Beginning a body building workout plan requires a level of commitment. As a beginner, you can work out more frequently than more advanced body builders.
The reason is simple: as you get more experienced, you learn to push your muscles harder and inflict more damage that takes longer to recover from.
Beginners, on the other hand, get sore but bounce back quicker since the muscular damage isn’t as severe.
If the word “damage” makes you flinch, don’t worry.
It’s a good thing for a bodybuilder to incur limited muscle damage, because it nudges the body to recover and overcompensate (grow) slightly to prepare for future workouts. This is what bodybuilding is all about – a continuous cycle of one-step-back, two-steps-forward, repeated over and over on a weekly basis.
The following workout plan is designed to focus on one part of your body each day of your workout with mid week and the weekend as your rest days.
This plan is just a suggestion. You can adapt it as needed to suit your workout goals.
With any workout, you need to start out with some warm up exercises. This can be simple stretching as you get your body ready to work. A warm-up session prior to working out can not only help get your body ready for exercise, but your mind will get prepared as well.
You should also have an appropriate cool down period after you are done working out.
This will reduce the possibility of delayed muscle soreness and will help quell the adrenaline that has been building in your system as a result of the workout. This can also be simple stretching exercises and deep breathing.
Again, it’s important to start out slow and not push yourself beyond your limits.
Use weights that are not too heavy for you but that will give you enough resistance to build your muscles.
You can progressively increase the amount of weight you lift as you get stronger.
Day 1 – Upper Body
For the following exercises, begin with two sets of 10-12 reps each.
Dumbbell press
Standing barbell military press
Lying tricep press
Side lateral raise
Preacher curls
Seated dumbbell curl
Dumbbell rows
Dumbbell shrugs
If you have access to weight machines, add the following to your plan:
Pec deck butterflys
V-bar pushdowns
Lat pulls with pulley machine
