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When an individual decides to finally begin a weight training program, the first thing they need is a successful routine. Most of the time, people will write into experts, or ask someone else for help. While that is okay to begin with, you have to organize your routine around your needs and capabilities. For example, the routine I am going to suggest in this article is not for everyone, and after trying it for, maybe, a few weeks, you will have to redesign it to fit your schedule and physical ability. With that out of the way, let's get started on designing a routine that covers all variables:
Frequency/Time availability
One of the most important variables in any workout is the amount of time it takes to complete. If you're an average person, say father or mother, or even teenager who must attend school and has extracurricular activities, then a 5-day a week program is out of the question. Lucky for you, 5 days a week would be too much work anyway. The ideal program should be 2-3 days a week, and possibly 4 days under very exemplary circumstances. I will cover these circumstances later in the article. So, I would be quite amazed if even the busiest person couldn't find 2-3 days a week for 20-30 minutes per session.
Recovery Ability
Recovery is very important. If you complete a workout on Monday, and by Wednesday, when you are to workout again, you are still sore, or don't feel fully recovered, then you obviously can't workout with maximum intensity. However, there are ways to improve recovery ability. For example, by getting 9-10 hours sleep you will recover a lot quicker than 7 hours a night. As well, by eating more protein (1.5-2 grams per pound of "ideal" bodyweight) you will increase recovery dramatically. By not doing anything else physical between workouts (and that includes aerobics) you will increase recovery. Of course, a certain amount of aerobics, maybe twice a week on off days, will be beneficial for recovery and overall health. I think you get the drift. Your body only has a certain amount of recovery ability. For instance, you may have 100 total units of recovery... not 100 for weight lifting and 100 for aerobics, so you have to plan your activities carefully. The individual who sits home all day in front of the TV and eats (protein and complex carbs, and good fat) will be the individual that can workout 4 days a week and not overtrain. But since no normal working person can achieve this, a 4-day a week program is out of the question.
Intensity
The individual that works out with the most intensity will not be able to work out 4 days a week, even with all the recovery techniques, for a long period of time without overtraining. Intensity is simply the amount of effort you put out in the least amount of time. For instance, training to failure on 1-2 all-out sets will be more intense than stopping a few reps shy of failure on 5 sets. The idea is to work so hard that your workout must be short by necessity. Let me repeat that: You need to work so hard that your workouts must be brief by necessity. When I first began training, I was doing a lot of sets, and it wasn't very intense. How can it be intense when you can do so many sets? When I began to do a few hard sets per body part, I really started gaining, and quickly. I even tried to add more sets, as I still believed the more work the better, but I was working so intensely that I couldn't do more. It was literally impossible for me to work with a heavy enough weight to do me any good after a few hard sets. My workouts are now brief by necessity. Intensity is certainly the way to train, because you can get more work done in less time, therefore adapting to the busy-persons schedule perfectly, while still yielding great results.
Progression-Practically
The very most important variable in training is Progression. Think of it this way: In one workout, while utilizing Practical Progression, you may only add 1.25-5 lbs on a given exercise, but, over a 1-year period, that's a net gain of 50 lbs-250 lbs on EVERY exercise. In this, routine, progression is the most important factor by far. Say you can bench press 300 lbs, Squat 400 lbs and Deadliest 500 lbs, you would be plenty big, as well as have enough strength to do almost anything. With Practical Progression, it may only take a year, possibly two or three to reach the above goals, as long as you make sure to SLOWLY add weight over time, and not do anything drastic. If you naively add 10 lbs one day, it could cut all progression, but by adding 2.5 lbs, you will keep the cycle going for a long time, and possibly a year until you even have to think about changing your routine. Contrary to popular belief, you MUST keep the same schedule for a prolonged period of time. When gains begin to slow down, you really begin to notice a difference, because the muscles are actually forced to work for increased poundage's. This is when you begin to add .5 lbs or 1lb to each exercise. Small plates of this size can be found at www.fractionalplates.com, or you can buy some ankle weights, and remove the thin weights. they weigh 1/4 lb each, so you can tape them onto your barbell or dumbbell. Practical Progression will keep a cycle going a lot longer, and provide better gains, than cutting the cycle as soon as you can't add 5 lbs a week any longer.
The Routines
With everything said above, it is time to get to the point of the article... the "How-To." You already know that the workouts should be fairly infrequent; reason being that it is hard to recover between workouts when they are more frequent. And, it is even harder to recover when they are more intense, meaning you are working harder per unit of time. Now, with that reiterated, you should remember that workouts must be brief by necessity... why? Because you are working so hard that they have to be! So, in that case, it would make sense to use few sets per body part, and concentrate on the movements that will yield the greatest results in the least possible time. So, here is my suggestion, and the reasoning:
Wednesday
Bench Press 1 x 8
Shoulder Press 1 x 8
Bent-Legged Deadlifts 2 x 8-12
Barbell Rows 1 x 8
Stiff-Legged Deadlifts 1 x 8-12
Calf Lifts 1 x 8-12
Crunches 1 x 15
Sunday
Incline Bench Press 1 x 8
Dips 1 x 8
Chin-ups 1 x 8
1-arm Dumbbell Rows 1 x
8
Shrugs 1 x 12
Hanging Leg raises 1 x 15
Squats 1 x 20 (with 10-rep weight)
The reasoning behind the exercises I picked? Well, a lot has to do with personal preference. However, they all work at least 3 muscle groups (except the abdominal and calf stuff which is added for bodily balance) and work them well. The Bench Press, Dip, and Shoulder Press are 3 classic chest/tricep/shoulder lifts, and Chin-Ups and Rows of different sorts are great for the biceps and back, and they even hit shoulders quite nicely. Squats and Deadlifts... well, everyone knows the effectiveness of these. They each hit the quadriceps, hamstrings, back, calves, trapezius, glutes (butt), arms and so on. They are 2 great exercises that will build up the whole body, and drastically increase overall symmetry. The 20-rep squats with the 10-rep weight is one of my favorite exercises. You simply choose the weight you normally complete 10 reps with and punch out 20. This will probably be the most intense set you'll ever do, and rightfully so. In fact, if you are using a poundage that is at all challenging, once you reach 12 or 13 reps, you'll have to take a 10-15 second break at the top of each rep to regain breath and pray that you'll be able to come up from the bottom position of your next rep. Never do this exercise without a Power Rack. No matter which way you look at this workout, there shouldn't be a single soul out there that can't get amazing results from this program if they are working with the type of intensity I am talking about here. You should work to be able to generate your own intensity, and get every set to be as demanding as the 20-rep squat. Deadlift till you can't get the bar off the ground, bench till the bar won't rise from the bottom position, row till you can't move the weight anymore in good form, and Dip till you can't budge an inch , and your arms are forced to fall from the parallel bars. In any case, give this workout a try, and in a few weeks, change it to fit your needs, and make sure to stick with that program for at least 12 weeks before deciding whether or not High Intensity Training is for you.