Weight Training for Beginners
Before I get into any exercises or sets and reps I want to highlight some of the main benefits of resistance training:
- Heart and Brain health
- Reduced risk of Cancer and Diabetes
- Increased strength, flexibility, endurance, stamina and overall fitness
- Massive stress relief, also releases endorphins in your brain that trigger a positive feeling in the body
- Gives you something to consistently improve on, which leads to better discipline
- THESE BENEFITS ARE EQUAL FOR BOTH MALES AND FEMALES
...and the list goes on!
Now I know it might seem daunting to someone who's never been in a gym or touched a weight set before, especially nowadays with so much advertisement for supplement companies over social media platforms, a lot of which give false representations of "health". Most fitness models you see on the front of magazines who look like they're action figures out of a movie are normally only that lean for a small period of time, of course there are always outliers that will naturally stay leaner, and of course those who use steroids, but we're talking about the everyday guy or girl who just wants to look better at the beach or improve their health markers. To be that lean can be unhealthy, especially for a long amount of time. Don't aim to look like these fitness models you see because they aren't realistic, a lot of them are genetic exceptions that have put in years of hard work training and dieting, to put on muscle is a very slow process, which can be what makes people unmotivated after they start working out.
But don't let this get you down! If you stick it out the feeling of bettering yourself week in week out and seeing the changes will be more than enough motivation, it sure was for me anyway. But back to the point of this post - most beginners think it's best to split up workouts into separate muscle groups, for example:
Monday - Chest
Tuesday - Back
Wednesday - Legs
Thursday - Shoulders
Friday - Arms
Saturday/Sunday - Rest
The problem with this is that you're only hitting each muscle group once per week. After you train a muscle in the gym, it needs to recover, which is where you actually gain muscle. The main process that drives this recovery is called muscle protein synthesis. These processes have many other variables but generally speaking muscles trained are at maximal protein synthesis for 24-48hrs (up to 72hrs for some beginners). So if you were to go by the training program above and train Chest on Monday, around 72 hours later (absolute maximum) you would be fully recovered. That means for Friday Saturday and Sunday you're chest is fully recovered and could've been stimulated again, which is potential growth missed out on. This is why I would recommend complete beginners start with a training program along the lines of this:
Monday: Full Body
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: Full Body
Thursday: Rest
Friday: Full Body
Saturday/Sunday: Rest
Basically this means Full Body 3x per week with a rest day in between and the weekends off. With this program you will be hitting each muscle group 3x per week instead of 1. This will yield muscle gain at a much faster rate!
You might be wondering, but how do I fit in 5 exercises for each muscle group into one day!?
Thats the thing, you don't NEED 5 exercises per muscle group to gain muscle as a beginner!
Focus on the main compound lifts. Compound lifts are multi-joint movements, such as the Bench Press, Pull Up, Bent-over Row, Squat, Deadlift, Overhead Press, etc. Any movement that is single joint is known as an isolation movement. Compound movements should all be performed first, followed by isolation movements. There are a few reasons for this, but the main reason is that it takes less energy to perform isolation movements than compound movements, so it's easier to focus on them last without being too worn out. Generally for beginners one exercise per muscle group, 3-5 sets, 8-12 reps for compound exercises and 15-20 reps for isolation exercises is a good starting point. Remember you can always increase your training volume later on! If you can grow on lower volume why wouldn't you!?
Hope this helps some people looking to start weight training and not knowing where to start! Please feel free to comment any questions I'll try to answer them as best I can. I know there is a lot of information out there and it's hard to know what's right and wrong, but I feel like I've tried almost everything over the past 8-10 years of training, and I want to encourage people to just get started, you'll end up learning faster than you think!
A journey of 1000 miles starts with one step.
Image 1 from: https://truthofbuildingmuscle.com/health-benefits-of-weightlifting-10-amazing-benefits-for-everyone
Image 2 from: https://alchetron.com/Ryan-Terry-851818-W
Good article with a lot of info. Have to admit that when i started out, i used to train almost every single day by body part. Glad i switched to big compound exercises.
Don't worry I was the exact same! It's because a lot of the big fitness magazines promote this training split because its used by some of the bigger professional bodybuilders that compete in Mr. Olympia for example. The reason it works well for them is because some of the drugs they take, in particular insulin and GH extend the time the muscle is under maximal Muscle Protein Synthesis. So it's better for them to train each muscle group on it's own day in order to get enough volume in to stimulate growth. Stick to the compound exercises! I personally am training 6 times per week at the moment training each muscle group 3 times per week.