[Continuing my re-write of the Fitness OT to make it more streamlined and beginner friendly, seeing as the intermediate/advanced dudes should know the basics already. See draft
post 1 here, and draft
post 2 here]
Exercise descriptions
Required watching:
Squat
Deadlift
Bench Press
Press
Power Clean
Rack Pull
RDL
Front Squat
Leg Press
Lying Tricep Extension
Barbell Shrug
Furthermore, it is encouraged to film yourself doing the above (and others) movements, and post it in this thread so that other gaffers can tell you what you're doing right/wrong.
Benefits
Squat
The Squat has been in contention with the deadlift as the "king of exercises" and for good reason. It is an amazing exercise and literally works everything from the bar down. Squats strengthen your abs, back, traps, quads, hams, and glutes, not to mention ALL of the supportive muscles. No other exercise releases as much growth hormone as a good set of hard, heavy squats--and that's why they are supremely important. Whether your goal is to lose or gain weight, squats represent a movement that cannot be reproduced or replaced by ANY other exercise--period. Unless you have a condition where you are physically unable to perform squats, they SHOULD be in your routine.
Deadlift
The Deadlift is perhaps the most "functional" exercise, or at least it appears to be. Simply put, you are lifting a weight from the ground, up. Involving a massive amount of musculature in the movement, the deadlift is pivotal in growth and strength, and in general health. It used to be named the "health lift", but I guess someone decided that didn't inspire ball-shaking fear, so it was renamed the "deadlift". And that's what it is: the weight begins dead on the ground, and is reset to "dead" at the bottom--no bouncing. A unique feature of the deadlift is that it does not have an eccentric movement to begin it, thus further making it difficult as you are not able to rely on the muscle's stretch reflex to aid in the concentric movement.
Bench Press
The Bench Press is one of the best builders of maximal upper body strength. While it does not correlate to any real world movement and has less athletic applications than the standing press, the fact that the bench press allows you to use more weight than the press, incline bench, or decline bench means that it is the best way to overload your pressing muscles (triceps and deltoids/pecs). It should not be glorified: you may have seen guys at the gym with huge chests and small back, guys whose shoulders are caved inward, etc. Don't become this.
Press
The standing
press is a more "complete" movement than the bench press. It involves more muscle groups and follows the kinetic chain from the feet to the weight, similar to a deadlift or squat. However, the mechanics of the movement do not allow nearly as much weight to be used as the bench press, so it is usually overlooked. This is terrible--presses should be a regular part of everyone's routine. Properly done, they will help with shoulder imbalances, rotator cuff strength, and shoulder flexibility.
Bent Over Row
The Bent Over Row is a great exercise to complement the bench press and add pulling strength and size to your back. A powerful back seems to be a rarity these days--too much emphasis on lat pull downs and other exercises that don't allow enough of an overload. The bent over row not only strengthens your trapezius, your rhomboids, your biceps, and your deltoids, but also your lower back and spinal erectors due to the near parallel to the ground position your upper body is in.
Power Clean
The Power Clean is one of the best exercises one can do for developing explosive power. It is sort of a go-between exercise between standard lifting and Olympic weightlifting. Involving all the major pulling muscle groups (hamstrings, lower back, spinal erectors, trapezius, rhomboids, and to a lesser extent, biceps), it is a very quick movement that is fairly easy to learn, compared to the full Olympic counterpart.
Pull-ups
One of the best upper back, lat and bicep exercises you can do. Perform them hands facing towards you (chins) or away (pull-ups). Using a neutral grip or gymnastic rings is easier on the joints (more important if you're old or do hundreds a week). They're great for grinding to failure or doing small sets throughout the day or between pushing exercises. Add weight with a dip belt or dumbbell between the legs for added resistance.
Cardio
You can start out by reading
death to cardio. With that knowledge replace cardio with skill training. Don't run 5k every day to lose weight. Run 5k to get better at running 5k. If you want to improve your conditioning and be in better shape I've yet to find an article better than Jim Wendler's
Conditioning 101. If you are sedentary or focused on Starting Strength don't jump into high-intensity conditioning right away. With beginner's strength programs the only conditioning I would suggest is walking a few miles 5x/week. Work up to it if you don't walk as it is. It's not glamorous, but for 3-6 months you're going to be kicking ass in the weight room. It will start out easy but if you're doing too much you'll crash hard. Introduce conditioning incrementally after you're done with the beginner's program (knowing that it will affect recovery). Failing that, do as little as necessary for your sport. You can't go all out in the weight room and the track and expect everything to progress (especially on a diet).
You should be able to run some sort of conditioning program alongside whatever training you have, the key is choose something you actually want to do and program effectively to your work capacity and recovery. High intensity interval training (sprinting off/on for ten minutes) is more efficient than slow, steady cardio (jogging for an hour), hence the Conditioning 101 suggestions. But again, don't do this for fat loss, just look at the metabolic conditioning as a bonus and remember the more intense the conditioning the more draining on your central nervous system it is. For fat loss, strength or muscle hypertrophy cardio isn't necessary. There's better things to martyr yourself over. However if you have a fitness goal that happens to include conditioning, want to run a marathon or improve your heart rate, find something you like to do and have at it.
When do you stop being a beginner?
If you have to ask, chances are you're most likely still at a beginner level.
Omar Isuf defines beginner's as someone who has gained 20-25lbs of muscle since they started training regularly.
That's quite a lot, and will on average take you a year.
Don't let the noob moniker deter you though, as you individuals who have passed the beginner phase will gain so much less muscle per year.
Intermediate programs
Once you have gained that initial bulk of beginner's muscles (again, nothing you need to worry about if this is the first time), it might be time to start looking into an intermediate program to ensure maximal muscle growth:
Compound vs. Isolation exercises
While each have their strong points, compound exercises are more useful than isolation exercises. Keep in mind that your goals will dictate importance...but compound exercises work more than one muscle group at a time, and:
- Teach the body to move/function as one unit
- Strengthen connective tissue
- Produce greater anabolic effect
- Work more muscle groups with the same amount of effort (or less)
Compound exercises should make up the bulk of your workout. Isolation exercises have their place, but should NOT take second place to compound exercises--they should always supplement. Perhaps if you are a high level bodybuilder or working on a trouble spot, but I firmly believe that a routine based on isolation is vastly inferior to a routine based on compounds. As I said, they have their place:
- Great for bodybuilding applications
- Work on a lagging muscle group
- Sometimes isolation is just necessary to focus on a muscle to make it grow--my arms don't really grow unless I do specific exercises for them, for instance
Some examples of compound exercises:
- Squats-Works (in order of direct stimulation) quadriceps, gluteus, hamstrings, adductors, hip flexors, lower back, spinal erectors, abdominals
- Deadlift-Works (in order of direct stimulation) trapezius, rhomboids, lower back, lats, spinal erectors, abdominals, gluteus, quadriceps, hamstrings, adductors, grip
- Press-Works (in order of direct stimulation) triceps, deltoids, trapezius, rhomboids, abdominals, lower back
- Power Clean-Works (in order of direct stimulation) trapezius, rhomboids, lower back, spinal erectors, hamstrings, quadriceps, calves, deltoids
Some examples of isolation exercises:
- Preacher Curls-Works (in order of direct stimulation) biceps, forearms
- Triceps Kickbacks-Works (in order of direct stimulation) triceps, deltoids (I'm being generous here)
- Leg Curls-Works (in order of direct stimulation) hamstrings
- Leg Extensions-Works (in order of direct stimulation) quadriceps
Sets & Reps-An Explanation in Regards to Goals
Here is a great chart taken from the
Starting Strength wiki, which is meant to be a companion to
Starting Strength:
This is the best explanation of repetitions and their effects. For information directly related to this, read the next section on "Muscular Hypertrophy".
Muscular Hypertrophy
Not all hypertrophy is created equal, and no, I'm not talking about building "lean" muscle and building "bulky" muscle. A more apt (but still terribly simplified) comparison is "functional/dense" vs. "superficial/bloated".
- Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy-This is an increase in the sarcoplasm in the muscle. Sarcoplasm is NON-CONTRACTILE TISSUE, but accounts for roughly 30% of the size of the muscle. In increasing sarcoplasm, you are actually DECREASING the muscle's contractile fiber density, resulting in less power/strength output across the muscle area. As you can see from the chart, from 10-12 reps and up is when sarcoplasmic hypertrophy comes into play. This is probably the type of "muscle-building" that bodybuilders get a rep for "all show and no go". However, it is not completely useless--simply being bigger in a chosen sport can have it's advantages and building size can help provide a better foundation for increasing your strength (the larger the cross-sectional area of a muscle, the greater it's potential for strength)
- Myofibrillar Hypertrophy-This is an increase in the size of the actually muscle fibers, but NOT an increase in the amount of muscle fibers. The "density" of the muscle will actually increase. This sort of training is more "functional" and more important for athletes, as low reps build explosive power as well. Increases in size may not come as quickly as sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, but you still WILL get bigger if you train this way and eat properly. Low reps (1-5) are best for this.
