We may earn a commission through links on our site. Notice in the workouts below that your first set calls for eight reps, your second set 10 reps and your third set 12. 1. Reason being, these are the exercises you need to master for long-term gains in muscular size and strength, so you may as well start learning them now. This rep scheme is widely considered ideal for achieving gains in muscle size (the scientific term is hypertrophy) and is commonly employed by amateur and pro bodybuilders alike. With the right plan and the right discipline, you can get seriously shredded in just 28 days. Not that you’ll be a seasoned vet after four weeks, but if you can just get that first month under your belt, you’ll get yourself over the proverbial hump, where so many fail and give up, and set the stage for a lifetime of muscle gains. (For more workouts that will build muscle and burn fat, check out Metashred Extreme from Men's Health.). Notice we’re not starting you off with only machine exercises; a handful of free-weight movements are present right off the bat. In the fourth and final week of the program, you’ll train four days in a four-way split that hits each bodypart just once (except for calves and abs, which are each trained twice). Newcomers to the gym know all about pushups and bicep curls and situps, but it's not always easy to figure out what exercise to do first, or how to arrange a workout. This workout combines cardio and weight-lifting drills for serious body-sculpting results. As in Week 2, you train each bodypart twice a week, so you’ll hit the gym six days this week. Train three days this first week, performing just one exercise per bodypart in each session. In Week 1 you’ll perform three sets of every exercise per workout, which over the course of the week adds up to nine sets total for each bodypart, a good starting volume for your purposes. With the exception of crunches for abs, you’ll do 8–12 reps per set. Attach a rope to a high pulley and kneel in front of it, with the handles held either … This is referred to in bodybuilding circles as a “reverse pyramid” (a standard pyramid goes from higher to lower reps), where you decrease the weight each set to complete the higher rep count. Chest, for example, includes two exercises: One is a compound movement (dumbbell bench press) that involves multiple joints (both the shoulder and elbow) to work the largest amount of muscle possible, and the other is an isolation exercise (dumbbell flye) that involves only one joint (shoulder) and targets the pecs to a greater extent. Muscleandfitness.com is part of A360 Media LLC Fitness & Health Network. (When doing presses for chest, the deltoids and triceps are involved to a degree, meaning presses don’t isolate the pecs as much as flyes do.). But we’re going to let you in on an interesting secret: It doesn’t necessarily take 8 or 12 weeks to get your feet wet in the gym. One new exercise is added to each bodypart routine to provide even more angles from which to train your target muscles to promote complete development. Ebenzer Samuel, C.S.C.S., is the fitness director of Men's Health and a certified trainer with more than 10 years of training experience. This 4-week program comprised entirely of supersets will turn your love handl... Gradually increase the stress on your body each week. As you’ll see, chest and triceps are paired up, as are back with biceps and quads with hamstrings, each a very common pairing among novice and advanced bodybuilders. 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It’s important that you have a day of rest between each workout to allow your body to recover; this makes training Monday, Wednesday and Friday—with Saturday and Sunday being rest days—a good approach. Build a stronger, more muscular upper body in just three weeks. Our product picks are editor-tested, expert-approved. 6 Tips For Every Gym Newbie to Not Look Like an Idiot, People Shared Their Best Advice for Gym Newcomers. Fifteen reps may be just outside the ideal muscle-building range, but these sets will help you increase muscular endurance to provide a solid foundation on which to build size and strength going forward. Are they effective? You’re only a week into the program, yet you’ll begin to train different bodyparts on different days with a two-day training split (meaning the entire body is trained over the course of two days, rather than one as in the first week). Completion of this four-week program now entitles you to go to the next stage. Start with your legs, but don't do those glory moves such as deadlifts or heavy squats. Carefully read all exercise descriptions before attempting them yourself. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/workout-routine-for-men Beginner Workout For Men Over 40 – Lose Fat & Get Fit By: Dr. Anthony Balduzzi, NMD - Men's Health Doctor & Founder, The Fit Father Project & Fit Mother Project , W e've all probably wondered what we … The gym can be intimidating and daunting, and it's hard to know exactly how to get started. Copyright 2020 JW Media, LLC, parent company of Muscle & Fitness. This program isn’t just for the true beginner who has never touched a weight before; it’s also suitable for anyone who has taken an extended leave of absence from training. Several exercises from Week 1 are carried over to Week 2, but one move is added to each bodypart routine—with the exception of abs—so you can train all muscle groups more completely from multiple angles. You'll start with split squats, then train your back with bent-over dumbbell rows, then work your glutes and hamstrings with weighted hip thrusts, and finally your arms with alternating overhead presses. In this plan, your first month of training will be demanding, but not so demanding as to cause injury (or worse yet, burnout), and progressive in the sense that each week you’ll graduate to different exercises, higher volume, more intensity or all of the above. In the realm of fitness, three-month workout programs dominate the landscape. For example, if on your first set of lat pulldowns you used 140 pounds for eight reps, try using 120 or 130 pounds on set two and 100–120 pounds on set three. In the third week of the program we step it up to a three-day training split: Train all “pushing” bodyparts (chest, shoulders, triceps) on Day 1; hit the “pulling” bodyparts (back, biceps) and abs on Day 2; and work your lower body (quads, glutes, hamstrings, calves) on Day 3. 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