What is a good gym routine for a 3 day a week workout?

Answer 1

A good weight training and cardio routine, visiting the gym 3 days a week, might consist of something like this:

Monday - Chest, Back, Abs

Wednesday - Legs (Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, Calves)

Friday - Biceps, Triceps, Shoulders

This is just a general workout, using the principle of focusing on two or three muscle groups per workout, working them hard, then allowing them to recover for the rest of the week. You can throw in some cardio (no more than 30 minutes) AFTER your lifting routine if you want to only work out 3 days a week.

Another option would be to do a full circuit 3 days a week, doing a single workout for each muscle group on each day rather than working a couple of groups really hard. This method can result in a higher calorie burn if your goal is to burn fat/lose weight.

A good rule of thumb is to build all your workouts around basic lifts that target larger muscle groups. The foundation of a chest and back workout, for instance, will probably be bench press, pushups, pull-ups/lat pulldown machine, and some variations thereof. If you want to add more isolated moves after that, you've used the bulk of your energy on the workouts that do you the most good.

Check out fitness magazines and websites for examples of good individual workouts to add into your routine. By changing your workout every few weeks (4-6 or so) you can keep your muscles from getting used to what you're doing and avoid plateau.