Search Weight Loss Topics:




Dec 17

The Complete 4-Week Beginner’s Workout Program | Muscle …

Exercise Programs Comments Off on The Complete 4-Week Beginner’s Workout Program | Muscle …

In the realm of fitness, three-month workout programs dominate the landscape. Youve even seen plenty of them in our magazine over the years. Are they effective? Absolutely. But were going to let you in on an interesting secret: It doesnt necessarily take 8 or 12 weeks to get your feet wet in the gym. Not that youll be a seasoned vet after four weeks, but if you can just get that first month under your belt, youll get yourself over the proverbial hump, where so many fail and give up, and set the stage for a lifetime of muscle gains.

Lets just call this the accelerated beginners guide to bodybuilding. In this plan, your first month of training will be demanding, but not so demanding as to cause injury (or worse yet, burnout), and progressive in the sense that each week youll graduate to different exercises, higher volume, more intensity or all of the above. After four weeks youll not only be ready for the next challenge but youll have built a significant amount of quality muscle. In other words, one month from now youll look significantly better with your shirt off than you look now. (Hows that for results?)

This program isnt just for the true beginner who has never touched a weight before; its also suitable for anyone who has taken an extended leave of absence from training. How long has it been since you went to the gym regularly? Six months? A year? Five years? No worries: The following routines will get you back on track inyou guessed itjust four short weeks. Lets get to work.

Youll begin the program with a full-body training split, meaning youll train all major bodyparts in each workout (as opposed to splitting up your training). Train three days this first week, performing just one exercise per bodypart in each session. Its important that you have a day of rest between each workout to allow your body to recover; this makes training Monday, Wednesday and Fridaywith Saturday and Sunday being rest daysa good approach.

The exercises listed in Week 1 are a collection of basic moves that, while also used by advanced lifters, we feel are suitable for the beginner as well. Notice were not starting you off with only machine exercises; a handful of free-weight movements are present right off the bat. Reason being, these are the exercises you need to master for long-term gains in muscular size and strength, so you may as well start learning them now. Carefully read all exercise descriptions before attempting them yourself.

In Week 1 youll perform three sets of every exercise per workout, which over the course of the week adds up to nine sets total for each bodypart, a good starting volume for your purposes. With the exception of crunches for abs, youll do 812 reps per set. This rep scheme is widely considered ideal for achieving gains in muscle size (the scientific term is hypertrophy) and is commonly employed by amateur and pro bodybuilders alike.

Notice in the workouts below that your first set calls for eight reps, your second set 10 reps and your third set 12. This is referred to in bodybuilding circles as a reverse pyramid (a standard pyramid goes from higher to lower reps), where you decrease the weight each set to complete the higher rep count. For example, if on your first set of lat pulldowns you used 140 pounds for eight reps, try using 120 or 130 pounds on set two and 100120 pounds on set three.

Youre only a week into the program, yet youll begin to train different bodyparts on different days with a two-day training split (meaning the entire body is trained over the course of two days, rather than one as in the first week). Youll train a total of four days this week; the split includes two upper-body days (Monday and Thursday) and two lower-body days (Tuesday and Friday), and each bodypart is trained twice. Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday will be your recovery days.

Several exercises from Week 1 are carried over to Week 2, but one move is added to each bodypart routinewith the exception of absso you can train all muscle groups more completely from multiple angles. Chest, for example, includes two exercises: One is a compound movement (dumbbell bench press) that involves multiple joints (both the shoulder and elbow) to work the largest amount of muscle possible, and the other is an isolation exercise (dumbbell flye) that involves only one joint (shoulder) and targets the pecs to a greater extent. (When doing presses for chest, the deltoids and triceps are involved to a degree, meaning presses dont isolate the pecs as much as flyes do.)

Youll again employ a reverse pyramid scheme of reps, though in Week 2 youll go slightly higher in reps (15) on your third set of each exercise. Fifteen reps may be just outside the ideal muscle-building range, but these sets will help you increase muscular endurance to provide a solid foundation on which to build size and strength going forward.

In the third week of the program we step it up to a three-day training split: Train all pushing bodyparts (chest, shoulders, triceps) on Day 1; hit the pulling bodyparts (back, biceps) and abs on Day 2; and work your lower body (quads, glutes, hamstrings, calves) on Day 3. As in Week 2, you train each bodypart twice a week, so youll hit the gym six days this week.

One new exercise is added to each bodypart routine to provide even more angles from which to train your target muscles to promote complete development. Youll hit each muscle group with two exercises of 34 sets each: four sets for large bodyparts (chest, back, shoulders, quads, hamstrings) and three sets for smaller bodyparts (biceps, triceps, abs, calves). The result is 16 total sets for the week for large bodyparts and 12 sets total for smaller onesagain, working in the 815-rep rangewhich is a substantial increase in volume from Week 1.

In the fourth and final week of the program, youll train four days in a four-way split that hits each bodypart just once (except for calves and abs, which are each trained twice). Four-day splits are common among experienced lifters because they involve training fewer bodyparts (typically 23) per workout, which gives each muscle group ample attention and allows you to train with higher volume. As youll see, chest and triceps are paired up, as are back with biceps and quads with hamstrings, each a very common pairing among novice and advanced bodybuilders. Shoulders are trained more or less on their own, and youll alternate hitting calves and abswhich respond well to being trained multiple times per weekevery other workout. No new exercises are introduced in Week 4 so that you can focus on intensity in your workouts instead of learning new movements.

Rep schemes remain in the hypertrophy range this week, but overall volume increases by adding more sets to individual exercises: up to five sets per move for larger bodyparts, and even 10 sets of calf raises on Thursday. This bump in volume will ensure that your muscles are overloaded sufficiently to continue the growth theyve already begun experiencing in the first three weeks. Completion of this four-week program now entitles you to go to the next stage.

Link:
The Complete 4-Week Beginner's Workout Program | Muscle ...

Related Posts

    Your Full Name

    Your Email

    Your Phone Number

    Select your age (30+ only)

    Select Your US State

    Program Choice

    Confirm over 30 years old

    Yes

    Confirm that you resident in USA

    Yes

    This is a Serious Inquiry

    Yes

    Message:



    matomo tracker