Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Beginner Bodybuilding program

I want to start off 2012 by improving my conditioning, mobility and flexibility as well as add some lean muscle while cutting fat.  I also really need to give my connective tissues a break from all the heavy lifting so I'm going to do a basic beginner style bodybuilding routine that works the whole body on 3 non-consecutive days a week.  The routine will last 5 weeks and will use the same weight for each exercise for the whole program.  The way it progresses is by starting at 8 reps and each week adding one more rep until week 5 when I'm doing 12 reps.  There is a built in deload each week as the first workout is with 100% of the working weight, the second workout is with 90% of the working weight and the third workout is with 80% of the working weight so basically it's a heavy, medium. light protocol.  I got the basis of the workout from bodybuilding.com and adjusted the exercises slightly to work around some minor injuries I'm trying to rehab.  This weeks workouts are basically just finding the correct working weights for the program and next week I'll start the actual program.  The first 1-2 sets are warm-ups with only enough time to switch weight for rest and the last 2 sets are with the same working weight with a max of 60 seconds rest between.

Here are the exercises I'll be doing for the routine:

Squats
Incline Bench
Deadlifts (day 1 only)
Good Mornings (days 2-3)
Axle Bent-over Rows
Axle Overhead Press
DB Hammer Curls (if the wrist will handle it.  I'll try it out next workout)
JM Press
I'll add grip and wrist work as well as iso's where needed

1/4/12

Squats
135x8
225x8
290x6
275x8-290 will be too heavy by the time I hit higher reps so I'm going to start with 275 and see how it goes.

Incline Bench
45x8
135x8
185x8
185x8-The first set with 185 was easy but the second set was HARD.  I'll drop to 155 for the workout.

Axle Bent-over Rows
105x8
155x8
155x8-The weight felt fine but my right wrist was a little sore so I'll keep the weight here.

Axle Curls
Can't do these because of wrist pain

JM Press
45x8
95x8
95x8-This is a completely new exercise so I'll keep the weight at 95 to get form down and to reduce strain on the wrist.  This hits the triceps hard and hopefully will help with all pressing.

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