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Weight Training For Beginners New
to
weight training? Well everyone has to start somewhere. Training with
resistance
(i.e. exercises which involve, in some capacity, lifting a weight) is
a great
way to improve muscle strength, size and tone whilst also burning fat
at an
accelerated rate. Most professional athletes include weight training in
their
regular workout programme, and for many it forms the basis of their
training regime. So, where to start? My first and most important piece of advice is to join a clean, safe and reputable gym with helpful and well-informed staff. This is normally a sign of a good, professional gymnasium and will also mean you have somebody qualified to turn to with any problems while you're training. The next step is to establish some goals. Do you want to lose weight? Are you conscious of under-defined biceps? Or are you in search of the ever-elusive six-pack? Whatever the aim, you (or your personal trainer, if you have one) should try to gear your regime around these goals without neglecting or over-training any one muscle group. For example, in order to increase chest size and strength, you'll need to include some kind of chest press in your programme. To compliment this, you may also want to add any combination of flys, cable crossovers, dips and press-ups. However, you should also endeavour to include an equivalent number of exercises to target the latissimus dorsi and trapezius muscles to prevent an imbalance. If you have the less specific goal of an overall tone-up, or simply wish to keep fit, here are my five favourite exercises to help you get started: Dumbbell Press - Allows for a
greater range of movement than the standard bench press and requires a
lot of effort from supporting muscles surrounding the shoulders and
forearms Lateral shoulder raise - Targets
the deltoid muscle group in the shoulder, which are often
neglected but are easily toned and will lead to good strength gains
quickly. Bicep curls w/ preacher bench -
The preacher bench really serves to isolate the bicep, whereas
in most exercises it is supported at least partially by momentum or the
shoulder muscles. Pull-ups - The humble pull-up,
in my opinion, is the most difficult exercise in the gym to
master. Whilst at first it may feel unnatural, you'll soon notice
the rapid gains that good technique can lead to. Jumping split-squats (or
"kneeling gun drill") - This one's for the masochist in you. A couple
of sets will leave you short of breath, and unable to tackle a flight
of stairs for a few days. However, you'll build yourself a serious set
of pins if you can stick to it.Many new
gym users get confused trying to find a "good starting weight" for
their chosen
exercise. The only way to find your ideal starting weight is a trial and error process, by which you should determine a weight you can lift comfortably (but not easily) for roughly ten repetitions. Note that this is only a guideline, and the weight and number of reps can be adjusted to suit you personally: higher resistance and lower reps will build power and size, but neglect endurance which is better trained with a lower weight and higher number of repetitions. If you've already completed these steps, or would like to read more, see Weight Training for the Experienced UserAny questions or comments on this article can be emailed to me personally here. |
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