It’s week 2 day 2 and if you are still headed out for the gym well congratulations! Most of the wannabe gym-ers give up after yesterday’s intense ‘leg workout’ if they hadn’t on day 4 of the gym routine for beginners.
If you made it to the gym today even after what we did yesterday for the gym routine for beginners then I think you are ready for round two at legs? JK, JK. I know you’ll quit if we have to do that. I know your legs are hurting right now, and if they aren’t then they will tomorrow.
This is the time where you will get to know your body. The body cycles are different for everybody. For me, my body never pained on the day after the leg day, but on the day after that. Say, if I had a leg day on Tuesday, my legs would pain only on Thursday and not before that, while most believe it should be Wednesday.
If your legs are hurting today, I would recommend you schedule your leg day on Saturdays and take Sundays off, but if it gets worse tomorrow then I would recommend you take leg days on Fridays and take Sundays off. Or you can take it midweek and make the pain overlap with cardio days, to build endurance. But let’s just get working out the upper body for today.
Exercise
- Cardio
- Back – Lat Pulldown
- Back – Seated Rows
- Chest – Flatbed Chest Press
- Chest – Inclined Chest Press
- Shoulder – Shoulder Press
- Shoulder – Front Raise
- Arms – Bicep Curl
- Arms – Tricep Pushdown
- Arms – Hammer
- Shoulder – Shrugs
Exercise 1 – Cardio – 5 minutes of Cycle or Treadmill
Let’s start with warming the body up for the gym routine for beginners, with all the legs workout, I am sure you are pretty stiff by now, and we all know that we need cardio. It would be hard to move around and walking does look like a task now, does it not?
Anyways, let’s start off with just 5 minutes cardio on a treadmill or a cycle, whichever you prefer, just to get your legs moving.
Exercise 2 – Lat Pulldown.
Always start with the bigger muscles first if you have done the warm-up nicely. If not, start with the smaller muscles. We have been in the gym for over a week now and I would like to believe you diligently followed the gym routine for beginners. So your body is warmed up and let’s target the bigger muscle with an easy exercise first.
So, get on the machine, set your arms a little wider than your shoulders your palms facing away from you and pull the bar down. If you don’t have the machine available to you, you can alternatively do pull-ups.
Aim for 15-18 reps in each of 3 sets.
Exercise 3 – Seated Rows
Now that we have warmed up the trapezius muscles, time to make them work a little more. The seated rows will bring some stiffness to your central back and side blades. If you don’t feel it you are doing something wrong or you are probably just not sitting up straight.
So, sit up straight, and pull the handle to your abdomen without jerking your back when you pull. Don’t bend forward either when you let go. All motion introduced should be from your arms and elbows. Using a V-grip handle is always recommended for Seated Rows.
Aim for 12-15 reps in each of the 3 sets.
Exercise 4 – Flatbed Chest press
After back the other big muscle to focus on is your chest. The chest workout can be divided into 4 focus areas. The central, upper and lower pecks and the side blades. The flatbed chest press is the most elementary workout when it comes to chest workout.
It is easy to do heavyweights on the flatbed chest press, but it is also easy to get carried away and pick weights more than you actually can. Keep the weights low and learn the proper posture for the workout, at least for the first few weeks of the gym routine for beginners. Bring the weights down to your chest, your arms right next to your central pecks, and push it up with your chest muscles and not arms.
Let’s aim for 15-18 reps in each of 2 sets. Go for light to moderate weights.
Exercise 5 – Inclined chest press
The inclined chest press is more focused on the upper part of your chest. This variation is what brings the shape to your chest, while the declined chest press brings in the size. But that doesn’t mean you can focus on one more than the other, there’s a reason why we do all of them. You can’t really have one without the other, your chest can’t bulge from one side without a change on the other.
For the inclined chest press, lock the table on the second hook (in most of the cases) where is makes 30-degree angles (not too steep nor too gentle) with the floor. Lie down and hold the dumbbells just like you would for the flatbed chest press. Just keep in mind, this time the position of the dumbbell would be a little higher than where you held it for the flatpress.
Aim for 15 reps in each of the 2 sets.
Exercise 6 – Shoulder Press
The shoulder press works on the deltoids. It is one of the first muscles someone will notice the growth in, but right now we are just getting used to the schedule. For shoulder press, you can either sit or stand for the workout – sitting is easier and is puts less pressure on your back. Use your feet to push the dumbbells up to your shoulders when you start the variations, don’t pull them up with just your arms. Remember these little tips, the gym routine for beginners is meant to prepare you for the long run.
Hold the dumbbells right above your shoulders and push them up vertically, until your arms are completely straight. Let them come down slowly and then slowly bring the dumbbells back to the shoulder level. When you are done, let go of the dumbbells one by one and keep them on your thighs if you are sitting or on a table or rack or somewhere before you move to place them back to their original place.
Don’t rush with any of the shoulder exercises, it can cause severe and permanent injuries.
Aim for 12-15 reps in each of three sets, and use light weights.
Exercise 7 – Front Raise
The front raises work on the deltoids as well but focuses more on the long head over the major mass. Or in layman terms, right from shoulder ball to the V-shaped cut you see above the biceps. The front raise is a deceptive workout, it looks easy but it isn’t. You will end up thinking you can take a lot more weight but you can’t without jerking your back. Again, keep the weights low for the first few weeks of the gym routine for beginners.
Hold the dumbbells in your hands, your palms facing behind you, and raise them up to your face level without bending your elbows. You should do both arms together when are starting off, but if that means you jerking your back then don’t. Do alternate arms, it is fine, but don’t jerk your body.
Aim for 12-15 reps and 3 sets, since front raise is an easy and lightweight workout.
Exercise 8 – Biceps Curl
The bicep curl is the most basic variation of the bicep workouts. Once you are familiar with the basic bicep curl and you have mastered the posture where you don’t move your elbow, then you can literally do any variation for the biceps. In fact, that’s the purpose of gym routine for beginners, learning the postures.
Let’s start with the basic curls, go lightweight for a few weeks, make sure you don’t move your elbow or jerk your body. Also, when you let go of the dumbbell, let go of it fully, until your elbow is straight again.
Go for 2 sets with 15 reps each.
Exercise 9 – Tricep Pushdown
The tricep bar pushdown works on the lateral head tricep muscle. In layman terms the part right below your biceps, i.e. the hind of your arms. The triceps are the ones bring in the size in your arms while the biceps bring in the shape. Most of the time, you use your triceps more than your biceps and you don’t even realize.
Place the bar such that it dangles over your head, bend forward but just a little bit and push the bar down only with your arms. No weight should be put from your body or other means.
Aim for 2 sets with 15-18 reps in each
Exercise 10 – Hammer (optional)
You can skip this exercise completely. You are technically done with your the day 9 gym routine for beginners, you can stretch, cool down, and leave. We will be doing the following workouts in the next week anyway. So if you think you can pull it off, then go ahead or leave if you are tired. Never exhaust yourself.
The hammer is a version of the basic bicep curl. Instead of working on the entire bicep muscle the hammer works on the long-head biceps. Just like the bicep curl, don’t move your elbow or jerk your body when it comes to hammer.
Aim for 2 sets with 10-12 reps each. Use moderate to heavyweights.
Exercise 11 – Shrugs (optional)
When you see a bodybuilder and you see the lines and big chunk of muscles running from their neck to the shoulder, those are the results of shrugs. Shrugs are basically saying “I don’t know” with your shoulder, but with you carrying many pounds of difficulty.
Doing heavy weights on shrugs is easy and you should always go for as heavy as you can but be sure you will not drop the weights on your feet and you can pull off at least 12 reps. The higher weights and the higher reps, the better it gets.
For starters, start off with 25-35 lbs (~ 12 – 15 Kgs) on shrugs and you can increase them to whatever amounts you want. Aim for 18-20 reps in 2 sets.
Before you leave don’t forget to stretch your body. Make sure you stretch your arms, chest, back, shoulders, legs, and calves.
Okay, Bros and Broettes, that is it for day 9 at the gym routine for beginners. Enjoy a fit and healthy life and follow Cannot Cardio for more fitness posts! Remember to Stay Awesome!
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