Are you wanting to start a strength training program but have no idea where to start? Rest assured, you are not alone! I used to be a cardio-only workout person. I didn’t particularly enjoy lifting weights, and truthfully, I had no idea where to start. If I could get past being totally intimidated by the serious lifters, I’d walk into the workout area and just stare at the gym equipment wondering where to start. I’d grab a few free weights, do a random number of repetitions and slink back to the treadmills!
The good news is that it’s not nearly as mysterious as it seems.
1. Strive to strength train a minimum of two, non-consecutive days. Your muscles need a day, or more, of rest in between sessions in order to repair themselves. Lifting weights damages muscle fibers (creates microscopic tears in the muscles you’ve worked), so rest days give your muscles time to reconstruct, recover and increase in size.
2. There are many different ways to strength train. You can focus on upper body, lower body, full body or specific body parts. I recommend that you focus on full-body training, so you can ensure that you are completing a full-body resistance training workout twice a week.
3. Strive to do 2-4 sets of 8-12 repetitions of exercises that target the major muscle groups: pectorals, deltoids, back, biceps, triceps, abdominals, quadriceps, gluteals and hamstrings. Start with the bigger muscle groups like your quadriceps and back before you train the smaller groups such as biceps or triceps.
If what I shared seems like a bunch of gibberish, give the workout below a try. It’s a bodyweight workout that will hit all of those major body parts!
Circuit #1:
Push-ups (8-10 Reps) These can be done on the ground or against a wall.
Seated leg lifts (10-15 Reps per leg)
Superman (8-12 Reps) - Click on link for options for Superman
Squats (8-12 Reps)
Skaters (10 Reps per leg) Option - step rather than hop
Plank (15-30 sec.) Option to plank on knees or forearms/toes
Bridges (10-15 Reps)
Tricep Dips on Ground (5-8 Reps)
Repeat Circuit #1 for a total of 2 or 3 times.
Circuit #2:
Hydrants – 30 seconds each leg; Hydrants that extend into a kick – 30 seconds each leg
Standing leg circles to the front – 20 seconds each direction (CW and CCW), for each leg
Hold arms in T position (arms out to sides no higher than shoulder level) – flip palms up and down – 30 seconds
Arm Circles – 1 min. (30 seconds to the front and 30 seconds to the back)
10 Wall Slides
10 Abdominal Rollups
Repeat Circuit #2 one more time for a total of two times.
Need one-on-one assistance? Sign up for my Beginner Strength Training Program that provides you with two customized, beginner workouts as well as two, 30 min. training sessions via Skype to go over form and do the customized workouts.
