Weightlifting Guide
(Improved Version, Many Minor Changes and Updates)
The purpose of this guide is to help out people that are interested in weightlifting, or anyone that wants to put on muscle. I am going to put down how I organize my Weightlifting Workouts, and what I have found the most rewarding for building muscle. If you are looking to get in shape, get rid of weight, or simply build muscle, weightlifting will be the most rewarding.
Here is how I do my weightlifting workouts.
Day 1: Biceps, Back, and Forearms are going to be the muscle groups targeted for this workout. I do about 2 or 3 weightlifting exercises for each of these three muscle groups. I also do 3 sets of every exercise and repetitions of 25 for each set. It is up to you what amount repetitions you do, I am weary about stunting my growth since I am only 17, so I am sticking to repetitions of 25 for now. If you want to use a lot of weight and lift really heavy you can do repetitions of like 10 or 12, you can look online on how to stack the weights on sets, I am not an expert on that since I haven't done much of it. Doing that will definitely build a lot of mass, but so will reps of 25, which will also shred you up more, and give your muscles more endurance. Make sure to include dead-lifts for your back in this workout they are important; I use them with dumbbells because it puts less strain on the back. This should be about a solid hour of weightlifting, you don't want to go much over an hour because your muscles will begin to run out of fuel and you might need to do part of another protein drink, so try and do about 40-60 minutes of lifting, and finish the workout with an abdominal exercise (look below for some information on what abdominal exercise I do).
I am not going to include the specific exercises I do, because it will be too hard to explain, I might add it eventually, for now just check online for exercises and check what muscle group they workout. If you want a good book full of tips and exercises check out Bill Pearls book "Getting Stronger" Below is a link to it on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Stronger-Weight-Training-Sports/dp/0936070382/ref=dp_ob_title_bk
I mostly lift free weights, but there are some good cable machines for back, like cable pull downs. I also find that barbell or easy bar type exercises are extremely rewarding, for any muscle group. Same goes for the bent over exercises such as Bent-Over Dumbbell Rows for back.
Now, what I also mix into every workout is abdominals and obliques. For abdominals either do weighted crunches on a mat or cable crunches, I have found both really good, it gave me six-pack finally. Let me explain the oblique exercise I like a lot.
Okay you do it one side at a time. Grab a dumbbell hold it in your right hand bend sideways on the side you are holding the dumbbell then bend all the way back down to the other side then settle at the middle. It should be done in three steps bend on the right, then all the way to the left, then stop in the middle. Next hold the dumbbell with your left hand and just do the opposite. Do 3 sets of this, I only do reps of 15, don't try to do too much weight as well, you don't want to make yourself wide, it is easy to do too much weight because oblique's are strong. I also do this oblique exercise in the middle of my workout and use it kind of as a rest since its not very hard, and it serves as my bridge between difficult exercises.
Okay day one is covered.
(Make sure to check the bottom of the page for my info on protein, protein drinks, and other general weightlifting, muscle building information.)
Day 2: I do Chest and Triceps on my second day of weightlifting. I do like 3-4 chest exercises 2 or 3 triceps exercises. This could be like barbell bench, dumbbell bench, Incline bench, and flies. This one is about 40-50 minutes, it all depends on how much rest you take, but this is my shortest and easiest upper body workout. If you want to build a nice square chest, the key is to working out the top and middle portion of your pecks hard at the start of the workout. You can do this by doing incline bench-press and touching the weights together before bringing them back down to your chest. Range of motion is up to you, I don't let my elbows go past my chest, because I heard it could mess up my ligament since I am still young and the ligament isn't fully developed or toughened.
Day 3: I then workout my shoulders, I do about 4-7 exercises and try to hit all the muscles in my shoulders. This will be about an hour or more. This will be a tough workout, make sure to stand straight, and don't hunch your shoulders, so you can build the muscles better. Try doing a couple types of shrugs in this workout, like straight leg and bent leg shrugs. You can do militaries; I do mine differently to avoid tearing a shoulder muscle. I heard it is pretty easy to tear a muscle doing regular militaries.
Day 4: Do legs, try and hit all the leg muscles whether it be machines or weighted walking lunges. I don't do squats because they compress the spine and stunt growth, there are ways you can change the form to avoid this, but I still don't trust it.
Day 5 (Optional): A full upper body workout is where you pick 1-2 exercises for each muscle group, kind of a blend of days 1-3. Try and keep it to about an hour or less.
General Information: If you are serious about weightlifting make sure to have a protein drink before and after your workout. You won't build muscle without a lot of protein. On a regular day when you aren't working out you should have grams of protein equal to half your weight. So if you are 200 pounds for example you need 100 grams of protein. On days you are going to workout and build muscle you will need over that, and that is where the protein drinks come in. Remember, a protein drink should never replace a meal; they are only for fueling your muscle growth. Also make sure to have protein with every meal.
A good company for protein powder is http://www.championnutrition.com/, I use this whey protein by them http://www.championnutrition.com/node/5842?catid=37 you are going to want a Whey protein and an egg protein container (or regular eggs you can eat every day). You should do a full scoop of Whey before the workout and 50-50 egg/whey for after the workout. If you do not have Egg Protein Powder then simply eat some eggs before your workout that day, and just do a 100% whey protein drink after. Let the before workout protein drink sit for about 20 minutes then start lifting. You want to have the after workout drink immediately after or as soon as possible, this serves to help repair your muscle, build it more, and prepare for the next day of lifting. You can blend your protein powder into a smoothie, careful because whey makes it expand a ton, and really foamy. I put my protein powder in "Green Machine," a juice with all sorts of fruit, veggies, and wheat-grass in it, made by the company "Naked Juice." You can find this at health food stores such as Trader Joes, Wholefoods, Jimbo's, probably Henry's, Cosco seems to have it as well. My family usually buys it in bulk at Cosco since my older brother and dad both do a lot of weightlifting. My Dad was the inspiration for my Brother and I to start Weightlifting since that's what he has done since he was a teenager.
Also make sure to drink water when you are weightlifting or doing cardio, or working out in general. It makes me cringe when I see people working out, without a water bottle, you need to be hydrated. If you want something to help you regain electrolytes during a workout as well (especially if you sweat a lot), there is a powder you can put in your water called Emergen-C, I have one packet in my water every workout because it keeps me going and hydrated. Make sure to put it in about a half a bottle of water, so it still tastes good. I like the orange flavor, but they are all good. Emergen-C is basically a healthier version of all those sports drinks you see, without out all sugar. It also contains vitamins and is great at boosting your immune system so you can defeat illness faster or prevent it better.
Cardio: You should do it like one or two days a week. Make sure you give yourself at least one day of rest every week. Remember that you can do abdominals every day, the same goes for push-ups, and that kind of stuff. A 30-40 min cardio workout is a good choice. For cardio I will do either jump roping or kickboxing every now and again, I don't do much cardio. I will also do 10-15 mins of Jump roping before my weightlifting workout, but only if there is room where I am working out. I am told for my age since I have so much excess energy, that Jump Roping will get rid of some of that so I will build more muscle, it also warms me up a bit and works out my legs(and its fun)
An alternative to Cardio is Supper setting your weightlifting workouts where you give yourself 5-10 seconds of rest in between sets; this will keep your heart rate up.
You goal should be to do these 4 days of strength training every week, or 6 days a week and even 7 if you are older and done growing. The amount I do varies from week to week, I use to workout 7 days a week, but that was too much for my age, because I need at least 1 day of rest. Remember to not do to long of workouts, or you will just be burning through you muscle. When I first started lifting my brother and I would do three hour long weightlifting workouts at least 4 times a week!!!
It is also important to start putting on muscle before you are in your later 20s or so (not exactly sure what age it is), because the muscle you put on when you are around the ages of 18-20 is going to stick with you. Plus your going to put on more muscle around those ages (due to all the testosterone), and you will have your body used to putting on muscle so it is better at putting it on later in your life. Thus giving you better results, for doing a early start to muscle building.
Remember, avoid soy protein like the plague, it is terrible for men especially. It is not a complete protein so it does not build testosterone, it build estrogen instead. This estrogen can cause terrible things for men, one of the worse being the development of Man Boobs. So just, stay away from it, soy protein is almost everywhere and in a lot of protein powders and bars. Make sure the first ingredient to protein product is Whey protein or Egg Protein.
Another Important Point! Building Muscle is mostly mental, make sure to enter the weight-room with a positive attitude to build muscle. When you enter the gym not expecting to build muscle that is exactly what you will get. Also remember to picture you are building muscle when doing any exercise. Arnold Schwarzeggar, believes in this quite a bit.
Weightlifting Belt: If you plan on lifting heavy, like reps of 10 or 12, then you should get a weightlifting belt to prevent hurting yourself(If you do not have a strong core, meaning low back, abdominals, oblique).
Breathing: Do not forget to breathe all of the time, NEVER hold your breath at any time during an exercise, it puts you at risk of hurting yourself or popping a blood vessel in your eye due to the pressure. Remember to breathe in during the easy part of the exercise and breathe out during the harder portion. On bench press for example, breathe out when you are pushing the weight up, and breath in when you are taking the weight down. Basically just breath out when you are up against the most force such as pulling down, pulling up, pushing up, pushing down, and so on.
Suck in your Stomach when working out your Abdominals!: The reason I say this is that you want to build your abdominal muscles inward, instead of outward. If they are built outward, they will still be strong, but it will look like you have a gut. Even if you do accidently build it outward, just start sucking in your stomach when doing abdominal exercises and it will fix it.
If you follow my workout plan you should be hitting every muscle of your body each week. I don't do any neck exercises currently, so that's the only one I didn't include, if you want, you can do neck exercises as well.
Further more, I wrote this guide, because I like weightlifting, talking about weightlifting, and I enjoy seeing people take up weightlifting. I hope this guide helps you out, it is a bit long, but it has a lot of good information, well worth the time. Feel free to send me a PM with any questions you may have.
If you want more, read my older brother's Blog on The Science Behind Muscle Building.
Here is the link.
http://pinnacleweightlifting.blogspot.com/
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