I just recently (circa February) started lifting. I go to my school's gym 3 times a week and do squats, bench, barbell rows, overhead press, deadlifts, dumbbell curls, and stationary bike (not all on the same day).
Do you guys have any advice? E.G. anything to add?
I'm not going to post maxes, because I'm quite frankly embarrassed by them.
Do you have any specific goals you want to aim for (Getting ripped, big, lean), or do you just want to get fit?
When I first started, I put my self in a strict regiment to do these specific exercises for these set days. For example, Monday would be biceps using these following workouts, etc. Over time, I learned that you really don't need this kind of strict regiment
as long as you have basic framework and proper repetition. My basic week looks like
- Chest and Tri Monday : The only workout I repeat every single week with this is Bench Press [5x10], Incline Bench [3x12 heavy], and Cable Flys [5x10 my height, 5x10 bottom height]. Otherwise, I just do whatever tricep workout I feel like doing for that day. As long as I do 5 workouts for tri, it works.
- Bicep and Back Tuestday : The workouts change depending on how I feel for that day. If I feel real energetic and hyped, I would do suicide sets of deadlifts and seated barbell curls. If I don't feel as up for it, then I'd do inclince dumbbell curls, bent over rows, etc. My workouts for bicep and back change depending on how I feel, really.
- Shoulders Wednesday : This day was initially my rest day when I first started, but I switched over shoulders from Monday to Wednesday because of how much you can do with it. I won't go into workouts, but this is a more monotonous day rather than sporadic feeling.
- Legs Thursday : I always do a [5x10] set of squats, maybe more if I feel good. On some days, I'll switch out around 2 sets for curtsies (Yes I do curtsies). I do lunges if I feel up for it, then I do several machines.
- Chest and Tri Friday : I have two set days for chest because chest.
To add to this, I do core every other day which includes medicine ball sit-ups, hanged leg raises, burpees, etc.
The only reason I'm telling you my schedule is because it shows that you don't need a set schedule once you start getting into the hang of things. Advice I'd throw in is to just go the gym every day. Even the weekends. Just go. You don't even have to lift if you don't want to, but just go to the gym, read a magazine, watch the bigger people workout, just go. It helps to get into the habit of just going and will keep you motivated to keep going in the future and make it feel weird for you
not to go.
You should check out all the exercises at
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/workout/exercise.html. You can just pick out the exercises that seem fun to you, learn the proper form from their videos. It's really a great tool that can help you learn more about proper lifting and expand the amount of things you do in the gym.
