Sample Weight Training Program

I'm ready to try weight training!

...What do I do?

I hear that from lots of folks, and it's a totally reasonable question. Often, though, you either get mysterious, not-useful-for-beginners answers, or you get so inundated with information that it's downright paralyzing.

Have I Got a Deal For You!

With this post, I'm going to try to give you a solid starting point. And I'm not going to charge you a penny! But...there's still a cost. I'm gonna make you read. And you might have to do a little bit of internet research. First, the disclaimers: 

• I'm not a professional trainer. I'm just a guy with experience who reads a lot. 
• If I list an exercise you're not familiar with, Google it with the word "form" added. For example, "face pulls form".
• If I use a term you don't understand, take a peek in my mini weight training dictionary.
• If you're trying an exercise for the first time, practice the form with a very light weight (an empty bar or very light dumbbells or select the lightest weight on your machine)
• Your first few workouts will be for figuring out how much weight to use. For more details on how to do that, read this post.

I'm going to suggest a 3-day split. That means you will be doing a cycle of three different workouts, each one on a different day. You don't have to always do "Push Day" on a Monday, just make sure that any day you work out, you do the next workout in the cycle. For example:

MONDAY - Push day

TUESDAY - Pull day

WEDNESDAY - rest (no workout)

THURSDAY - Legs day

FRIDAY - rest

SATURDAY - Push day

SUNDAY - rest

NEXT MONDAY - Pull day

NEXT TUESDAY - Legs day

...and so on...

Here's the Program

Each exercise, I will also specify which muscle group is being trained. That's important, because if you want to try a different exercise, you should find one that works the same muscle group. For each exercise, do 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps and rest about a minute between sets. To get more detail on what that means, please check out this post.

DAY 1, "Push Day" for shoulders (delts), chest (pecs), and triceps

• Bench press OR dumbbell chest press (chest)
• Incline butterfy OR cable fly (chest)
• Decline press OR dips OR assisted dips (chest/triceps)
• cable press downs OR close-grip bench press (triceps)
• Military press OR overhead dumbbell press (shoulders)
• Dumbbell OR cable side lateral raise (shoulders)

DAY 2, "Pull Day" for lower back, upper back (lats, rear delts, and traps), and biceps

• deadlift OR sumo deadlift (lower back)
• pull-ups OR assisted pull-ups OR cable pull-downs (upper back - lats)
• cable low row OR chest-supported row (lats and biceps)
• bent-over reverse fly OR band pull-aparts (upper back - rear delts and traps)
• hammer curls OR concentration curls (biceps)
• face pulls OR dumbbell shrugs (upper back - traps)

DAY 3, "Legs Day" for lower body (quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves) and abs

• barbell back squat OR goblet squat (quads)
• lunges OR reverse lunges OR step-ups (quads)
• leg curl machine OR leg press with feet high and wide (hamstrings)
• Romanian deadlift OR bridges OR hip thrusters (hamstrings and glutes)
• calf raises OR leg press calf extension (calves)
• weighted crunches OR planks (abs)

How Much Weight Should I Lift?

Here's a post all about that. But in a nutshell, select a weight for each exercise that you can do for 8 to 10 reps. Figuring this out might take up your first three workouts, but that’s okay. Then aim for doing 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps of each exercise. If you succeed at doing 3 sets of 10 on a certain exercise, then you're probably ready to increase the weight for that exercise by 5 to 10% next time.

Don't forget, this program will get you started, but it's not perfect. Over time, be willing to make changes! My favorite website for learning new things about weight training is t-nation.com. Unlike me, those folks have actual degrees in this stuff.

Hope this all helps!

The Friendly Lifter

Let's Talk Basics

 

Weight Training 101

You probably already know that people do weight training to get stronger and make their muscles bigger.  (It’s also a great way to lose fat.)  But how we go about accomplishing that isn’t necessarily obvious, so give me one minute to talk basics.

When you look in the weight room at the gym, you see people making objects move back and forth, so it’s reasonable to assume that’s the primary purpose, but it’s actually not.  The most important thing you need to accomplish in the weight room is to make your muscles tired.  Moving objects back and forth is simply the means to that end, but it’s not the actual point.

Does that seem like splitting hairs?  Honestly, it’s not.  When you understand that you are moving heavy things around in order to tire out your muscles, then you start to think about your muscles more than the weight.  You start to analyze which muscles will benefit from moving this object in this particular way.  And most importantly, you begin to understand that this weight lifting business goes a lot deeper than you may have realized before.

The most important principle of weight training is to do an exercise until your muscle is too tired to do it any more.  Every time you do an exercise, make sure you know which muscle it is intended to train, then do the exercise until that muscle is too tired to continue without resorting to bad form.  That's when you stop and rest.

When to Stop and When to Go

Each time you move the weight, that's called a "rep" (short for "repetition").  When you do a certain number of reps then stop to rest, you've done what's called a "set". Each time you do a set, you should have a certain number of reps that you're trying to achieve. That's your "rep goal". But that goal should be a challenge, so you if you're hitting your rep goal all the time, then the goal is too easy. You should also have in mind a "rep range". For example, if your rep goal is 10 reps, you would probably set your rep range at 8 to 10 reps, meaning that getting to 8 or 9 reps is good, but you should keep trying to get all the way to 10 next time.

Your workout will be more effective if you do 2 or 3 sets of each exercise. So after your first set, rest for about a minute then do another set.  You might do another exercise for that same muscle, depending on what kind of program you're doing. But hopefully at that point, you've made your muscle good and tired.  That's how you signal to your body that it needs to improve your strength and grow the muscle.

Where Are My Gainz?

So you've finished a great workout. Your muscles are bigger and stronger now, right? Wellll, yes and no. When a muscle works hard, it demands plenty of oxygen to help fuel that effort. Your body responds by pumping extra blood to that muscle. You might notice the muscle feels extra full, or extra warm, or maybe even a tiny bit bigger. That's called a "pump", and it really does temporarily make your muscle bigger and fuller. But the pump fades about 15 minutes after your workout. Sorry.

Your muscles don't actually do their growing and strengthening at the gym. They do most of that while you're sleeping. Working out sends signals to your body that those muscles need to grow and repair and get stronger. Since sleep is when your body does most of its healing, that's also when your "gainz" happen. So it's really important to make sure you're getting plenty of sleep as part of your workout program.

Have a great workout, and don't forget, it's okay to ask questions!

The Friendly Lifter

Meet the Friendly Lifter

 If this is the first post of mine you've read, welcome!  And thanks for visiting--it's an honor!

(Note: this was my very first post back in 2019, but due to technical issues I'm re-running it.)

Where I’m Coming From

For the first 40 years of my life, I was the Fat Kid.  I used to be 300 pounds of solid fat.  Over the last 6 years I’ve lost more than 100 pounds of that fat, and significantly improved my strength and muscle.  I'm also a teacher by trade, and I really like to help people learn stuff.  Over the years, I have seen many beginners have the same questions, and see them face the same frustrations as lots and lots of other people.  I'd like to give them a kind, non-judgmental push in the right direction.

I’m NOT here to sell you something, or get you to sign up for something, or convince you that if you do what I tell you, you’ll melt away that fat or build yourself into a god or goddess.  Instead, I’m here to give you a bit of tough love and a lot of encouraging hugs.  If you’re a guy they can be fist bumps, I’m okay with that too.

The Tough Love Part

The sad truth is, getting fit is hard—especially at first.  And in this day and age where you can learn endless amounts of information with a few clicks of the keyboard, a teaspoon of helpful information is typically buried in a truckload of worthless crap.  That’s mostly because people want your money.  They will tell you literally anything to get your money, and they know exactly what you want to hear.  Just buy the magazine or membership or bizarre machine and you will look like these models in no time!

They.  Are.  Lying.

Lasting fitness never works that way, ever.  Ever.  Certainly, it’s possible to lose a large amount of fat or gain a lot of muscle in a short period of time, but I guarantee it will be insanely difficult, expensive, and/or fraught with dangers to your overall health.  And after all that, your body will naturally try to reverse such drastic changes to its status quo, meaning that keeping that fat off or that muscle on will require a great deal more difficulty, and probably more expense and risk.  (The one exception here might be weight loss surgery, although I would say “expensive” still applies, and the entire process does still take time.)
It is absolutely normal to dream of having a lean, athletic body instantly.  Just about everyone does.  But please don’t throw your money at the shysters.  And please don’t set yourself up for disappointment.

You can’t buy a First-Class ticket for this journey.  This is going to take both time and effort.  If you can accept that, you’re ready for the encouragement.

The Right Track

Will Rogers said, “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”  Lots of us have started down the right track, then stalled.  Then a train came and shoved us back to where we started, or worse.  Here’s the one bit of advice I’d like to offer that you might not have heard before: There’s more than one track.

Don’t get me wrong, they all go uphill, so it’s going to take effort.  But there are hundreds of tracks that lead to fitness, and for you, some of them will be better choices than others.  My wish for you is that you find a track that doesn’t just lead to fitness, but also takes you on a journey you’ll enjoy.

In school, my P.E. teachers, were mostly well-meaning and honestly wanted to see me be healthy and fit.  But they only introduced me to team sports (I choke under pressure), running around tracks (boring and miserable for an asthma sufferer), and calisthenics (gotta love jumping up and down with all that fat on your frame).  I grew up believing that I was just not an athletic person, and that I was destined to be fat all my life.

It wasn’t until decades later that I discovered my right track: weight training.  It was a perfect fit for my temperament because there’s no pressure to score one for the team, and there’s no split-second decisions—everything is carefully planned out.  I’m not competitive against others, but I love the feeling of victory when I’m able to lift more repetitions or more weight than I did last week.  And I love that for the time I’m in the weight room, I can focus on the weights and nothing else.  My point isn’t that you must try weight training; it’s that I had never thought of myself as a weight lifter.  The best track to fitness for you might go in a direction you totally didn’t expect, so consider all the possibilities.

So keep your mind open to the possibilities!  In my next post, I'll talk about ways to explore those possibilities.

Best wishes,
The Friendly Lifter

Eeeeek!! Halloween!

 Here Come the Holidays

Ah, The Holidays. Here in the U.S. that means massive amounts of candy are being shoved in front of our faces from the beginning of August (for the Pre-Pre-Halloween Season) all the way through the end of April (with the After-Easter clearance sales). How on earth is a person supposed to keep eating healthy in the midst of all that? I've got some ideas that might help.

Be a Picky Shopper

When it's time to buy Halloween candy for the little (and big) ghosts and ghouls, buy only candy that is your least favorite. I love chocolate but hate those sour candies that make your face pucker up like a dried apple. So I fill my candy bowl with those. That leaves very little temptation to sneak a few into my mouth.

Don't Be Stingy

You know how sometimes you get teenagers or even adults asking for candy on Halloween night? Don't resent them, just relax, laugh, and give them some candy. It's all supposed to be fun, isn't it? Besides, better that they eat the sugar than you. Make a concerted effort not to have any leftover candy when the night is done.

But...I...Really Want Some Candy...

I know. There, there. Have some candy if you really need to. 

But make it a small treat, not an epic binge. If you live with someone who can help you out, get them to hide the candy from you until Halloween night, and ask them to dole out a reasonable serving to you when you really feel like you need a treat. And DON'T GO LOOKING FOR THEIR HIDING PLACE! A couple pieces of candy aren't going to totally ruin your fitness goals, but do resist as much as you can stand to.

Sabotage Everyone Else's Diet

Say you really tried to get rid of all the candy, but you still had leftovers. Or maybe some well-meaning soul gave you a bag full of candy as a nice gesture. Do you have to eat it? No.

If your job has a break room or similar place, set your candy out there. It'll probably be gone by the end of the day. Or, donate the candy to a food bank, if they can accept it. Or give it to neighbors, friends, or relatives. I'm sure you can find somebody who will make the sacrifice of eating that candy for you. People are nice that way.

Just know that hard candies aren't safe for everyone, such as toddlers. Elderly people or needy people without dental insurance may not have strong enough teeth. You might just have to take a deep breath and throw it away.

Facing the candy can be scarier than the darkest haunted house, but you can do it!

Be brave!

The Friendly Lifter