T Nation

Advice on My Training Routine

Beginners
#1

Hi All

My main sports are Boxing and Karate and although I am reletivly fit, I am not particulary strong and muscular, dont have any definition about my body, but I am not fat, think my last proper Bodyfat reading at my Physio was 11% which I understand is pretty good.

So I searched the web and found a recommended online trainer and he wrote me up a training plan, but I always like to get a second opinion on most things so thought I would post the routine here and see what you guys thought of it… Basically looking to add some muscle and functional strength.

Day 1
Superset 1

Dumbell 30 degree incline neutral grip Press
Wide Grip pull up
10 degree dumbell press
Prone 30 degree dubell row

Superset 2

Flat dumbell fly
Bent over dumbell lateral raise

Prone 30 degree dumbell front raise

Day 2
Squat
Superset 1

Dumbell dynamic lunge
Dumbell Single Leg Deadlift
Dumbell Rear step lunge
Dumbell heel squat

Superset 2

Standing unilateral calf raise
Standing calf raise

Day 3
Superset 1

Preacher Dumbell zottman curls
Bent over dumbell kick back
Preacher ez bar curl
Bent over dumbell kick back

Superset 2
Seated dumbell shoulder press
Lean away dumbell lateral raise

Seated dumbell shrugs

Day 4
Superset 1

Elevated crunch
Ball to leg sit up

Superset 2

Ball leg lower
Swiss ball twisting crunch

Back extension

Sets are fixed at 3 and reps are between 5 - 8 per set.

Cheers

Druid

#2

Hi All

Sorry for bumping thread, just looking for some thoughts.

#3

i don’t think you’ll be getting much benefit from 6 sets of bicep curls, 6 sets of tricep kickbacks, and 6 sets of calf raises. dedicating nearly a whole workout to arms and another whole workout to abs seems pretty dumb. you should be hitting each muscle group more than once per week, especially squats, and should be doing real deadlifts. overall, id say you got scammed. get your money back if you can, i doubt youll see any results on this program. read some of Waterbury’s stuff on total body training or read up on rippetoes, programs like those are the best way to get started.

#4

Hi Mate

Thanks for the reply, as I have not really done much weights I cant argue with your points apart from working each muscle group more than once a week, what about routines like Jim Wendlers 5/3/1 rountine, thats one compound exercise each day? Have just read that article on here.

As I said not been one for Weights, always used Bodyweight and leverage in the past, mostly Gymnastic rountines. I just really want to add a little more muscle and get toned up, I new purley artifical reasons but hey, lol

#5

I don’t see why it has to be as complicated as that (if it’s muscle you’re after). And the term functional muscle makes most of the advanced lifters cringe :slight_smile:

As has been mentioned, Mark Rippetoe has a good basic strength program (which will put some decent muscle on you):

Workout A:

Squat
Bench
Deadlift
Dips

Workout B:

Squat
Military press
Bent over row
Chins

You can train arms directly too if you want.

This routine would be done MON, WED, FRI (alternating AB…e.g. M-A, W-B, F-A, M-B etc)

For lower body exercises (i.e. squat/deadlift) just do one set after proper warmup (or ramp up to one max set as is called nowadays), for the rest do about 2 max sets after ramping/warmup.

Reps = 5-8 (as soon as 8 reps is reached, add about 5-10lbs and aim for 5+ reps).

Make sure you’re eating enough (this cannot be stressed enough). If done correctly, beginners should pretty easily add 20-30 lbs of muscle with this (when eating enough). Keep at this routine until decent strength has been built/stagnation occurs, then move onto a more split “bodybuilder” type routine (e.g. training muscle groups twice every 6-8 days) to give body parts the needed extra recovery.

#6

@its_just_me

Thanks for your reply, its a very simple program that I cant really go wrong on, I have done the above for two weeks and there is a lot swapping and changing. I do like the simplictiy of the program you have listed. As for warmup Sets, if I can do say 110kg for 5 Reps on the Deadlift, then 3 warmup sets 1@55kg 1@66kg and 1@77kg for 5 reps, is that a good way to do warmup sets?

Cheers

#7

[quote]1druid1 wrote:
@its_just_me

Thanks for your reply, its a very simple program that I cant really go wrong on, I have done the above for two weeks and there is a lot swapping and changing. I do like the simplictiy of the program you have listed. As for warmup Sets, if I can do say 110kg for 5 Reps on the Deadlift, then 3 warmup sets 1@55kg 1@66kg and 1@77kg for 5 reps, is that a good way to do warmup sets?

Cheers[/quote]

Yeah simple is best to start with, then you can build up from there.

As a simple rule of thumb, with weight, start off with just over half your rep max and add about 10-20kg on each set (for squat/deadlifts). It could go like this:

8 @ 60kg
5 @ 80kg
5 @ 90
3 @ 100kg
5-8 @ 110kg (max effort - lift until you no longer “dominate the weight”/form gets bad)

Warmups should make you progressively stronger but shouldn’t wear you out, so don’t go over 5 reps until your last max set. The set(s) right before your max rep set is purely to prepare your body for the heavy load. Just do what feels good at the time, no need to follow a special “formulae”. As you get stronger, you’ll need more warmup/ramp sets.

I don’t know your mentality for training, so it’s hard to know what to recommend as regards effort/intensity. Try not to get into the mentality of “more is better” and “you have to ‘kill’ yourself” to make gains. Obviously, the reverse is also true, if you don’t put in enough effort it won’t work. Generally, as long as you’re adding reps/weight weekly (i.e. progressing in your workouts), then that’s all you need to worry about. Assuming rest is good, the only other limiting factor is food. If you aren’t eating enough, growth will grind to a halt and this will show in your lifts (every extra rep/kg will feel like a ton) and you won’t make much progress.

#8

Hi its_just_me

Thanks for the help, yes going to start simple to begin with. As for mentality, being from a traditional martial arts backgroud its sort of an all or nothing attitude, meaning I like to train hard, but I do know my limits and boundrys. As for diet its pretty to clean mostly, Lots of Protein, heatly fats and healthy carbs (Lots of green vegetables) and fruit.

Although I dont think I actually eat enough to grow muscle, so I may have to increase carb intake with things like more nuts and adding a couple of sweet potatoes into my meal after a workout, may buy some protein powder and take a few scoops of that before and after training aswell.

I was thinking about starting a training log on here and show my my current stats and a couple of pics, just so I can track my progress and other can comment, although a little embarresed as my numbers are pathetically low for most of the exercises.

Cheers

#9

Hi

Done my first workout tonight using the above, managed to figure out optimum weights to use, although could go a little heavier on some. Although reading these forums my weights feel a bit childsplay compared to most of you, lol.

W = Warmup Set Reps in Brackets
WS = Work Set Reps in Brackets
BW = Bodyweight

Exercise : W(8) : W(5) : W(5) : W(3) : WS(5) : WS(5) :
Squat : 50 : 65 : 75 : 80 : 90 : :
Bench : 38 : 50 : 60 : : 70 : 70 :
Deadlift : 60 : 75 : 90 : 100 : 110 : :
Dips : BW : 5 : 7.5 : 10 : 15 : 15 :
Arm Curls: 20 : 28 : 35 : : 40 : 40 :

Weights are in KG, excluding bars, as not sure of weight.

Squat on 7ft Standard Bar
Bemch on 7ft Standard Bar
Deadlift on 7ft Olympic Bar
Curs on Standard EZ Curl Bar
Dips done on Gymnastic Rings

Thats my current stats at the moment, not done weights in a long time, always going to start but something always comes up, but this routine at the moment is quite simple so I will stick with it. Decided to add in Arm Curls as I was still feeling good.

Cheers

Druid

#10

[quote]1druid1 wrote:
Hi

Done my first workout tonight using the above, managed to figure out optimum weights to use, although could go a little heavier on some. Although reading these forums my weights feel a bit childsplay compared to most of you, lol.

W = Warmup Set Reps in Brackets
WS = Work Set Reps in Brackets
BW = Bodyweight

Exercise : W(8) : W(5) : W(5) : W(3) : WS(5) : WS(5) :
Squat : 50 : 65 : 75 : 80 : 90 : :
Bench : 38 : 50 : 60 : : 70 : 70 :
Deadlift : 60 : 75 : 90 : 100 : 110 : :
Dips : BW : 5 : 7.5 : 10 : 15 : 15 :
Arm Curls: 20 : 28 : 35 : : 40 : 40 :

Weights are in KG, excluding bars, as not sure of weight.

Squat on 7ft Standard Bar
Bemch on 7ft Standard Bar
Deadlift on 7ft Olympic Bar
Curs on Standard EZ Curl Bar
Dips done on Gymnastic Rings

Thats my current stats at the moment, not done weights in a long time, always going to start but something always comes up, but this routine at the moment is quite simple so I will stick with it. Decided to add in Arm Curls as I was still feeling good.

Cheers

Druid

[/quote]

The bar is about 20kg roughly.

With that in mind then your weights are as follows (for reps):

Squat - 110kg(240lbs)
Bench - 90kg(200lbs)
Deadlift - 130kg(285lbs)
Curls - ~50kg(110lbs)

So with a 1RM calculator that would roughly translate to:
Squat - 280lbs
Bench - 230lbs
Deadlift - 330lbs

That’s not bad to say that you’re supposed to be a beginner :slight_smile:

Keep us updated…

#11

Cheers for the reply, I will keep it updated.

I am a beginner in Free Weights, but I have spent a lot of time doing Gymnastic strength training and karate training using traditional impliments such as a Kongoken and Chi Shi stones, stone padlocks ect.

So not a complete beginner, my experience with these has given me some relative strength, but I am no where near as strong as the guys in my Karate Dojo who lift weights.

So hence the reason for this routine, also packing on some muscle and getting shredded is good for the ego and vanity :slight_smile: