- Introduce your body to physical exercise
- Introduce you to a variety of exercises, training equipment, and training splits
- Train all of your major muscle groups
- Strengthen your core and primal movement patterns
- Encourage body-wide neuromuscular adaptation
- Develop a strong foundation of muscular endurance
The beginner weight training program is very important because it will lay a strong foundation upon which you can safely build in the subsequent programs. Without this strong foundation, you will be at risk of injury. By the end of the program, you should have developed significant strength (mostly due to neuromuscular adaptation), muscular endurance, and muscular tone, as well as dramatically improved your overall fitness.
The program is divided into four microcycles, each one lasting for three weeks. The first two microcycles focus on full-body circuit training, which means that you will be training your entire body in each workout and having minimal rest between exercises. The last two microcycles focus on split training, which means that you will be dividing your body and training different parts in different workouts.
Please don’t be intimidated by the number of exercises in some of the workouts. You will be flying through them with very little rest, so the workouts will be over very quickly.
Please read the Overview before you start this program.
Suitability
- Beginners
- Lifters with less than three months of consistent weight training experience
- Experienced lifters who haven’t trained for more than three months
Instructions
- Use an amount of weight that makes completing the reps challenging.
- As you get stronger and need to increase the weight, add a maximum of 5 lb or 2.5 kg to upper-body exercises and a maximum of 10 lb or 5 kg to lower-body exercises just enough to make the rep range challenging again.
- Complete the exercises in the order provided.
- Try to master the proper form of each exercise, including proper breathing technique.
- As you train, try to develop a mental connection with your muscles.
- If, for some reason, you can’t perform one of the exercises, see the Overview for alternatives.
- Don’t forget to warm up before, and cool down after, each workout.
- Each workout, including warmup and cooldown, should take no longer than an hour.
- Once you have completed the beginner weight training program, you must take a deload week (a week during which you must either rest or train lightly). Only then can you move on to the next program.
Specific instructions for each microcycle are presented below.
Microcycle 1: Full-body circuit (3 weeks)
- For microcycle 1, you will perform a full-body circuit
- Complete 2 circuits per workout
- Complete 3 workouts per week, with at least 1 day of rest between each workout (AXAXAXX, where “A” means workout day and “X” means rest day)
- Rest for only 20 to 30 seconds between exercises
- Rest for 2 to 3 minutes between the circuits
- Each workout should take less than 40 minutes
Exercise ----- Reps :
Dumbbell squat ----- 15–18
Wide-grip lat pull-down ----- 15–18
Seated or lying leg curl ----- 15–18
Dumbbell bench press ----- 15–18
Machine standing calf raise ----- 25–30
Seated cable row ----- 15–18
Bicycle crunch ----- 15–20
Seated dumbbell overhead press -----15–18
Dumbbell curl ----- 15–18
Dumbbell kickback ----- 15–18
Microcycle 2: Full-body circuit (3 weeks)
- For microcycle 2, you will perform another full-body circuit
- Complete either 3 workouts a week (AXAXAXX) or a workout every other day (AX)
- Complete 2 circuits per workout
- Rest for only 20 to 30 seconds between exercises
- Rest for 2 to 3 minutes before starting the second circuit
- Each workout should take less than 40 minutes
Exercise ----- Reps
Barbell squat ----- 13–15
Close neutral grip lat pull-down ----- 13–15
Dumbbell Romanian deadlift ) ----- 13–15
Push-up (on knees if necessary) ----- 13–15
Dumbbell lunge ----- 13–15
Bent-over dumbbell row ----- 13–15
Seated or lying leg curl ----- 13–15
Dumbbell one-arm overhead press ----- 13–15
Standing dumbbell one-leg calf raise ----- 25–30
Bicycle crunch ----- 20–25
EZ bar curl ----- 13–15
Microcycle 3: Upper–Lower split (3 weeks)
- For microcycle 3, you will perform an upper–lower split. This means that you will train all of your upper body in one workout and all of your lower body in another workout. Also, instead of circuit training, you will perform set training, which means that you will complete all of the sets for one exercise before moving on to the sets of the following exercise
- Recommended workout schedules: ABXABXX or ABX
- Rest for only 20 to 30 seconds between sets
- Rest for only 60 to 90 seconds between exercises
- Each workout should take less than 40 minutes
Exercise ----- Sets x Reps
One-arm lat pull-down ----- 2 x 13–15
Seated cable row ----- 2 x 13–15
Barbell bench press ----- 2 x 13–15
Barbell overhead press ----- 2 x 13–15
Cable face pull ----- 2 x 13–15
Triceps rope push-down ----- 2 x 13–15
Dumbbell concentration curl ----- 2 x 13–15
Cable twist (YouTube link) ----- 2 x 13–15
Front plank ----- 2 x 45–60 s
s = seconds
Workout B (Lower Body)
Exercise ----- Sets x Reps
Barbell front squat ----- 2 x 13–15
Dumbbell rear lunge ----- 2 x 13–15
Barbell Romanian deadlift ----- 2 x 13–15
Seated or lying leg curl ----- 2 x 13–15
Standing dumbbell one-leg calf raise ----- 2 x 20–25
Machine seated calf raise ----- 2 x 20–25
Lying side hip raise ----- 2 x 20–25
Bicycle crunch ----- 2 x 20–25
Lying leg and hip raise -----2 x 15–20
Microcycle 4: 3-day split (3 weeks)
- For microcycle 4, you will perform a 3-day split in which you will train your back, biceps, and core in Workout A; your chest, shoulders, triceps, and core in Workout B; and your legs and core in Workout C
- Recommended workout schedules: ABCXABX (then start from C the next week) or ABCX (i.e. three days on, one day off)
- Rest for only 20 to 30 seconds between sets
- Rest for only 60 to 90 seconds between exercises
- Each workout should take less than 40 minutes
Workout A (Back, biceps, core)
Exercise ----- Sets x Reps
Barbell sumo deadlift ----- 2 x 12–14
Medium-grip lat pull-down ----- 2 x 12–14
Cable twisting one-arm row ----- 2 x 12–14
Dumbbell curl ----- 2 x 12–14
Barbell reverse curl ----- 2 x 12–14
Lying side hip raise ----- 2 x 25–30
Bicycle crunch ----- 2 x 25–30
Seated leg raise ----- 2 x 25–30
Workout B (Chest, shoulders, triceps, core)
Exercise ----- Sets x Reps
Barbell bench press ----- 2 x 12–14
Inline reverse-grip dumbbell bench press ----- 2 x 12–14
Dumbbell one-arm overhead press ----- 2 x 12–14
Dumbbell bent-over lateral raise ----- 2 x 12–14
Cable face pull ----- 2 x 12–14
Diamond push-up (on knees if necessary) ----- 2 x 12–14
Decline dumbbell French press ----- 2 x 12–14
Captain’s chair leg and hip raise (or hanging variation) ----- 2 x 12–14
Workout C (Legs and core)
Exercise ----- Sets x Reps
Barbell sumo squat ----- 2 x 12–14
Dumbbell side lunge ----- 2 x 12–14
One-leg hip thrust ----- 2 x 12–14
Seated or lying leg curl ----- 2 x 12–14
Machine standing calf raise ----- 2 x 20–25
Machine seated calf raise ----- 2 x 20–25
Wheel rollout ----- 2 x 10–15
Cable wood chop ----- 2 x 12–14