My Resistance Training program Jan 2024

A new year, new training program.  I have certain physical goals I want to achieve this year, with some specific goals around improving strength, increasing lean muscle mass, improving 5k run performance and develop some specific athletic qualities.

However, after an unexpected foot injury, my initial training plan has had to be adapted and delayed my training program.  I also need to be cautious of balancing rest, digest, and parasympathetic activity as I look to optimise health.  I am also making a conscious effort to train during the morning or earlier in the day so not to spike cortisol levels closer to bedtime when I look to maximise the health and recovery benefits sleep.  Whist not always possible, it is certainly a factor I am making more effort with. 

As I reach my mid-40’s, emphasising rest and recovery with lifestyle factors becomes more important if I want to optimise an anabolic response with positive adaptations from training as opposed to a tissue destructive catabolic state where there is increased risk of injury, illness, and declining performance.

So, with that in mind, my first programme will serve as a foundation allowing me to recover from my injury before moving on to more specific programs.  The goal of the program is to develop base strength and improve lean muscle tissue although not to the level of a “bodybuilder”.  I want a whole-body approach that I can achieve these objectives with 3 x resistance training sessions per week.  This allows enough time for me to recover between sessions and add in some gentle cardio and parasympathetic activity such as long walks. I will include 1-2 aerobic specific interval sessions using the rowing machine with some isolated core conditioning exercises around my work schedule.  At this stage I’m only interested in cardiovascular activity for maintenance and health benefits rather than breaking any records.

 My resistance training program consists of 3 separate programs:

 ·      Program A

·      Program B

·      Program C

Each program after warm-up and activation exercises will begin with a Strength exercise followed by 4 hypertrophy exercises.

For Strength I want a lower body, upper body push and upper body pull exercise for each movement pattern.  For Hypertrophy, I have designed it so the major movement patterns of the large muscle groups are targeted 2 x per week.

My Training program is as follows: