Advice on beginning strength training program

[unnamedplayer]

Hi all, I just got a gym membership and was hoping for a little advice to get started strength training. First of all I'm starting out using the machines. I know free weights are suppose to be more efficient, but I think machines are easier to get started with. Once I gain some initial strength maybe I'll go to free weights.

Now I was wondering if it would be best if I alternated between working the upper body one day and the lower body the next. Say doing upper body Monday, Wednesday, and Friday while doing lower body Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday with Sunday a rest day? Or can I do upper body and lower body the same day and rest every other day?

Also, concerning cardio, I usually walk/run for 15-20 minutes to warm up before starting my routine for the day. I believe I am around 8% body fat so I'm not really sure if I should be putting more focus into this or not.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[Siege]

Six days a week is a lot if you are strength training. Chances are, your muscles won't be able to take all this. Most of the people I know that started strength training a little less than a year ago, and have made significant gains, all train 3-4 times a week.

I am not one of those people who have made significant gains (i've made gains, just not nearly as much as I could have), so my advice isn't to relevant. Probably the best thing I can say (since i'm pretty much a newb also), is don't worry about how much you lift, worry about how you lift.

Good luck and have fun

[slacker00]

You should set some goals for yourself. At 8% bodyfat you should be pretty lean. Do you want to gain strength and size? Are you eating enough to support what you are doing in the gym? Let us know some more about yourself and what you want.

I work out with free weights 3 to 4 times a week and ride bike to work 3 or 4 times a week also. Eating right and continually tring to improve in the gym I have seen significant gains.

Sorry for any wierd typos I'm writing this on my tablet with handwriting to type on.

[calvin88]

I'm not sure how much body fat I have, but most likely more than 8% haha. But the point is when i started to str train I would go hard the first few months, as in each muscle group twice a week with a day where i just relax. So my schedule would look kind of like this after awhile because right when i started i would be too sore to do this. monday:chest/tri Tues:back/bi Wed:shoulder/legs: thurs:rest Fri:chest/tri Sat: back/bi Sun:Shoulder/legs. After awhile the soreness goes away faster so you can work out more. ALso I try to vary the order of my excercises and sometimes do different ones because my body would seem to get used to the routine. And i've heard that varying workouts also allow the body to build faster.
Doing upper body 3 times then lower body 3 times may work, but lets say a part of your upper body is still sore and its a wed. Working out sore muscles isn't good to my knowledge. I believe its better to focus on groups at a time however im not a trainer or anything so its just what me and my friends do haha.

[unnamedplayer]

Hey thanks all for the advice.

At 8% bodyfat you should be pretty lean. Do you want to gain strength and size? Are you eating enough to support what you are doing in the gym?

Yea, I'm kinda skinny so I guess I want to gain strength and a little size. I dunno I thought size went along went strength but I'm not sure lol.

Also I was wondering about the nutrition aspect of this. I've been trying to eat more especially foods with lots of protein, but I'm not really sure whats best to be eating. Also, I've seen so many numbers on what your daily protein intake should be. I've read anywhere from 50-200g a day. Does anyone know what's correct?

Finally, lets say I went ahead and worked out different muscle groups on different days like some have suggested. For example, if I did bi/tri on Monday what should I being for those? I mean, like I said I'm starting out with machines so I do the bicep curl for biceps and tricep rope for triceps. If I did this kind of work out routine would I just head to the gym, do some cardio and then go hard on these two machines for the day?

Lol, I know I'm a nub so any more advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

[odu_sonar_AE]

Does your new gym have personal trainers that you can use? If so, look into how much it costs to get them to help. I’ve never used them before, but I’ve seen others who have, and made some decent results fairly quickly.

As far as a lifting program goes, remember you body usually needs somewhere around 48 hours to repair the muscle torn while lifting. Lifting the same muscle groups every other day will keep you from seeing results b/c your muscles don’t have the proper time to repair themselves. Another thing to remember is to breathe. I know how simple this sounds, but I’ve seen many new people not breathe while lifting (exhale while lifting). Your muscles need the oxygen while lifting.

I like to do muscle groups the compliment themselves. A normal routine would be: Day 1 – Chest, Triceps; Day 2 – legs; Day 3 – Shoulders & Traps, Day 4 – Back, Biceps, Forearms. This was I’m not straining muscles I will need the next day.

Also, do not to over-train the muscles…especially in the beginning. According to a Men’s Health article, beginning lifters can see about the same results from doing one set of an exercise or doing three sets. I can’t remember the number of sets you shouldn’t go over, but it’s a little bit more for bigger muscle groups than smaller muscle groups (I think it was 7-9 sets for larger groups, and 4-6 for smaller groups). This would be another good area for a trainer.

There are also two approaches you can take when lifting. Doing less reps (8-10) with more weight will increase your size. Doing more reps (13+) with less weight will tone you muscles. Both ways provide a way to increase strength. You aren’t stuck with one strategy for your whole body as you can pick & choose what works for each part. I have huge legs & calves, so I focus on toning them while I do more “bulk” work for my upper body.

If you are curious about lifting, and don’t want to talk to the trainers, there are plenty of books on the subject. My first book was the Weider Bodybuilding book, and it had a lot of good information in it.

One last thing, remember to change your routines every so often. The body gets smart to what it needs to do. As you’ve been doing the routine for a few months, it has learned what the smallest amount of muscles it needs to get the job done. This means you won’t see the same results as you did at the beginning of the routine.

Good luck with your training!

[thingstodo]

Everyone talks about goals, and I think they are very important. However, many people use the wrong scorecard.

Your initial goals should be very simple: lift three times a week and do cardio three tme a week. That's it. As you consistently make that happen over time, you'll be able to figure out other, long-term goals.

I would recommend you first do a machine circuit three times a week. Go through the whole circuit twice each time with sets of 15 reps (the last 2-3 reps should be very hard but do-able), which should take about one to 1.5 hours including stretching/warm up ahead of time and stretching/a little abs at the end. The list I would use on this circuit would be:

leg press
leg extension
leg curls
bench
incline
flys
pull over and/or pull down
seated row
curl
triceps press
shoulder press
laterals for the shoulders
back extensions


Get a trainer to show you the seup on each machine, write them down, and then keep up on your workouts. When the last 1-2 reps are really hard, jump the weight one increment.

[odu_sonar_AE]

One more suggestion that I forgot to add in my previous post...Bring a log book to track your progress. Not only will this decrease your workout time for subsequent workouts (by easily seeing where you should start each exercise at), but it is also really nice to look at your progress from the beginning.

[Stompy]

5 or 6 days a week isn't bad at all.

The idea is to do just one group of muscles per day.

One day you do legs, then the next you do chest... follow the other days up with: back, shoulders, then bicep/tricep.

It's actually much more beneficial. Takes about 20-30 mins max to do each group, so you save lots of time. Not to mention you won't suffer from fatigue like you do when doing multiple groups in a day.

So.. when you get to the gym, you'll just focus on, for examle, BACK, instead of... working your back, then moving to shoulders. By then, your shoulders will already be tired and worn out from doin the back lifts and you won't get as good of a workout.

[unnamedplayer]

Hi again all. First of all thanks to everyone who has offered some advice. I really appreciate it!

I forgot to mention earlier that when I signed up for my membership I had an orientation of the equipment with one of the gym employees in which we went through about 11 different machines.

So, I've doing some thinking and thought a routine like this might be alright since these are the machines I'm familiar with.

Monday: Chest, triceps, shoulders
Using chest press, tricep pushdown (w/ rope), and shoulder press

Tuesday: Back, biceps, abs/obliques
Using upright row, back extensions, bicep curl, ab crunch, and torso rotary

Wednesday: Legs
Using leg curl, leg extension, and calf extension

Then I could repeat on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with Sunday off.

Please let me know what you guys think of this and if there is something I should be changing or whatever. Thanks again!

EDIT: Oh, I was also wondering, for forearms, can I just do bicep curls but with an overhand grip. I know there are reverse preacher curls with a barbell, but I'm using one of those bicep curl machines so I was just wondering if it would be the same thing. Thanks again!

[slacker00]

Sounds like you have a great start! The two biggest things that I have learned... you don't grow in the gym (you grow while letting your body heal), and to grow you need to eat properly.

Your workout is a great start! If you are interested in other motions or isolating specific muscles here is a great link : http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html

Finally, I would suggest adding as may compound type exersizes to your list as possible. I have included my workout (currently under revision) below. My idea is that I never want to be lifting more than 1 hour at a time (attempt each exersize for 2 sets of 8 reps... typically I fail at 6-8 reps, if I do not I add more wieght and try again). I workout MWF and take the weekends off.

Monday: Bench Press, Chinups, Inclined Dumbbell Benchpress, Dips, Dumbbell Flys, Tricep Pushdowns (these are mostly push exersizes)

Wednesday: Squats, 45Deg Leg Press, Leg Curls, Leg Extensions, Straight Leg Deadlifts, Calf Raise, Dumbbell Row, Lat. Pulldown, Barbell Bicep Curls (I really have to bust my ass to get this done in 1 hour).

Friday: Close Grip Benchpress, Military Press, Seated Dumbbell Press, French Press, Lat. Raise, Abs (I treat abs like any other muscle, I do weighted situps 2 sets of 8-10 reps to failure).

Have a great time in the gym and remember to get your sleep if you want to grow!

Slacker

[thingstodo]

Another way to combine body parts in one day is to do a push and a pull motion. For example, do chest and bis, back and tris, shoulders take more motions so that could be a day on its own or combine with loegs.