Men’s Beginner
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.
Note: This program is also available in my ebook.
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 |
Alternatives for cable/machine exercises
- Medium-grip lat pull-down — Medium-grip band lat pull-down (YT) or medium-grip self-assisted pull-up (YT)
- Seated twisting cable row — Seated twisting band row (YT) or dumbbell twisting row (YT)
- Cable face pull — Band face pull (YT) or dumbbell face pull (YT)
- Captain’s chair leg and hip raise — Lying or hanging leg and hip raise
- Seated or lying leg curl — Inverse leg curl, one-leg stability ball leg curl (YT), or band leg curl (YT)
- Machine standing calf raise — Standing dumbbell one-leg calf raise or band standing calf raise (YT)
- Machine seated calf raise — Barbell seated calf raise (YT)
- Wheel rollout — Ab walkout (YT)
- Cable wood chop — Band wood chop (YT) or weighted Russian twist
