I'm often asked about training, starting out training, what are the best things to be doing, so I'm just going to give a little bit of advice if you’re a beginner just starting out at the gym and not really sure how to approach things.
A common question that comes up is what exercises should I be doing? So you want to be focussing mainly on the compound exercises. These are movements that are going to hit multiple muscle groups such as benchpress; as you press the weight you’re going to hit your chest, shoulders and triceps.
How many exercises should I do each session and how long should I be training for?
It’s not about how long you’re training for it’s about the quality of what you do whilst you’re there, so what you do whilst you’re there is the most important thing, it doesn't matter how long you’re there for. More is not better.
Technique has got to be your first priority when you start out. As well as reducing your risk of injury by using good technique, you’re also going to hit the muscle that you want to be hitting. It's absolutely imperative, and it’s going to set you up well. If you can learn good technique as soon as you start training you aren't going to learn bad habits and as you progress you are going to find it much easier in the future. So spend a little time just making sure you get the technique right.
As far as the actual training goes id be looking at doing a full body split. So I'm looking at training all the muscles of the body each session. Now I'd split that up into chest, shoulders, biceps, back and legs. So what you’re going to do is two exercises, preferably compound exercises for each body part. So first session for back you might do deadlifts and the next session you might do rows, then you’re back to deadlifts and then you’re back to rows, so you’re just rotating two exercises each session.
To recap this video clip is targeted towards people who want to start weight training but aren't quite sure how to approach it. Focus on technique and master the compound movements and look to get continually stronger. As you struggle to keep improving on the weights, split your sessions into an upper body session and a lower body session. Also add in an extra exercise for each body part to keep giving your body the necessary signal that it needs to adapt and grow,but the principal remains the same, beat the log book! Bigger weights for the same reps or even more reps each session, give your body a reason to grow and then give it time to recover to allow this process to happen.
How a session might look as you first start out:
Benchpress- 40kg - 10 reps x 2 sets
Standing shoulder press- 35kg - 8 reps x 2 sets
Bicep curl- 15kg - 10 reps x 2 sets
Deadlift- 60kg - 8 reps x 2 sets
Leg press- 100kg - 12 reps x 2 sets
When you train these exercises next time (we alternate 2 different exercises per body part remember, so next session will use different exercises, then we are back to these exercises) we are looking to add a minimum of 2.5kg to the weight used whilst still performing the same number of reps or more.
Above all...ENJOY IT!
