Thread for sample workout routines for beginners. Post up your favorite.
Workout Routines - Beginners
Thread for sample workout routines for beginners. Post up your favorite.
Body For Life - The Book
Bill Phillips' Body For Life book is well known by most people by now. In fact, he was probably the first one in the industry to use the "transformation contest" idea as both a motivational tool as well as a marketing tool. And it's worked well for both.
In general, the book is a good basic nutrition and training program that should help beginners get on the right track towards a healthy lifestyle, and if you are brand new to "healthy eating" and/or haven't been around weight training much, this is a good book for starters
Body for Life Training
This post is not intended to be a critique about the book, but rather an overview of the training Bill Phillips recommends. Many people have used this training style very effectively, and therefore I think it warrants a summary here. I see this training to be appropriate for two primary categories of folks:
1. For those new to fitness or resistance training. This is a good way to get used to lifting weights and "cut your teeth" in the gym. He does a great job of using effective set and rep schemes to ease your way into lifting weights, while minimizing chance of injury as long as you are careful to use good form. Additionally, the program inherently keeps the volume at a reasonable level for novice lifters.
2. For those getting "back in shape" after a long layoff or a period of letting themselves go. Hey, most of us have been there, myself included.
The Body For Life Split
The basic routine has you lifting weights 3 times per week (typically Mon, Wed, Fri) and alternating between Upper and Lower body workouts. In between those days, you would put your cardio days or off day.
Here's how it looks:
- Mon: Upper
- Tue: Cardio
- Wed: Lower
- Thu: Cardio
- Fri: Upper
- Sat: Cardio
- Sun: OFF
- Mon: Lower
- Tue: Cardio
- Wed: Upper
- Thu: Cardio
- Fri: Lower
- Sat: Cardio
- Sun: OFF
Repeat the sequence........
Body For Life Cardio
Bill utilizes a kind of "wave loading" HIIT (high intensity interval training) method of cardio, which has you alternating your intensity up and down, but progressively higher, until you are going "all out". Think of it as taking 2 steps forward and one steps back.
To illustrate this point, and help you gauge your performance, he suggests you picture your level of intensity between 1 (doing nothing) to a 10 (sprinting as fast as you can). And then minute-by-minute you work yourself up in intensity - first reaching a 9, then backing down to a 6, then reaching another 9, then back down to a 6, then up again to a 9, then back down, then finally up to a 10, going all out for one minute, then cool down.
It ends up looking like this, with each number below representing one minute at that intensity level.
5 (1 minute warmup at intensity level 5)
5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (5 minutes of exercise, ramping from level 5 to level 9)
6, 7, 8, 9 (2nd ramp)
6, 7, 8, 9 (3rd ramp)
6, 7, 8, 9, 10, (4th ramp)
5 (1 minute cool down)
Body For Life Training
The basics of the training are this: For each major muscle group (this is all outlined in the excel template), you choose two exercises and perform a total of 6 sets. Here are the major muscle groups you work:
Upper Body:
- Chest
- Shoulders
- Back
- Triceps
- Biceps
Lower Body:
- Quads
- Hamstrings
- Calves
- Abs
And here's what you do for each muscle group: For the first exercise, you do 5 sets as follows, pyramiding up the weight as you go (i.e., lift heavier weights if possible, with each set):
Set 1 = 12 reps
Set 2 = 10 reps
Set 3 = 8 reps
Set 4 = 6 reps
Set 5 = drop the weight by about 50% and do 12 reps
Then you immediately switch to a second "finishing" exercise and do a final set of 12 reps.
That's it. Pretty simple and straightforward. The only thing you need to figure out is exercise selection and you can easily do that with the book or with our help here at Clutch Fitness.
Finally, to add clarity to the above, and to also give you a place to track your weights and progress, hop on over to the Downloads section (Resources >> Downloads) to download the Body For Life Training Template (or just click that link).
Starting Strength
http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wi...inner_Programs
Unreasonably productive
Here's my recommendation.
This is a typical beginner routine. This routine is to be done 3 times per week MONDAY-WEDNSDAY-FRIDAY. It can be used by Male and Female. Try to use as much weight as possible (WITHOUT STRAINING).Don't feel confined to the same exercises, experiment with different exercises till you find the ones that are comfortable for you. Don't let your routine become routine.
THIS IS A PYRAMID PRINCIPLE (see below), as you decrease the reps you increase the weight. This workout is to be done for 6 Months before advancing to the intermediate stage.
Bench Press (CHEST)
12 Reps
10 Reps
10 Reps
8 Reps
Barbell Curl (BICEPS)
12 Rrep
10 Reps
10 Reps
French Press (TRICEPS)
12 Reps
10 Reps
10 Reps
Bent Over Row (LATS)
12 Reps
10 Reps
10 Reps
8 Reps
Military Press (SHOULDERS)
12 Reps
10 Reps
10 Reps
Shrugs (TRAPEZIUS)
12 Reps
10 Reps
10 Reps
Squats (THIGH)
12 Reps
10 Reps
10 Reps
8 Reps
Last edited by sinbad; 31-03-2010 at 01:14 AM.
Is this a good workout routine for a 17 year old weighing 160lbs?Originally Posted by sinbad
Its fine for beginners
Missing hamstings and calves here. You thinking the squats are enough for these too ? Just looking top heavy / little unbalanced.
Considering 95% of beginners don't train legs their first year I think it's a decent routine. It's similar to what I used when I first started out. Logicly you would want to see more lower body and focus more around the core Deads,Bench, Squats... but truthfully most beginners only want to see big arms, lol. This type of routine would get them interested and see the immediate results that happen when first starting out.
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