[quote]its_just_me wrote:
[quote]Pinta wrote:
Thx for the reply Its_just_me, I’ll take that into account!
Just to get things straight, you are saying I should do more muscles each day and do a higher amount of reps?[/quote]
A beginners program usually has you doing a basic split (limited exercises per bodypart) while training muscles a little more frequently (e.g. 2-3x/week) to take advantage of quick strength gains that can be made. So yeah, you should do more bodyparts in a session, and cut down the exercises per bodypart (just until newbie gains stop).
Beginners don’t need too much stimulus to grow, so they can get away with less, and as a result they can recover faster. If you squatted/benched 1x a week adding weight to the bar each time versus squatting/benching 2x a week while adding weight to the bar each time; which method do you think you’ll get bigger legs/chest from?
When you get much stronger and have adapted (milked the newbie gains), you’ll need longer to recover and more bodypart focus (where the more split routines come in).
Reps/sets aren’t THAT important (especially as a beginner where most things “work”), what matters more, especially at this stage, is weight added to the bar, or extra reps with same weight (stronger = bigger). Most get good results from somewhere between 15-30 total reps/exercise.
Example rep/set schemes (first 2-3 sets are not maximal effort, just last one[s]):
4-5 sets x 5-6 reps
3-4 sets x 6-8 reps
3 sets x 8-10 reps
Etc.
If you wanted more strength, you’d sway more towards lessor total reps (e.g. 15 or less). As a beginner, I feel it’s better to keep reps in the medium range (e.g. 5-10 reps). Hard to go wrong with that.
If your strength is really bad (e.g. 120lbs squat or less), I’d go for a full body workout and milk it for a few months before splitting things up and doing bodyparts less frequently. Let me know if you want an example routine or anything…[/quote]
good post, I also aggree that 2x a week for a beginner is great, the more you do a movement the better you get at it and the stronger you get at it so i think that would be a lot more useful