This is a complicated question, before answering this, we will split the route towards our answer into two branches. I will start from an abstract point and work the answer towards a more specific example.
Branch 1 will depend on you. Individuals are completely unique. A middle aged man with 3 kids will not have the same freedom or potential as a teenager prepping for university who will probably have ample time when pursuing a fitness goal. But, a teenager prepping for university with the main goal of achieving the best grades for his academics has a different hierarchy of priorities compared to another who makes training his top priority. How about 2 individuals who place fitness as their top priority ? They will still yield different results simply due to genetic variations.
As you can grasp for yourself, one person will always have a completely different life, which means although we have common training programs that have been normalized, what best suits you will be a variation of what’s in practice or even an unknown training style we haven’t yet come across.
Branch 2 will comprise of all training styles that have been adopted, discontinued and are yet to be found. We have already witnessed the erosion of key concepts with time and the adoption of rather questionable styles and mediums of training.
Hypothetically, we can agree that the best approach will involve
i) Gaining a deep understanding of your life and your commitments. Based on your context and reality, you adjust your expectations.
ii) After assessing an almost never ending database of training styles, you finally come across that abstract ideal that best suits you, which yields the maximum growth while optimizing the never ending debate of the balance necessary between volume, intensity and recovery.
You and I will never find the perfect training style that suits us.
That is a question unanswered over a century and which constantly changes. I have seen rather contradictory theories to my own beliefs which have somewhat more than partially made sense.
But let me provide you a practical example on how to approach this based on my experience while keeping these abstract ideas aside.
Let’s focus on this practically within a single context with fixed elements. You are in your mid 20’s, and you have an occupation, a relationship and a few other commitments. You do not have the time to train like a professional athlete, and your top priority is not building a physique. Most of your physical and mental energy will be devoted to serving your top priorities. Now, if you have a tank of energy and recuperative capabilities, both mentally and physically, this will be depleted for your top priorities. Mentally, you would already have given a lot to your career and relationship, physically your energy levels aren’t right on top after a long day of work. We will be experimenting with what’s left in the tank. But that’s okay, there is still time and opportunity for growth, this growth will not arrive at the speed you expect despite the attempt of modern scammers who want to make you believe that every one of you can get there at an alarming speed.
The first question you have to ask yourself, is what exactly is your fitness goal ? You cannot build an advanced physique within 3 to 4 years with your existing commitments, so it should be practical. Once you figure out your goal, a good place to start could be, to visit the gym and attempt a few exercises, get a feel of what you are getting into.
You can start with 2 to 3 days a week of training your entire body, again this is a simple variation among many. The reps and sets and number of exercises, these are all vague figures right now, maybe you can begin with a low volume, 5 exercises, maybe 2 to 3 sets, the rep range could be somewhere between 10 to 20 repititons. The objective is to excel in form in regards to basic exercises (bench press, squats, barbell curls, lat pull downs etc)
The days following a workout will reveal you about your recovery abilities (the speed of recovery will improve with time).
With time and consistency your form in lifting will improve. Now, you can solely focus on building muscle mass. You would have also realized the number of days and the duration you can commit to. Listening to your body and experimenting with variations in training styles should be a part of your plan. Frequently changing styles of training will not be a good decision though.
The other important factors which I will not delve into detail are that of nutrition and sleep. There are different types of diets, but a higher intake of protein is an obvious factor when building a physique. Sleep is your recovery, I will recommend a minimum of 8 hours although I certainly know its impractical in your busy life.
Based on a rational approach to training, provided you keep things consistent and manage to train with a vision, you will build a decent natural physique within maybe, 2 years of proper training, but nothing close to an advanced physique, that would lie in a time line over a decade. I will not speak about the dedication required to do that here.
I hope this made some sense to you if you are new to this journey.
Your coach
Pasindu Liyanage
Profusion Fitness
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