Introduction to Weight Training

Exercise and gym information for those new to working out

Here are some common terms and what they mean:

Reps- the number of times you perform an exercise

Sets- a group of reps

Rest- the time you take between sets to recuperate

Superset- doing two exercises back-to-back with no rest in between; usually you will rest between supersets though

Giant sets- doing 3-4 sets of different exercises with no rest in between; you usually take a rest at the end of the giant set before beginning the next giant set

Circuit training- doing several different exercises back to back with no rest between sets; this is like a giant set, but can include more exercises and you usually don't rest once you complete one circuit; you immediately begin the next circuit

Here are the most common body parts that you will work on and hear about:

Biceps or bis- the front of the upper arm; this muscle is one of the easiest to see results with

Triceps or tris- the back of the upper arm; this muscle takes a lot of work and low body fat to be able to see it; many women like to work this area to get rid of the "jiggly" area there

Abs- the stomach muscles; what many people call abs are actually just the most superficial layer of the stomach muscles, the rectus abdominis (aka the six pack); the deepest layer of stomach muscle is the transverses abdominis; the obliques, or sides of the abs, are two layers as well- the internal and external obliques

Lats- the large back muscles that run from the lower to upper back; when they are toned you'll notice a deeper separation in the center of your back along your spine

Delts- your shoulder muscles; there are three heads to this muscle- anterior, medial, and posterior; the anterior and medial are easier to see and develop than the posterior

Quads- you quadriceps or front thigh muscles

Hamstrings- back of the thigh

Glutes- your butt muscles

Calves- lower back of the leg muscles

Traps- trapezius; this muscle is in three main sections- the upper, middle, and lower traps; the middle and lower traps can help add to the separation of the back along with the lats; upper traps are what give really big bodybuilder-types the thick looking neck

Some fitness places have them. They are good for getting acquainted with the layout of the gym and the basics, but that's about it.

To start out, you'll probably want to do a light full body workout a couple times a week before you make them progressively harder. Compound movements are good for functional training; when you first start working out you don't usually need to focus on small muscle group workouts yet. Squats with shoulder presses and walking lunges with twists are great compound moves because they work multiple musdcle groups efficiently.

Once you've done full body workouts for a while (roughly six to eight weeks), you can start a different body part split per workout. This is a good idea not only because it varies your workout, which challenges your body, but also because it will spark muscle growth and weight loss. The body is an efficient machine, and it will quickly adjust to the workload that it is used to encountering. This means that if you do the same workouts over and over again your body will acclimate to the work, which results in less calories burned and less muscle growth.

No matter what body part split you choose, you should usually pick three or four exercises for each body part and do three sets of varying rep ranges. You may start out only doing one or two sets for each exercise if three sets are too difficult.

One way to split exercises is to separate the body parts by function. Back and biceps both do pulling motions, so you can pair them together. Another day you can pair chest and triceps, since they both do pulling motions. The third day you can do legs. The leg exercises should hit all major muscle groups of the lower body: hamstrings, gluteals, calves, and quadriceps.

An example of exercises to do for this type of workout follows:

On your chest and triceps day, you can warm up doing push-ups (in a modified form if you can't do the standard form). Aim for three sets of 10-12. To save time and make your workout more efficient, you can superset an ab exercise with the push-ups. So for example, you would do 10-12 push-ups, 20-30 crunches, then right back to push ups, until you have done three sets of each.

Then you could do incline bench presses for three sets of 10-12 reps. I also like to do three sets on either the pec deck machine or do a dumbbell pec fly.

For triceps you can do dips, overhead dumbbell extensions, and tricep pull downs.

On your back and biceps day you can warm up with some sets of bicep curls, bent over rows, and/or maybe some bent over flys with a theraband or resistance tubing. Then do three sets of assisted pull ups/chin ups. Then you can do some bent over rows either with the cable machine or with dumbbells. Wide grip lat pull downs on the cable machine are a nice finish for the upper and middle back muscles. The roman chair or back extension machine are good for working the lower back. Standing dumbbell curls, concentration curls, resistance band curls, supinated curls, and/or incline seated dumbbell curls are all variations of biceps' exercises that you can choose from. Shoot for three to four back exercises and three bicep exercises. You can pair some of the exercise together as supersets to save time and make the workout more challenging.

On leg day you may also want to add shoulder exercises. Your shoulders get recruited in some back and chest exercises, so they may be tired on those workout days. If you pair them with your legs they'll be fresher and able to execute more exercises with good form.

For legs try to do three to four exercises for each major muscle of the legs: quads (front of the leg), hamstrings (back of legs), glutes, and calves. Lots of leg exercises recruit more than one group so you don't really have to do that many exercises.

Squats work pretty much all leg muscles, except calves (they work them a little, but not as much as the other muscles). You can do Smith machine squats, plie squats, pop squats, jump squats, or use an assisted squat machine.

For hamstring/glutes you can pick from these exercises: leg curls, dumbbell deadlift, "buttblaster" machine, cable machine back kicks, and the leg press machine (this also works most of the quads).

For quads pick three or four of the following: lunges, walking lunges, jump lunges, step ups, and leg extensions.

Abductor and adductor exercises are popular with women because they firm up the inner and outer thigh areas.

For shoulders you can do any three or four of the following: dumbbell shoulder lateral raises (or front raises), shoulder press with dumbbells, shoulder press machine, shoulder shrugs, bent over dumbbell shoulder fly, bent over row, and upright row.

Try to do at least three hours of cardio a week. You don't want to do too much cardio though because you'll wear yourself out and eat up the protein that you need to build muscle. Every pound of muscle burns 40 calories a day to exist; every pound of fat burns 1 calorie a day to exist. So weight training will help you lose fat.