Five Day Workout Split for Fat Loss and Body Recomp.
If you want toned muscles and minimal fat, body recomposition is the way to go. Body recomposition is essentially turning your fat into muscle, so that you are not just losing weight, but also looking more toned while doing so. Body Recomp and fat loss, allows you to look healthy, while still maintaining strong muscles. It truly gives you the best of both worlds.
The caveat? The downside? It takes time. Body recomposition will not happen as fast as typical weight loss or weight gain will. It requires consistency.
Consistency, consistency, consistency. It gets preached on a daily basis on fitness and wellness media. We are told to remain consistent in order to see results, build our dream physique, and feel our best.
The question is, how?
With work, friends and families, kids, hobbies, it can be a lot to balance our fitness goals into our daily lives. And with a target goal of body recomposition and fat loss, it takes more consistency than usual. Sticking to a fitness schedule is key in body recomposition, where you must regularly target your whole body, building muscle mass while burning fat everywhere.
So, I would recommend finding a gym schedule that works for you and your goals, writing it down or noting it in your phone. This means 3-5 days a week, you are dedicating 1-3 hours to working out your body. For example, one day is focused on the upper body, another to your lower body, and a day for cardio. If you have extra time, add in core day, and an extra day of your choosing.
Personally, my goal is stronger and bigger legs, so I set aside one extra day for legs in my routine. Some weeks, I will change it up, but this has been my routine for a year. I have seen results, slowly, but they are there. Again, the key is routine and consistency.
Your routine does not have to be basic either. Fill your workouts with things you enjoy. For example, your cardio days do not have to be simply running or stairs. If you enjoy dance, sign up for a dance class. If you enjoy cycling, then do that. If you want to train your arms, but hate dumbbells, try to utilize workout bands. Things like pilates and hot yoga can target your arms as well. Make sure your plan is filled with things that you actually enjoy. This way, routine and consistency is easier.
To start you off, here are a group of workout splits you can try based on your fitness goals. Feel free to change it up, and add in things wherever you see fit.
Arm Focused Workout Split
Monday: Arms and Back
Tuesday: Core and Cardio
Wednesday: Legs
Thursday: Rest
Friday: Arms
Saturday: Full Body, Arm Focused
Sunday: Rest
Leg Focused Workout Splits
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Legs, (Glute Focused)
Wednesday: Arms and Back
Thursday: Core and Cardio
Friday: Legs (Hamstrings and Quads)
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Full Body, with focus on machine assisted leg days
Today, I completed a long run outside for the first time. I have been training for my first half marathon, but have solely relied on the treadmill. It’s been great, I find myself bettering my times and improving my endurance. However, with the race approaching, I knew that it was time that I get outside. Additionally, the treadmill is great for short runs, but after a while it gets overstimulating and boring-at the same time.
I knew that it was time that I get outside. Professional runners on social media and Reddit forums advise running outside often to train, because running outside exceeds the treadmill in difficulty. I knew that in order for me to feel physically prepared for my run, and know what to expect, I needed to spend more time running outside. I needed my body to know what to expect on race day (specifically my knees), with different pavements, with varying elevations, and impacts.
Right away, things were different. Here are some things I noticed.
Water Placement Have a water bottle that fits in your vest!! I underestimated the difficulty that having a vest and holding items is. On the treadmill, I have places to place my water and gels. But outside, I had to hold on to these things. I realized that this SUCKS. It was hard to begin the run and get into rhythm while simultaneously holding my water bottles.
Though after a while, I got used to it and ignored the annoying sensation, I will not be doing this again!!. I will be getting a smaller water bottle that I can fit in my vest.
Pacing Honestly, this was the hardest thing for me. I can make a whole post on this alone. I struggled a lot to pace myself. On the treadmill, the pace is set for you, and it is up to you to just keep up. But, you luckily have the security of the treadmill, maintaining that consistent pace for you and you can also adjust to find what is comfortable and stick to it. The mental work of pacing yourself is done for you.
Outside though, this major security blanket is gone. Not only do you have to push yourself, run, and maintain good form, but you also have to concentrate on pacing. Even with my watch, I still could not find my desired pace. When I wanted to go faster, I had to reduce speed early because I felt too overworked and tired. When I wanted to slow down my pace, I was too slow at times, and consequently, had to speed up again.
Each mile through my 13 miles was a different pace, which frustrated me. I even tried consciously counting my steps at certain rates, to keep manually finding a consistent pace but that did not work. My mind was too busy and tired to focus on such miniscule details. This is something I will have to work on, and improve.
Affirmations Since this was my first long run outdoors, I knew that I needed to train my mind to push through the run. I needed my mind to be SET on completing the run no matter what. To deal with this, I gave myself routine affirmations during my run.
When I would reach a milestone, I told myself things like “you are amazing” “you’re doing great” “Halfway there, you got it”. This sounds corny, but it absolutely works. When doing something hard, you will have all the negative voices in your head. They’ll be telling you unmotivating lies, that this is not who you are, this is too hard for you. You’ll be tempted to stop and may easily believe that the run is too difficult and not for you.
BUT it is also up to you to ignore those voices and feed your mind new and more positive voices. As a beginner runner, these thoughts plague my mind a lot, and I realized that I can combat them with my affirmations. It takes time, but with discipline and practice you can train yourself to feed your mind healthy language instead of negative ones.
Dynamic Playlisting One thing that surprisingly helped me during this run was running with frequently changing music. I started with one genre, then decided I would change the playlist when I felt my energy changing. At the beginning, because I was going slower, I played upbeat but still lowkey RNB and neo soul. Some examples of some music that played were Mac Keane, Bryson Tiller, Goldlink, Jordan Ward, Joyce Wrice, and Kwn. These songs are on my daily rotation, so the lowkey and familiar vibes were great for helping me start my run.
These vibes played until about mile 3 or 4, when I felt I needed a tempo switch. I decided to amp up my music, increasing my beats per minute, to start Afrobeats. I have a playlist I titled Afrobeats but Mellow, which is exactly what the name entails-afrobeats but mellow. The songs there still have the rhythms and drums of OG afrobeats, but just with softer voices and themes. Though lower in tone, the songs have high enough beats to keep my energy up, while still focusing.
Once I felt I reached the much anticipated and desired runners high, at about mile 8, I went to all of my high energy, high tempo, fast music. From Afrobeats like the HEIS Rema album, Raggaeton like the likes of Bad Bunny and Tokischa, to dancehall vibes like Shenseea, Moliy, and Vybez Kartel. These songs are my favorite to listen to in general, so during such a long run it felt amazing. I was so energized and motivated by the ambiance of the natural surroundings and the tempos of the music that I pushed through the run with so much power and drive.
The music also served to distract my mind and kept me busy when the run felt difficult. I also hate running and getting bored of my music. So this process of dynamic playlisting was such a cheat code. I definitely recommend listening to music that you like, but also changing it up while running so that you’re still engaged and distracting your mind with SOMETHING. Running is a mental thing, so finding ways to occupy your mind like music is vital to getting through these runs.
I will add these playlist links below if you want to try them out!
EAT DURING YOUR RUN.
Thats all I have to say.
Running outside vs Treadmill Recap
I would 100% choose outside running to the treadmill any day. Besides the stress of pacing and storage, it is so much more liberating on the mind. You have so much more room and freedom with your movement and being outdoors gives your mind time to wander which is perfect for difficult and long runs. As the weather improves, I will for sure be incorporating more runs outside into my cardio routine.
Running has become a favorite pastime of mine. It burns calories, melts fat, strengthens the heart, and works your lungs. It has great psychological benefits as well-clearing the mind while relieving stress. One unique aspect of running is the satisfaction one gets from reaching longer distances and faster time each run. Personally, I remember when I used to take about 30 minutes to complete a 1-mile run. Nothing wrong with that, but I struggled to run-constantly stopping and starting throughout the run.
Now, I have transformed that into a 3-mile run in 30 minutes, running all the way throughout. In fact, I can now complete 6 miles in 1 hr. Reaching any feat, where you watch yourself improve is beautiful to experience-and this is especially true with running! Although it takes time, there are many things you can do to improve your running times. Here are some things that have helped me and my friends improve our running times.
Tips to improve your running times
Stay consistent.
As with anything in life, consistency is key. When your body becomes used to doing something, that thing naturally becomes easier. Whether you are an athlete or are a beginner to exercise, your body must become used to moving for long periods of time when running. You have to get your body consistently family with running, as the motions of running, breathing, and muscle coordination take some time to get used to.
Establish a schedule where you are aiming to improve your times by running a few times a week.
Set smaller expectations
With consistency in mind, one reason many struggle is, because of the high expectations people set too early. You may feel that you have to run a full 5k every single time you run, and because of the amount of time, distance, or effort that will take, you avoid running altogether. Do not do this.
What helped me is to remember that a little goes a long way. I started setting small goals, such as to run for 10 minutes after every workout. Or, to do just 1-2 miles each week. Some weeks, I aimed to just run as fast as I could for as long as I could. This helped me focus on staying consistent and not feeling overwhelmed by the aspect of running.
Through this, I was also able to go easier on myself and not feel disappointed if I didn’t reach a goal. Over time, as running became easier, I could set bigger goals of longer distances and faster times.
By setting smaller and realistic expectations, I focused more on simply just getting up to run. As long as I could make it to run during the week, I was proud of myself.
Run in various settings
Sometimes I run on the treadmill, and sometimes I run outside in my neighborhood. I do not like to keep the same routine, because I find that I get bored doing the same thing. If I feel that my running routine is getting repetitive, it’ll be harder for me to be excited about my next run.
Choosing different settings for each run helps keep things interesting and exciting making me feel more motivated to run. If I feel like changing things up, I will take a different path outside or run a new trail. This helps my mind as well, as seeing a new environment helps to distract me from the run.
Be adventurous with your cardio
A big part of running and I would argue the main part, is your ability to maintain endurance. A lot of this is dependent on your heart health and lung capabilities. It is also getting your body used to exerting that much energy for a long time. All of that comes from cardio. Cardio is anything that has you up and moving, and raises your heart rate.
I am a cardio fanatic. Whether it’s running, Stairmaster, or dancing, I enjoy any sort of cardio. To build your endurance, you do not have to only run, you can play your favorite sports, swim, dance, join a HIIT class-literally anything. This will help you build stamina and endurance to power your runs and improve your times.
Running a faster time takes a while, but the results are worth the wait. If I were trying to improve my times, these are some things I would do. If you have specific questions, reach out to our admin, by filling out our contact page. We want to see all of you reach your fitness goals and move towards your most well self!
Wellness for all is our goal, and TheBloomprint is here for all your needs.
It seems thar people today are completely anti-ab workouts. It might just be me, but I have found that exercise centered around core and abs are heavily criticized. People on both social media and real-life frown upon ab exercises, and feel that they are useless when it comes to exercise.
I too believed this when I was early in my fitness journey. As a beginner, I agreed that ab workouts would not contribute to my fitness journey, therefore, I avoided core training altogether. disappear. Expectedly, my belly fat did not disappear. In fact, it actually grew…. and grew… and grew …
That is when I tried the infamous ab workouts. I was hesitant, because they took time and effort. Ab exercises are not easy, especially as a beginner. At first, I felt unmotivated to complete the workouts because I felt I was wasting my time.
This all changed when one day, surprisingly, I started to see results. I noticed that my stomach was developing muscle and ab lines, where the fat used to lay. I could visibly see my core becoming muscular and toned.
Not only did I lose belly fat, but I started to feel stronger during my other workout days. This is because the core is a stabilizing muscle for your whole body. If your core is weak, the rest of your body will be weak consequently. Lifting heavy weights, sculpting your back, and targeting your glutes is difficult if you ignore your core and you may have delayed or stagnant results.
Even if you do not want abs, you should still be training core 1-2x a week for overall physical strength, endurance, and health. I recommend it, and it changed my fitness journey. Here are some easy and beginner core workouts that I recommend.
