Beginners Workout Part 3

Hi there! I’m glad you made it to the third part of the Beginners Workout Series. Be sure to check out the Beginners Workout Part 1 and Beginners Workout Part 2 before moving onto this part 3.

What Do You Actually Need To Workout Correctly?

What do you need to buy before I begin working out? Nothing. If you are healthy and don’t have any specific joint problems or injuries, anything you buy is just for convenience, pure luxury. I’ll explain later what all those gadgets are for but just remember, any time you use something to assist you or to make life easier, you will usually develop a weakness in that area when you are not using the device.

If you lift “bare” on your beginner workout and tough out the sore forearms and fatigued back, these weaker areas will come up to speed in time and soon you will only feel the target muscle working and not the little guys. Here is a list of some gadgets and what they do as well as a link where you can buy them online so they get shipped right to your door.

– Used to support the lower back during overhead lifting and other heavy compound movements. Some people develop a dependency on the belt and don’t do a single lift without it. All this does is ignore the problem of weak stabilizer muscles, while continuing to develop the main target muscle. The time to use a belt is when you are attempting a heavier weight than usual and venturing into uncharted territory. The other is if you have an injury to the lower back, although, in this case I would suggest going lighter until the injured area is brought up to speed. If you always rely on the belt your lower back will never be able to acquire the strength that it needs during the beginner workouts.

– These are elastic type bands that are wrapped around the joint to provide stability. This again is the same type of deal as above.

– Gloves are good if you find that your sweat prevents you from being able to grasp the bar for the duration of the set. The other reason for gloves is if you have an aversion to calluses.

– I am kind of divided on this one. Lifting straps go around your wrists and then you wrap the remaining material around the bar affording you a much stronger grip. So of course if you use them all the time you’ll never get a strong grip from your beginners workout I’m going to give you. Eventually though, the power of your back can jump ahead of your grip. The last thing you want to do is train your back at sub-optimal levels because of a lack of grip. So, what to do? Train as much as you can without them and only put them on for the top end heaviest sets. Every once in a while attempt to do the set without them and if you can make it through, ditch the wraps until they are needed again.

– O.k., so this is one thing that I like regardless if it’s a beginners workout or an advanced one. Chalk absorbs your sweat when you put it on your hands so the bar isn’t so slippery. I will always use chalk before I use wraps. That way I still get the gripping power but the slipperiness of the bar is gone. Some gyms do not allow chalk, so make sure you check the rules. I like the block style but the bottled chalk works as well.

Your tunes – Most gyms you go into usually won’t play the music you listen to, so bring your own. Music that you enjoy can change your mood and get you pumping with more intensity during your beginners workout. The other benefit of listening to tunes is that most people will not stop you in order to talk up a storm if you are going to have to take off your headphones. This way you can keep up your training pace and not get caught up in someone else’s social outing and hinder your training effect.

Shin pads – I have never personally seen anyone else use these but me. Maybe I have actually pioneered something, which would be cool. I use the shin pads during deadlifts so that I don’t lose the skin off the front of my shins. Again, not needed but something that I like to use.

Heart Rate Monitor – This is a good one because once you start to get tired, your rest periods will probably get longer than they should be. With a little watch, you can time your rest periods and keep the training pace honest and fast. I like the one mentioned above by bowflex.

Training Journal – This is one thing you must have for your beginners workout routine! It is so important to keep a record of everything you do in the gym when you are beginning (I still do). Memory fails and you have to know how much you did last time in order to make continual upward progress. It’s also good because when you have an exceptional day you can look back and see what variables contributed to such a great workout and therefore you will be able to replicate it again. I record everything. What day I start certain supplements and if they worked or not. What music I listened to. How I felt. You name it, if it has an effect on your training then you should keep note of it. Every time you repeat a beginner workout, you should look back to the last time you performed the same workout. During today’s workout, you want to add weight, add reps or decrease your rest periods. This way, your workout will be more intense than the last. This is the whole secret to success. Constant improvement.

5 Things To Do Before You Start The Beginners Workout

Well, if you are like me the first time you shelled out some money for a routine, you’re biting at the bit to see if this stuff is actually going to work. It will. Guaranteed. I have trained many people using the exact same stuff I am showing you now and they have all done very well. Having said that, you’re probably even more pumped to get going!

First, there are a couple of things I would like you to do before you even step foot into the gym, these will pay great dividends for you later.

• Get your body fat checked
• Measure all your body parts (biceps, calves, chest, etc)
• Buy the food you are going to need
• Have a clear and defined goal of why you are going to the gym and what you are trying to accomplish once you get there. Put this on the first page of your training notebook.
• Believe in yourself. Know, without a doubt, that whatever someone else has achieved, you too are capable of achieving the same results if you put in the same amount of discipline and effort.

Body fat check - Most gyms will do this for you, and some will do it for free. If you can’t get a gym to do it and you don’t want to pay a trainer to do it, then you can buy devices at fitness stores that will take a measurement for you. , I like that one because it has a digital read out. Some of these are more accurate than others but at least you will have an idea of where your starting point is. The reason you want to do this is because you can lose weight but it might be muscle and you don’t want that because then you will do the yo-yo and end up with more fat then before! Also, sometimes people gain weight and freak out. If you check your body fat and your percentage has gone down then your weight gain has been muscle and you should be stoked because now you will have a better shape and a higher metabolism. Scales are o.k., but they don’t tell you where the change in bodyweight came from so keep that in mind while on the beginners workout routine.

Measure your body parts – Get a plain old tape that a seamstress would use (not a carpenters tape or duct tape!) and get measurements for all your body parts. Make little notes as to what side of the body it was and if you can find a land mark like a freckle or scar then you will be more accurate when you come back to do it again. You want to do this because then you will know if a body part responds quickly (and you can be excited) or if you may need to put more effort into a body part that is lagging (in this case, cash in on that determination!).

The bottom line is that if you don’t do these two things while on the beginners workout, you won’t be able to appreciate the differences you have caused to your body. On those low days when motivation wanes, you can look at what you have accomplished already and get your butt to the gym.

Buy Your Food And House Clean – If it is there, you will eat it. Therefore, get rid of the bad stuff around the house and go buy a bunch of good stuff. The difference between what to eat and what not to eat is as simple as this; “If it was made by man, then it’s banned. If it came in a wrapper, it will make you fatter!” Make your foods from natural sources. You can eat it if it grew, walked, swam or flew.

Have a clear goal – Lifting weights and watching your food intake is not without its trials. When you do anything that takes you out of your comfort zone, you had better have a good reason why you are doing it. In order to do your best at anything you really have to want it. You must have something that will drive you when your motivation wanes.

Believe – Have you ever gotten ready for something and had that feeling that no matter what happens you are going to succeed at it? What happened? You probably got what you wanted right? Well, the same thing applies here. The body cannot achieve anything that the mind thinks is impossible. Did you know that when people under hypnosis touched an ice cube that they were told was a hot piece of steel they actually developed a blister? This just goes to show the power of belief and that whether you think you can or can’t, you are going to be right! “As a man thinketh so shall he be!” (works for women too

Please tell me what’s on your mind about the beginners workout series in the comments below.

Next Up? The Actual Beginners Workout Routine. There is a bit of overlap between this post and that one but at the end I list the sets and reps. Have fun with it but most importantly… GET STARTED.