Front Dumbbell Raise
Stand with a dumbbell in each hand, palms facing backward. Your feet should be about shoulder width apart. Maintain a slight bend in your elbows throughout the exercise so that your arms are straight, but not quite locked.
Lift the weight in your left hand in front of you in a wide arc until it is slightly higher than shoulder height. With a smooth, controlled motion, lower the weight while simultaneously lifting the weight in your right hand, so that both arms are in motion at the same time.
Do not cheat by swinging or leaning backwards! This lift can also be done with two dumbbells at the same time or a barbell.
Stiff Leg Barbell
Place a barbell on your shoulders. Keep your head up and your back completely straight. Bend at your waist with your legs locked, until your upper body is parallel to the floor. Return slowly to the upper position. This can also be done with your knees slightly bent.
One Leg Barbell Squat
Use a 12 to 18 inch box or bench for this exercise – the higher the box, the more difficult the exercise. Place a barbell behind your head at the base of your neck. Grasp the barbell with both hands with a wider than shoulder width grip.
Stand approximately 2 to 3 feet from the box and turn so that the box is directly behind you. Reach one foot back and place your toe on the box. Keep your opposite foot flat on the floor and point your toes forward. Stand up straight. Keep your back tight and your chest out throughout the entire exercise.
Keep your head and neck in line with your torso so that you are looking forward. Your shoulders should be directly over your front foot. Keeping your front foot flat on the floor, sit your hips back (like you are going to sit in a chair), bend your knee (of your front leg), and lean forward slightly at the waist.
Lower your body in a controlled fashion until your thigh (of your front leg) is parallel to the ground. If you have difficulty lowering yourself down this far, lower yourself until the knee of your front leg is bent 90 degrees. At this point, your knee should be directly over your toe, your hips should be sitting back, and your chest should be directly over the middle of your thigh.
Now, leading with your head and chest, raise yourself by pushing your hips slightly forward and up toward the ceiling, and straightening your leg. Return to the starting position. At this point, your shoulders should be directly over front foot.
Lunges
Place a barbell on your upper back. Lift your chest up and look straight ahead. Position your right leg forward in a long stride. Your foot should be far enough in front of you so that when you bend your right knee, your thigh and lower leg form a right angle.
Slowly bend your knees, lowering your hips so your rear knee just clears the floor. Pause briefly in this position, then slowly straighten your legs and raise your body back up to a standing position. Complete a full set, then switch legs and repeat, or alternate legs for each rep.
Make sure your knee does not travel past your toes in the down position! This can also be done with dumbbells in each hand instead of using a barbell.
Barbell Tricep Extension
Hold a barbell with hands a little closer together than shoulder width. Lie on an incline bench and position your head at the top. Press bar overhead to arm’s length. Lower the bar in a semicircular motion behind your head until your forearms touch your biceps.
Keep your upper arms close to your head. Return to the starting position. This can also be done with straight bar, 2 dumbbells, seated or standing or with 2 dumbbells and your palms facing in.
The exercises listed above can be done either in a gym or in your home. If you are going to join a gym, they will have many specialty machines that will work specific parts of your body. Employees at the gym can help you with proper use of the machines.
Now that you know what exercises to do, let’s look at a couple of sample workouts.
WORKOUT PLANS
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
Day 2 – Lower Body and Abs
Again, begin doing each exercise with two sets of 10—12 reps each except for the crunches which you can do as many of them as you want.
– Barbell squat
– One leg barbell squat
– Lunges
– Standing calf press
– Stiff leg barbell
– Crunches
Machines can be especially helpful when working your lower body. Here are some you should consider on this day:
– Leg presses on a plate loaded machine
– Leg extension machine
– Seated