In my first year of university, I started going to the gym for the first time in my life with my roommates and immediately fell in love with the way getting stronger felt. Seeing progress as well as feeling accomplished reaching new goals was something I knew I wanted to keep in my life. However, as the semester got harder and assignments got longer, I felt myself pushing the gym aside and not making it a priority. It took a while to find a routine that worked for me and allowed me to see progress while also balancing school and a social life. Here are my tips as well as the ideal split for you to reach your gym goals.
Treat the Gym Like a Class
One of the best pieces of advice I’ve received is to treat the gym like a class; schedule it into your day in a specific time block. This way, you’ll be less likely to skip it. If you simply say you’ll go to the gym today without scheduling a time, you most likely won’t prioritize it. I do this by using Google Calendar, where all my classes are time blocked in. I put all my weekly activities into the calendar on Saturday nights. This includes any social events, my work schedule and the pre-existing class schedule. How many days I plan for the gym is based on how busy I am for the week. I’ll schedule it in time blocks, making sure not to schedule it too early when I know I won’t wake up, or too late when I know I’d be too tired.
You Don’t Have to Go for Long
Fitness influencers make it seem like you need to be in the gym for three hours a day, doing 10 exercises in order to make any progress. This isn’t true and from personal experience, I’ve seen the most growth from spending an hour to an hour and a half in the gym per session, only doing five or six exercises. This allows you to put full energy into those exercises and not be completely burnt out so your body can recover. This also means you don’t have to go every day to see progress. In fact, rest is essential for muscle recovery, and without it, you’ll end up seeing less progress and potentially injure yourself.
Make Goals and Be Patient
Rome wasn’t built in a day and muscles do not form in one either. Wanting to see significant progress in a short period of time is something a lot of people want, but it’s unrealistic. Make the goals and work slowly toward them, day by day and week by week. It’s easy to get frustrated with lack of visual progress, but I promise that if you prioritize sticking to your schedule and eating enough protein for muscle growth, it will come. Make the goals, whether it’s to lean out, grow a booty or get killer biceps. Making numbered goals will also help you see progress faster, such as doing five pull-ups or benching a plate. With progressive overload (increasing the weights each time you go), you’ll gradually feel stronger, look stronger and achieve these goals.
The Perfect Split
Now that you’re in the right mindset for the gym, here’s how to make the perfect split. Once you look at your schedule, see which gaps you have in the week to fill and, based on your goals, make a routine split involving the same exercises. People often make the mistake of changing their exercises so regularly that progress simply cannot be made. Go by the semesters, changing your split up a bit every 12 weeks or so. Based on your school schedule, see how many days you have available to hit the gym, even if it’s only for an hour or so. If you have three days, try doing a full upper body, full lower body and a cardio and core day. Or, if you have four to five days, split your upper body into a back and bicep day, a chest, tricep and shoulder day followed by a quad-focused leg day and a hamstring-focused leg day. Make sure you give yourself at least two days of rest a week, supplementing it with some sort of walk or stretching. By following this, you’ll be able to see progress by the end of the semester.
Exercise can be good not only for physical health, but as a mental break from the stress of school. Stick to the basics, use progressive overload and eat your whole foods and proteins and you’ll be so proud of how you’ve managed to balance both school and a healthy active lifestyle. It can be difficult, but with a little self-love and prioritizing yourself and your health, you’ll find it enjoyable and rewarding.