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Premade Muscle Building Plan

Beginner's Weightlifting Routines

The following programs are intended for beginners or people who have had a long break from the gym. The beginner program should be used for at least 6 months. After 3 months, you may switch to a different beginner program if you wish. You should expect to see significant results after 12 weeks. The program should be changed if you are no longer progressing. I suggest advancing to an intermediate level program after completing the beginner program.

The notation I will be using looks like: Squats 3x6-10. This means you should do 3 sets of 6-10 reps with 45 seconds to 1.5 minutes between sets. If you are learning a new exercise, remember to start with light weights and be extra cautious to have correct form. If you are unsure about correct form, seek the aide of a personal trainer.

Read about sets, reps, and specific warmups here. Review and learn how to do exercises by looking at exercise demonstrations.

Remember to increase your weights if you can complete the reps easily (and with proper form). Your last two reps should feel fairly hard, and you should not be able to complete more than 1 extra rep (ie. near failure). Also, when your rep range is decreased (eg. from 8-12 to 6-10) you will want to increase the weight slightly.


Upper/Lower Split

  • A routine that is set up as Monday-Tuesday-Thursday-Friday schedule can instead be done as a three day program (eg. Mon-Wed-Fri-Mon then Wed-Fri-Mon-Wed etc).
  • For pullups, you may have to do shorter sets and slowly build up.
  • For abdominal exercises, shorten rest periods to 30-45 seconds between sets. Perform reps slowly and pause for 1 second at full contraction for optimal results.

Monday / Thursday

5-15 minutes moderate cardio for general warmup, and specific warmup done for Lat Pulldowns and Bench Press.

Pullups (assisted if necessary) - 3x 6 [or Lat Pulldowns - 2x8-12]
Cable Seated Rows - 2x8-12
Bench Press - 2x8-12
Incline Dumbbell Press - 2x8-12
Standing Shoulder Press - 2x8-12
Tricep Dips (assisted if necessary) - 3x 6 [or Bench Dips - 2x8-12]
Dumbbell Bicep Curls - 2x8-12

Tuesday / Friday

5-15 minutes moderate cardio for general warmup and specific warmup done for squats.

Squats - 3x6-10
45 degree Leg Press - 3x6-10
Leg Curls 2x8-12
Standing Calf Raises 2x8-12
Seated Calf Raises 2x8-12
Weighted swiss ball abdominal crunches - 2x8-12
Captain's Chair - 2x8-12
Reverse Crunches 2x8-12

 


Full Body Split Template

  • This is a Monday/Wednesday/Friday Rotating Split.
  • Alternate between workout 1 and workout 2
  • Do 2 sets of 8-12 reps for all exercises.

Workout 1

Start with 5-15 minutes moderate intensity cardio for general warmup, and do specific warmup for exercises 1, 4, and 5.

Quads:
Exercise 1. One of Barbell Squats, Sumo Squats
Exercise 2. One of Split Squats, Reverse Lunges, Weighted Step-ups

Hamstrings:
Exercise 3. One of Romanian Deadlifts, Stiff Legged Deadlifts

Vertical Back/Biceps :
Exercise 4: One of wide grip lat pulldowns, wide grip pullups (3 sets up to failure), cable or db. pullovers

Shoulders
Exercise 5: One of dumbbell shoulder press, barbell shoulder press

Calves:
Exercise 6: Standing Calf raises

Workout 2

Start with 5-15 minutes moderate intensity cardio for general warmup, and do specific warmup for exercises 1, 3, and 5.

Glutes/Hams:
Exercise 1: One of conventional deadlifts, sumo deadlifts (note, if choosing sumo squats, do not choose sumo deadlifts and vice versa)
Exercise 2: One of leg curls, glute-ham raises

Chest:
Exercise 3: One of bench press, dumbbell bench press
Exercise 4: One of incline bench press, incline dumbbell bench press

Horizontal Back:
Exercise 5. One of pendlay rows, bent over one arm db rows

Calves:
Exercise 6: One of Seated Calf Raises, 45 degree donkey calf raise , donkey calf raises, 45 degree calf press (leg press machine)


Strength Training Split

If you also have strength training goals, consider doing Rippetoe's program for beginners. There is a good overview of it here, but I also highly recommend buying Starting Strength (2nd edition) before doing the program.




 

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