Ever find yourself wandering around the gym, not knowing what to do, with no real plan? It can be frustrating, especially when you see the prices of personal trainers and some CrossFit gyms these days. It can sometimes feel like you need a loan just to have a solid plan.

Well, this was me. I was spending a fortune on three different gyms and two online programmes, so I made it my mission in 2025 to become fitness subscription independent. I picked a nice gym, signed up for a year, cancelled all my other memberships and programmes, and decided to figure things out for myself. I knew I'd struggle until I found an approach that worked for me, one that wouldn’t break the bank and still delivered decent results.

Keeping it Simple

This article isn’t about some highly specific, advanced training programme, that's a whole other ball game. If you need that kind of training, you probably already know what you're doing.

Instead, this guide is all about simplicity and removing the feeling of being lost in the gym.

A quick disclaimer: this is what worked for me. It might not be your cup of tea, but hopefully, there are a few useful nuggets in here for you.

First, You Have to Make a Choice

The first step is deciding on your goal. It’s not a massive choice, but it will guide your decisions around food over the coming weeks or months, depending on how long you commit.

Do you want to:

• Bulk - Eat in a calorie surplus and gain strength/muscle
• Cut - Eat in a calorie deficit and reduce body fat
• Rebalance - Eat at maintenance and try to "shape up"

Common practice is to bulk to gain muscle and strength, then cut to shed the fat gained during the bulk. We typically build muscle more efficiently while bulking and lose fat most effectively while cutting.

In all honesty, I train the same across all three approaches. I just expect to have different energy levels and outcomes depending on which group I’m in.

Tracking

Before you start training on your own, make sure you’re holding yourself accountable. How will you know your plan’s working if there’s nothing to compare it against? Knowing when something isn’t working is more valuable than knowing when it is, because then you can pivot if you stagnate and see no progression.

You could go fancy and track every measurement, body fat, muscle mass, etc. But it's often overkill. The simplest and most effective approach is:

• Track your bodyweight
  • Some scales do fat and muscle, this can be wildly inaccurate. So just stick to weight to start and don't get hung up on percentages!
• Take front, back, and side photos monthly

Visual progress is one of the clearest indicators of change, and if you don’t track anything, you’re flying blind. Relying on how you feel fluctuates day-to-day.

The Two Approaches

There are two main approaches, each with their own pros and cons. Let’s explore both so you can decide what works for you.

Session-by-Session

This method means deciding what you're doing just before you train. You’re not following a set plan over weeks or months, just taking each session as it comes. It’s arguably harder, as it requires more thinking and decision-making each time you go to the gym.

Many people follow the “Workout of the Day” (WOD) format, which typically lasts anywhere from 10–45 minutes and follows a HIIT-style format. You just pick a WOD, warm up, and go.

Below is a list of resources for session-by-session training:

• @hyroxtraining – Daily HYROX-style WODs
• WODWell – CrossFit-style workouts searchable by time, equipment, and goal
• BodyweightFitness (Reddit) – Minimal equipment bodyweight sessions
• CrossFit.com – The original WOD provider
• Jeff Nippard’s YouTube Channel – Science-backed workouts and tips

Pros

• Super flexible, pivot your training daily, weekly, whenever you want
• You can train based on how you feel that day
• Great for experimenting with different formats and finding what you enjoy
• Ideal if you get bored easily or want to mix it up

Cons

• Easy to lose consistency if you’re unsure what to do
• Some WODs require specialist equipment not found in public gyms
• Difficult to ensure well-rounded training (muscle group balance, rest periods, etc.)
• Lack of long-term progression tracking unless you add your own structure

Programmes

The bread and butter of fitness, a structured plan with a clear goal. This is more in line with what a personal trainer would give you: a longer-term plan with progression and intent.

Programmes vary in frequency and length. Some run three days a week for four weeks, others five days a week for three months. The key is to pick one based on your availability, not just the results it promises.

Where to Find a Programme

Programmes come in many forms, some in apps, others via YouTube, PDFs, or spreadsheets. Here are some trusted resources:

Free – Gymshark Train
Packed with quality free programmes for everything from endurance to hypertrophy and cardio. As a former Gymshark employee, this was my first stop for structured workouts, and it taught me a lot about structuring my own programs.

Free with Premium Tier – Liftosaur
My daily go-to! This is not necessarily a program app, its an app to build your own program, however, It offers several strength programmes for free with built-in tracking. Premium unlocks more graphs, but the free tier has everything you need to get going and start training. Once you learn enough this app will let you clone and adjust the programs or build your own from scratch.

Paid – HWPO Training
Elite CrossFit, strength, and even golf-specific training. Excellent quality, but premium-priced. Comes with a companion app, community forums and much more. I used this for a year and saw explosive results. But this will likely cost more than your public gym membership!

Paid with Free Trial – Runna
Runna builds AI-based running programmes tailored to your distance, time frame, and availability. Great for 5Ks up to ultramarathons. I used this to train for an ultra. I had never even done. a half marathon before using this app and within 4 months i rana 55km run, I cannot speak more highly of how good this app is for running specific training.,

Free – ChatGPT
Build your own programme! Just ask ChatGPT to create one (e.g., “Create a 3-day strength programme for 12 weeks”) and tweak it to your liking. Just be careful here, creating programs yourself with a lack of experience (even AI assisted) could lead to some poor choices, only go ahead if your comfortable with the output. Best thing to do is follow a few "human made" programmes first to get a feel for how they should be, so you can have that back and fourth with our AI overlords.

Free – YouTube
The OG video platform is packed full of useful content. Search for terms such as “Hyrox 8-week programme” or “Push pull legs routine” and you’ll find countless free options from reputable coaches, they may be series or playlists with in depth detail, examples and form lessons too!

Pros

• Structured: you always know what to do and when
• Teaches you how good programming is built
• Often balances muscle groups for more “complete” training
• Encourages progression and consistency

Cons

• Less flexible—you need to follow the programme to see results
• Can be hard to stick to if life gets in the way
• Might feel boring if you prefer variety

Last Tips

Record your lifts

Don't be ashamed of whipping out a camera setting up a tripod and filming it, in fact i highly encourage it. When running your own programme, you need to be accountable for your own form. With a video you can see where you are going wrong and adapt it.

Stretch Stretch Stretch

No self respecting PT is going to sit you on a bench and make you start repping 80% of your one rep max bench. They will get you warmed up. The easiest way is to check youtube for warm up routines for your training style. for example searching "chest day 5-10 minute warmup" will yield exactly what you need.

I tend to follow a format of:

• 5 minutes cardio to get HR up
• 3-5 minutes static stretches
• 3-5 minutes dynamic stretches

Pace yourself

When starting a new programme or training style, it usually messes you up, the DOMs will hit hard and the head voices will tell you its too much. Pace yourself, Rome wasn't built in a day. By running your own programme you can shift a day if needed to get the proper rest and recovery you need.

Recovery

Eat as well as you can, sleep as good as you can, hydrate as much as possible, don't get sucked into fads, and don't ego lift at risk of injuring yourself. The best way to get fit is to make small maintainable changes, avoid injury and recover.

Ask for help

Ask someone for a form check, spot, advice. people love to help!

Summary

If you’ve ever felt lost in the gym, know that you’re not alone, and you don’t need to spend a fortune to find direction. Whether you take it session by session or follow a structured programme, the key is consistency, tracking your progress, and picking an approach that works for your lifestyle.

Try both methods. Learn what you enjoy. Mix and match. But above all, just keep showing up.