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Beginner’s Guide to Weight Training Exercises
Don’t let inexperience hold you back from learning the best weight training routine—get on track with our fitness tips for fast fat loss and better core strength.
Adam Campbell
Besides the communal urinal trough at a major sports stadium, the gym is the one place where guys worry about what other guys are thinking. No one wants to look like a weight-training newbie—including newbies. But I've spent a lot of time in gyms, and the truth is, 95% of guys have no idea what they're doing—even if they've been lifting for years. (At least not when it comes to getting the most out of their workout in the least amount of time.)
I'm lucky—my job requires that I talk to the world's top strength coaches and exercise scientists every day of my life. (I'd prefer to cut it to five days a week, but I'll take that up at my annual review.) So I'm privy to the latest in cutting-edge training information. And that means you are, too.
Here, you'll find the answers to the most frequently asked questions about weightlifting [1] for beginners. If you're completely new to weight training, this information will knock years off your learning curve. And if you're a gym rat who's been using the information in this magazine since puberty, you'll be surprised how much it's all changed, even since the last issue. That's because this isn't just a "Beginner's Guide"—it's the unveiling of the new Men's Fitness training philosophy. Consider us your monthly ticket to faster fat loss [2], super strength, and massive muscles. From now on, the only place in the gym you'll have to worry about size is in the locker room.
Before You Start
» Stay hydrated. Muscle is 75% water. So weigh yourself on a digital scale before and after your workout. Then drink the difference in ounces of water.
» Take two towels. One for your post- workout shower, one for sweat-soaked equipment. (Always wipe your filthy slime off the bench between sets.)
» Be prepared to spot. As a beginner, ask the person exactly what you should do.
» Embrace the dumbbell. You won't need a spotter, you'll rarely have to wait for a pair, and they'll work your muscles harder than machines.
» Control the weight. As a beginner, never use a weight that's so heavy that you need momentum to lift it. A simple gauge: You should be able to pause for at least one second before lifting a weight.
Q: What should I do the first day?
A: Start with the workouts in this magazine. Each month, we'll feature two all-new plans in our Personal Trainer section: one for fat loss, and one to build muscle and strength.
But if it's your first trip to the gym, you'll probably feel a bit awkward, so for the first two weeks, just do three basic exercises: dumbbell alternating lunges, push-ups, and underhand-grip bent-over rows. (They're featured in "Double-Barrel Blowout" on page 112 of our Personal Trainer section, or ask the floor trainer at your gym for help.) Do 12Â15 repetitions—the number of times you complete the movement from start to finish—of each exercise in a circuit, doing one exercise immediately after the next. (If you can't do that many push-ups, perform them on an incline, with your hands on a bench and your feet on the floor.) Then rest for one minute and repeat 1Â2 times. Do this workout three days a week, resting at least a day between workouts.
Your goal: To become accustomed to the gym while building your base fitness level. Don't worry about using heavy weights; the workout's for conditioning, not muscle building.
Q: What exercises should I do?
A: Build your workout around compound exercises such as squats, deadlifts, presses, rows, chin- ups, and dips for the fastest muscle and strength gains, as well as fat loss.
And don't think about exercises in terms of "body parts"—that's an outdated approach that often leads to strength imbalances and workouts that train the same muscles on back-to-back days. (For instance, the bench press doesn't just work your chest, but your shoulders and triceps, too.) Instead, plan your exercises around movement patterns: pushing (bench presses, shoulder presses, squats) and pulling (chin-ups, rows, deadlifts). Perform an equal number of push and pull exercises, using the recommendations provided in "How often should I lift?" Do a total-body "push-pull" workout three days a week, or a split routine in which you either do both push and pull movements each session, or push movements one workout and pull movements the next.
Q: What do I wear?
A: Rule number one: Avoid those undersized nylon shorts that show more thigh than a Mariah Carey miniskirt. Instead, keep them long and loose, so they fall somewhere between your knees and mid-thigh. Here's what to put on the rest of your body, along with five of our favorite locker-room essentials to fill up your bag.
MUST-HAVES
Nike ankle socks ($5) and muscle shirt ($45)
Adidas AdiStar Cushion sneakers ($100)
Puma shorts ($35)
Reebok Vector gym bag ($32)
J.Crew flip-flops ($12).
Giorgio Armani Acqua Di Gio deodorant ($15)
Old Spice deodorant body spray ($3)
Neutrogena Men shave cream ($5)
Armani Mania body shampoo ($25)
Q: Should I hire a personal trainer?
A: You don't need a $60-an-hour rep counter. But finding a trainer who will give you short-term exercise instruction and a long- term plan is worth the money. (The fee should include an initial assessment of your strengths and weaknesses.) The other option: Educate yourself to the level of a trainer with this magazine.
Q: How often should I lift?
A: One of the biggest mistakes guys make is trying to move iron five or six days a week. That's a mentality that was popularized by professional bodybuilders in the '80s. (The same guys who brought us orange skin.) Read: Unless you're receiving regular shipments from a Mexican pharmacy, your muscles need time to recover. So typically, three or four workouts a week is best, depending on your goals.
For adding muscle size and strength, a three- or four-day split routine that works your lower and upper body on separate days allows you to work both areas intensely while providing the extra time needed for recovery. For instance, you might do a lower-body workout on Monday, an upper-body blast [3] on Tuesday, and then rest for two days before repeating. That gives you three full days of rest between each type of workout. Or you could alternate between lower body and upper body three days a week, working your lower body twice and your upper body once one week, and your upper body twice and lower body once the next.
For fat loss, three total-body workouts is the most effective method. That's because you'll work more total muscle—and burn more calories—than you would by dividing your workout into upper- and lower-body routines. Since you're working your entire body in each workout, you'll want to avoid lifting on back-to-back days, resting at least a day between each session.
Q: How long should I rest between sets?
A: The amount of time you rest plays a critical factor in the results you achieve. Trouble is, most guys give it less thought than putting down the toilet seat in a Porta-Potty. Don't be that guy; use a stopwatch. And these strategies:
Muscle: Keep your rest periods around one or two minutes. That allows enough time for your muscles to recover significantly while forcing them to work harder each set. You can also rest only as long as needed to achieve the same results in less time. (See "Double-Barrel Blowout" on page 112.)
Strength: Take 3Â5 minutes. That allows your muscle-energy stores to be replenished, which will ensure maximum effort—the key to strength gains—each set.
Fat loss: Perform supersets—doing a pair of exercises as a single set—or circuits with little rest. So you might only rest 30 seconds between supersets, and one or two minutes between circuits, since you'll be performing several moves in succession before resting.
Q: How many repetitions should I do?
A: You can loosely base your number of reps on your goals. But ultimately, the more muscle fibers you recruit, the better, whether you're lifting for greater size and strength or less fat. You recruit the most fibers by using lower repetitions—say, 4Â8—and heavier weights.
So make that repetition range the foundation of your workout. Add in higher-rep and lighter-weight sets near the end of your workout when your muscles are fatigued. The most important factor: Change the number of repetitions that you do for each exercise every four weeks. It's the first workout parameter to which your body adapts, so it's the best way to ensure you keep gaining.
Q: How much weight should I use?
A: The idea is to challenge your muscles each workout. Most of the time that means using the heaviest weight that allows you to complete each repetition of each set—but no more than that. So the number of reps your workout calls for dictates the weight you use. But you also have to factor in the length of your rest periods. For instance, if you're planning to perform eight repetitions of an exercise using short rest periods—say, 60 seconds—you'll have to use a lighter weight than if you're doing the same number of reps with a longer rest period. (The speed at which you lift and lower the weight matters, too.)
In your first workout, you'll simply have to use trial and error. If you aren't able to finish all your planned repetitions, the weight you're using is too heavy. If you feel like you have a couple of more repetitions left in you on your last set, the load is too light. Keep a training log and indicate whether the weight was too light, too heavy, or just right, so you'll know what amount to use in your next workout.
Q: What can I do about muscle soreness?
A: Let's kill this myth right now: Soreness isn't caused by lactic acid. In fact, the acid that builds up in your muscles during intense exercise—causing that burning sensation—is cleared from your blood and muscles within minutes after you stop exercising. So it has no lingering effect on your muscles. But scientists still aren't in agreement on the cause of muscle soreness. Most think it's due to small tears at the level of your muscle and connective-tissue cells.
The bottom line: It's temporary. And the more consistent you are with your workout, the less extreme the soreness will be. The best remedy: a small serving of the hair of the dog that bit you. That is, lightly work the offending muscles the day after your workout. For instance, for sore legs, cycle on a stationary bike for 10Â15 minutes at about 40-50% of your full effort. For a sore chest, do two sets of 20 repetitions of the bench press with a weight that's about 20% of the amount you can lift one time. This will increase the flow of blood and nutrients to the damaged muscles, helping them repair faster. (The activity and weight are light, so they won't damage your muscles further or hinder their growth.)
Q: How can I prevent injuries?
A: If an exercise hurts, stop. It's your body's way of telling you that something's wrong. Unfortunately, most guys would rather find a way around the pain than to find a fix for it. But in the long run, that'll just allow the damage to accumulate, causing an even worse injury.
So if a pain persists for more than one workout, or always occurs when you perform a specific exercise, see a sports-medicine doctor or a physical therapist before you pick up another weight. Muscle soreness doesn't count, but numbness, sudden weakness, or shooting pains are major warning signs of impending doom.
Q: How many sets should I do?
A: We should tell you ahead of time that there's a chance your gym's resident meathead will scoff at our recommendations. But remember, he's a meathead. So don't assume that big muscles plus ripped abs equals training knowledge. (There's a difference between hard work and smart work.) That said, use the following guidelines:
Muscle and strength: As a general rule, somewhere between a total of 12Â18 sets per workout is usually ideal. Any more than that leads to diminishing returns on size and strength gains, while creating the need for a greater amount of recovery between sessions. When you first start, you'll need fewer sets—say one or two per exercise—to maximize your gains. As you become a more advanced lifter, you'll need to add more sets for each exercise, but you can do fewer total exercises. So a beginner might do a workout that consists of two sets of 6-8 exercises, and an advanced lifter might do four sets of four exercises. The point: fewer sets of more exercises as a beginner; more sets of fewer exercises as you advance.
Fat loss: You can do a few more sets—15 to 25, for instance—when your main objective is fat loss. Since you'll be resting for less time between each set, you won't be able to work your muscles as hard compared with workouts that focus on size and strength. So the extra sets will help you burn more calories, without increasing the time you need for recovery.
Workout Fuel
How should I eat to pack on muscle?
Often. Think of your muscles as stored protein. So you need a surplus of new protein to add size. You also need adequate carbs, which minimize the breakdown of old protein after an intense workout, speeding muscle growth.
Eat enough calories to gain a pound a week, divided into five or six small meals a day. That ensures there are always plenty of raw materials available for building muscle. Try a diet that's about 45Â50% carbohydrates, 30% fat, and 20Â25% protein. (About one gram of protein per pound of body weight.)
How should I eat to lose fat fast?
It's probably no surprise that cutting carbs is the quickest way to lose lard. That's because a low-carb diet lowers your levels of insulin, a hormone that promotes fat storage. You'll still need lots of protein, but your fat intake is just as important. Research shows that you burn more fat when you eat more fat. Overall, limit your carb intake to about 10Â15% of your total calories, while eating the rest of your calories from equal parts protein and fat. Cap your weight loss at about three pounds a week.
Should I eat before or after my workout?
Eat both times. Research shows that eating right before and right after a workout increases the rate at which your body stores new protein—in the form of muscle—and decreases the rate at which it breaks down old protein.
Before your workout: Consume 5Â10 grams of high-quality protein—without significant amounts of calories from carbs or fat—about 5Â15 minutes before your workout. The easiest way: Mix up a protein shake.
After your workout: For fat loss, immediately consume at least 10 grams of protein—no carbs, no fat. For muscle, consume at least 10 grams of protein and 20 grams of carbs.
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