Men's Beginner weight training program

Description

The 12-week Men’s Beginner weight training program is designed to:

Introduce your body to physical exercise
Introduce you to a variety of exercises, training equipment, and training splits
Train all of your major muscle groups
Strengthen your core and primal movement patterns
Encourage body-wide neuromuscular adaptation
Develop a strong foundation of muscular endurance

The Men’s Beginner weight training program is very important because it will lay a strong foundation upon which you can safely build in the subsequent programs. Without this strong foundation, you will be at risk of injury. By the end of the program, you should have developed significant strength (mostly due to neuromuscular adaptation), muscular endurance, and muscular tone, as well as dramatically improved your overall fitness.

The program is divided into four microcycles, each one lasting for three weeks. The first two microcycles focus on full-body circuit training, which means that you will be training your entire body in each workout and having minimal rest between exercises. The last two microcycles focus on split training, which means that you will be dividing your body and training different parts in different workouts.

Please don’t be intimidated by the number of exercises in some of the workouts. You will be flying through them with very little rest, so the workouts will be over very quickly.

Please read the Overview of men’s weight training programs before you start this program.

Suitability

Beginners
Lifters with less than 3 months of consistent weight training experience
Experienced lifters who haven’t trained for more than 3 months

General instructions

Always use an amount of weight that makes completing the reps challenging
Whenever you have to increase the weight, add a maximum of 5 lb (or 2.5 kg) to upper-body exercises or 10 lb (or 5 kg) to lower-body exercises — just enough to make the rep range challenging again
Complete the exercises in the order provided
Try to master the proper form of each exercise, including proper breathing technique. Also, try to develop a mental connection with your muscles and the movement patterns
If training at home in the absence of cable machines and other specialized equipment, see below the exercise tables for exercise alternatives
Don’t forget to warm up before, and stretch after, each workout
Once you have completed the Men’s Beginner program, you must take a deload week (a week during which you must either rest or train lightly). Only then can you move on to the next program

Specific instructions for each microcycle are presented below

Microcycle 1: Full-body circuit (3 weeks)

For microcycle 1, you will perform a full-body circuit
Complete 2 circuits per workout
Complete 3 workouts per week, with at least 1 day of rest between each workout (i.e. AXAXAXX, where ‘A’ is a workout day and ‘X’ is a rest day)
Rest for only 20 to 30 seconds between exercises
Rest for 2 to 3 minutes between the circuits
Each workout should take less than 30 minutes

Exercise	Reps
Dumbbell squat*	15–18
Wide-grip lat pull-down	15–18
Seated or lying leg curl	15–18
Dumbbell bench press	15–18
Machine standing calf raise	25–30
Seated cable row	15–18
Bicycle crunch	15–20
Seated dumbbell overhead press	15–18
Dumbbell curl	15–18
Dumbbell kickback	15–18
*Bodyweight squat for first week

Alternatives for the cable/machine exercises

Wide-grip lat pull-down — Wide-grip band lat pull-down (YT) or wide-grip self-assisted pull-up (YT)
Seated or lying leg curl — Inverse leg curl, stability ball leg curl, or band leg curl (YT)
Machine standing calf raise — Standing dumbbell one-leg calf raise or band standing calf raise (YT)
Seated cable row — Bent-over dumbbell row, bent-over barbell row, or seated band row (YT)

Microcycle 2: Full-body circuit (3 weeks)

For microcycle 2, you will perform another full-body circuit
Complete either 3 workouts a week (i.e. AXAXAXX) or a workout every other day (AX)
Complete 2 circuits per workout
Rest for only 20 to 30 seconds between exercises
Rest for 2 to 3 minutes before starting the second circuit
Each workout should take less than 35 minutes

Exercise	Reps
Barbell squat	13–15
Close neutral-grip lat pull-down	13–15
Dumbbell Romanian deadlift (YT)	13–15
Push-up (on knees if necessary)	13–15
Dumbbell lunge	13–15
Bent-over dumbbell row	13–15
Seated or lying leg curl	13–15
Dumbbell one-arm shoulder press	13–15
Standing dumbbell one-leg calf raise	25–30
Bicycle crunch	20–25
EZ bar curl	13–15

Alternatives for the cable/machine exercises

Close neutral-grip lat pull-down — Close neutral-grip band lat pull-down (YT) or self-assisted pull-up (YT) using an underhand grip
Seated or lying leg curl — Inverse leg curl, stability ball leg curl, or band leg curl (YT)

Microcycle 3: Upper–Lower split (3 weeks)

For microcycle 3, you will perform an upper–lower split. This means that you will train all of your upper body in one workout (Workout A) and all of your lower body in another workout (Workout B). Also, instead of circuit training, you will perform set training, which means that you will complete all of the sets for one exercise before moving on to the sets of the following exercise
The recommended workout schedules are ABXABXX or ABX
Rest for only 20 to 30 seconds between sets
Rest for only 60 to 90 seconds between exercises
Each workout should take less than 40 minutes

Workout A (Upper body)
Exercise	Sets x Reps
One-arm lat pull-down	2 x 13–15
Seated cable row	2 x 13–15
Barbell bench press	2 x 13–15
Barbell shoulder press	2 x 13–15
Cable face pull	2 x 13–15
Triceps rope push-down	2 x 13–15
Dumbbell concentration curl	2 x 13–15
Cable twist	2 x 13–15
Front plank	2 x 45–60 s
s = seconds

Workout B (Lower body)
Exercise	Sets x Reps
Barbell front squat	2 x 13–15
Dumbbell rear lunge	2 x 13–15
Barbell Romanian deadlift	2 x 13–15
Seated or lying leg curl	2 x 13–15
Standing dumbbell one-leg calf raise	2 x 20–25
Machine seated calf raise	2 x 20–25
Lying side hip raise	2 x 20–25
Bicycle crunch	2 x 20–25
Lying leg and hip raise	2 x 15–20

Alternatives for the cable/machine exercises

One-arm lat pull-down — One-arm band lat pull-down (YT) or self-assisted pull-up (YT)
Seated cable row — Bent-over dumbbell row, bent-over barbell row, or seated band row (YT)
Cable face pull — Dumbbell face pull (YT) or band face pull (YT)
Triceps rope push-down — Dumbbell kickback or triceps band push-down (YT)
Cable twist — Weighted Russian twist or band twist (YT)
Seated or lying leg curl — Inverse leg curl, one-leg stability ball leg curl (YT), or band leg curl (YT)
Machine seated calf raise — Barbell seated calf raise (YT)

Microcycle 4: 3-day split (3 weeks)

For microcycle 4, you will perform a 3-day split in which you will train your back, biceps, and core in Workout A; your chest, shoulders, triceps, and core in Workout B; and your legs and core in Workout C
The recommended workout schedules are ABCXABX (and then start from C the next week) or ABCX (i.e. three days on, one day off)
Rest for only 20 to 30 seconds between sets
Rest for only 60 to 90 seconds between exercises
Each workout should take less than 35 minutes

Workout A (Back, biceps, core)
Exercise	Sets x Reps
Barbell sumo deadlift	2 x 12–14
Medium-grip lat pull-down	2 x 12–14
Seated twisting cable row	2 x 12–14
Dumbbell curl	2 x 12–14
Barbell reverse curl	2 x 12–14
Lying side hip raise	2 x 25–30
Bicycle crunch	2 x 25–30
Seated leg raise	2 x 25–30

Workout B (Chest, shoulders, triceps, core)
Exercise	Sets x Reps
Barbell bench press	2 x 12–14
Incline reverse-grip dumbbell bench press	2 x 12–14
Dumbbell one-arm shoulder press	2 x 12–14
Reverse dumbbell fly	2 x 12–14
Cable face pull	2 x 12–14
Diamond push-up (on knees if necessary)	2 x 12–14
Decline dumbbell triceps extension	2 x 12–14
Captain’s chair leg and hip raise	2 x 12–14

Workout C (Legs and core)
Exercise	Sets x Reps
Barbell sumo squat	2 x 12–14
Dumbbell side lunge (YT)	2 x 12–14
Weighted one-leg hip thrust	2 x 12–14
Seated or lying leg curl	2 x 12–14
Machine standing calf raise	2 x 20–25
Machine seated calf raise	2 x 20–25
Wheel rollout	2 x 10–15
Cable wood chop	2 x 12–14