The Workout Cheat Sheet

I’ve dealt with hundreds of clients asking me how to achieve a certain fitness goal. In this article I lay out the foundations of any good routine.

- Dan Wynes

These fundamentals are what will make or break your workout routine Before doing any cardio, always perform...

The warm up/ cool down

Time under tension

Sets

Reps

Volume

Rate of perceived exertion

Progressive overload

WARM UP/ COOL DOWN

Before any cardio perform a dynamic based movement stretch to help mobilise the muscles and joints. Developmental or static stretches are what most people will do but this can hinder your performance and even risk injury.

Before a resistance session do dynamic based stretches with bar rotations or dynamic shoulder movements for the upper body. Ideally, complete the dynamic stretches and then warm up through the movement with a lighter weight. Most people will over do this warm up, completing 15-20 repetitions on 2-3 sets and then begin their working sets. In doing so they have already fatigued the muscle and therefore won’t be as strong for the sets that matter. With all my clients, I recommend they warm up with no more than 5 reps and complete 1-3 progressively heavier sets, depending on the exercise weight used. A deadlift or squat using a lot of weight would need more progressively heavier sets than a barbell curl.

For a cool down, if you’ve finished the workout; either cardio or resistance, use developmental/ static or even PNF stretches to increase the range of muscle. These stretches are designed to help release the muscle and may even help alleviate soreness. After each workout you should prioritise the muscles worked and then move onto general stretching for wellness and posture improvement. This will decrease risk of injury and will improve your flexibility which will help in many day-to-day activities.

TIME UNDER TENSION