Weight Training

Let me begin by saying that book extending over volumes have been written on the subject of weight training so try as I may I cannot cover a lot on a blog. I will try to stick to the most important points in my opinion and even then it's gonna be a longish post. First of all, weight training is an essential component of a fat loss regimen. The view that one should do cardio for first couple months to loose the fat and then start weight training is bogus at best and disastrous at worst. Weight training (combined with a good diet) is the thing that keeps your muscle intact when you are on a fat loss program. Also, muscle being an active tissue burns calories even at rest and not to forget the post workout metabolic boost provided by weight training. In essence, your fat loss program is incomplete without weight training.

Now, on to the bullets:

1. Duration: I suggest 45 minutes to 1 hour and not more than that (beginner or advance). Excessive workout leads to overtraining and injury, I personally overtrained for more than a year with very slow results and also managed to injure myself a couple times. Even if you bubbling with enthusiasm, take things easy coz when it comes to weight training it's said "Less is more".

2. Frequency: This one depends on your experience and goals. For a beginner or for a guy concerned with general fitness and an alright amount of muscle 3 days a week is a good option. As you progress or modify your goals to put on more muscle you can add a 4th or a 5th day. Yup, you don't need to push weights 6 days a week to get in a good shape. In fact, it's the rest time when your muscle recover from the hell you put them through during the workout.

Here's a quick guideline for frequency: for beginners it's three workouts per week on nonconsecutive days, full body each workout. For intermediate, it's three or four workouts per week on two day split routine; half the body one day, half the next (each muscle group worked no more than twice per week). For advanced, it's four or five days per week, on a three or four day split routine, each muscle group worked once every five to seven days.

3. Variations: Stands for types of exercise per muscle group. Quick guideline being:

For beginner: One exercise per muscle group/full body routine.

For intermediate: Two exercises per muscle group/ two day split

For advanced: Three(four) exercises per muscle group/three(four) day split

4. Sets: Stands for number of times you do a particular variation and depends on size of the muscle group. Smaller muscle groups (like biceps or triceps) can be exhausted by lesser number of sets as opposed to larger muscle groups (like back or chest). A thumb rule of 3-4 sets per variation works in most cases and depending on the muscle group you can add an extra variation later.

5. Repetitions: There is a lot of back and forth here from 1 rep max to 20-25 reps and the number also varies with your goal. Without going into the philosophy of the spectrum here's a quick guideline based on goals:

Strength/Power: 1 – 5 reps

Hypertrophy (size) & some strength: 6 - 12 reps

Local endurance/ little size: 12-20 reps

Abs & Calves: 10-25 reps

4. Rest: The idle time between sets. No, you are not supposed to strike up a conversation after one set! One minute is the rest duration you can't go wrong with however for maximal fat loss 20-45 sec. is still better. You can squeeze a little more rest (up to 2 minutes) for large muscle groups or for very heavy workouts.

5. Progressive overload: I need not say this but you ought to train hard in the gym and push yourself while you are there. I see people lifting the same weight they did 2 years back or talking away on cellphone while cycling and they get nowhere. Having said that, you need not train to failure (point when you can't do another rep) all the time. The key is challenging your muscles in new ways, pushing them a little more than the last time.

Progressive overload is just that, you start with a weight that you can do 8 reps with. Next time you hit the gym, you try to do 9 reps with the same weight and so on. Once you can do 12 reps, put that weight down and pick up a heavier one and do 8 reps and so on. You get the idea! Now, this process is not always as neat and arithmetic as in the example. Sometimes you wouldn't be able to do one more rep, you may even do one less rep but the aim should be on progression and it can work as one step back and two steps forward. Besides there are myriads of variations once you feel you hit a bad plateau on a particular exercise.

6. Choice of exercises: Again, people go so fancy with their exercises without knowing the basics. They'll try spider curl and zottman curl before getting simple barbell curls. Suggestion: choose basic exercises in the beginning and only once you have a good form try something else. Anyways, it's the basic compound exercises that are the best.

7. Split routine: Concerns about how to group body parts for workout. Here are some examples:

Beginner’s workout: Full body workout

1. Bench press with dumbbells, barbell or machine (chest)

2. Dumbbell side lateral raise (shoulders)

3. One arm dumbbell row or lat machine pull down (upper back)

4. Dumbbell extension behind head (triceps)

5. Dumbbell Bicep curl (biceps)

6. Leg extension or lunge (thighs)

7. Standing calf raise (calves)

8. Lying leg curl (hamstrings)

9. Crunches (abs)

Intermediate workout: Two day split

Day 1: Chest, Shoulder, Triceps, Abs

1. Flat Bench Press: dumbbell, barbell or machine (chest)

2. Incline Dumbbell flyes or pec deck flye machine (chest)

3. Seated Dumbbell or machine overhead press (shoulders)

4. Dumbbell side lateral raise (shoulders)

5. Tricep Pushdown (triceps)

6. Overhead tricep extension with dumbbell (triceps)

7. Crunches (abs)

8. Reverse Crunches (abs)

Day 2: Legs, Back, Biceps, calves

1. Leg Press machine (quads)

2. Leg extension machine (quads)

3. Lying Leg Curl (hamstrings)

4. Low back extension/hyperextension (lower back/hamstrings)

5. Pull-ups or lat pulldowns (lats/upper back)

6. Seated Cable Rows (lats)

7. Barbell curl (biceps)

8. Seated alternating dumbbell curl (biceps)

9. Standing Calf Machine (calves)

10. Seated Calf Machine (calves)

As you advance, you can go to 3 day or 4 day splits but a 2 day split gives wonderful results itself and you can stick to it for life.

That about sums up what I can say here. Other "concerns" like, "I don't do much weights as I don't wanna bulk up", "You need to do 500 crunches everyday to get good abs", "You need 25 reps per set to get definition", "Don't do weights if you wanna keep your flexibility", "It's all good now but once you stop the muscle will turn to fat", "How can I make time for all this from my busy schedule", etc. are either myths or excuses arising from lack of knowledge and action. You can either debate or get your ass to the gym.

To conclude, here's what I did. In the very beginning (1.5 years back) I was on a full body workout, 3 days a week. Within a couple months I grew out of it finding it too easy. I then jumped into some real heavy workouts (counterproductive overtraining). In February 2010, I came back to my senses and stuck to 2 day splits, 3 days a week. Then in June, by which time I had already improved a lot, I started doing the same routine 4 days a week. I warm-up and stretch before workouts and do a non-fatiguing set (which is not counted as workout but muscle group warm-up) for each muscle group before heavier ones. Rest interval is 45 secs. and I adhere to progressive overload. I change my workout every month or two to avoid adaptation and to employ the "muscle confusion" technique! That's about it... Now go push some weights!