Well first off, I find too many people just go into this with no goal of what they want out of lifting. Sure you can lift for fun (as is one of the main reasons I do) but you should have a vision or idea of what results you want. So first, to start off, I'll break this down into some broad goals (I will talk about fine-tuning later). Generally people lift to gain muscle (hypertrophy), gain power (powerlifting), or do some sort of athletic training or crossfit style training. So before we continue, consider these three goals. For those looking to lose weight or increase cardiovascular health go with hypertrophy or athletic training. Now many of you may say "hey Conor, what the heck man I fall between another or all of these goals. No problem ya overachiever, but for now pick the MAIN one, the one that is most important (I will also touch on this later) and roll with it, I will show you how to implement all three simultaneously, although I do feel its better to focus more on one for the best results
If you are training for hypertrophy, it is best to mix up all the variables, that involves weight, reps, tempo, and structure. There have been multiple studies done showing that muscle growth occurs with heavy weight at a lower rep count, and also at a very light weight <30% with 30 reps or more. Because of this, I recommend starting your program with heavier compound movements such as incline barbell bench press then finishing with a lighter isolation. Trust me there are a ton of exercises out there, and you are free to experiment with variations and angles to try to recruit more tension in certain fibers. But my best advice without writing you an individual program would be to keep it simple in the beginning. Start with the known movements, do regular sets, and aim for maximal efficiency. As you advance you want to structure your training so you are doing more, regardless of what variable is increasing (more weight, less rest, more sets etc).
- Here is a quick hypertrophy workout
- Chest and Back
- 4x8 incline dumbbell bench
- 5x8 Barbell row
- 3x10 dumbbell flye (3 second eccentric)
- 4x10 Seated row (2 second isometric squeeze)
- 50 pushups
- 50 pull-ups
- Stretch each Muscle group 10 minutes
For power lifting your main goal is to be a strong mofo. In some eyes powerlifting is more simple and straight forward then hypertrophy training but I beg to differ. The basics of powerlifting involved sets that range in number. I have some competitive colleagues that will hit 10-15 sets of bench, squat, or dead before moving to an auxiliary movement. I wouldn't recommend that for a beginner, I am just showing this lifestyle involves a lot of variability between one another, even in specific categories. For your set up, I would make sure to hit the big three at least once a week, if not more depending on your eating/lifestyle habits. If one lift is particularly lagging, you don't need to hit that lift twice in one week necessarily, but I would recommend hitting the required muscles for the lift (ie; weak bench-- hit chest, shoulders, triceps movements more). For the big three I recommend either the 5x5 or working your way down from say 5, 3, then 2 reps. I'd also recommend adding on some sort of OHP (overhead pressing movement) into your training. Split up your squat and dead the best you can, allowing 48+ hours between the two.
- Power Squat
- 5x5 Back Squat
- 4x6 stiff legged dead
- 3x12 leg extension
The name of the game in powerlifting is continuously striving for PR's (given your maintaining form). This doesn't just apply to the main lifts. You can have a day where all the numbers are the same but you go up an extra 5 pounds on the leg extension, still a successful training day. That may not seem like much compared to the hypertrophy workout but you must remember those weight are being moved at a higher intensity, meaning they are much closer of a % to that persons current maximal capacity.
For Athletic training, the goal is speed plus strength. Its amazing how many athletes are genetically blessed with one or the other, it is even crazy to see the progress they make when they improve that weak side. That being said, the strength side should incorporate the same main three lifts of powerlifting, as well as some form of cleans (hang, power) and focus on unilateral auxiliary movements (secondary single leg movements). The other portion of training should focus on plyometrics, sprints, and conditioning (endurance depending on the sport).
- An average workout would look something like this (I'm going to split it into an A and B)
- A (Weightlifting)
- 4x8 Squat
- 5x3 Hang clean
- 3x10 Reverse Hack
- B (Speed)
- 4x8 depth jumps from a 12-24" box
- 3x10 dumbbell squat jumps (use 5-15 pound dumbells)
- 4x8 dumbell lunge jump alternating (use same weight db's, alternating up to 8 reps (4 each side per set)
- 4 sets of max 40 yd sprints
*** For conditioning***
Conditioning truly depends on the level of endurance the individual is looking for, most of you choosing the athletic category play a sport.
For basketball: 5 in 55's
- start baseline, sprint to first ft line, sprint to baseline, sprint half-court back to baseline, sprint far ft line back to baseline, then full court back to baseline SUB 55 SECONDS
For football: 10 100's
- Sprint goal line to goal line with 45 seconds rest in between for a total of ten (hate me later)
After you choose the main style of lifting you want to incorporate, it is important to PRIORITIZE your individual needs. Now I can't do this for everybody without a knowing the specifics. But basically you need to self-assess what you NEED to improve the most. If you are slow, more plyo's and sprints. If your weak, more compound movements. If you need to lean out, incorporate functional movement patterns with little rest in between (high intensity). It is important to honestly asses yourself and write out both your strengths and weaknesses in order to create a program that will create the best results for yourself!!!
***Mind you, these guidelines are very basic and only meant to begin generating ideas in your head on how to structure your idealized program, there is much more interaction and detail involved that will vary greatly person to person, and goal to goal. ***
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