This is the hardest thing to do for someone who has no experience with exercise or acute exercise variables.

First, let me explain what “acute exercise variables” are. They are the stimuli that directly effect the outcome of your work. Here they are:

Intention

Exercise selection

Load – including “intensity” and “repetitions”

Sets

Rest/Recovery

Tempo

I may have missed some, but I think not. Let’s consider each one in turn.

Intention – Your intention is the first most important exercise variable. If you intend to achieve a certain thing, the chances of you doing so increases exponentially. If you go to do something with no clear intention, you will have no vested interest in the outcome. You may or may not achieve the outcome at all. And your level of performance will not be as high as possible.

Exercise Selection – The next most important exercise variable. The exercise you choose will have an effect not only on which specific muscles get worked and how they develop/adapt, but also on how much time you need to spend in each workout. For example, if my goal is to lose fat, and I decide I’m going to do a circuit-type resistance workout, I could choose to do Squats, Bench Press, Bent Row, and Lat Pulldowns. However, I could also do Squat-Press, Bench Press, and Bent Row – expending the same amount of energy in less time, by combining the squat and press into one movement, and getting rid of the pulldowns. Similarly, I could do Pullup Burpees and Bent Row, combining the squat, pullup, and chest press movements in one exercise. Granted, your exercise selection will be determined in part by your training age, but you see what I mean here.

Load – including “intensity” and “repetitions” – The load you choose to work with will be determined by your goals, and will determine how many repetitions you can achieve (and to a large extent, how many sets you do). High loads result in lower reps possible, and elicit a maximum-strength response. Moderate loads typically elicit a hypertrophy response, and light loads elicit an endurance training effect in the muscles worked.

Sets – Sets are partly determined by the load you’ve chosen. Typically, you should not do more than 8-10 sets for each muscle group, per workout. Split it up however you like. Normally, if you have a heavy load, you’re doing fewer repetitions, but more sets (for example, 8 sets of 3 reps, or 5 sets of 5 reps). With moderate loads, do moderate sets (e.g., 3 sets of 8-12 reps). And, with lighter loads, you can typically do more repetitions, and therefore fewer sets (e.g., 2 sets of 20, or 1 set of 50).

Rest/Recovery – Rest periods between sets are determined by the work time (for the set and for prior work that day or week) and the load used. For heavy loads (3-5 repetitions), optimal recovery is somewhere between 2 and 5 minutes. One study has shown that recovery does not improve after 2.5 minutes. Moderate loads require about a minute of recovery between sets. Light loads typically require 30 seconds or less recovery between sets. That being said, if you decide to do three sets of bench press, and your last set is going to be heavy, that does not mean that you should wait 2.5 minutes between your first (light) and second (moderate), or second (moderate) and third (heavy) sets. A frequent mistake is to apply the same rest period to less time under tension or load.

Tempo – The speed at which you perform a movement has a distinct impact on its training effect. Tai Chi is a good example of this principle. Performing an entire sequence of Tai Chi at slow, meditative speeds, requires SIGNIFICANTLY more energy than doing the same sequence at fast speeds. That being said, tempo should be specific to your goal. If you want to move very slow, exercise very slow. If you want to move fast, exercise fast. It is frequently not recognized that the martial art of Tai Chi is practiced at three speeds – slow, medium, and fast. The meditative Tai Chi that most people are familiar with is only one aspect of a larger martial art system.

Hopefully this doesn’t muddy the water. I will cover each of these in more detail in their own post. These are the first things to consider when deciding what your specific workouts will look like.