If you are a beginning weight lifter or body builder, you are lucky. There is so much information available about different programs you can follow, depending upon your individual goals. Do you want to pack on pounds of lean muscle, so you look great on the beach and perform well on the field?
You may want to start lifting weights to compete in Olympic or power lifting competitions, or you may want to improve your performance for your favorite sport, weather it is a team sport like football, basketball or hockey, or you are into more extreme sports such as skiing, motocross, or rock climbing.
What ever your reasons for beginning your weight lifting program, stay tuned here to get the best programs for both beginning and advanced athletes from some of the most competitive athletes in sports. You will get the inside information you need to grow a body you can be proud of and get that extra edge in your sport as well.
If you are a beginning lifter, you need to know only two things; muscles grow as an adaptive response to stimulus, and they need adaquate nutrition and recovery time on order to grow. You can provide the stimulus in the form of lifting heavy weights, and you can also give them the proper nutrients and enough rest (sleep) and recovery time (between training sessions). If you get the perfect combination of these things, your muscles have no choice but to get bigger and stronger!
It is up to you to choose the right lifting program, and learn what to eat and when. You also need to commit to getting enough shut eye every night.
Beginner's Lifting Mistakes -
The most common mistake made by people when they first start lifting weights is to over do it and commit the sin of overtraining. Your muscles are roughly defined into functional groups by what they do. Most lifters classify these as chest, shoulders, legs, back, triceps, biceps and abdominals. You want to train a certain group hard, then wait 4-7 days until training it again. It is during the recovery period between training sessions that your muscles adapt and get stronger in order to be better prepared to face the stress of training again.
Beginner's Weight Training Program:
This will serve you well if you have never lifted weights before. It is based upon heavy, compound exercises. Compound exercises are those which work more than one joint at a time. For example, biceps curls work only the biceps muscle to bend the elbow joint, so it is not a compound exercise.
On the other hand, the bench press works several joints and primarily involves muscles of the chest (pectorals), shoulders (deltiods), and back of the upper arm (triceps). In addition, it provides secondary stresses to several other muscle groups.
Here is a great, beginning program for you to start with. Later it can evolve into much more intense and sophisticated training sessions. Ride a bike or walk on the treadmill for about 10 minutes prior to beginning the weight training sessions.
Wait approximately 90 seconds between each set. For each set, choose a weight that you can lift the required number of times with some difficulty. The exception to this is the first set two sets of each day. Make these weights light enough so that you can lift them fairly easily. This will help warm up your muscles and connective tissues and get your blood flowing.
Day 1
Bench press - 1 set of 15 repetitions (reps), 1 set of 12 reps, 3 sets of 8 reps
Seated, Wide grip pull downs - 1 set of 15 repetitions (reps), 1 set of 12 reps, 3 sets of 8 reps
Day 2
Hanging knee raises - 3 sets 10 reps
Day 3 rest
Day 4
Squats - 1 set of 15 repetitions (reps), 1 set of 12 reps, 3 sets of 10 reps
Overhead dumbbell press - 1 set of 15 repetitions (reps), 1 set of 12 reps, 3 sets of 8 reps
Day 5
Hanging knee raises - 3 sets 10 reps
Day 6 rest
Day 7 rest
