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