If you’ve been following me (or at least familiar with my content) on Instagram and TikTok for a while now, you know that fitness is a very big part of my life. I wasn’t athletic growing up and I generally struggled with movement as someone who grew up with asthma. I was inconsistent with a workout routine in college but when I moved back home after graduation I was surrounded by my mom and brothers who lived very active lifestyles. For that reason, I started to develop more discipline around my workout routines. However, I became the most consistent version of myself in 2020 when the pandemic and a breakup left me feeling like I didn’t have control over my life. I started a Nike fitness program with friends called the “breakthrough program” and for the first time in my life committed to (some very challenging) workouts five times a week. After using the Nike training app to guide my workouts for a couple of years, when I moved into my first big girl apartment with a gym in 2022, I decided it was time for me to become a true gym rat and pick up the weights. To do that, I turned to my older brother who has personal training certification. We discussed my goals and workout availability and he created this routine that I’ve been following for a while now. The workout routine stays the same. The only thing I change over time is the amount of weight I use.
A couple of notes about my workout routine:
- Please note this routine was created for me specifically. This is the reason I am reluctant to share this routine so widely. It accounts for my personal abilities and injuries. (For example, I can’t do high-impact movements on my ankles so things like jumping are out of the question for me.) So while I am happy to share this routine please keep in mind that results may vary. For that reason, I highly encourage you to reach out to a personal trainer who can create a similar, personalized plan for you based on your goals. Once you feel like you have a hang on things like form and machine usage, you should be good to take the training wheels off and do the workouts on your own.
- If your goal is to lose weight, working out alone is likely not going to do that—a calorie deficit is. If working out happens to put you in a calorie deficit then you’ll likely see the results you want, but if you’re still consuming more calories than you burn (don’t quote me on this because I’m not an expert) then you likely won’t lose weight.
- If you’re confused about what a particular workout is, I encourage you to use resources like Google, YouTube, and TikTok to look up demonstrations. If an exercise utilizes a machine that isn’t available to you at your local gym, feel free to look up substitutions based on what muscle groups the movement works.
- For the warm-up, I typically do 10 minutes on the stairmaster at level 6.
- This workout plan lists four days. I still work out five days a week. I insert a 5th “active rest” day where I do a short 30-minute HIIT workout on the stairmaster. I typically alternate between level 5 and level 10 on the stairmaster—2 minutes at a time for the duration of 30 minutes. Again if you want to try this workout the goal is to go at a walking pace and a tougher walk/run pace to get you sweating. Level 5 and 10 for 30 minutes is certainly enough to get me sweating. As time goes on you could definitely work to increase the speeds, but because I like to consider this day my “active rest” day, I don’t feel particular pressure to increase the intensity on this as time goes on. It’s only meant to be a way to close my exercise ring for a fifth day.
Without further ado here’s a look at my workout routine:
“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” 1 Corinthians 16:20
