Workouts from beginner to advanced
What are the best workouts?
How many days of the week should I lift?
How many sets and repetitions are best?
These are the questions I had when I first started to lift weights.
The two training programs below will get you off to a good start working out in your own home gym.
Beginning Training Programs
Included with the Powertec power rack is a brief, to the point training guide. This is how the guide describes muscle strength and development:
The process of strengthening and developing the muscles of the body is very basic.
It involves three factors of equal importance:
Training leads to the breakdown or tearing of muscle tissue, which occurs when working the muscle against resistance.
Nutrition is the proper balance of food that provides energy to train and build the muscle.
Rest is the time needed between workouts to allow the muscle tissue ample time to recover, repair and rebuild back stronger.
When I first started looking for a beginning weight lifting routine, most guides recommended doing a full body workout three times a week. Which is fine, but this takes at least an hour to one and a half hours, something I didn’t have considering my workouts usually started at five a.m. and I needed to finish and leave for work.
The powertec training guide stressed brief, intense training for only 15-20 minutes per workout, two workouts per week. And since your only weight lifting for two days a week, this will keep you enthused and excited for the next training session.
The fey factor for this program is intensity. This simply means pushing the muscle to its maximum limit by reaching a point where you no longer can perform another repetition in strict form.
The workouts should be spaced a minimum of 3 to 4 days apart (allowing the muscles to recover, repair and rebuild).
Training the same muscle group any sooner will result in over training, which is not good for muscle growth.
Four or five exercises are performed each session, and you should do one general warm up set of twenty repetitions prior to the start of the first exercise. Example: if your first exercise is the bench press, you’re warm up, twenty rep set should be with a weight at least 30% less.
You’ll only perform one set of each exercise, and only 6 to 12 repetitions.
Now here’s the key:
Each repetition is performed in a strict manner with perfect form, utilizing a three second positive or lifting of the weight, a one second hold or squeeze at the top of the movement, and a slow four second negative or lowering of the weight. Each rep should take 8 seconds.
Once you’re able to complete 12 repetitions in perfect form, increase the resistance for this exercise the next session. If during an exercise you feel you can do more than 12 repetitions, simply remove approximately 30% of the weight and immediately do a few more repetitions until failure, but do not perform a second set.
You can increase the intensity of this program by lowering the resting time between exercises.
Day One (Chest, Triceps, Deltoids, Abdominals)
1. Bench Press, with dumbbells or barbell (chest, deltoids, triceps)
2. Dips or Tricep press downs (triceps)
3. Military (shoulder) press with dumbbells or barbell (deltoids)
4. Shrugs with dumbbells or barbell (Traps and neck)
5. Floor Crunches or hanging, straight leg, leg raises (abdominals)
3-4 day rest
Day Two (Legs, Back, Biceps)
1. Squats with dumbbells or barbell, or leg press machine if you have one (thighs, hamstrings, glutes)
2. Leg extension, leg curl or dumbbell lunges (thighs, hamstrings)
3. Lat Pulldown or pull-ups (back)
4. Dumbbell or barbell rows or deadlift (back)
5. Dumbbell or barbell curl (Biceps)
Repeat
Since your only working out two days a week, on the off days you can do cardio, or do additional work on your calves and abdominals.
Both of these muscle groups can be worked multiple times per week, with higher repetitions.
Powertec’s training guide also provides additional intermediate and advanced routines as well.
The Best Beginning Training Program bar none!
If you don’t know anything about weight training, rest and nutrition, the absolutely best place to start is a book by Bill Phillips, Body for Life. His program gives you an overall picture of training, nutrition and basically a new way of life.
You can read my review of his program here, but I’ll give you just a glimpse of just the weight training program taken directly from his book:
1. Weight train, intensely, for no more than 46 minutes, three times per week.
2. Alternate training the major muscles of the upper and lower body. For example, train upper body on Monday, lower body on Wednesday, and upper again on Friday. The next week, train lower body on Monday, upper body on Wednesday, and lower body on Friday.
3. Perform two exercises for each major muscle group of the upper and lower body.
4. Select one exercise for each muscle group and do five sets, starting with 12 reps, increase the weight and do 10 reps, add more weight and do 8 reps, and add even more weight until you can do only 6 reps. Then reduce the weight, do 12 more reps and immediately go to another set of 12 reps of another exercise for that same muscle group.
5. On all lifts, lift the weight up taking one second, hold for one second at the top, take two seconds to lower the weight and hold for another second at the bottom. (Each rep should take four seconds)
6. For each muscle group, rest for one minute between the first four sets. Then complete the final two sets with no rest in between. Wait two minutes before moving on to the next muscle group.
The best thing about this program is that the weight lifting portion can be done only with dumbbells and a bench, perfect for the home gym bodybuilder with limited equipment choices.
On this page (review coming soon) you can get more information on the Body for Life program.
Here are some examples of the results you can see with Bill’s twelve week program.
BODY FOR LIFE IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
If you noticed, both of the beginning programs stress strict form, with a slow and controlled repetition of either four or eight seconds.
Learn and perform proper form before going on to the intermediate and advanced routines.
Additional info can be found here: The 10 Basic Rules for Muscle Mass Fast!
Intermediate and advanced exercise programs coming soon. Check back here often.
In the mean time, if you’re looking for more training routines, this digital magazine has 101 routines to choose from:
Zinio is a company providing sales and distribution for popular magazines and books in a digital format. You view your magazines on your computer instead of receiving them in print format, and save a few trees in the process.
By using the Zinio Reader, like Adobe’s Acrobat Reader, you can search the entire contents, click on links for external information, make notations and use a highlighter pen which is also searchable, and Zinio offers a page flip feature to make it seem you are thumbing through an actual paper magazine. Very Cool!
Muscle & Fitness 101 Workouts is an excellent resource for bodybuilders. Here are a few example routines found in this digital magazine:
