Four Tips for Designing Your Own Workout Plan from PTC’s Personal Trainer Program

Pickens Technical College has many programs designed to teach you the professional skills you’ll need to succeed in the profession of your choice. That’s the whole point of getting professional skills, right? To use them in your profession. Some of PTC’s programs are more fun than others (just my opinion). One of the programs that seem pretty fun to me is the Human Performance/ Personal Trainer program.

PTC’s instructors have worked as personal trainers and in the Human Performance field for years. They have significant experience teaching at PTC and are ACE-certified Health Coaches. In other words, they are good at designing workout plans and teaching students at PTC how to do the same. Here are her four tips that any layperson can use to design his or her own workout plan:

Change Your Number of Reps Every Few Weeks

The number of repetitions for each exercise in your workout plan you do every time has a big impact on how your muscles and your body develop. Usually, one to three reps will give you a short burst of explosive strength, while 15 or more will give you better endurance but slimmer muscles and less explosiveness. Different numbers of reps anywhere in between have different effects on your body. In order to fully cover your bases, change up your repetitions every few weeks and get the best of all worlds.

Do the Most Important Exercises First

Sometimes even the best bodybuilders and personal trainers do their exercises wrong and hurt themselves because they’re tired. If you take care of the most difficult and most important exercises first in your workout routine while you’re your most energetic and fresh, you can avoid this trap. You’ll also be more motivated to knock out the easy stuff at the end when you’re tired and you want to go home.

Move-in All Directions

This is a similar concept to working all of your muscles. If you want to extend your range of motion (you do) work all of the muscles involved in moving a certain body part a certain way. By forcing your body to move not only front and back but side to side, as well, you’re strengthening your ligaments and your muscles that don’t get much love otherwise.

Stay Balanced

Be sure you work out all of your muscles, not just one side or the other, and not just arms or legs. Many personal trainers have their customers alternate from one half of the body to the other on different days to stay balanced.

PTC’s Personal Trainer Program is much more difficult than sitting in your pajamas reading this article. The program and so many other programs at PTC prepare students for the rigors of working in a wide variety of professional fields and set students on track to succeed in the profession of their choice.