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An important element when trying to get in shape is the construction of a well thought out weight training program. There are some general rules, and guidelines you should follow when creating a program. A common mistake that most beginners make is emulating pro-bodybuilder workouts found on the Internet, or in fitness magazines.
One thing you must understand as natural athlete is that your body does not respond, and recuperate as quickly as a professional bodybuilder taking in a stack of steroids. As a natural person looking to get in shape, you need to be smarter, and more methodical in your approach to weight training.
An athlete on steroids is able to recover much faster than an average person, what works for them will be counterproductive for us going down the natural path. A lot of the athletes that write in fitness magazines, and on the Internet, fail to tell you this important piece of information (not surprisingly). Although they may get in shape just looking at dumbbells, we need to apply a smarter approach to our weight training program.
Below are the guidelines that you should follow when setting up a workout program:
1. Do not train two big body parts on the same day, therefore separate the days for which you train your chest, legs and back. You want the get the most out of each workout in the shortest amount of time and it is much easier to focus both physically and mentally on just training one large muscle group. Physically you will be exhausted training two large body parts in the one session and will not be able to push as much weight.
2. Always train bigger body parts (chest, legs and back) before smaller body parts (biceps, triceps, calves, forearms, traps, shoulders and abdominals). Most of the smaller body parts are heavily involved in larger muscle group movements. As an example, your biceps assist strongly in all back exercise movements. If you were to train your biceps first, your arms will be too fatigued to apply the maximum effort and intensity when training your back. This will lead to your large back muscle group not getting enough stimulation from your workout for the best possible results.
3. Do between 6 to 8 sets for larger body parts and 4 to 6 sets for smaller body parts (not including your warm up sets). That is all you need for efficient stimulation. Don’t waste your time in the gym with marathon sessions – that will lead to over training and not giving your muscles enough time to rest and recuperate.
4. Train every body part only once per week. A muscle requires at least 5-7 days for it to fully recuperate. Training your biceps everyday will not make them bigger, the contrary in fact. The recovery period is the time when muscle is recuperating, growing, and becoming stronger in preparation for adapting to the heavy weights
By utilising these simple rules you will get much more out of each and every workout, and will avoid falling into the trap of over-training.
I have been receiving a large number of requests for detailed weight training programs, including what exercises to do, how many sets, training splits and also diets. As such, I have created a free beginners guide with a ton of different workouts and diets that you can follow.
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Workout Programs
