this post was submitted on 19 May 2026
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No matter what anyone says, the answer is this: it's way harder than you think it is.
The reality is that even if your body was the perfect normal bell curve bullshit majority that doesn't actually exist, even those imaginary people don't have solid stable fitness routines.
The reason is that you basically have to keep changing things up in order to continually induce adaptation. That alone means that whatever you do is going to require you to have enough functional knowledge of the both biomechanics and fitness in order to adapt your workout rather continuously.
If you're like me and you have idiosyncratic limitations on your body, then it gets even harder.
So, here's what you do. You personally have to start a little notebook or journal and answer the following questions:
What are the categories of exercising that I need to be aware of to build a fitness routine? I'll start you off with stretching, calisthenics, aerobics, weightlifting, and Pilates.
What are the major muscle groups that need to be worked?
For each muscle I can identify, what is its antagonist?
What are the conditions under which my body will actually adapt to the stress I apply to it instead of being a waste of energy and time?
What changes do I need to make to my diet when I start exercising as fully as I imagine I would like to? What will it cost me and how will I change my eating habits to accommodate these needs?
For each muscle I intend to work, what are 3 exercises I can do?
For each of the 3 exercises I identified for each muscle, what are the differences between them?
How many exercises do I need to do before I have worked every muscle group? How will I sequence these exercises so that I touch each muscle group at least once per week?
What is the effect of exercise sequencing on a workout? Given that, which exercises should I do in which order?
What makes sense as my warm up for any given workout day? What makes sense for my cool down?
I don't want to discourage you. You absolutely can go find routines online and just follow them, but most of them are relatively static and it's just not enough to do the same thing over and over again without understanding how it all works and when you need to change things.
It took me about 3 false starts and 2 solid months of figuring out my routine. I got it down and it's great. About 6 months in I had to change it up my overarching plan a bit, but it wasn't too bad given that I had been adapting my plan every week over those 6 months.
This is achievavle for you, but treat it with the respect you would treat a college course. Take notes, do research, ask questions, find mentors, experiment, document, revise, plan, measure.
You can do this. It's hella worth it
To push back gently on this,
Unless you're trying to get really jacked, achieve a specific body style or whatever it's not that complex.
Going to the gym 3 times a week because I wanted to get a bigger upper body and then doing large muscle group exercises for everything else made significant progress for me without ever really knowing too much.
I'm not Adonis by any means, but a high protein calorie deficit brought me down 25 kg of fat and put on 7kg of muscle. The hardest part is just doing everyday or every other day.
Yeah. Finding the perfect routine is hard, but doing a generic all-rounder routine regularly is more than enough to get you into solid shape.
Again, this assumes that there's a "normal" range of human bodies and that OP is in that range. I have a major deformity (though you would never know it with my shirt on) and it's almost impossible to find information on how to work with it.
But even for within the "normal" range there are people with old injuries, people with genetic joint stability issues for specific joints, and all sorts of other hidden complications that require adaptation of routines.
And even if you do find a "generic" routine, how does one know it's a "good one" as OP said? What is the definition of well-rounded? What are some frameworks one can use to evaluate a routine they find online?
And then even after you find a routine that is good - how much time does it take? What equipment does it use? How much weight is too little / too much? What can OP fit into their schedule and their budget? What are the impacts of changing the routine if the routine doesn't fit into your constraints?
And finally, importantly, if someone doesn't know what they're doing, and they just try to follow a routine they understand with their body which they don't understand and move their body in ways without understanding, injury is the consequence. Sometimes direct injury that happens while doing the exercise, sometimes injury over time that compounds, sometimes I jury through joint instability caused by over working one side of a joint and underworking another side of a joint.
Yes, it's entirely possible that a small subset of people can just pick up and go and everything will be fine. But most of the ones that don't get injured have an unconscious approach of learning, planning, solid self-monitoring.
The biggest morons you know are working out at the gym right now, following the advice of even bigger morons they watch on Youtube, and making steady progress. Working out is not rocket science. You're making it sound like you need to do 50+ hours of research before going anywhere near a leg press.
And many of those morons will or have suffered self-caused injury and are primarily focusing on aesthetics and not fitness and getting appropriate results for that. Yes it's possible to just be a meathead. That's not what OP was asking. OP asked for how to find a good routine. Having asked that question myself, I found that were their tons of workout routines out there but that most of them have criticism that makes it very hard to determine what "good" is and a bunch of them are literally injury factories (looking sidelong at shitty CrossFit routines).
You don't have to do 50+ hours of research just to get near a leg press. But if you want to find a good routine it's going to be through a process of self-education, not asking for a YouTube video. If it was that easy, there'd be a very simple pedagogical approach out there that nearly every beginner would use and there isn't such a thing.
It's not that you are wrong per se, but you're definitely over complicating this to the point where no action seems possible. You are making a point that things need to change to drive adaptation, which is true, but reads like the old muscle confusion myth instead of progressive overload. It's really not that much to add weight, a rep, a few seconds on a hold or a set or whatever. And the same kind of approach is broadly true.
I don't know anything about muscle confusion, but you are correct that progressive overload is mostly all that's required. However, it is also important to change exercises for other reasons that develop strength - range of motion, joint stability, strength curve problems (like in lateral raises), etc. Yes you can just do bicep curls forever but I wouldn't consider that a "good routine" like what OP is asking for. Besides, how would OP know, even for bicep curls, whether to do preacher curls, standing curls, sitting curls, cable curls, barbell curls, dumbbell curls, incline curls, or something else? How does OP deal with the information overload, the constant YouTube fitness influencer take downs of various exercises, etc?
I agree it's ultimately not "hard", unless you have biomechanical issues, like so many of us do, but it's far from obvious and the work to be done is to stop looking for "good routines" and start looking for an understanding of what makes a routine good. That's why question number 1 is about what major muscles need to be addressed. One definition of a good routine is going to be that it hits every major muscle at least once. Most people who haven't done fitness seriously don't know what those muscles are and therefore cannot evaluate workout routines on this dimension.
It's a ton of information to process, and not being aware of it causes people to get frustrated and drop out (why can't you just give me a routine that works!?) or cause them to get injured (I heard I should be dead lifting my body weight, or, I can just wail on this heavy bag right?)
Muscle confusion was this myth that your body got used to exercises and couldn't improve so you should change them frequently to "confuse" your muscles and prevent this. It's basically a misunderstand of what you're talking about where different exercises can bias different muscles or different portions of the same muscle mixed with not necessarily knowing what is currently limiting you on a lift.
Your post is well written and reasonable but (I think) for most people ultimately unanswerable. Not to be too pithy but this brings me back to the "the best routine is the one you'll do" stance.
I mostly fit in to the normal range as far as bodies go. Funny enough it cost me $0 to go to the gym. My apartment 3 years ago had a gym and I told them I lost my keycard so I could rock up and use the gym sometimes, it's great and the gym is relatively kitted out.
I have experience at the gym, my best friend does pro body building and another friend of mine had been lifting since 15. Both are very scientifically minded when it comes to their lifting and they have taught me proper form for most of the basic movements. I have asked them for help building a routine but I thought asking here would be good too.
My goals are mostly functional but the aesthetic is good too. I want to feel good and be healthy first and foremost. I want my body to not crumble by 40
This is my 4th start at the gym. Lost my first to motivation, second to injury (unrelated to the gym), and third to relationship and school stress. This time fr
Hells yeah, shark fucker. You got this, and you have a good foundation as well. If your body is basically normal and you have good mentors that can train with you, you can probably start with a program like StrongLifts, P90X, Madcow, or Greyskull.