Workout routines for beginners

[Pseudonym]

Some time ago I started a set of articles for the Tools section of the site - "The Beginner's Guide to Bodybuilding". I wrote two out of three planned articles, and said I'd get to the third in a few rainy weekends' time. Well, quite a few rainy weekends have passed since then, and I just haven't got round to it... :oops:

...So I figured I'd ask you clever people to do it for me. Just add your two-cents' worth here, and I'll go through later and combine all your liitle gems into the full article.

The brief is this:

Someone has just told you they want to start training. Only trouble is, they know nothing about bodybuilding - nothing. The other articles have given them an overview of the process, and taken them through their diet. Now they need to learn about the exercise routine itself - why we do what we do, how to organise a good split, reps/sets/rests explained, etc... Anything you think would be helpful for a beginner to know. Then maybe throw in some more advanced stuff to keep things interesting for readers with more experience.

So come on, give me something to make me get off my butt and finish this series! :grin:

[jono]

newb split:

push/pull/legs

eg:

mon push (chest/shoulder/tri)

tues

wed pull (back/rear delt/medial delt/bi)

thur

fri legs (quad/ham/calf)

push:

incline benchpress

flat benchpress

leaning forward dips/military press (alternate each week)

close grip bench

skullcrushers

pull:

barbell rows

chinups

deadlifts

lateral raise

bent over laterals

barbell curls

dumbell curls

legs:

squats

legpress

stiff legged deadlift

leg curl

standing calf raise

seated calf raise

reps: 8-10 reps all on ex.

sets: 2 working sets, 2 warmup sets.

thats my advice

[Cornfed]

My first piece of advice would be not to let any of the usual young bimbo/tosser personal trainers put you on a program, although they might be useful in explaining how to safely perform the various exercises.

I'm of the school of thought that any beginning weight training program should concentrate on building a strong and coordinated muscular base. The way to do this is to concentrate on the major compound exercises. Generally you should start by working the whole body three times a week (or twice a week in you're over 40) with workouts on alternate days, say Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The workouts should last between one and two hours.

A sample program would be to do three sets each of squat, sldl, barbell bench press, bent row, military press, chin-up/lat pulldown, barbell biceps curl, dips (either bench or parallel bar, depending on your strength). You'd do, say, 6 to 10 reps per set and increase the weight once that became easy. At first you would concentrate of performing each movement with strictly correct form at, say, a three-seconds-up two down cadence, but as the weeks went by you could allow yourself to develop your own lifting style. I think pretty much any non-disabled person should begin with a program similar to this.

All going well, most people will make good gains for a few months with such a program, but eventually you will begin to plateau. When that happens it is time to change the program. How you should change it depends on what you want to achieve.

Suppose you were a man who wanted to be as muscular as possible. The basic idea would be to add more gym time, exercises and training days since your body is more used to training, but take more time off between training individual muscle groups, since your muscles are bigger and so require more time for the body to repair. So you might start training four days a week instead of three. You might split your workout in two so as to train half the body on alternate days, thereby training individual muscles only twice a week. The exercises you would add could better isolate the muscles to give you that extra bit of growth. For example, for biceps, instead of doing barbell curls you could do preacher curls and incline curls twice a week. The same for other muscle groups. You might also add exercises for peripheral body parts like calves and forearms. Beyond this, it is hard to give generic advice. However, once you have plateaued with this program, you will likely have developed your own ideas about the correct direction to take your training.

Of course if you weren't trying to be Mr. Olympia you might do things differently after training on the initial program described above. For example, if you were training as a basketball player, you would only want a certain amount of muscle in the upper body. Hence once you had achieved this you could just drop the weights you were using slightly and otherwise continue the original program indefinitely, while perhaps adding some plyometric exercises for explosive strength in the legs.

On the subject of diet, it seems to be increasingly recognized that one should cut out processed complex carbs and most forms of sugar, and instead concentrate on wholesome, natural foods such as meat, fruit and vegetables. Most trainers want to be lean, so would generally eat several smallish meals spread evenly over the day, the idea being that the body won't bother to store fat because it will know that there's more food on the way. Essentially, if you want to get stronger without gaining weight you should eat a high protein, low calorie diet, whereas if you want to bulk up you should eat a high protein, high calorie diet.

[Cornfed]

The brief is this:

Someone has just told you they want to start training. Only trouble is, they know nothing about bodybuilding - nothing. The other articles have given them an overview of the process, and taken them through their diet. Now they need to learn about the exercise routine itself - why we do what we do, how to organise a good split, reps/sets/rests explained, etc...

Now I think about it, my post didn't fulfill this brief very well, but for explanations of the basic terms and exercises, a beginner could get any number of suitable books out of the library.

[Marcus]

Re diet. For a beginner I would just suggest eating a shitload of everything. You have to be prepared that for your first bulking cycle you will put on some fat.

That was the advice I was given anyway. I ate a heap of food, processed & everything. I think it's very hard for a beginner to take it all in - diet & workout techniques. There's so much to learn & it's quite daunting for a beginner. So I'd focus on building the muscle the first time, learn about your body & how it responds to different types of training. Then after you have added 10+ kg's, reassess your diet & do things a bit smarter. It's a lot easier to adjust your body compisition anyway after you have the muscle on.

Also, be dedicated & don't miss meals.

[Growth]

If i personally were writting the article it would go something like this :grin:

Introduction

The basic idea behind all gym routines is that you need to hit the weights hard and then rest. A common misconception among people new to bodybuilding is that your muscles experience growth when you are at the gym, all the hard work you put in at the gym is mearly the stimulus for muscle growth, resting is when the actual growth takes place, not in the gym. The most common mistake for begginers is that they train too much and rest too little. Working out at the gym basically damages your muscle, muscle fibres are litrally broken down. Given you eat enough food your body will repair your muscles bigger and better than before so that next time they encounter the same resistance they are better able to handle it.

The most common routines for begginers are based around Compound Exercises. Compound exercises are regarded as the best exercises you can perform. They incorperate lots of muscles into a single exercise, therefore stimulating the most growth. The most common compound movements are the bench press, the squat and the deadlift. These are refered to as "The Big Three". The deadlift is the best example of a compound movment, to do this exercise will require you to use your many leg muscles as well as alot of your upper body muscles.

Since your muscles grow when you are resting it makes sence to base a routine around maximum recovery times, couple this will the incorperation of compound movements and you have the begginings of a great workout.

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The Routine

This is common but very effective split of a begginer. The idea is to build mass so most exercises need to be performed in the 6-8 rep range. Traps, Calves and Abs usually need to be trained in a slightly higher rep range than other muscles. These muscles are sometimes refered to as endurance type muscles which consist of a greater ratio of slow to fast twich fibers, thus the best way to stimulate these musle groups is to raise the rep range accordingly.

Day 1 : Chest and Back

Chest

Flat BB Bench Press : 2 x 6-8 reps

Incline DB Press : 2 x 6-8 reps

Dips : 2 x 6-8 reps

Back

Chin ups : 2 x 6-8 reps

Deadlifts : 2 x 6-8 reps

BB Rows : 2 x 6-8 reps

Shrugs : 1 x 10 reps

Day 2 : OFF

Day 3 : Legs

Squats : 2 x 6-8 reps

Hack Squats : 2 x 6-8 reps

Straight Legged Deadlifts : 2 x 6-8 reps

Leg Curls : 2 x 6-8 reps

Standing Calve Raises : 4 x 10 reps

Day 4 : OFF

Day 5 : Shoulders, Triceps, Biceps and Abs

Shoulders :

Seated Military Press : 2 x 6-8 reps

Seated DB Press : 2 x 6-8 reps

Standing Lateral Raises : 2 x 6-8 reps

Triceps :

Close Grip bench Press : 2 x 6-8 reps

Skullcrushers : 2 x 6-8 reps

Biceps :

Barbell Curls : 2 x 6-8 reps

Hammer Curls : 1 x 6-8 reps

Abs :

Swiss Ball Crunches : 4 x 8-10 reps

Day 6 : OFF

Day 7 : OFF

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For information about the above exercises including animations of how they are performed, and which muscles are involed go to

http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html

So you go to the gym, hit the iron hard, eat, rest, and recover, however, next time you hit the gym your muscles are already familiar with the resistance you placed on them last time, and using the same resistance wont provide your muscles with the same sort of stimulus. What should you do then? The key is progression. Always try to progress on each exercise every week. Progression techniques range from getting a couple of extra reps out of the same weight, to doing the same amount of reps with a higher weight. Those little slithers of metal at the gym that say 1.25kg are more useful than people think. Each session should generally take no longer than an hour. How long you give yourself between sets is up to you, however you should give yourself at least a couple of minutes between each set. You want to keep the time your in the gym to a minimum yet give yourself enough rest to be able to perform another set to the best of your ability.

The End.

That was the first routine i ever used. Saw some considerable gains of it to. It really just introduced me to weight training, and learning compound movements right from the outset i think is a good idea. As is trying to stay away from machine weights.

[Growth]

WOW there were three posts posted during the time i was writting mine :shock: Guess it took longer to write than i thought :pfft:

If anything in my post has been said before thats why :grin:

[Marcus]

Nice post Growth. :clap:

[Pseudonym]

If i personally were writting the article it would go something like this :grin:

lol... It looks like you and Cornfed HAVE written it! :pfft:

This is great - I should have done this ages ago. Hmmm... I wonder what other work I can pass off to you guys? :think:

[Growth]

Always happy to help out :grin:

[jono]

i agree great post growth

[Growth]

:oops: Thanks guys :oops:

[williamgeorge]

Wow!! Great things are there in your post. I got more and more ideas from the link which you in the post. It includes what are the ways for beginners and how it should be in routines.. And I especially thank you for sharing this topic.

=========

george

[MOD EDIT: Spam link removed]

[Progress]

Wow!! Great SPAM are there in your post williamgeorge!

[musclenz]

Pseudo,Jono,Cornfed, Growth - you guys obviously know your stuff & have made some very good suggestions that beginners could utilise. The problem with putting out a general beginner program is that it does not take into account the complexities of each individual beginner. Every "body" is different physically, mentally & emotionally. What I see a lot is the inability of a PT & other "Fitness Specialists" to be able to connect with the person at a level other than the physical. I believe that the key to sustained & ongoing fitness, health & well being, is to help people to assimilate all the aspects & requirements of the Physical Body with who they are as a person.