Thursday 18 April 2013

Beginner Strength Training Part 3

This is the final installment of my beginner strength routine. It involved a changed of rep schemes but maintains the same basic layout as the original routine.
You train 3 days a week alternating between week A and B

Week A

Day 1
Squat 3x3
Bench 3x3
1 arm rows 3x5
Ab wheel 3x10
Dumbbell side bends 3x10 you can superset these 2 if you want

Day 2
Rest/conditioning

Day 3
Dead lift 1x3, 1x1
Overhead press 3x3
Chin ups 5x3
Dips 3x5
Curls 3x5

Day 4
Rest/conditioning

Day 5
Squat 5x1
Bench 5x1
1 arm rows 3x5
Ab wheel 3x10
Dumbbell side bends 3x10

Day 6
Rest or conditioning

Day 7
Rest

Week B

Day 1
Squat 3x3
Overhead press 3x3
Chin up 5x3
Ab wheel 3x10
Side bends 3x10

Day 2
Rest or conditioning

Day 3
Dead lift 1x3, 1x1
Bench 3x3
1 arm rows 3x5
Dips 3x5
Curls 3x5

Day 4
Rest or conditioning

Day 5
Squat light 2x10
Military press 5x1
Chin up 5x3
Ab wheel 3x10
Side bends 3x10

Day 6
Rest or conditioning

Day 7
Rest

Notes
For the sets of 3  on all exercises start with your best weight for 5 reps from the previous routine. For the 5x1 and 1x1 sets use a weight that is 10kg heavier than your 3x3 weight for the squat and deadlift and 5kg heavier than the 3x3 for the bench and overhead press.

So if your best squat was 140kgx5 on the previous routine you would do 140kg for 3x3 as your first squat workout and 150kg for 5x1 on the 5th day.

If your best dead lift is 5x180kg then you would do 3x180kg for the first set followed by 1x190kg for the next set.

You will add 2.5kg to the bar every workout for each major exercise. Apart from the 2x10 light squat day which will be at around 50% of your 3x3 weight.

You are being introduced to single rep sets in this routine but progress them in the way that I have outlined. They are not Max attempts.

For the ab work feel free to superset the roll outs with the dumbbell side bends so you would do 10 roll outs followed by 10 side bends to the right then 10 side bends to the left. Then rest and continue 2 more times. You can add 2.5kg the weight of the side bends each week. For the roll outs if 3x10 is too easy you can either add reps or make then harder by putting your knees on a step or bench.

Follow this routine for 2 months and see where it takes you.

The beginner routines I have written can cover your entire first year of strength training. Start with the part 1 routine for 8 weeks. Then have week off from lifting and just rest. Then follow the part 2 routine for another 8 weeks. Then a week off again. then spend another 8 weeks on the part 3 routine followed by a week off. This should take you to around 6 months of lifting. At this point go back to the part 1 routine but use the weights you used from the part 2 routine. So your 3x5 weights become 5x5 weights the second time around. Follow this for 8 weeks before moving on to part 2 and 3 each for 8 weeks  with a week off in between. The only exception is the ab work which should stay like that from the part 3 routine and continue to progress on that as best you can. This will take you to 1 full year of strength training. You will have run through each version of the routine twice through the year. You will be significantly stronger than you were a year ago and you will have a fantastic base if you want to move into higher rep bodybuilding stuff or continue  training for strength and move on to other programs such as heavy singles, 5,3,1, Texas method etc.

How much stronger will you get? That depends on a lot of factors age, experience, weight, effort, diet etc. But using myself as an example. I went from a 140kg squat, 180kg dead lift, 90kg bench and 65kg overhead press to a 200kg squat, 225kg dead lift, 125kg bench and 85kg overhead press and from a bodyweight of 81kg to 86kg without gaining any noticeable fat. This was after a year of very similar routines as these ones.

So there you have a full year of training laid out for you to take you from beginner to intermediate lifter. These routines will be far superior to the bench and curl 6 days a week of most beginners. At a later date I will post about nutrition for beginners and some of the mistakes they make. Until then get strong and useful.





No comments:

Post a Comment