I’ve been working out for 43 years and have trained hundreds of people in my days as a personal trainer. Many of my clients are busy people with major schedule demands. That’s why I developed this 7-Day workout plan. I created it to help make working out more feasible and flexible for people by breaking up the most demanding body parts and exercises into separate days and segregating the activities. No this is not a new concept, but I think you’ll find the way in which the activities are scheduled to be uniquely beneficial. By spreading the exercises across seven days also allows you to break up the activities into more feasible amounts per day.

This plan also considers that there are some muscle groups that just plain need more rest and others that can be trained more often. You can easily over train certain muscle groups, like your biceps for instance. Whereas your abdominals can be trained almost everyday. It is important to set up your training routine and schedule to maximize your results, reduce chance of injury and deliver all the benefits you are seeking with your exercise and health regimen – the goal of this plan.

This plan delivers a full body fitness and health workout during a week. Each daily workout should take you about a half hour to a full hour to complete.

Now, don’t get me wrong – this workout plan is not easy. It is designed to create the maximum health benefits in an efficient amount of time. It’s achievable and doable but it’s going to take your commitment.

This plan also incorporates cardio five days a week as recommended by Peter Attia, a physician focusing on the applied science of longevity. You can listen to his Joe Rogan interview on Spotify here.

The Workout Plan:

Stretching (Everyday)
Stretching helps our muscles stay elastic and pliable. Arnold Schwarzenegger talks about the importance of stretching our muscles after each exercise in his book Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding. This helps muscles elongate which helps in turn helps them become stronger and with a greater range of motion. Stretching is something that should be a regular part of your regimen. Perform an exercise and then stretch the muscle group you just trained immediately after and then go back and do another set! Repeat and stretch – you get the idea. Not only do you stretch muscles after each set, but you also need to incorporate a stretching regimen into your daily plan. There are tons of yoga and other stretches you can do everyday. You know what is tight and where you are weak so focus on stretching these areas. You get back what you put in and it’s your body.

Chest and Back (Once a week)
6-10 (suggested number of sets)
The reason we train chest and back on the same day is to help stretch these muscles while we are working out. When you do back exercises this helps stretch your chest at the same time. The same goes for when you work your chest, you are stretching your back at the same time. By training opposing muscle groups we build our strength and flexibility at the same time! Don’t forget that your back is one quarter of your body so make sure that you include enough exercise variety to train your backside.

Biceps and Triceps (Once a week)
6-9 sets (suggested number of sets)
Here’s another opposing muscle group tandem – biceps and triceps are opposing muscle groups that you can train together too. You can do one set of biceps and then move to triceps. Don’t forget to train and stretch your brachialis (the muscle that separates your biceps and triceps on the outer part of your arm) and your forearms as they are an important part of your arms that most people neglect. You can hit your brachialis with exercises like reverse curls.

Triceps represent two thirds of your arms, so try to spend a little more time on these muscles.

Legs and Calves (Once a week)
8-12 sets (suggested number of sets)
Legs and calves represent half of your body. Much of your health and fitness is built from the ground up. Train calves with high repetitions (40 reps per set) to achieve the greatest results. Calves are a very dense muscle fibre that need a lot of work to build. Squats are the most beneficial exercise that you can do, and squats impact your whole body. Make sure that you incorporate some type of squats into your leg routine.

Make sure that you do some calf exercises with both of your knees bent and some with your legs straight to hit both parts of your calves (soleus and gastrocnemius).

Abdominals (Four times per week)
3-6 Sets (suggested number of sets)
Your abdominals (stomach area) are made up into three parts. It is important to train your lower abs first, then your obliques and intercostal muscles (sides) and finally wrap it up by training (upper) abdominals. Your abdominals are dense muscle fibers that can be trained often each week.

Shoulders and Traps (Once a Week)
5-10 sets (suggested number of sets)
You have three heads on your shoulders. Front, middle and rear. Make sure that you pick exercises that work all three heads. The rear heads of your shoulders are often neglected. Don’t forget to target your traps with different exercises that hit your upper and lower traps.

Cardiovascular Exercise (Five times per week)
30 minutes (suggested number of sets)
You really need strong cardiovascular exercises at least 5 times per week. Whether it’s running, biking, rowing, or whatever works for you. You should have 5 minute high intensity intervals off and on for 30 minutes until you build up a light to heavy sweat.

Tips and Schedule Flexibility
Keep your resting and time in between sets to a minimum to help improve your cardiovascular fitness. Move from cardio right into weight training, for instance. Try not to rest long in between sets.
Give yourself some flexibility with the schedule – if you miss a day, you can easily combine two days into one workout. Try to keep to the plan and you’ll see the benefits!

Here’s a link to the PDF Workout Plan Chart that you can download and print for free.