This is a related post to my original post on “The Most Basic Beginner Routine for Sedentary Folks without Weights”
This time though, we’re going to bring in weights.
While I support many routines like ‘Starting Strength’, they are largely catered towards people pursuing fitness goals.
In this very long post, I describe a routine that almost any average person can run to great results and in minimal time. So here goes. No pics in this one, and read on only if you’re really interested.
A Clarification on Goals
The goal of resistance training for most pursuits can be summarised into 3 points;
- Stimulate excess repair in the muscles
- Maintain muscle mass on a caloric deficit
- Improve other health markers (most notably bone density and CNS response health)
Anybody who has not taken a serious weight training routine will know that it can be possible to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. Eating habits are arguably not as important as training in the first 6 months of serious training.
Finally, since most people are busy as bees, a brief yet effective routine is called for. The most reliable and time-tested way is definitely a 3 day a week full body routine.
Key principles:
- Compound movements and not isolation exercises (pullups vs bicep curls)
- Consistent progression of load – you should be improving on a long term basis
3 main exercise categories:
- Upper body pushing
- Upper body pulling
- Legs
Upper body pushing is simple, the pushup is probably the most easily understood example. Pulling will involve things like pullups, rows and pulldowns. Legs will be exercises like squats and leg presses.
So my reccomendation for the most basic and abbreviated of all routines would have one exercise from each of these categories for 3 sets of 8 reps, and then if you like some accesory movements. The same weight should be used across all three sets. Rep speed should be 2 seconds to raise the weight and 2 seconds to lower it; controlled movements.
To select the weight, you should roughly know a weight which you can do about 10 reps to concentric failure, meaning that you cannot lift the weight after reps, and then only do 8. This is basically called stopping short of failure. Yes, this means that you must experiment on your first workout to see what weight you can lift at least 10 times.
The idea is that on the first workout, you go there to test how much you can do and then establish a benchmark.
So the procedure is always to start low. Say put a 30lbs on a machine, and then attempt to do 10 reps, if that seemed easy, then rest the usual 2 minutes, then test again with a higher weight, say 35lbs.
Once you reached a weight whereby once you hit the 10th rep, you are fairly certain that you cannot do an 11th (you can attempt the 11th rep if you want), then called that your 10RM (repetition maximum) and that is your starting point.
The next workout shall be the start of the real routine. Use that weight (10RM) and then do only 8 reps for all 3 sets. Ideally you use the same weight for all 3 sets. But if say after the 2nd set you are feeling fatigued and say the 8th rep was slow, grindy and difficult. Then lower the weight and get at least 8 reps for the 3rd set.
Rest periods should be put to a minimum of 2 minutes with no maximum. To save a time, you may even choose to do one set of push, and then rest 1 min, then go to the pulling exercise, rest another minute and then back to the push, so that you will probably get more than 2 minutes between the same exercise. This is still not recommended though, and 3 exercises should only take about 25 minutes to complete.
A Sample routine:
Monday:
Bench machine: 3 sets of 8-10, 2 minutes rest in between
Pulldown machine (lat pulldown): 3 sets of 8-10, 2 minutes rest
Goblet squats or lunges: 3 sets of 10-12, 2 minutes rest (legs can be hit with slightly more reps) (description)
ab work (crunches etc): 2 sets of 10-15
Wednesday:
Shoulder press using machine: 3 sets of 8-10, 2 minutes rest
Cable rows: 3 sets of 8-10, 2 minutes rest
Hamcurl machines or straight legged deadlifts: 3 sets of 8-10, 2 minutes rest
Accesory work – arms or abs: 2 sets of 10-15
Friday: Repeat monday but shoot for the higher end of the rep range (shoot for 10 reps)
Monday: Repeat last wednesday workout and shoot for the higher end of the rep range
Wednesday: Repeat last friday workout, but increase the weight and get at least 8 reps (lower end of the rep range)
(continued)
Rotate this sort of pattern for probably 3 months and you should be seeing great results. The idea is always to use the best possible exercises to gain the most results. This template will surely work, and in fact will be the foundation for future progression to come, if such is desired.
Some Closing Pointers
- Run the routine 3 times per week on non-consecutive days
- On off days, feel free to take a walk, bike a little, but nothing too strenous (eg: no going for all-out 60 minute runs, though sports should be just fine)
- Soreness is NOT a sign of progress. Soreness = microtrauma (eg: swelling of Intra-muscular glycogen stores) and not muscle tissue trauma. Continue on the routine. Most people find that soreness does improve as you workout more. In fact, the workout may alleviate soreness due to blood going back to the muscles and removing such damaged tissues
- That said, soreness can wreak havoc on the body for the first few workouts (up to 3 weeks), start easy and progress or beware the onset of massive DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness)
- Form over Ego. The consequence of bad form is definitely Injury. Always find out how to do an exercise from a trusted resource before attempting it.
A final closing word, training yourself isn’t an easy thing, especially for beginners. I’d definitely recommend a training partner, someone with similair background/goals to yourself to encourage you along the way. Very few people can be their own coach from the start.
Related posts:
- Training with weights: Do it right from the start When I started out training with weights for my sport...
- Warming up for Exercise – A Layperson’s View Today’s topic ties in with a recent post of mine,...
- Body Mechanics – Why it is important to know your own if you want to lift safely Let me say first that the reason I write this...
- Bodyweight Strength Training: 6 Reasons That It’s NOT The Path to Your Goals I make it very clear that I’m a big proponent...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
