Before You Start Be sure you receive proper technique instruction from a qualified professional and always perform your exercises under the supervision of a qualified adult. Warm-up and stretch before your workout to prevent injuries. Consult a physician before beginning any exercise program.
Basic Weight Training Although your program should be sport specific, below is a list of basic muscle building exercises for each body part. Next to each body area is a list of possible exercises...you do not need to do all of them. Choose 1-3 exercises for each body area and perform 2-4 sets per exercise; 8-15 repetitions per set. Remember to ease into a new program gradually. One to two sets per body area is a good starting point for your first few workouts.
Chest: Bench Press, Dumbell Flies, Incline Dumbbell press, Nautilus Chest Press
Upper Back: Lat Pull Down, Seated Row, Pullups
Lower Back: Back Extensions
Shoulders: Barbell or Dumbbell Overhead Press, Dumbbell Lateral Raises, Dumbbell Bent Over Raises
Abdominals and Core: Crunches on floor or stability ball, planks.
Arms: Barbell or Dumbbell Bicep Curl, Close Grip Bench Press, Tricep Pushdown (using cable machine), Dips
Legs: Squat, Leg Press, Leg Extension, Leg Curl, Lunge, Leg Press
Calves: Calf Press or Calf Raises
Forearms: Wrist Curl, Wrist Extension (reverse wrist curl)
Neck: Four-Way Neck Machine, Shoulder Shrugs
Reps and Rest Periods If you are interested in building muscle strength, use a weight that allows you to do 6-10 reps; rest one to two minutes between sets. For muscle endurance, use lighter weight and perform higher repetitions (12-15 reps); rest 30 seconds to a minute between sets.
Power Exercises Power is the ability to develop a strong muscle contraction and create a high amount of force in a short amount of time. Power cleans, hang cleans, “jammer” exercises, medicine ball training and plyometrics are important for developing muscular power and should be incorporated into your program depending on your sport. These exercises are technically more difficult and require greater skill than basic weight training exercises. They are more “explosive” in nature which carries more injury risk. Be sure to receive proper technique instruction from a qualified professional and always perform your exercises under proper supervision.
Exercise Order Perform lifts for large muscle groups (ie: chest, back), and multi-joint or power exercises first, followed by isolation exercises, or those involving single-joint or small muscle groups (arms). If you tire out your small muscles first, you will negatively affect the poundages and strength benefits derived from the multi-joint exercises.
For example:
Power cleans, bench press, lat pull downs, overhead shoulder press, squats, etc. are considered large muscle, multi-joint exercises and should be done earlier in your weight training session.
Bicep curls, dumbbell lateral raises, calf raises and wrist curls are small muscle, isolation exercises and should be done after the larger muscle groups. Save your abs and back exercises towards the end of your workout so your “core” is fresh and strong for the bigger lifts to better stabilize your spine.
In general, progress from large muscle groups to smaller as follows:
Chest, Back
Thighs
Shoulders
Arms
Calves
Forearms
Power cleans, “Jammer” and other high skill, power exercises should be performed early in the workout after a thorough warmup.
Exercise frequency Weight training every other day (3 times a week) is recommended for a beginner. Advanced programs may involve more frequent weight lifting sessions, while splitting the routine up into two parts. For example, some may do upper body one day; lower body the next. Others split up their routine by doing Back, Biceps and Legs one day; Chest, Shoulders, Triceps and Abs another day. When splitting a routine, it is important to allow for adequate recovery time and not to work the same muscle groups 2 days in a row.
For example, when you work your back by doing lat pull downs and seated rows, you are also working your biceps. Therefore, you shoudn’t do back one day and biceps the next day because you are working the biceps two days in a row. Same goes for chest and triceps.