This eight week workout program is intended for those looking
for general fitness. If your goal is more specific, such as weight loss or
boosting strength, you can tweak things accordingly as described in the last
paragraph.
Eigtht Week Workout Program for General Fitness
For this program, we'll assume you're a normal, generally
healthy person with about an hour to spare five days a week. If you have a
medical condition or similar, don't forget to get clearance by your doctor
first.
Week 1
Monday: Weight training, arms/chest
Tuesday: Jogging, 45 minutes
Wednesday: Weight training, back, shoulders, abs
Thursday: Stairmaster, 45 minutes
Friday: Weight training, legs
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest
Week 2
Monday: Weight training, 45 min whole body circuit training
Tuesday: Tennis, 60 minutes
Wednesday: Spinning class, 60 minutes
Thursday: Weight training, 45 min whole body circuit training
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Outdoors interval training, 30 minutes
Sunday: Rest
Week 3
Monday: Weight training, arms/chest
Tuesday: Jogging, 45 minutes
Wednesday: Weight training, back, shoulders, abs
Thursday: Swimming, 60 minutes
Friday: Weight training, legs
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest
Week 4
Monday: Weight training,
45 min whole body circuit training
Tuesday: Stairmaster, 45 minutes
Wednesday: Outdoors interval training, 30 minutes
Thursday: Weight training, 45 min whole body circuit training
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Basketball, 1-2 hours
Sunday: Rest
Week 5
Monday: Weight training, arms/chest
Tuesday: Spinning class, 60 minutes
Wednesday: Weight training, back, shoulders, abs
Thursday: Jogging, 45 minutes
Friday: Weight training, legs
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest
Week 6
Monday: Weight training, 45 min whole body circuit training
Tuesday: Tennis, 60 minutes
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Weight training, 45 min whole body circuit training
Friday: Swimming, 60 minutes
Saturday: Countryside hiking, 1-2 hours
Sunday: Rest
Week 7
Monday: Weight training, arms/chest
Tuesday: Spinning class, 60 minutes
Wednesday: Weight training, back, shoulders, abs
Thursday: Jogging, 45 minutes
Friday: Weight training, legs
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest
Week 8
Monday: Weight training, 45 min whole body circuit training
Tuesday: Stairmaster, 45 minutes
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Weight training, 45 min whole body circuit training
Friday: Outdoors interval training, 30 minutes
Saturday: Basketball, 1-2 hours
Sunday: Rest
Adjusting for specific goals
As you can see, we're alternating between a three-split where
each muscle group gets focused training one time per week and a general circuit
training routine where each muscle group gets trained twice in a week, except
not quite as hard. Likewise, the cardio segments are quite varied. This is to
keep tedium from derailing the fitness effort, as plodding away at the same old
treadmill every week tends to become old in a hurry.
However, if your goal is to lose weight, you should put more
effort into the cardio. If possible, add another workout day in and do some
low-intensity exercise to burn a couple hundred extra calories. In this case,
you can go with the two circuit training sessions per week as in week 2, 4, 6
and 8.
If your goal is building strength, however, your eight week
workout program should center around the three-day split seen in week 1, 3, 5
and 7. Here, the idea is to maximize the effort put into the weight training
while just doing the bare minimum in terms of cardio so as not to compromise
the body's ability to grow stronger. Good luck!
