WORKING OUT
WEIGHT TRAINING
#1. Establish a goal. There are three ways to improve your muscles;
-strength
-size
-endurance
#2. Decide on the excercises you will be doing. Compound weight lifting is the most efficient. Barbells are better than dumbells, dumbells are better than machines. Compound lifts are lifts that target more than one muscle and incorporate more muscle during the movement.
You can find a list of compound exercises here.
Choose 2-3 compound exercises for each muscle and an extra one or 2 isolated exercises for the muscle you want to target (if you have weak joint, for example, you'd want to give the muscles around it a little more focus)
#3. Figure out your one rep max (1rm). This is different for each exercise, so you want to figure out your 1rm for each exercise that you have decided to do.
To figure it out load up the barbell/dumbbell/machine with enough weight so you can only do 1 rep and then your muscle gets too weak to perform another rep.
Do not do a rep, figure you need more weight, add it, and do it again. This defeats the purpose of doing one rep. If you had too much or too little weight, rest for a few minutes and then try again.
Same goes for muscle groups, if you tested your 1rm for a military press, don't immediatly try to figure out your upright row 1rm. rest.
#4. Figure out the amount of weight, reps and sets for each exercise. This is where your goal comes into account.
For building strength (without mass), you want to use 95-100% of your 1rm. And you want to perform only one set of 3 reps (if at 95%) to 1 rep (if at 100% because, duh, its your 1 rep MAX)
For building strength WITH mass, you want to use 85-90% of your 1rm. And you want to perform one set of 4 (at 90%) to 6 (at 85%) reps.
For building some strength with mass, you want to use 70-80% of your 1rm. And you want to perform 2 to 3 sets of 8 (at 80%) to 12 (at 70%) reps.
For building some mass but mostly endurance, you want to use less than 70% of your 1rm. And you want to perform 3 or more sets of 12 or more reps.
#5. Learn to rest. After each set let your muscles rest for 1-3 minutes, unless you are training for high endurance, don't take rests after every set then.
Drink some water. Do some deep breathing. Don't stretch though, stretching while exercising weakens your muscles and you could pull something during your next set.
And learn to rest your muscles in between routines. 48 hours is generally recommended, but if endurance is your goal and you are working at a really high set/rep and really low weight, 24 hours in between probably won't lead to overtraining.
#6. Putting together a routine.
First of all do you want to train upper and lower body on the same day or alternate? This depends on your schedule.
If its hard for you to find time to exercise and can only spare 15 minutes a day, alternate your upper and lower body.
Or if its hard for you to find time and you can only get 30 minutes every other day, opt for a full body workout.
Secondly you have to arrange your actual workout (how you are going to set up the sets). But for non serious lifters, its best to just stick to set, rest, set, rest...
Third, the long term, how your workout will change from week to week. Your 1rm will be increasing as you workout because you are getting stronger, duh. So about every two weeks you're going to have to increase the amount of weight you are using or else you won't be working to your goal anymore.
There are several different types of long term
#9. How to prepare for a weight lifting session. Warm up. Do arm circles, leg swings, trunk circles... its called dynamic stretching. YOU DO NOT WANT TO DO STATIC STRETCHING BEFORE WORKING OUT. And get your heart pumping a little more by doing a small 5 minutes session of cardio like jumping rope, jogging...
CARDIO
Intensity
Defined by your heartrate. I'm not going to explain it because its also really easy in terms of pace...
Low- jogging
Moderate- running
High- sprinting
Duration
This is how long you perform cardio.
Short- goes with High Intensity
Moderate- goes with a mix of intensities or Moderate Intensity
Long- goes with Low Intensity
Its a myth that in order to burn fat you have to spend an hour on the treadmill. HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) is a great program to promote fat loss, preserve muscle, and to finish in 15 minutes. You can google it to read more on it but this is the general idea...
Warm up. Sprint your ass of for about 50 yards. Turn around and walk back. Sprint your ass off again. Walk back. Sprint. Walk. Collapse on the ground and pray someone calls an ambulance for you.
Seriously, don't go overboard. You won't be able to do this for more than 20 minutes. At first, you'll probably be unable to do it for more than 3! But HIIT isn't about burning calories while you're working out, HIIT raises your metabolism during the entire day.
But long low intensity sessions are fun and burn fat too. I do both but my long low intensity sessions aren't workouts, they are things I enjoy doing or have to do (like biking my butt around town).
If you don't have enough time, have bad knees/hips, or just hate running, try doing HIIT. BUT, be aware that it does not have the same heart benefits as endurance cardio. Adding one or two sessions of skating, swimming, jogging... a week will do your heart good. Besides that HIIT is only for 2-3 times a week.
I like to do it on days I train my lower body before I use weights. But experiment and see what works for you, you just don't want to be sore when you go sprint.
and last, but definitely NOT least...
DIET
Your diet plays the most important part of gaining strength/muscle and losing fat.
I'll go into this later tonight. I gotta go to work for a couple hours. Peace.
#1. Establish a goal. There are three ways to improve your muscles;
-strength
-size
-endurance
#2. Decide on the excercises you will be doing. Compound weight lifting is the most efficient. Barbells are better than dumbells, dumbells are better than machines. Compound lifts are lifts that target more than one muscle and incorporate more muscle during the movement.
You can find a list of compound exercises here.
Choose 2-3 compound exercises for each muscle and an extra one or 2 isolated exercises for the muscle you want to target (if you have weak joint, for example, you'd want to give the muscles around it a little more focus)
#3. Figure out your one rep max (1rm). This is different for each exercise, so you want to figure out your 1rm for each exercise that you have decided to do.
To figure it out load up the barbell/dumbbell/machine with enough weight so you can only do 1 rep and then your muscle gets too weak to perform another rep.
Do not do a rep, figure you need more weight, add it, and do it again. This defeats the purpose of doing one rep. If you had too much or too little weight, rest for a few minutes and then try again.
Same goes for muscle groups, if you tested your 1rm for a military press, don't immediatly try to figure out your upright row 1rm. rest.
#4. Figure out the amount of weight, reps and sets for each exercise. This is where your goal comes into account.
For building strength (without mass), you want to use 95-100% of your 1rm. And you want to perform only one set of 3 reps (if at 95%) to 1 rep (if at 100% because, duh, its your 1 rep MAX)
For building strength WITH mass, you want to use 85-90% of your 1rm. And you want to perform one set of 4 (at 90%) to 6 (at 85%) reps.
For building some strength with mass, you want to use 70-80% of your 1rm. And you want to perform 2 to 3 sets of 8 (at 80%) to 12 (at 70%) reps.
For building some mass but mostly endurance, you want to use less than 70% of your 1rm. And you want to perform 3 or more sets of 12 or more reps.
#5. Learn to rest. After each set let your muscles rest for 1-3 minutes, unless you are training for high endurance, don't take rests after every set then.
Drink some water. Do some deep breathing. Don't stretch though, stretching while exercising weakens your muscles and you could pull something during your next set.
And learn to rest your muscles in between routines. 48 hours is generally recommended, but if endurance is your goal and you are working at a really high set/rep and really low weight, 24 hours in between probably won't lead to overtraining.
#6. Putting together a routine.
First of all do you want to train upper and lower body on the same day or alternate? This depends on your schedule.
If its hard for you to find time to exercise and can only spare 15 minutes a day, alternate your upper and lower body.
Or if its hard for you to find time and you can only get 30 minutes every other day, opt for a full body workout.
Secondly you have to arrange your actual workout (how you are going to set up the sets). But for non serious lifters, its best to just stick to set, rest, set, rest...
Third, the long term, how your workout will change from week to week. Your 1rm will be increasing as you workout because you are getting stronger, duh. So about every two weeks you're going to have to increase the amount of weight you are using or else you won't be working to your goal anymore.
There are several different types of long term
#9. How to prepare for a weight lifting session. Warm up. Do arm circles, leg swings, trunk circles... its called dynamic stretching. YOU DO NOT WANT TO DO STATIC STRETCHING BEFORE WORKING OUT. And get your heart pumping a little more by doing a small 5 minutes session of cardio like jumping rope, jogging...
CARDIO
Intensity
Defined by your heartrate. I'm not going to explain it because its also really easy in terms of pace...
Low- jogging
Moderate- running
High- sprinting
Duration
This is how long you perform cardio.
Short- goes with High Intensity
Moderate- goes with a mix of intensities or Moderate Intensity
Long- goes with Low Intensity
Its a myth that in order to burn fat you have to spend an hour on the treadmill. HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) is a great program to promote fat loss, preserve muscle, and to finish in 15 minutes. You can google it to read more on it but this is the general idea...
Warm up. Sprint your ass of for about 50 yards. Turn around and walk back. Sprint your ass off again. Walk back. Sprint. Walk. Collapse on the ground and pray someone calls an ambulance for you.
Seriously, don't go overboard. You won't be able to do this for more than 20 minutes. At first, you'll probably be unable to do it for more than 3! But HIIT isn't about burning calories while you're working out, HIIT raises your metabolism during the entire day.
But long low intensity sessions are fun and burn fat too. I do both but my long low intensity sessions aren't workouts, they are things I enjoy doing or have to do (like biking my butt around town).
If you don't have enough time, have bad knees/hips, or just hate running, try doing HIIT. BUT, be aware that it does not have the same heart benefits as endurance cardio. Adding one or two sessions of skating, swimming, jogging... a week will do your heart good. Besides that HIIT is only for 2-3 times a week.
I like to do it on days I train my lower body before I use weights. But experiment and see what works for you, you just don't want to be sore when you go sprint.
and last, but definitely NOT least...
DIET
Your diet plays the most important part of gaining strength/muscle and losing fat.
I'll go into this later tonight. I gotta go to work for a couple hours. Peace.