noob workout routine

[tawnylioness]

hi there, im new to this site and unfortunatly i dont hacve the money to buy the book...i have been reading the articles and have put togather a workout routine for me... could someone please tell me if its ok or not? i would like to lose 10 or so kilos and gain some pretty muscle

 

squats with a barbell

incline dumbell press

deadlift

pullups ( i can manage about 4 on the assist machine )

body weight squats

pushups lunge

dumbell rows

plank

 

thankyou i am quite new to all this gym busness

[fizzyorange]

I'd suggest not doing assisted pull ups at all. If you haven't read the "how to do a pull up" article I'd suggest it, it's a good read. If you are like myself and are 100% that right now you cannot do a full pull up, you could try an Australian pull up like this

In all though your routine looks good (although I have no clue what a push up lunge is though?). And I've also notice that there is not much core work in here, just the plank? I'd personally change that. I have a similar enough beginners work out routine which is doing quite well for me, if you'd like to see it for comparison I'll post it here for you.

Good luck in the gym!

[tawnylioness]

ooh i ment walking lunge aster i posted this i was thinking of changing pull up to the lat machine?

 

i would love to steal, i mean see your workout fizzy

[Waldo]

Too much stuff for a single workout.

Pick a compound leg exercise, a compound pull exercise, and a compound push exercise, and a core exercise.

If you don't feel link you are doing enough, do more sets.

If you want more exercise variety, rotate 2 routines back and forth. Most beginner routines are like this.

Example:

Workout 1:

Pushup

Pullup

Squat

Plank

Workout 2:

Incline DB press (would probably swap this with overhead DB press)

DB Row

Deadlift

Plank (perhaps try hanging leg lifts or side planks)

Always do core stuff last.

[tawnylioness]

why is it too much stuff for one workout?

[Horsedog]

why is it too much stuff for one workout?

The exercises you've chosen are great, but doing them all in one session would be a significant strain on your central nervous system, especially once you get stronger.  Also, you've got a lot of overlap (barbell squats and bodyweight squats and lunges)...not to mention that workout would take forever (assuming you're doing 3 sets of each plus at least a couple of warm-up sets).  Waldo's split is way more managable and effective

[Waldo]

why is it too much stuff for one workout?

This can be traced back to the principle of specificity. That is you get good at what you practice. Specificity is much more important with exercise than general strengthening.

In a workout with lots and lots of exercises, one of 3 things will have to occur:

- You do hardly any sets of individual exercises.

- You half ass the sets in order to finish them all (which includes going too fast for strength gains).

- You hit a wall halfway through your workout and are unable to finish.

5 sets of 1 good exercise will always be more productive than 1 set of 5 similar exercises due to specificity. More sets of less exercises will lead to rapid progress. Less sets of more exercises will lead to slow mediocre progress. Remember that strength has a significant mental component, and just like any learned skill it takes a lot of practice doing that very specific thing.

[tawnylioness]

oh wow, this will take some getting used to...for the past couple weeks going to the gym i have been doing workouts from my iphone coz i dont really know what im doing and a workout would be like this :

 

3 sets and 15 reps of pretty much everything:

 

jack knife situps

one leg squat

one arm cable row

cable standing military press

smith machine squat

dumbell lunge

cable pull through

incline bench press

machine pull down

kneeling cable crunch

 

*circuit*

ab plank

sit up

machine back extention

excersise ball twisting crunch

 

and that would be my workout...take about an hour..... i will feel lazy just doing four exercises..... are you sure its better for me and will still make me lose weight and gain muscle/tone up just doing four exercises?

[I-Jo]

you can do all four more than once... I normally will repeat a four exercise group about 3 -4 times. 

 

Last night I did 7 exercises 2 times through and though I would die (well to be fair 4 of them were R/L so in that case it was only 5 separate things.  18 minutes to complete the circuit.

 

Trust me- it was plenty of work- my legs are achy as hell today.

 

BKW Lunge//Hope R and L

Weighted Wall Sit Pulse R and L

Fly

Renagade Row

Bear Crawl

 

When I lift- I tend to stick to about 4-6 things and that's about it lifting traditionally in "sets".  Working out is one of those less is more things- you don't want to throw EVERYTHING and the kitchen sink in there.

[tawnylioness]

okay... thank you so much for everyones responses   i understand what you mean by less exercise, higher reps... im still lost as to what exercises to do...and do i do them every alternate day and the days in between do i do cardio for max weight loss? I dont suppose any super bored person would be able to make me a week workout schedule pretty please? i know its alot to ask... im just super lost... i dont suppose any of you work out here in adelaide, australia

 

or can i do all the workouts listed here by you wonderful people, one each day?

[I-Jo]

you can surely borrow workouts- few people "own" a workout.   Check people's battle logs- I know both Waldo and I write down pretty thourough descriptions of our workouts.  (Although that being said- neither of ours rank on the "easy side" of working out.  There are beginner versions or less difficult variations- so just ask away.

 

But it kind of depends on what you want to get done as well.  Both of ours are body weight oriented- his more so than mine- if you want to check out lifting stuff check the powerlifting section and the guys there probably post up their workouts as well. 

 

Don't forget to program in a rest/recoup day.  it can be a do nothing day (not a fan) or it can be an  "Active rest day"  stretching- yoga- going for a walk- one of your favorite things that gets you moving but wouldn't necessarily qualify as a "workout"

 

Have questions?  we have answers

[Waldo]

i will feel lazy just doing four exercises..... are you sure its better for me and will still make me lose weight and gain muscle/tone up just doing four exercises?

Losing weight is a function of diet, especially in beginners. Exercising will not "make you lose weight". It will help, allowing you to eat a little more, but it not a necessary component of weight loss (fat loss OTOH...).

If you are trying to lose weight, you will not gain muscle in any significance. "Toning" is a meaningless term. You can lose fat to reveal muscle or makes muscles larger, that's it.

Part of the problem is that it seems you are doing way too many reps and most likely not trying very hard. 5 sets of squats (at first) should make traversing stairs something you think twice about.

[tawnylioness]

i will check the logs thankyou my pretty vague goal is to lose 10 ish kg's and to tone up, get a little bit of muscles going... by the end of the year would be great but thats prolly not possible i prefer bodyweight and weights exercises to cardio...i find cardio pretty boring but i understand i prolly need to do it for maximum effect

[tawnylioness]

the other day i did barbell squats, 12 reps then 10 reps, then 8 then 6 ... ending up with a 25kg weight.... so i am trying i dont think im half assing it i have changed my diet as well , my biggest diet issue atm is drinking water...i just find it hard to remember to drink at all during the day... on a good day i might drink half a  litre but usually not :/

[Vintage]

Cardio doesn't have to be running/biking/swimming/elliptical or whatever. Try circuits of body weight movements or dumbbell movements. If you do them with enough intensity and limited rest, they'll have you breathing harder and your heart rate higher than going for a jog or whatever.