Sessions:
Start with 2 – 4 sessions per week.
- Roughly evenly spaced within a week
- About 1 hour long each
Choose a number that you can commit to!
Muscle group split:
Generally speaking, you train a muscle when it has recovered but as beginners have relatively small muscles they recover faster, so for beginners’ best is to train the whole body every session because it also lets them practice technique more often.
- Whole body never means every muscle.
Exercise selection:
You can do any exercise that targets the muscle, but compound movements have a huge advantage.
- They let hit many muscles at the same time so you can save time.
- They provide an excellent stimulus.
- They carry over best into real-world strength and performance.
Do mostly the same exercises but add a little bit of variation because different angels and slightly different muscle group recruitment can enhance muscle growth and strength outcome plus it helps to avoid joint fatigue.
Technical implementation:
- Technique is SUPER important! Good technique will keep the training challenging and safe.
- Full ROM
- Controlled eccentric
- No bumping and “cheating”
If you want to save time, try alternating supersets.
Rep range:
Set of 5 – 10 reps
- Heavy enough and has enough reps to cause size and strength gain.
- Not too heavy and not too many reps to break down technique.
Working sets must be challenging!
- Challenging means that it feels heavy and close to your limits WITH good technique.
Progression week by week
You can add weight to last week’s load if:
- You got more than 5 reps last week.
- Your technique was never compromised when the reps got hard.
Add 2.5% – 5% to the load.
You can add reps to last week’s set if:
- You got between 5 and 9 reps last week.
- Your technique was never compromised when the reps got hard.
Add 1-2 reps per week as long as you are under 10 reps. If you reach 10 reps, time to add weight.
You can add sets its you are not challenging your body enough.
- Performance never really degrades within the session.
- Barely or no pump in the target muscle.
- Zero or very limited soreness that goes away quickly.
When to take a break?
Every single training session that builds growth and strength also causes fatigue. With hard and frequent training fatigue accumulates, that can
- disrupt technique,
- decrease performance,
- increase injury rick.
Do a de-load, when:
- you are unable to perform your training with good technique in 2 sessions in a row,
- your workout feels very tough and you are exhausted after every session,
- your desire to train hard is notably down.
On the first half of the de-load week:
- use the same weight you used at the last week,
- do half of the sets you did,
- do half of the reps per set you did.
On the second half of the de-load week:
- do not come to the gym,
- eat and sleep plenty.
After your de-load week, you are ready to start your next mesocycle!
