Which of these routines looks better for a beginner weightlifter? Equal emphasis on appearance and strength. Monday: Bench Press - 3 x 8-12 Pullups - 3 x failure Squat - 3 x 12-15 Thursday: Military Press - 3 x 8-12 Dumbell Row - 3 x 8-12 Deadlift - 3 x 4-6 Or Monday and Thursday: Bench Press Pullup Squat Deadlift Feel free to list any other abbreviated routines.
not enuf exercise really for either to be ideal. easier to make suggestions if you state what equipment you have at your disposal and how often you are able to train. and by appearance u mean tone, or get big and muscular? (btw u can rotate systems every few months to develop muscles and strength on more specific workouts)
Well Jack they both seem like good routines. Personally I would go with the second option. Do the big exhausting exercises first (squats & deadlifts) so you can give them your all. I don't suggest doing squats and deadlifts in the same workout though. These two exercises are killers, well they should be when done with maximum effort, unless you are just using light weights on one of them. Why don't you cycle with squats and deadlifts. Say have 3 months with squats and then 3 months with deadlifts. Better still 1 year with squats and a year with dl's! I would suggest alternating overhead press with bench press. O/p's really work the entire shoulder area as well as working the chest to a small degree. It is not as satisfying to perform but will work "useful" muscles. You will find that your chest gets plenty of work from push ups anyway. Do you have squat racks or a spotter who can take the bar from you if you fail on squats? If you do not then I do not recommend very heavy squating. High reps work well for the lower body. You should try high rep bentleg deadlifts, especially if you can't squat safely. But don't do d/l's to failure for safety sake. If your still training your martial arts you may find that even just twice a week training will lead to overtraining. Don't be afraid to cut this back to once a week. Aslong as you train hard and progressively you will still make gains. Like I suggested before read Brawn or Beyond Brawn by Stuart McRobert. Either of those books will help you beyond believe.
No 1 looks optimum Jack. Up the reps on the deadlift though - same as squats. Telsun's safety advice is bang on.
Yeah okay. I must agree with Yoda taking another look at your routine. Routine 1 meets all the suggestions that I made!! I still advocate doing the larger more demanding exercises at the beginning of the workout though. And yes high rep d/l. MUST........AGREE.........WITH.........YODA!!!! NO, NO MUST.........THINK........FOR.........MYSELF!!!!!!
Okay, cool, I will go with the first routine. I'm not doing Martial Arts at the moment so I will be safe from Overtraining. So, I will do the following. Day 1. Squat - 3 x 12-15 Bench Press - 3 x 8-12 Pullups - 3 x failure Day 2. Deadlift - 3 x 12-15 Military Press - 3 x 8-12 Dumbell Row - 3 x 8-12 I will aim for failure on the last set of each exercise. On equipment, the situation is awful. I have no gym. I have no spotter. I have to military press the Squat weight onto my traps to squat, and because I am squatting with a bed behind me I can lower the weight onto the bed when I am finished. I will have to roll the barbell off of me when Bench Pressing also. I've dealt with both of these before, and am always very careful. I will throw in 2 days/week of a Cardio/Ab/Stretching workout also.
I must agree with Yoda, be extremely careful. If you are using weights that are heavy enough to fail on then you are very vunerable to injury without the correct safety equipment. I was in exactly the same situation as you. I used to do squats by pressing the weight over my head but the problem is you can squat a hell of alot more than you can press. What are you going to do when you get to 1.5xyour bodyweight in the squat? It may seem like you will never get there but work slowly and add just a little weight each week and you will soon be. Although squats are probably the best all over mass building exercise in existance bent legged deadlifts can be just as productive. It will take you a while to get in the groove but it will be worth it. You will be able to perform the exercise with no fear of what to do if you fail. You can also eventually end up using major weights for this exercise. I urge you to give it a try. Using the maximum weight you can handle for both workouts in the week may prove to be too much in the beginning or when the weight starts getting really heavy. So just use about 70% of your max on one workout and all out on the other. Listen to your body!! I fail to see how you can roll the weight onto the bed after Bench Press. You are going to work to failure, this implies to me that you will not be able to push the bar back up to the start position. Are you going to roll the bar over your kneck then up and over your face? Might be worth going for a dumbell bench press or forget the bench altogether and go for pushups. Do slow controlled push ups in perfect form and I bet you will be repping out within no time. Bench Press is just upside down Push Ups anyway. Same effect. Try using just 2 sets for upper body and up the weight you're using so you still reach failure. Put pull ups before bench press (or alternative if you change your mind), but you could still keep to 3 sets for these as, if your anything like me, you will rep out very early. The problem with doing cardio etc on your rest days is that your body is not resting. Try to get 2 days before doing anything else to make sure your body has fully recovered from the intense weight training. Jack. I am not an expert but I have been in your position and at your age I wasted alot of time of stupid "professional bodybuilder" routines. Your on the right track. Hear my advice and take what you will from it. But please the most important message is train SAFELY. Best of Luck! Just re-read what I wrote and now realise that it is obvious you would roll the weight down your body when you fail on b/p. Still not advisable. The choice is yours.
And buy one of these books: http://hardgainer.com/books.html The wesite and forum are also very good. The forum members will give you better advice than I ever will!
ok .... simple rule....don't do any squat heavy without a spotter, especially since u don't have the squat machine. don't do to failure as the guys above have mentioned, and to be honest, i'd say same for barbell bench press. so i assume however much u can military press up for a squat is not going to be a major concern since your shoulders shouldn't be able to lift anything near what your legs can. for power training, low rep and high weight has the desired effect i.e. high intensity training. so core exercises same for building and power. Deadlift squat bench press military press given that you're only gonna work out twice a week i suggest doing the split monday - bench press, squat thursday - Dead Lift, military press (btw neither is ideal, the core exercises when done for power training, really should all be done on different days, so that body parts don't get over stressed whilst doing other exercises, hence reducing your performance when you come to the exercises for those body parts) so here is a suggestion program....maybe not perfect but without the correct equipment etc is not easy to make a perfect program Monday - (chest) bench press - warm up 12-15 reps (light weight) Jump set 6-8 medium weight Heavy set 4-6 reps (heavy weight)roblem here is that u shouldn't do bench press heavy without a spotter...so maybe u should do heavy sets on dumbells, again not ideal..but better than taking a heavy barbell on the chest) flyes same as bench press but....lower the rep to 10-12 on the warm up set. straight arm pullovers - your pecs should already be stretched and warmed up so 2 sets will suffice here, middle weight - 6-10 reps heavy 4-8 reps dips - if possible as a warm down, to failure (legs) squat (there is such a thing as a dumbbell squat if you want to go for a slightly safer method) Squat - 12-18 rep warm up jump set - 8-12 heavy set - 4-6 reps Lunges same as above standing calf raises (i assume seated ones aren't optional, based on your equipment) same as squat routine but lower the warm up reps to 12-15. Thursday - (Shoulders) - Military press 10-12 reps warm up. jump set 6-8 heavys et 4-6 lateral raises same as above Front raises same, but u shouldn't need the warm up set . Shrugs. (should be able to go very heavy with these) 15-20 warm up set 10 jump set heavy to failure. (Back) Deadlift - 15 warm up 10 Jump 4-8 heavy Standing rows same as above and bent over rows as above. Pull ups to failure You should probably incorporate some bicep work into this aswell so just dumbell/barbell curls with 10-12 warm up, 8 jump and 4-6 heavy. the problem with this routine is that it is not good to do so many intense exercises so close together in a day, especially the core exercises and it could very easily lead to over training so only work within your own limits. if u need more rest, take more rest etc etc but with only 2 days to train u have to make best of what you have. ideally you could atleast split these into a morning routine and an evening routine. and even better drop to one heavy cardio session a week and use 3 days for the power training. (with a light cardio session in once or twice a week.) this is probably to intense to begin with, so suggest start light and work your way into a routine and find out what works best for yourself, the more you look into it you'll find more exercises and opinions etc on how things work and you'll find what best suits you which will hopefully make your training more effective, so look at magazines and books, inet sites etc and research into it a bit.
btw..... regardless of whether you are a beginner or not, u should still use more exercises than u have listed at the top...simply because in order to develop muscle and power you must have a good range of movement, to allow the development to come in more than one place. a range of exercises is essential on each body part.
Go for your guns................ Unproductive, overtraining of the masses. Jack you're on the right lines with the abbreviated routine don't let people sway you because it is not what the majority of people believe works. It does I asure you. After years of training on programs like THEGREAT1 has just posted I only made very limited progress. Since doing abbreviated programs like you originally suggested my gains have been incredible. Maybe not compared to the monstrous freaks in body building mags but for my own personal history they have been great. Stick with the abbreviated training, I'm confident others will back me on this........
I will stick to abbreviated routine. I will not go to failure on Squats - I know what the buildup to failure feels like and will stop when I get close. I will do a set of nonweighted squats afterwards. I will go to failure with Bench Press - Purely because I know at the light weight I can bench, from past experience, I can safely handle. When it becomes a challenge to handle it, I will definitely switch to Dumbells or start stopping before failure and finishing off with pushups. I can be sensible about this. Nevertheless - thank you for posting THEGREAT1, the time you took to write that IS appreciated. So how does this basic plan look? Mon - Cardio/Abs/Stretch Tue Wed - Workout #1 Thu - Cardio/Abs/Stretch Fri Sat - Workout #2 Sun 4 training days a week, I should be safe from overtraining considering I will be eating approx. 3500 calories daily. I'll follow this for 3 months - my goal is to put on mass from my current 65kg to 70kg. I know I change my targets from training an awful lot which is why I am not making a longer term target, but I am vowing to complete that one goal before getting side tracked. Do you think doing the abs on a seperate day is unwise concerning recovery et all? Shall I move abs to the end of my weight workouts? Thanks very much.
Reverse Crunch, Crunch, Twist Crunch, Side V-Up, and Reverse Trunk Twist. Works intercostals, obliques, and the rectus abdomis. One set of 8-20 slow, tensed reps.
