BEGINNERS GUIDE FOR A GOOD AND EFFECTIVE WORKOUT ROUTINE

In the world of fitness, most people are lured into “short workout programs” that promises great results that more often failed to deliver so, you’ve seen plenty of workout videos that promise great results but you end up frustrated because nothing’s happening to you.

However, these workout programs and videos have worked well when you start to read testimonials from its websites coming from various peoples who have tried it before. Maybe it’s not the workout itself, maybe it’s you? You might be doing it the wrong way so here is an article to get you started with an effective workout plan and tips to keep you going when the days get boring and repetitive.

In this plan, your first month of training will be demanding and progressive in the sense that each week you’ll graduate to different exercises, higher volume, more intensity or all of the above. After four weeks you’ll not only be ready for the next challenge but you’ll have built a significant amount of quality muscle. In other words, one month from now you’ll look significantly better with your shirt off than you look now.

This program isn’t just for the beginners who have never touched a weight before; it’s also suitable for anyone who has taken an extended leave of absence from training.

HERE’S A GLANCE FOR A BEGINNER’S WORKOUT:

Week 1: Full-body split

Week 2: Two-day split: Upper body/Lower body

Week 3: Three-day split: Push/Pull/Legs

Week 4: Four-day split: Full body

You’ll begin the program with a full-body training split, meaning you’ll train all major body parts in each workout (as opposed to “splitting up” your training). Train three days in the first week by performing just one exercise per body part in each session. It’s important that you have a day of rest between each workout to allow your body to recover; this makes training Monday, Wednesday and Friday—with Saturday and Sunday being rest days—a good approach.

You’re only a week into the program, yet you’ll begin to train different body parts on different days with a two-day training split. You’ll train a total of four days this week; the split includes two upper-body days (Monday and Thursday) and two lower-body days (Tuesday and Friday), and each body part is trained twice. Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday will be your recovery days.

In the third week of the program you have step it up to a three-day training split: Train all “pushing” body parts (chest, shoulders, triceps) on Day 1; hit the “pulling” body parts (back, biceps) and abs on Day 2; and work your lower body (quads, glutes, hamstrings, calves) on Day 3. As in Week 2, you train each body part twice a week, so you’ll hit the gym six days this week.

In the fourth and final week of the program, you’ll train four days in a four-way split that hits each body part just once (except for calves and abs, which are each trained twice). Four-day splits are common among experienced lifters because they involve training fewer body parts (typically 2–3) per workout, which gives each muscle group ample attention and allows you to train with higher volume. As you’ll see, chest and triceps are paired up, as are back with biceps and quads with hamstrings, each a very common pairing among novice and advanced bodybuilders.