Training #2 - Getting Started. Lose Fat, Build Muscle, and Feel Awesome

So you want to start getting in shape. But you have absolutely no idea where to start. That’s okay – we’ve all been there. No matter where you are in your training career, whether you are an ex-athlete who is getting back into it, someone who has been lifting recreationally for years, or someone who is just starting out… This blog post should help provide some valuable information on how to structure your training for optimal results.

Develop the Vision

First of all, the best place to start is to sit down and give yourself an honest assessment, then outline some meaningful goals. Where are you currently, and where do you want to be? Be very specific. Do you want to lose weight? Or do you want to lose 20 pounds by December 1^st, 2014, and have it primarily be body fat along with some increase in lean body mass? Or maybe you want to put on 10 pounds, primarily lean body mass, and increase your squat by 60 lbs before the end of the year? I suggest having a training journal, and the very first page be an entry on these specific goals. Very important to have clearly defined goals. This next step is even more important, and will improve your chances of achieving these goals. Write why you want to achieve them, and how you feel upon completion. Talk about the impact that the accomplishment will have on your life. Be specific. “I want to put on 10 lbs with minimal fat and increase my squat by 60 lbs by December 31^st so that I can be competitive for the AZ powerlifting meet in January. I am doing this as a personal challenge to myself and will feel very accomplished as a result of this goal. I am committed to my own success. Being able to compete and place well at this competition will allow me to broaden my network and positively impact more lives with my passion for weightlifting.” This is just an example – while I do plan on eventually entering a powerlifting meet, this is not a specific goal of mine. My only hope is that this example helps you define your own personal mission with fitness.

Stick to the basics

Okay – now that the hard part is out of the way, we move on to the training basics. How you train will dictate your results. If you stick to machines that do all the work for you and just go for the “burn”, not only will you experience severely imbalanced muscle structure, but you won’t stimulate any major physiological and metabolic changes in the body. What I mean by that is – you won’t build as much muscle, you won’t burn as much fat, and you won’t experience optimal training results. Basically, you will be wasting your time going through the motions at the gym, and probably going out on the weekend or sitting at a desk job for the rest of the time and undoing all of the work you spent “exercising”. Don’t be this person.

Hopefully I got my point across about machines. Now, to avoid that, you may be wondering “what the hell am I supposed to do then?”. The reasons machines are so appealing is because no one takes the time to learn basic, fundamental movements and correct motor patterns. Oftentimes, most people have limited range of motion in one or more of the major joints, making it difficult to get in and out of these basic movements. This is very common with something so natural as the squat. We are born with the ability to squat butt to heels with are feet flat on the ground, and somewhere along the way after 15 years in a desk at school and a 30 minute daily commute, we lose this ability and can’t get our ass below our knees without our heels coming up, our torso pitching forward, or simply falling over. This is a problem, and we must address it. More on this later…

Where to start

Moving on with actual training – where to start?

Start with a basic three day a week template. This is really all you need, depending on your training background. Monday Wednesday Friday. Tuesday Thursday Saturday. However you want to do it, just get in the gym at least 3 days a week and try to have a day of rest between. This is simple, convenient, and easy to adhere to. If you perform your training correctly, you will be constantly improving and adapting the training stimulus, which will lead to more workout motivation and better workouts each time. You will have enough recovery to compensate for the breakdown that occurs each session, and you will be providing enough stress on each succeeding session to promote fat loss and muscle growth.

So 3 days a week. But what to do each day?

Each day should revolve around a major, compound functional movement. My favorite recommendations are the barbell back squat, the barbell deadlift, and the barbell bench press. These typically are the staples of any foundational training program and have been since the history of lifting weights. Almost any athletic program is structured around these exercises. The reason for that is simple – they pack of the most muscle and build the most fat with the least amount of time. This is due to the functional nature of each multi-joint movement, and the amount of stress you can place on the entire musculoskeletal system. Here is where we get those physiological and metabolic changes in body I was talking about. If you perform them correctly, they can be brutally effective.

Each day revolves around 1 heavy compound movement. What else?

From there we designate supplemental and accessory exercises. For more advanced athletes, you might address a specific weakness or deficiency after we perform the main movement. An example would be someone looking to improve their deadlift who is weak off the ground, may start with heavy deadlifts on Monday then move on to deadlifts from a deficit, or deadlifts with a snatch (very wide) grip, which makes his range of motion longer. This will help him target his specific weakness of being slow off the floor. For most people, it is usually best to include basic supplemental exercises that complement the movement of the day. So you look at what you did that day – let’s going with the deadlift example, an exercise that works primarily the glutes, hamstrings, and quads (in roughly that order). You would perform additional exercises that target these specific muscle groups. So we might move on to barbell lunges, which target the glutes very well. After the lunges we will do something to target the hamstrings, like a dumbbell SLDL, or straight-leg deadlift. Finally, we might finish with something like a dumbbell step-up, another glute exercise that will also target the quads. This is just a rough agenda, but the principles remain the same for any day. Start with a heavy compound movement, and supplement with accessory work that also targets those muscle groups.

Start with a heavy compound, include exercises that hit same muscle groups. But how many sets, reps, etc…?

Okay – this part is tricky and easy. I typically recommend for most beginners to have your reps no less than 8, and no more than 12. We want to learn proper motor patterns, technique, and form for every exercise and ensure we are doing them correctly before loading weight and hitting the lower rep ranges. This will also serve to build connective tissue strength, flexibility, and mobility across joints. You will be priming your body for more advanced training later on, and also you will experience great muscle building and fat burning effects from what you would call “hypertrophy” style training. The reason I say this is tricky is because most people use far too light of weight for these rep ranges. You want to choose a weight that is very challenging – in that the last rep of each set is close to failure. On any given working set, you should be able to complete no more than 2 or 3 additional reps. What I mean by working is that this excludes any warm-up sets. This is also important to understand – your warm-ups should only serve to prime your body for the actual effort of lifting a heavy weight. So if you are going to squat 95 lbs for 8 reps, you might start with the bar and do it an easy 10 times. Then you move to 65 lbs and do that 10 times. By the time you get to 75 lb you are starting to struggle with the 10^th rep, and 85 you stop at 8, so that you can get all 8 reps with 95 lbs. This is common and is encouraged. What is not encouraged is something like: Bar for 3 sets of 10 reps, straight to 95 lbs for 8 reps, and call it a day. You should be trying to increase the weight on each succession if possible, up to a very top set, and then move on. You should also look for a minimum of 3 to 4 working sets per exercise. Lastly, rest times will vary but I strongly recommend at least 2 minutes for the heaviest sets, and anywhere from 60-90 seconds for your lighter, accessory work.

So – to sum all that up, warm-up properly with little to no weight for each exercise. Aim for 3 or 4 sets per exercise, and between 8 to 12 reps per set. Use weight that challenges you. Rest times between 1 to 2 minutes, depending on exertion of set.

Tracking Progress and Technique

Make sure that throughout your training, you are tracking weights used, difficulty, and exercise selection. Every week you should aim to add more weight. Establish linear progression and incrementally improve.

Lastly – to emphasize on a certain subject. TECHNIQUE, TECHNIQUE, TECHNIQUE!!! Make sure you are using correct technique on each exercise. This will ensure you make the most progress, the correct progress, and stimulate the muscle the right way. I strongly recommend videotaping yourself on different movements, and comparing these to YouTube videos of people who know what they are doing. Use FULL RANGE OF MOTION on all exercises, and lift with a certain tempo. I recommend at least a 3 count to lower each weight and an explosive movement up. So, from the top of the squat to the bottom count 3 seconds then drive through the heels and stand up as hard as you can. Or for a bench press, lower the weight under control for a 3 count then blast your knuckles to the ceiling. This tempo will really make a difference to the stress on the muscle. And stick to movements that allow you to express these full ranges of motion. This will promote total body protein synthesis, fat lipolysis, and flexibility across joints. Basically, that is nerd speak for building muscle, losing fat, and feeling better.

Anyways – that nearly wraps up everything you need to know to get started. I really hope this was helpful. I will leave you with a sample training program. Look forward to the next post, Part II – getting started with DIET.

Monday (Legs -  Quad emphasis):

·         Warm-up: Bodyweight lunges, bodyweight squats, lateral lunges, leg swings, goblet squats, squat jumps

·         A) Back Squat: 12, 10, 8, 8

·         B) Dumbbell Lunge: 12, 12, 10, 10

·         C) Single-Leg Step-up: 12, 12, 12

·         D) Plyometric Jumps from Full Squat: 8, 8, 8

Wednesday (Upper body – chest and back emphasis):

·         Warm-up: Arm swings, arm circles, push-ups, lightweight dumbbell overhead press, jumping jacks

·         A) Bench Press: 12, 10, 8, 8

·         B) Lat Pull-down: 12, 12, 10, 10

·         C) Tricep Extension: 12, 12, 12

·         D) Dumbbell Row: 12, 12, 12

·         E) Bicep Curl: 12, 12, 12

Friday (Legs -  Glute and Hamstring Emphasis):

·         Warm-up: Bodyweight lunges, bodyweight squats, lateral lunges, leg swings, goblet squats, squat jumps

A.      A) Deadlift: 8, 8, 8, 8

B.      B) Barbell Lunge: 12, 10, 8, 8

C.      C) Dumbbell SLDL: 12, 12, 12

D.      D) Single-Leg Leg Press: 12, 12, 12

This is a very basic, very simple template, but the principles remain the same. Start with a heavy compound where you use the most weight, include 3 additional exercises that complement that movement based on the muscle groups involved. You’ll notice on Wednesday, your upper body day, there are both a heavy push and a heavy pull movement (bench and lat pull-down). This is acceptable and recommended – research has shown the working out opposing muscle groups in the same workout increases the strength of the contraction in each muscle group. We will dive into this further with more advanced training discussion, but for beginner purposes it is sufficient to lump “upper body” into one training session. I know conventional wisdom often outlines a “chest and triceps” and “back and biceps” approach, but I’ve found combining them into one day serves the same purpose. I strongly recommend starting out with something simple and easy to follow like the above program for nearly all beginners. Depending on your training background, and how quickly you become comfortable with resistance training, you can start to develop more advanced programming for yourself and incorporate different strategies. In a future part to this series I will discuss how to transform your training beyond the beginner state. 

Last word - have fun with your training. As long as you are focused on the primary movements and busting your ass with them, you can really incorporate almost any exercise you feel will help you. Get creative. Watch YouTube videos and educate yourself on the various exercises for each muscle group. As long as you stick to rules such as using full range of motion, natural movement, challenging resistance and primarily free weights, you can make progress in many different ways. Provided that you are tracking your progress! 

Remember - the journey is what matters. The journey is what makes the end result satisfying. The journey is what makes your stronger, educates you, and develops your mind and body. Embrace this journey and find your passion for the commitment to your own self.