Beginner Gym Workout Plan Building
As one clever man said: “The first step determines the next.” Very often, the effect of visiting a sports club, whether it is weight gain or weight loss, depends on the structure of the load. Let’s try to figure out together what the first beginner gym workout plan should be so that every visit to the gym gives only a positive result.
How to Make a Training Program Correctly?
I began my acquaintance with iron sports at home. I had two 7 kg dumbbells and a spring expander. Therefore, I trained only those muscles that this meager equipment allowed to do: arms and shoulders.
Being in a real gym for the first time, I rushed to do familiar exercises for biceps, triceps, and deltoid muscles. In those days, there were no personal trainers and youtube, and you had to blindly master bodybuilding skills.
But those gloomy medieval times have sunk into oblivion, and now you can buy a membership for classes with an instructor in any gym.
The first beginner gym workout plan has its own characteristics, and if you are an absolute newbie, it will be useful to pay for 3-4 classes with a trainer. At least in order to understand where what is in the gym, how to get into it, and not fall down.
Probably somewhere there are such gyms where really professional instructors work, but I have never been to such ones. Having trained several dozens of people in my life, I can confidently say that a lesson with an instructor in the gym is worth the money and only works when you perform a full range of exercises with him throughout the workout. That is, the scheme “Great Coach and Dumb Beginner” will be replaced by another: “Two Training Partners.”
But such training is a rarity. It is not worth hoping to get something more from a personal trainer than a lesson consisting of 30 minutes on the track, lunges with a barbell in the style of “walking drunk in the village” and exercises for the abs. And so the maximum that can be learned from this is to find out how the machines and equipment available in the gym work.
The compilation of a truly correct beginner gym workout routine has to be drawn independently. So, what does a beginner need to find out when making up the first training program for two months of magical transformation?
P.S. Exactly at this stage, there is no difference between your goals. Let it be either fat burning or building muscle. Here you have to get acquainted with the gym. So, how to do it right?
How long should the training be?
No more than an hour. And 15-20 minutes of training for a beginner should take a warm-up. It can consist of work on any cardio simulator, performed in a comfortable mode until light sweat appears. Have you heard the expression “warm up the engine”? This is from this opera.
After the cardio load, it is necessary to perform 15-20 quick squats, thoroughly stretch all joints, starting from the neck and ending with the ankle. And only then proceed to the implementation of the exercises with weights. And another important point – after the end of the workout, you must again stand on the track and walk on it for 3-5 minutes.
This exercise, performed after the main session, is called a hitch. Its goal, unlike warming up, is to calm the nervous system and stabilize the work of the heart. In addition, after a workout in the gym, a shower is required.
Water procedures perform not only hygienic but also a restorative function, helping the body cope with the effects of stress from training.
How often to workout?
The best option for a beginner is three workouts per week, held every other day. For example, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. Such a beginner gym workout plan will allow you to recover well after each training session, steadily survive pain and rush into battle with renewed vigor.
What moves should a beginner gym workout plan have?
The most simple, comfortable, and intuitive. The more natural you will feel when performing such movements, the greater will be the return on them. When drawing up such a training scheme, it is better to focus on classical, basic exercises with a barbell and dumbbells, performed in a static position.
In addition to being the simplest, these exercises are extremely important for building the so-called muscle corset. It consists of small assistant muscles, such as extensors of the wrists, lumbosacral, extensors of the back, and rotators of the shoulder. The beginners are not aware of the existence of most of them, but this does not detract from their extreme importance.
All basic exercises, squats, bench press, and military press, as well as various pulldowns, are just designed for the full development of large muscle groups and, at the same time strengthen small, but extremely important muscle assistants.
How to choose optimal weights for the beginner gym workout plan?
At the initial stage, the starting point that accompanies almost all exercises for a beginner should be number 10. This is the number of repetitions that should be in the majority of the sets performed. This is a kind of measure of the muscular efforts of every novice gym-goer. As soon as you perform 10 repetitions clearly and in a controlled manner in some exercise, this is a signal that the working weight can be raised.
However, one must take into account the fact that with each subsequent set, we are weakening. If in the first set the beginner completed 10 squats, and in the fourth set only 8 – this is absolutely normal. But the situation is that in each of the four sets, there are 10 repetitions stably coming out – this is a signal that you regretted yourself, and in the first sets, you obviously did not work out for 100%.
More about this issue: How to Choose Weights for Workout Correctly
How often to train different muscle groups?
The system of full-body, for a beginner in the gym is the best fit. It makes sense to apply separate training, or split, after a few months, setting priorities. But, at the initial stage, working out the whole body in one workout is the right choice.
Beginner Gym Workout Plan Nuances
It’s pretty simple, isn’t it? However, drawing up a training program for a beginner has a number of important nuances:
- Each of the three sessions should be different from the previous one, so that all muscle groups receive an equivalent load, and not just those that are trained first;
- The most difficult exercises affecting the maximum muscle mass of the body, squats, bench presses, and pulldowns are performed at the beginning of the training. Easier moves, follow them;
- When performing, at first glance, various exercises, the same muscles assist. Therefore, such moves need to be done at different time periods so as not to overwork these small but important muscle segments.
For example, bent-over rowing loads the extensor muscles. But they are body stabilizers when doing squats. And therefore, having loaded them with bent-over rowing, it will not be possible to get the effect of the exercise for the legs.
It makes no sense to train your back after biceps or perform shoulder presses after triceps training. Conventionally, all exercises can be divided into traction and presses. And in order to improve the quality, and most importantly, the result from training in the gym, such groups of exercises must be competently alternated.
Here is an example of a typical program for a beginner in the gym. All exercises ideally are performed in 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps.
Beginner gym workout plan example
Tuesday
- Squats with a barbell on the back (or chest/front squats);
- Leg press;
- Bench press on a horizontal bench;
- Dumbbell fly on an incline bench;
- Pullups with a wide grip (either in the gravitron, or the pulldown of the upper block to the collarbones);
- Bent-over rowing;
- Military press;
- Standing lateral raise;
- Narrow grip bench press
- Bicep curls with a barbell while standing;
- Reverse grip barbell bicep curls.
Thursday
- Bench press on an incline bench;
- Dumbbell press on a horizontal bench;
- Squats in the hack machine;
- Leg extensions;
- Bent-over rowing;
- Deadlift;
- Sitting dumbbell shoulder press;
- Scott curls;
- Dumbbell front raise;
- French press;
- Roman chair crunches.
Saturday
- Pullups with a medium grip (either in the gravitron, or the pulldown of the upper block to the collarbone);
- One-handed dumbbell bent-over rowing;
- Incline Bench dumbbell press
- Cable crossovers;
- Leg press;
- Lunges with a barbell (or with dumbbells);
- Standing military press;
- Standing barbell bicep curls;
- Narrow grip bench press;
- French press;
- Hyperextension.
I hope this article will help you develop the ideal training program for a beginner in the gym and achieve the desired result. May the force be with you. And the muscle mass.
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