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First of all congratulations on your decision to begin, or get back into, exercise. We’ll do the best we can to explain some basic principles and help you put together a plan that can be used to begin training.
Different people train for different reasons and goals, majority do it to lose weight. Some do it to actually gain weight, which usually means gaining muscle mass. Others train to increase strength and speed, typically for sports but sometimes for fun. Of course those who exercise to gain strength most likely will not read this article. In fact chances are they won’t read any articles because “they know what they’re doing”. Unfortunately these guys are the ones who need the most help, and if you’re one of these guys, and you’re reading this, I salute you.
Let’s recap, we’ve simplified the gym ecosystem into three tiers: |
| I want to Loose Weight |
I want to Gain Muscle |
I Want to Get Stronger |
| Individuals fitting into this tier want to lose weight. it can be for health reasons, it can be to look presentable on the beach, whatever the reason: this page will help you.For those who are looking to “cut up”, you’ll need a combination of weight loss and muscle gain. |
Those who want to gain more muscle mass aren’t necessarily bodybuilders. Muscle mass is a great way to improve one’s physique. More importantly, muscle gain goes hand in hand with losing weight. Muscle is more active than other body tissues, and therefore burns more calories, even when at rest. Rule of thumb: One pound of inactive muscle tissue burns 30-50 calories a day. |
It makes sense to assume that bigger muscles mean more strength. In most cases this is true. However, they don’t always go hand in hand, and training techniques are somewhat different. |
| Overview: In order to lose weight, or burn fat, your body has to start performing more activities than usual. These activities are called cardio exercise. Cardio is short for cardiovascular which means using your heart, lungs, and all that good stuff. |
Overview. Lifting weights or using resistance machines is essential to muscle gain. Machines are best for beginners, and are easier to master. Free weights require more work because it is difficult, for an untrained individual, to stabilize the weight while performing a repetition. |
Overview. Lifting free weights is undisputedly the best way to gain strength. Machines can be used on some occasions, but will not provide the muscle recruitment one needs to become STRONG.
This is usually the best route to go for athletes, because strength is essential in sports. Read More: Free Weights vs. Machines (TheTrainingStationInc.com) |
Now that you have a better idea of what your goal is, lose weight, gain muscle, get stronger, or a combination of the three, you’re ready to move on and learn more on how go begin exercising.
Making Your Way To The Gym
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Actually it doesn’t always have to be a gym. This can be a trail around the lake, or a basement. We’ll discuss what’s most appropriate for you a bit down. We’ll also discuss the different kinds of exercises you should perform for every goal. First and foremost I must address the issue of warming up.
Warming Up & Cooling Down
Before every work out it is important to warm up. Whether you’ll be long distance running, lifting weights, or sprinting, a warm up is needed. This is a very simple concept: for five to ten minutes prior to your primarily exercise, perform a light activity, preferably a “tuned-down” version of your primarily exercise. For example, if you are going to do some sprints, do some light jogging to get the blood flowing to your muscles. Likewise, if you plan to do some heavy weight lifting, do some light movement that will resemble your primary exercises.
After your work out, perform a cool down. Perform light cardio, and some stretching on the muscles you exercised. A cool down is an excellent way of drastically reducing your chance of an injury.
And now, some details:
| The Weight Shredders |
The Muscle Growers |
The Strength Gainers |
How to Train: To lose weight, as stated earlier, cardio is essential. Here are some activates that work well, starting with least effective, to most effective:1. Walking
2. Swimming - moderate
3. Basketball 1/2 court
4. Running 5 mph
5. Bicycling 12-14 mph
6. Elliptical trainer
7. Running 7 mphRead More: Running for Beginners (about.com) |
How To Train: Your repetitions should be in between 6 to 12 per set. To develop muscle size you need to do more than one exercise per muscle group, and challenge different muscle groups from different angles.
You should structure your workouts around major muscle groups, such as chest and back, but also spend good time on small muscles as well. |
How To Train: Because you’re training for strength, you should base your workout around three core lifts: Bench Press, Deadlift, and the Squat.
Your repetitions should stay in between 3 and 6 when starting out. You need to do a lot of warming up to lifting with such low repetition, make sure to have 4-5 warm up sets leading up to the heavy lifts. |
Where to Train: You can perform cardio exercises in a variety of places. This could be at home if you wanted to spend money on equipment, which could add up to a couple of thousand dollars for a good treadmill, or elliptical. However, you don’t have to spend that kind of money. Best kind of cardio exercise is running, and running can be done anywhere. |
Where to Train: Outfitting a home gym is extremely expensive, and is typically out of the question when you need a weight room. Consequently joing a gym is typicall the best route to go.
If you need help picking the right gym, read this guide (Bullz-Eye) |
Where to Train: When training for strength you typically need a gym that’s outfitted with a number of squat racks, bench racks, and sometimes even a power cleaning platform.
It helps to be part of a gym that’s a dedicated weight room, as opposed to a fitness center. Read More: What a Gym Really Needs (deepsquatter.com) |
When To Train: 3 times a week at the very minimum, 4 of 5 if you want to start seeing results quickly.
Don’t eat big meals before training. If you’re hungry, eat some fruit. Fruit will provide you with additional energy for your work out. |
When To Train: Train 4-6 times a week. Make sure to let your muscles rest in between every work out. You shouldn’t work all your muscles on the same day, so if you plan it out correctly you can lift 6 times a week and every muscle group will have adequate rest. |
When To Train: When it comes to strength training, you train less than the other guys because your muscles need A LOT of rest in between every training session. |
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Work out Plan For Losing Weight:
Work out Plan For Muscle Gain:
| Mon |
- |
Chest, Triceps & Shoulders |
| Tue |
- |
Back and Biceps |
| Wed |
- |
Legs (don’t skip this day) |
| Thur |
- |
Chest, Triceps & Shoulders |
| Fri |
- |
Back and Biceps |
| Sat |
- |
Legs (don’t skip this day) |
| Sun |
- |
Rest |
If your schedule doesn’t allow you to train 6 times a week, you can substitute it for a another plan that’s 4 times a week.
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Work out Plan For Strength Training:
| Mon |
- |
Squat, Leg Press, Leg Curls, etc |
| Tue |
- |
rest |
| Wed |
- |
Bench Press, D. Presses, Triceps |
| Thur |
- |
rest |
| Fri |
- |
Deadlift, Shoulders, & supporting exercises. |
| Sat |
- |
rest |
| Sun |
- |
rest |
Strength training takes a greater toll on your body, and your muscles will need time to recuperate, therefore you train less often.
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Personal Trainers
As a personal trainer myself, I’ll do my best not to be biased. For those who want professional individualized help and one-on-one training, personal trainers are they way to go. Typically personal trainers charge by the hour, ranging from $30 to $100, and sometimes much higher. Typically $45 per hour is a good price. You can go to a fitness club and request a trainer, or you can find a freelance personal trainer, usually costing less.
Make sure your trainer is certified. There are quite a few certifications available, and some colleges are starting to offer bachelor degrees in fitness training as well. You can find a trainer in your area by clicking one of the following links:
American Council of Exercise Trainer Finder
National Strength and Conditional Association: Find a Trainer
National Federation of Professional Trainers: Personal Trainer Database
There are other sites that act as Personal Trainer finders. I would recommend using the sites above because people you find through those sites are guaranteed to be holding current certifications. The web sites serve as a good reference.
Read More: Choosing a Trainer (www.quackwatch.org).
Training Partners
Having a training partner is an excellent way to make exercise more fun and more beneficial. Training partners act as an excellent motivational tool while working out, and even before going. It’s a lot harder to skip a work out when you have a friend who’s going with you. Unless you both get sick on the same day, you’ll motivate each other to work out.
Personal trainers are great while working out. They can act as spotters, and even more importantly, watch you as you lift and help you fix mistakes in your technique. Bottom line is, having a training partner virtually guarantees better training results.
Read More: A Good Workout Partner (www.bodybuilding.com)
Lifting Weights: Sets, Reps & Breathing
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An important concept to grasp is the relationship in between “sets” and “reps”. Reps is the total number of times you can lift a certain weight repeatedly. Sets are made up of reps. So suppose you lift a certain weight 8 times, and you do 5 sets, then you will lift it 8 times, take a break, lift it 8 more times, take a break and so on, until you have 5 sets of 8 reps each.
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A Little Exercise Science:
What actually happens is that with every training session your nervous systems begins to activate more and motor units per muscle group, which in turn activate more muscle fibers majority of which are typically not used, because they’re not needed in inactive individuals.
During the first few weeks of strength training people typically notice the most gains, this is primarily due to new muscle fiber recruitment, not actual strength gain.
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It is important to know how to lift, and it comes with knowledge and experience. It sounds easy, but all too often an untrained person hurts themselves by not being careful. You can usually tell when a person is having their first day at a weight room: they lower weights too quickly, they try and jerk them back up without maintaining control, and at times weight go flying and people get hurt. When starting out its best to perform slower movements, doing your best at maintaining control, especially when lowering the weights. Breathing is extremely important and goes hand in hand with the maintaining control. Breathing helps you pace yourself while moving. It’s simple: exhale when performing the more difficult part of the movement, and inhale while doing the less strenuous part. For example, when you bench press, you bring the bar down to your chest slowly while inhaling (it should take you about 2 seconds to lower) then you exhale and press the bar back up, not too fast, yet faster than it was brought down. After a few sessions your body will begin to get used to the new movements, and with every session it will feel more and more natural.
After doing a set, you need to take a break and let blood flow back up to your muscles, or basically rest. Each break should be around 1 - 2 minutes, sometimes you can take longer breaks, if your muscles are especially tired. This is very important, resting is just as important as lifting. Also remember to breathe, if you stand up and your head is spinning and you re seeing stars, then you are probably not getting enough air. Just take a short break, and take a few deep breaths.
After your work out is done, remember to perform a 10 minutes cool down.
It’s important to understand that your training doesn’t stop once you leave the gym. You have to maintain a proper diet and healthy sleeping patterns if you want to reach results quickly. As far as dieting, everyone knows the drill: less sugar, more fruits; less beer, more meats. And so on and so forth. But here’s some things everyone doesn’t know.
When and What to Eat
About an hour before your work out commences your should have a snack, not a big meal. This snack helps fuels your muscles and prevents the hungry feeling while exercising. Restrain from eating fattening foods at this time, unless you plan to run a marathon. Fruits are the ideal choice, they provide the best quick-acting fuel that your body will need.
Important: It’s even more important to have a solid meal right after your work out, especially if you’re trying to gain muscle mass. Eating at the right time is crucial, your body needs nutrients after the work out, and this is the best time during the day to a big meal. Also Important: people with diabetes, low blood pressure, or other medical problems should always check with their doctor prior to dieting.
Supplements
There is a whole industry out there that manufactures, reviews, promotes and sells a whole variety of products that will supplement your training. There’s weight loss, muscle gain, fat burning, and energy enhancement supplements available. Then there’s plain old steroids. When it comes down to it, you still have to exercise, there’s no “easy-pill” that’ll shed all your excess weight that isn’t extremely harmful to your health.
Creatine and Protein are two common supplements used that don’t have any serious negative effects. Protein shakes and powders essentially provide your muscles with the proper nutrients, and in layman’s terms, help them grow. Creatine, typically a powder mixed with water, is taken prior to exercise. There is supporting scientific evidence stating that Creatine marginally increases athletic performance, especially in high-intensity anaerobic exercise, which is basically weight lifting. Truth is, it helps some people, and has no affect on others. If you do decide to take creatine, remember to drink more water while you train.
In-depth: Creatine: More than a sports nutrition supplement? (BrinkZone.com)
In-depth: The Whey It Is - About Whey Protein (BrinkZone.com)
Creatine Retailers & Protein Retailers (google.com)
The most important thing is to always research before you buy. Especially when you’re buying things that you’ll be eating, drinking, and in some extreme cases injecting. There are many forums available on the internet that discuss effectiveness and safety of supplements.
Bodybuilding.com Forums: Supplement Reviews
Just remember to be careful, research, and not hurt yourself!
Getting Rest
Lastly, we’ll address the topic of rest. Rest is essential to muscle growth because muscle tissue grows while it’s resting. This means, getting enough sleep at night, resting in between work out sessions, and resting in between sets. It’s a common notion that if a little exercise is good, A LOT is better. That’s generally false, and many people overtrain. When you overtrain, your performance decreases.
Some common signs of overtraining aside from performance decrease are: aches and pains in joints, insomnia, getting sick easily, and nervous movements and twitching. Read more:
Overtraining with Weights - Signs and Symptoms (about.com)
Overtraining (StrengthPlanet.com)
Overtraining (Intense-Workout.com)
Remember to get enough sleep, rest between sets, and take adequate days off between working same muscles. Try and remember: your muscles grow when you rest.
Good luck!
StrengthPlanet.com
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