diary or on a piece of paper. Mark next to each exercise the number of repetitions and sets you want to do and the workload or amount of weight to be lifted.

Sample Routine

The objective is to fatigue your muscles within a few repetitions for more muscle recruitment than just going high repetitions for endurance. Maitain proper form and move on to heavier weight as you progress. Now the only thing for you to do is start exercise you use what you just learned so good luck.

Source: www.top-weightloss-site.com/setting-up-your-fitness-program/