Notice: If you are pregnant, have a current injury, joint replacement, or have been advised to avoid exercise by a doctor, consult your obstetrician or GP before starting any programme. Coach Aditya does not diagnose injuries or pregnancy complications — this tool provides programming guidance only.
Workout Plan Generator
A programme that fits your life is the only programme that works • Coach Aditya's methodology
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Your Body
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Your Setup
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Your Goal
About You
Coach Aditya's programme starts with who you are — not what the average person needs.
For athletes under 18, Coach Aditya uses a separate approach built around growth plate safety.
Women's training physiology changes across the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, life stage, and hormonal conditions. Coach Aditya needs to know where you are to build the right programme for you right now.
Life Stage
Doctor's Clearance Required
Exercise during pregnancy is safe and beneficial for most women. It requires your obstetrician's or GP's clearance first. If you have been cleared, continue. If you have placenta previa, pre-eclampsia risk, premature labour history, incompetent cervix, or twins/multiples with complications, do not train without explicit medical guidance.
Trimester
Approximate week of pregnancy
Were you active / training before pregnancy?
Current symptoms (select all that apply — affects programme adjustments)
Stop Immediately & Contact Doctor If
Vaginal bleeding • Chest pain or palpitations • Dizziness or feeling faint • Severe headache or visual disturbance • Calf pain or swelling • Reduced fetal movement • Amniotic fluid leaking • Contractions. These are red flags during exercise at any trimester.
Flow type
Luteal symptoms (PMS, bloating, fatigue, mood)
Diastasis recti (assessed?)
Pelvic floor symptoms
Conditions affecting training (select all)
Your Setup
What you actually have access to determines what programme is possible.
Equipment Available
Days Per Week
Session Length
Recovery Context
Coach Aditya's Full Consultation
Current injuries or pain (select all)
Training psychology
What stopped you before
Your Goal
This determines your method, intensity, and how Coach Aditya structures progression.
Primary Goal
Goal during pregnancy
During pregnancy, the goal is not aesthetics or strength progression — it is staying active, maintaining strength that supports your changing body, preparing the pelvic floor for labour, and building habits that make the postpartum return easier. The programme below reflects that. Fat loss and calorie restriction are not appropriate during pregnancy.
Science-Based Programming
A Programme That Fits Your Life Is the Only One That Works
Coach Aditya has seen more programmes abandoned in week 3 than he has seen finish. Almost always the same reason: the programme was built for someone else's body, history, and life.
Workout Plan Generator: Science-Based Programming for Every Body
Most workout programmes fail not because the exercises are wrong — but because the programme was built for someone else. A plan designed for an injury-free intermediate lifter with full gym access is not the right programme for someone with a lower back history, 30 minutes a day, and a home gym. The variables that actually determine whether a programme works — training experience, equipment, recovery capacity, injuries, goal, and psychology — are precisely the ones generic programmes ignore.
How Method Selection Works
This generator applies seven distinct training methods and assigns the correct one based on your inputs. Beginners training three days a week receive full-body linear progression. Intermediate lifters chasing muscle receive push/pull/legs with daily undulating periodisation. Strength-focused intermediates receive 5/3/1 Wendler. Advanced lifters receive block periodisation — accumulation, intensification, and realisation phases.
Injury-Specific Exercise Substitutions
Every injury flag produces specific substitutions. Lower back history removes conventional deadlifts in favour of trap bar or Romanian deadlifts and adds the McGill Big 3. Shoulder history replaces overhead pressing with landmine pressing or incline bench. Knee history replaces deep squatting with box squats and adds terminal knee extensions.
Body Type and Volume
Ectomorphic types require higher set volumes, longer rest, and minimal cardio. Endomorphic types require Zone 2 cardio, shorter rest, and controlled energy intake. Mesomorphic types respond well to standard programming. These are starting points that adjust based on your logged progress.
Workout Plan Generator: Built for Every Stage of Female Physiology
Women's training physiology is not a simplified version of men's training. It changes across the menstrual cycle, through pregnancy, postpartum recovery, perimenopause, and post-menopause. A programme that does not account for where a woman is in her hormonal landscape is not a programme built for her.
Cycle-Phase Training
Training capacity changes measurably across the four phases of the menstrual cycle. The follicular phase — days 6 through 13 — is the highest anabolic window of the month. Estrogen is rising, strength is peaking, and progressive overload targets should be pushed here. The luteal phase sees progesterone elevate core temperature and raise perceived exertion. This is physiology, not weakness.
Hormonal Conditions and Training
PCOS, hypothyroidism, endometriosis, and osteopenia each require a genuinely different training approach. PCOS driven by insulin resistance responds to Zone 2 and resistance training. PCOS driven by adrenal stress is worsened by high-intensity training. Hypothyroidism requires volume reduction and intensity capping. These are not the same condition and do not get the same programme.
Workout Plan Generator: PCOS Training Protocols
PCOS is not one condition. It has at least three distinct subtypes — and the training that helps one can actively worsen another. This is why generic fitness advice for PCOS is not just unhelpful — it is often harmful.
Insulin-Driven PCOS (approximately 70%)
Zone 2 cardiovascular training is the primary intervention — 30 minutes at 60 to 70 percent of maximum heart rate, three times a week. Resistance training is the secondary intervention. HIIT is limited to once per week. Rest periods are kept short to maintain the metabolic stimulus. Myo-inositol at 2 to 4 grams daily has the strongest evidence of any supplement for this subtype.
Adrenal-Driven PCOS
HIIT is removed entirely. High-intensity training elevates cortisol — already dysregulated in adrenal PCOS. Training volume is reduced 15 percent. RPE is capped at 7. Moderate resistance training and Zone 2 only.
Inflammatory-Driven PCOS
Anti-inflammatory nutrition is the foundation — omega-3 at 2 to 3g EPA+DHA, turmeric with black pepper, elimination of ultra-processed foods. Training follows a moderate resistance and Zone 2 protocol with recovery prioritised.
Workout Plan Generator: Training Through Pregnancy
Regular moderate exercise during a healthy pregnancy is safe and beneficial for most women. It reduces the risk of gestational diabetes, excessive weight gain, and pre-eclampsia. It improves mood, reduces back pain, and builds the strength needed for labour and postpartum recovery.
Trimester-Specific Guidelines
In the first trimester, most women continue pre-pregnancy exercise with minor modifications — core temperature management is the priority. In the second trimester, the supine position must be avoided after week 16 because the uterus compresses the inferior vena cava. In the third trimester, volume reduces significantly and pelvic floor preparation becomes the primary training focus.
What Is Never in a Pregnancy Programme
No Valsalva at any stage. No supine after week 16. No prone when the bump prevents comfortable positioning. No contact sports. No calorie restriction. No training to failure. These are not precautions — they are non-negotiable programming standards.
Workout Plan Generator: Training Through Perimenopause and Menopause
The decline in estrogen removes its protective effect on bone density, muscle mass, and cardiovascular health simultaneously. Resistance training is not optional here — it is the primary intervention for all three.
Sarcopenia Prevention
Without resistance training, muscle mass declines at 1 to 2 percent per year after menopause. This affects metabolic rate, insulin sensitivity, and long-term independence. Progressive resistance training is the only intervention that addresses all of these simultaneously.
Bone Density Protocol
Bone loading exercises — squats, deadlifts, hip hinges, farmer carries — apply the mechanical stress that stimulates bone remodelling. Calcium at 1,200mg per day split into doses no larger than 500mg. Vitamin D3 at 2,000 to 4,000 IU with K2 100mcg. Creatine monohydrate at 3 to 5g daily has emerging evidence for both bone density and cognitive function post-menopause.
Workout Plan Generator: Postpartum Return to Training
The postpartum return to training is one of the most frequently mishandled transitions in fitness. Women are cleared to exercise at six weeks and handed a generic programme that ignores everything that just happened to their body.
The Four-Phase Return
Phase 1 (0-6 weeks): breathing and pelvic floor reconnection only. Phase 2 (6-12 weeks): bodyweight movements post-clearance. Phase 3 (12-24 weeks): progressive resistance with pelvic floor monitoring. Phase 4 (24+ weeks): full programme, with impact activity following the Leeds criteria.
Diastasis Recti and Pelvic Floor
A gap without tension does not close with crunches — it closes with correct intra-abdominal pressure management. Pelvic floor leaking with impact means the system is not ready for that level of load. The return to running criteria exist because the pelvic floor at 8 weeks postpartum is not the same structure it will be at 24 weeks.
Workout Plan Generator: Training with Thyroid Conditions
Hypothyroidism reduces the active thyroid hormone T3, which affects every cell's energy production. In training terms: reduced NEAT, slower recovery, higher perceived exertion at the same workload. Standard volume targets when the thyroid is underactive is not progressive overload — it is overreaching.
Hypothyroid Adjustments
Training volume reduced 15 percent. Intensity capped at RPE 7 to 8. High-intensity training removed — Zone 2 cardiovascular only. Recovery between sessions extended. Progress measured against individual capacity, not population averages.
Hyperthyroid Adjustments
Hyperthyroidism raises resting heart rate, increases caloric expenditure, and accelerates muscle catabolism. Training is kept moderate, protein targets elevated, and medical management takes priority over training progression until the condition is controlled.
Frequently Asked Questions
Three to five days produces optimal results for most people. Beginners see excellent results with three full-body sessions. Intermediates benefit from four to five days using a split structure. Six days is viable for advanced lifters with strong recovery — but rarely necessary and often counterproductive for those managing high stress or poor sleep.
Progressive overload is the systematic increase of training stress over time — adding weight, more reps, more sets, or shorter rest. Without it, the body has no reason to adapt. It is the single most important variable in any programme and the primary reason tracking sessions matters more than following any specific routine.
RPE — Rate of Perceived Exertion — measures how close to failure a set is on a 1 to 10 scale. RPE 10 means no more reps possible. RPE 7 means three reps remaining. Using RPE instead of fixed percentages makes training self-regulating — on good days you push harder, on fatigued days the same RPE protects you from overreaching.
Full body three times per week is superior for beginners. Hitting each muscle group three times a week accelerates the neural adaptations that drive initial strength gains. Split programmes become appropriate after three to six months of consistent full-body training.
In most cases yes — with appropriate exercise selection. Lower back pain is rarely worsened by movement and is often improved by it. Trap bar deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, and the McGill Big 3 are safe starting points. Radiating pain down one or both legs, numbness, or bladder and bowel changes require a doctor consultation before training.
Strength improvements begin within two to four weeks as the nervous system adapts. Visible muscle changes appear after eight to twelve weeks of consistent training and nutrition. The clients who see the best results are not those who train hardest in week one — they are the ones still training in week twelve.
The fundamental principles apply to both. The application differs. Women have higher relative endurance capacity, respond well to higher rep ranges, and have a hormonal environment that changes measurably across the menstrual cycle. A programme built for a woman accounts for these differences — not by reducing the training, but by timing intensity correctly relative to hormonal phase.
Yes. Movement during menstruation reduces cramping, improves mood, and maintains the training habit. Volume is reduced around 20 percent and intensity capped at RPE 7 — not because the body cannot handle more, but because the anti-inflammatory benefit of moderate movement is lost when training becomes maximal.
The follicular phase — roughly days 6 through 13. Estrogen is rising toward its peak, the anabolic environment is strongest, and perceived exertion is lowest for the same absolute effort. This is the week to push progressive overload targets and attempt new maximal efforts.
PCOS type determines the approach. Insulin-driven PCOS responds to Zone 2 cardio three times a week combined with resistance training, HIIT limited to once per week. Adrenal-driven PCOS is worsened by HIIT — cortisol management is the priority. Treating both the same is the most common mistake in PCOS fitness advice.
Zone 2 cardio is beneficial for all PCOS types. HIIT benefits insulin-driven PCOS in small doses but is harmful for adrenal-driven PCOS. The generic advice to do more cardio without specifying type and intensity is not useful guidance for PCOS.
Myo-inositol at 2 to 4 grams daily has the strongest evidence for insulin-driven PCOS. Magnesium glycinate at 300 to 400mg before bed improves sleep and insulin sensitivity. Vitamin D3 is almost universally deficient and affects insulin receptor function. Ashwagandha KSM-66 at 300mg has evidence for cortisol reduction in adrenal PCOS.
Yes, for most women cleared by their obstetrician. Resistance training during pregnancy maintains muscle mass, reduces back pain, and builds the physical capacity needed for labour. The modifications are specific: no Valsalva, no supine after 16 weeks, RPE-based intensity, and no exercises causing pelvic floor symptoms.
Contact sports and high fall-risk activities. Lying flat on your back after week 16. Lying face down when the bump makes it uncomfortable. Breath-holding under load. Exercises causing abdominal coning. Exercises causing pelvic floor leaking or pressure. These are specific contraindications with clear physiological reasons.
RPE 5 to 6 on a 0 to 10 scale. You should hold a conversation throughout. Never train to failure. What feels like RPE 6 in the first trimester will feel harder in the third at the same absolute effort — honour that shift rather than fighting it.
Yes — and this is not optional. Resistance training is the primary intervention for bone density loss, sarcopenia, insulin resistance, and metabolic changes from declining estrogen. Women who do not resistance train lose 1 to 2 percent of muscle mass per year. This compounds over decades.
TDEE decreases approximately 5 percent as estrogen declines. NEAT drops. Insulin sensitivity decreases. Visceral fat storage increases. Sleep disruption affects hunger hormones. None of these are addressed by eating less and moving more as a generic instruction — each requires a specific intervention.
Emerging evidence says yes — beyond muscle performance. Creatine monohydrate at 3 to 5 grams daily has shown positive associations with bone density maintenance and cognitive function in post-menopausal women. It has a well-established safety profile and growing evidence specifically in women over 50.
The six-week clearance is a medical milestone — not a training clearance. It means basic healing has been assessed. It does not mean the pelvic floor is ready for loading or that diastasis recti has resolved. The correct return is phased: breathing and pelvic floor from day one, bodyweight after six-week clearance, progressive resistance from twelve weeks, impact activity only when the Leeds criteria are met.
Diastasis recti is the separation of the rectus abdominis at the midline — normal in pregnancy. A gap without tension is the issue. Crunches and sit-ups do not close it — correct intra-abdominal pressure management does. Exercises causing coning or doming are contraindicated until tension is restored.
Hypothyroidism reduces T3, which affects every cell's energy production. In training: reduced NEAT, slower recovery, higher perceived exertion at the same workload. The correct response is to reduce volume 15 percent, cap intensity at RPE 7 to 8, use Zone 2 cardio exclusively, and monitor fatigue across the week rather than pushing through it.