Weight Training: For Beginners - Critique my program/Q & A

[MF]

Shame you cant spread those three days across the week a bit more evenly. Doing one body part per week wouldn't be enough.

I'd go with:

Tue - Back/Chest
Wed - Legs
Thurs - Back/Chest
Weekend session if you can get it in - Full body

Forget the "back/bi's" wank, a compound back exercise incorporates elbow flexion which means the biceps brachii etc are being activated. Same goes for chest/triceps.

Thanks mate.

Any particular compound exercises you'd recommend for each day?

 

[cptkirk]

go for a bit of overreaching, train the main movement pattern/exercises/muscles 3 days in a row then rest

day 1 - bench press / wted chin up / deadlifts / front or back squats
day 2 - db bench press / row / rdl / single leg
day 3 - push ups / high rep chin up if you can or inverted rows / pull throughs / goblet squats

sets/reps
day 1 - low volume and high intensity so 85% and above x 10 - 15 reps squeezing in at least 1 session a month of 90% and above for 3 - 5 total reps (singles)
day 2 - medium volume and medium intensity so 70 - 85% x 15 - 25 reps
day 3 - high volume and low intensity so 70% or less x 25 - 40 reps

diet (play with this a bit but you obviously won't need as much food in the 4 days off you're not training but you want to recover from 3 days in a row)
days 1, 2 and 3 eat everything
days 4 and 5 maintenance
days 6 and 7 slightly below maintenance

 

[saintbatty]

Re: Att: Weight Training for beginners

Training

If you've done absolutely no wt training whatsoever then bodyweight stuff where it's at for the most part...if you can't do 15 perfect push ups, inverted rows with feel elevated, split squats, 8 chin ups and a 2minute prone hold, then you're body and especially your core and stabiliser muscles, aren't really ready for wts

That seems a very sensible test ... and one that I couldn't at the moment pass. What range of (body weight) exercises would you recommend to get to this standard with a view to then joining a gym and hitting the weights?

 

[cptkirk]

train the test in this case so just do the actual exercises doing a low to moderate amount everyday (yes everyday) but don't go any where near the point that you can't do anymore

for example if you can do 12 push ups before you fall flat on your face, then do sets of 6 - 8 for almost as many sets as you can

IMPORTANT - PUSH TECHNIQUE OVER EVERYTHING ELSE!!

 

[saintbatty]

Thanks for the quick reply. Would you be adding anything else, or just those exercises?

 

[cptkirk]

once you do 3 sessions in a row of the rep number for an exercise then we can progress to other stuff otherwise just do them each session

 

[saintbatty]

Great, thanks. And just checking (cos I had to google it) - this is what you mean by a split squat?

 

[cptkirk]

not playing...

 

[saintbatty]

http://nicktumminello.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/dumbbell-bulgarian-split-squat-11112011.jpg

 

[cptkirk]

go with 15 each leg with both legs on the ground in that same split stance position then move to those for 15 each leg...that;s a crappy picture though...give the front leg about 90 degrees of knee bend, not 45 like it has there

 

[George Washington]

go with 15 each leg with both legs on the ground in that same split stance position then move to those for 15 each leg...that;s a crappy picture though...give the front leg about 90 degrees of knee bend, not 45 like it has there

cptkirk

Out of interets, do you have a rough idea of good strength standards for the split squat?

I.e untrained x kg for x reps, amateur athlete and elite maybe?

 

[cptkirk]

nuh, it's all relative but you should probably be able to do withing 10 - 15% of your best squat each leg combined

so if you can squat 100 for 1 rep or whatever you should be able to do 45 - 50kgs per leg for split squats..of course you'll never do a split squat 1rm but you get the idea

 

[Andre]

nuh, it's all relative but you should probably be able to do withing 10 - 15% of your best squat each leg combined

so if you can squat 100 for 1 rep or whatever you should be able to do 45 - 50kgs per leg for split squats..of course you'll never do a split squat 1rm but you get the idea

I assume the per leg is the total of both dumbbells if doing with those? I do a front squat 1RM at 90kg (at present), which going by the general front squat should be 85% of your back squat, if I reverse that it's about the same as a 105kg back squat. So should be hitting around 90kg - 95 kg for split squats. I started adding split squats as part of one of my two lower body days about two months ago and currently doing 22.5 kg pair for 4 reps as my heaviest set. So 22.5 x 2 x 2 = 90kg sounds about right. If you mean 45kg - 50kg per dumbbell my legs would buckle at the moment!

 

[cptkirk]

I assume the per leg is the total of both dumbbells if doing with those? I do a front squat 1RM at 90kg (at present), which going by the general front squat should be 85% of your back squat, if I reverse that it's about the same as a 105kg back squat. So should be hitting around 90kg - 95 kg for split squats. I started adding split squats as part of one of my two lower body days about two months ago and currently doing 22.5 kg pair for 4 reps as my heaviest set. So 22.5 x 2 x 2 = 90kg sounds about right. If you mean 45kg - 50kg per dumbbell my legs would buckle at the moment![/quotE

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