Hi, my name's Raghav and I am a sophomore in highschool. In my free time, I love wrestling and working out. So, when I heard about State of Mind, I was thrilled to have a platform where I could share my interests. I’m so excited to be part of this team and help people connect to their community even through these tough times.
Beginner
Intermediate
Advanced
Beginner
Beginners Advice
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How do you know if you are a beginner?
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Beginners in this field are usually people who haven’t gotten the chance to try working out with a plan or even work out at all. Remember that it is completely fine, but if you are looking for a great place to start, this plan is a perfect opportunity to get into working out. Beginners can also be people who have just recently set a goal in their physical health and are just starting their journey. If you don’t know how to plan out workouts to improve physical health and strength, the beginner plan is for you.
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Why should you workout?
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Working out has numerous benefits. As a beginner, you can start healthy habits and slowly work up to an intermediate plan. You can use your workouts to release stress and things on your mind. A workout a week as a beginner can help calm your nerves building up the whole week. If you play a sport, you can slowly start building strength and endurance at a slow, comfortable pace. Even if you never work out, you might find the exercises fun and challenging, and who knows- you might find a new hobby.
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Tips for beginners:
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Focus on making new habits. Working out is new to you, so following a one week plan should help you start a healthy workout routine.
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Focus on easy, bodyweight exercises. Weights are harder to use without experience.
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Focus on learning the exercises. As a beginner you should focus on form, and take things nice and slowly. The last thing you want is to do an exercise wrong and injure yourself!
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Find motivation. The better your motivation, the more effort you will end up giving.
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Avoid distractions! As a beginner it is easy to lose focus and give up. During your workout time give it your all! Try your best and try new exercises.
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Beginner Workouts
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Workout structure:
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In the beginner plan, you should be following a one-hour workout session about once a week. Each session, you will be activating all parts of your body. Usually, workout plans make different days workout different body parts. Since you only workout once a week, a full-body workout will work very well.
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Each workout will include 5-10 different exercises. Each exercise will have several reps and sets. Reps are the number of repetitions of the movement you have to do, and sets are the number of times you have to do the set amount of repetitions. For example, if I do 10 pushups 3 times, I would have completed 10 reps and 3 sets of pushups.
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Once you have completed the exercise (all sets are completed), move to the next exercise. Remember, as a beginner, you should focus on bodyweight exercises. It's incredibly important to remember to listen to your body if you need to take a break and take it. Also, drink water and stretch before and after a workout.
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When doing the beginner plan, remember to:
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Take breaks in-between workouts and sets. Not reps.
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Change reps based on personal preference. For example, if 15 pushups are too hard, change it to 10. Don’t change reps just because they hard, but instead if you physically can't complete full sets
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Stretch for about 5 min before and after workout to avoid injury
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Reps can be measured in minutes as well as repetitions. For example, a time would make more sense rather than a number of repetitions for a plank hold.
Intermediate
Intermediate Advice
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How do you know if you are in an intermediate stage in working out?
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Intermediate people in this field have had experience working out. These people have built up healthy workout habits and are ready to move on from more than one workout a week. They have started learning how to plan workouts and target specific muscle groups. Still, they need some help, especially if you are an athlete it's essential to continue exercising during the offseason to build up strength and endurance for when you have to perform.
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Why should you workout?
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I have a lot of experience working out, and I believe the intermediate plan should be used to continue these healthy habits and take them to the next level. Working out three times a week helps your physical well being much more than someone at a beginner's level. If you use working out as stress relevant, the intermediate plan can help you do it more frequently. In terms of building strength, the intermediate program helps target muscle groups more precisely than the beginner plan. The intermediate plan has more complex exercises for people who have more experience of working out. They will have a mix of weights and bodyweight exercises.
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Tips for intermediate skill based people:
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Focus on continuing the habits of working out you developed and do them more frequently. Make sure to workout every other day!
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Start upping your game to more complex, harder workouts which are more beneficial.
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Continue on learning and perfecting workout form. Injuries are still a problem for people with more experience.
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Rest days are important.
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Make sure you have strong motivation. With more frequency in working out, it will be easier to give up.
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When starting with weighted exercises, focus on the movement and contractions of muscles before you increase weight.
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Intermediate Workouts
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Workout structure:
In the intermediate plan, you should be doing a one-hour workout session about three times a week. The three workouts will consist of a pull day, push day, and leg day. Pull day will incorporate exercises with more of a pulling motion, and push day will include more of a pushing motion. Both pull and push day will incorporate upper body exercises. Leg day will only have leg exercises.
Each workout will have about 5-10 different exercises, each with a different amount of sets and reps. Remember to make a smart rep amount. The rep amount is different for everyone; it should be challenging and possible and safe for you and your body. As an intermediate in this field, you should be trying exercises and making your own sets and reps that suits you. Remember, the intermediate plan should incorporate body weight as well as weighted exercises.
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A s an intermediate, remember to:
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Workout every other day. Don’t workout 3 days in a row, but instead workout every other day.
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Keep sets at 3. When you get to the advanced stage you can learn how to do the other forms of sets.
Advanced
How do you know if you are in an advanced stage in working out?
People who are advanced in this field have lots of experience working out. These people incorporate exercise in their everyday routine and have made habits into routines. People in this stage know their way around the weight room and know lots of exercises and the techniques that go along with it. They know how to target specific muscle groups and know strategies to increase their strength and endurance.
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Why should you workout?
I have a lot of experience working out, and I use the advanced plan daily to increase strength and muscle growth. Working out 4-6 times a week helps make habits to incorporate working out almost every day. This ensures that you can target muscle groups more specifically because of the extra time you have to work out. If you use working out as stress relevant, this plan will benefit your stress levels more than the intermediate plan. This plan is beneficial for people with high stress and anxiety; exercise releases serotonin in the brain. It is important to incorporate exercise into everyday life to live a happier and healthier lifestyle. The advanced plan usually includes more weighted exercises rather than bodyweight to make workouts more challenging.
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Tips for advanced people:
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Make sure not to get discouraged. With more days to workout, it can seem more like a chore than a hobby.
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Take rest days, LISTEN TO YOUR BODY!
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Mix up workouts! The same workouts every week can get boring. Make sure to make workouts seem fun.
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Try new exercises to expand your list of exercises
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Keep on focusing on technique. Injuries are a problem at any given level.
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Make sure to have motivation. The workout is useless if you don’t try your hardest.
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Workout Structure:
In the advanced plan you will be doing 6 one hour workouts per week. You should be doing 2 pull days, 2 push days, 1 leg day, and 1 cardio/core day. The pull, push, and leg days should be similar to the ones in the intermediate plan. You should be upping weight and reps to make exercises more difficult.
Here is an example of how your week should look like:
Monday: Pull day
Tuesday: Push day
Wednesday: Leg day
Thursday: Pull day
Friday: Push day
Saturday: Core and Cardio day
Sunday: Rest day
Example core and cardio day:
You should already know how to make your pull, push, and leg day workouts, so here is an example template of a core and cardio workout.
Exercise 1 - Situps
Exercise 2 - Jumping jacks
Exercise 3 - Crunches
Exercise 4 - Mountain climbers
Exercise 5 - Russian twists
Exercise 6 - Burpees
Exercise 7 - Bicycle crunches
Exercise 8 - High knees
Another alternative could be a run once a week which is great cardio.
Making your workouts harder:
As you get more comfortable working out, you can begin attempting more advanced sets which will make exercises more challenging for you.
Drop sets: After your third set, drop the weight a couple of pounds and keep doing the exercise till failure.
Super sets: Alternating two similar exercises with no rest in between.
Example:
Superset Arnold press and shoulder press: Arnold press and once done go straight to shoulder press.
Drop set Arnold press: After your third set drop the weight and keep going till failure.
