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Looking for weight lifting advice
Goldy
Posts: 1,638 ✭✭
Tis the season to get back into lifting but I have never been good at it at all so I was wondering if you could help. I have a bench at home with an inclined bench and the chest fly adapters. It also has a leg lift componet and I have separate dumbells for arm curls. What would a good starting routine be?
I dont think I have any pecs, my bench weight is HORRIBLE so how do you recommend starting from ground zero? I can almost curl more weight than I can bench...
Thansk for the input!
I dont think I have any pecs, my bench weight is HORRIBLE so how do you recommend starting from ground zero? I can almost curl more weight than I can bench...
Thansk for the input!
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1. Never let your ego be apart of your lifting. Best advice I ever got when I first started lifting, almost 8 years ago now, was to check my ego at the door as all it'll do is get me hurt.
2. check out bodybuilding.com, they have an amazing database of exercises that I feel would be easy for you to pick out exercises that you can do with the equipment that you have.
Oh and as far as supplements go be very very careful. The supplement industry isn't regulated by the fda, so yeah...lol I only take Optimum Nutrition Natural Whey Protein, their Casein Protein and the Animal Pak. Food is the best supplement, a great diet can't be substituted for anything else! I got back into lifting a few months ago personally. I walk around at about 208 with 12-15% body fat haven't measured it in a few weeks, right now I'm like 198 thanks to being sick...lol I was like 218 with around 12% body fat when I got back from Iraq, I'm aiming for 220-225 before I go into a cutting cycle to go back to 205. Not trying to brag or anything like that just trying to show that I have experience in lifting is all.
CutleryBarn
There's been some great advice so far, and the first thing I want to add is to second some of points already made: never let your ego be a part of your workout. I know you'll be working out at home, but it's still easy to get into your head that "oh, i should be able to lift more". It's important to keep yourself challenged, but you *also* don't want to hurt yourself, as an injury can bust up your workout for weeks (or permanently). Even as much as I try to remind myself of this, I still made the mistake of starting squats with too much weight at one point, and busted my knee - I was down and out for a week and half.
A routine much like one of the earlier gents mentioned is pretty much exactly what I do: Monday - arms (biceps, triceps, forearms); Wednesday - back/shoulders/chest (too many to list lol); Friday - Legs (calves, quads, hamstrings, glutes). The idea of this, since you're working one muscle group each day, is to totally KILL it on your workouts. There's all kinds of workouts you can do for this (if this is the routine you want to go with), and bodybuilding.com is an EXCELLENT resource.
Considering how very ground zero you're saying you are, I would actually discourage the routine above. In my opinion - and my opinion only - you would benefit from a lower-intensity all around workout 3x a week for a couple months. This will condition your body to getting used to lifting weights, and start waking up those muscles. After a couple months, you will have learned a bit more about how your body works (and hopefully done more research) and can start upping your workout. Considering the equipment you have, I would encourage something like this 3x a week (Mon/Wed/Fri - you need rest days in between). You can google the name of each workout to find videos explaining exactly how to do it if you're not familiar with it:
Start and END with serious stretching, and a 5-10min cardio warm-up to get your heart rate going. Each workout, do in this fashion: 3 sets. 1st set pick a weight you can do 15reps of, and do ten. 2nd set, lower weight by 5-10lbs or so, and do 12reps. 3rd set lower weight again, do 15reps.
**Bench press
**Lying tricep extensions
**Dumbbell curls
**Lying bent over row
**Dumbbell shrugs
**Leg extensions
**Calf Raises - just use your body weight, and 3 sets of 12-15reps of these
**Pushups - no weight, do 3 sets shooting for as many as you can complete in good form each time.
**Crunches - same as pushups.
This will give you a decent all-around workout with minimal equipment (yes, you're missing some muscle groups, but this is a conditioning workout, not an intense full-body workout). You will probably feel kinda puny lifting like this, and lowering the weights the way I recommended, but you will be setting up the platform you need to ensure that you're not hurting yourself. Above ALL else, I encourage you to read like crazy and absorb as much info as you can - like I said above, I'm no professional and the above is only my experience, and advice given to ME by personal trainers.
¨Only two people walk around in this world beardless - boys and women - and I am neither one.¨
I took that p90x challenge and I easily passed. I'm not in horrible shape but the bench is my evil nemisis, for example I can curl 80 lbs for a set of 10 but I can't bench 90 in a set of 10. All of my other muscle groups are strong like ox except for my pecs. Hopefully I can find a cheap p90x.
¨Only two people walk around in this world beardless - boys and women - and I am neither one.¨
¨Only two people walk around in this world beardless - boys and women - and I am neither one.¨