Training Structure

 

The last blog post revolved around the idea of dieting based on your specific goals surrounding whether you wanted to lose or gain body mass. In keeping with the last post your training plan will closely relate to your body goals. Training will be broken into cardiovascular training and weight training. Cardio generally has the purpose of raising your caloric need with the intent of losing fat tissue. Weight training will serve to stimulate the growth of lean mass.

            I’ll talk about weight training this post as the information tends to be a bit more complicated. To begin, I’d like to address one common concern, that being, trainees believe they will get too “bulky” should they begin weight training. This concern is off base because, according to a study from the Journal of Applied Physiology, a lifter who’s doing everything right could expect to gain 10 pounds of lean mass in a year.

            With that being said, we can now begin to address training protocol. A good training schedule for a beginner could consist of weight training two to three times a week. Generally, it’s good practice for beginners to train their body by splitting it up by parts. I’ll outline a sample training schedule below to give you an idea of what this would look like.

 

For reference, following each exercise the sets and repetitions will be presented as sets x reps

So, if I wanted a trainee to do three sets of ten, I would write: 3 x 10.

 

Monday - Leg Day (Quads, hamstring, and calves)

            Barbell Back squat – 3 x 10

            Machine Leg extension – 3 x 10

            Machine Calf raises – 2 x 10

            Machine hamstring curls – 3 x 10

 

Wednesday – Pull day (Back and Biceps)

            Deadlift – 3 x 10

            Lat Pulldown – 3 x 10

            Cable Row – 3 x 10

            Dumbbell Bicep Curl- 3 x 10

 

Friday – Push Day (Chest, Shoulders, and triceps)

            Bench Press – 3 x 10

            Machine Chest fly – 3 x 12

            Dumbbell Shoulder Press – 3 x 8

            Dumbbell Lateral Raise – 4 x 12

            Cable Tricep Pushdown – 4 x 12

 

            As a disclaimer, this isn’t the only way to structure your workout and there are a lot of different ways to organize your training. This training program assumes access to the gym, which is the most efficient way to gain muscle in my opinion. You can also place these lifts on whatever day of the week that would work the best with your schedule, however it’s good practice to leave a day or two in between training sessions. As for learning how to properly execute these exercises, I would recommend YouTube as a medium to learn. Next post i'll talk more about cardiovascular training for fat loss.