How To Build Your Own Full-Body Workout

By Evan Midford, Website & Social Media Coordinator

We’ve all been there. You show up to the gym with no workout plan and stand around wondering what to do next. We end up in the gym way longer than we hoped, doing way less than we wanted. Sometimes, you just don’t know where to start.

Luckily, we’ve got a recipe to help you build your own full-body workout, so you can hit the gym (or home gym) confidently with an efficient plan.

This workout can be for any level of fitness, whether you’re a beginner or an experienced gym-goer. It hits all the major muscle groups to make sure you get a well-balanced, full-body workout in 45-60 minutes.

Exercises can be done with just your body weight, resistance bands, or with weights, depending on your level.

How to Plan Your Workout

For this full-body recipe, we will be using supersets. Supersets are groups of exercises that work on different muscle groups, which allows you to work one muscle group while resting the other.

We will use three supersets with a burnout round at the end. Each superset will have two exercises labeled A and B. You will do exercise A first then exercise B second, and repeat for as many rounds as you decide before moving to the next superset.

One option is a timed format, performing exercise for 40 seconds with a 20-second rest in between. I would recommend this format for bodyweight or lightweight workouts.

The second option is a repetition format, performing 10 repetitions of each exercise. Plan for three to four rounds of each superset with either format. If you’re a beginner, start out with two rounds and you can always add more to your workout as you go.

Planning

Let’s start with the main exercises, then work our way back to the warm-up and cool-down. Below is the layout of the workout with some exercises you can choose from to build the workout you want. Pick an exercise to fill in each spot and choose the format you like. (NOTE: See example below)

Warm-Up

Every warm-up should start out with three to five minutes of cardio to raise your heart rate and get warm. This could be fast walking, jogging, skipping, cycling, rowing, etc.

After that, you’ll want to do some dynamic warm-up movements that match the exercises you will be doing. For example, if you choose squats, do some marches or slow squats to warm up leg-bending movements. If you choose shoulder presses, do some arm swings or a non-weighted shoulder press.

General movements like leg swings and arm circles are also great options before any workout. Do about 10 repetitions of each.

Cool-Down

Your cool-down should start out with a walking lap to help lower the heart rate and prepare for stretching. The stretches in your cool-down should be held for 15-30 seconds. Here are some ideas below.

Leg stretches: quad stretch, calf stretch, touch toes, thread the needle, lunge

Upper body: pec stretch against the wall, tricep stretch, reach across body

Torso: Upward dog, shell pose, torso twist, full body stretch

Once you’ve pieced everything together, you’re ready to hit the gym and crush your full-body workout!