Sports & Fitness Pls suggest 3 day/week - 45 mins - beginner gym workout

I've been going to the gym last 3 weeks on Mon, Wed & Fri for the first time in my life. I need a bit of 'action plan' to follow.

I'm age 42. Weight 79Kg & height 181 cm with a bit of tummy
My gym has
Cardio: Treadmill, Bike, Sitting Bike, Rowing machine & Elliptical Trainer
Weight machines: leg press machine, leg curl machine, lat pulldown machine, cable row machine, chest press machine, Chin Assist weight machine

and standard weight stuff

From general reading I though I will do:
Monday: Cardio (warmup) + Chest & back
Wednesday: Cardio (warmup) + Legs
Friday: Cardio (warmup) + Arm & Shoulders

Calling man men like @Ace in the Hole , @D.T. , @pinkboy & @Bran

Can you please suggest what a weak beginner should be doing on each day (Mon, Wed & Fri)? My aim is to reduce tummy while improving general strength.

 

For a beginner

Do 2 sets of up to 13 as heavy as you can (technique permitting)

Incline Leg Press
Incline Calf Press
Chin ups/ Lat Pulldown
Bent over Row
Bench Press
Dips



That'll get you through 8 -12 weeks.

Then split the body in 2

Incline Leg Press/Squat
Incline Calf Press
Chin Ups/ Lat Pulldown
Bent over Row/ Deadlift
Straight Arm Pulldown
Bicep Curls
Reverse Biceps


Bench Press
Incline Bench Press/ Dips
Standing BB Press
Upright Row
Triceps
Reverse Abs
Abs

and roll through so that you do each body part 3 times a fortnight


Intensity is the key, not quantity. If you are working hard enough and keep your breaks down you won't need to do cardio on these 3 days.

 

Further to above

Write down what you do.

Before you start an exercise look at yesterdays and see how many you did, today you are going to do 1 more - the heavier your weights get (and therefore the closer to your maximum) the more this becomes a mental exercise

Everytime you can do 13 reps on a weight then add more weight for the next set.

Sticking to basic compound exercises, preferably not with machines, will help your general core / stabilising muscles.

Vital that you do in the correct order

eg a bench press uses your chest, shoulders and triceps.
If you do triceps first then that will be your limiting factor in your shoulder press and your bench press.

There are lots of fancy things that come and go in fitness training. Hi intensity compound weights with progressive overload, sufficient rest and a good diet worked 20 years ago (when @chindonly and I were gym instructors) and still works well now. I would avoid the temptation to change exercises all the time, do the compound ones, work on your technique and get in your head when you are training so that you make sure that you push that extra one out. Once your technique is correct and you have progressed well over 3 months of consistent training then you can up the intensity by doing a drop set (when you hit your max reps on your 2nd set and then drop the weight down to get a few more reps out) or forced reps (where your training partner helps you do the last few reps after you fail/max out).

 

Some good suggestions here but I reckon the first thing you need to do is decide why you're going to the gym. General fitness, losing weight, body building? Once you've sorted that out, you can plan accordingly. Most gyms will have a free assessment service and routine planning service, hit them up.

 

Thanks @RPI for your good guide.
I was worried about doing it in wrong order.

My aim is to reduce tummy while improving general strength.
Also, I like to have survival skills: eg: Being able to run 2 km at faster speed. Being able to lift my own body using my arms. Being able to fight off anyone who tries to mug me.

 

For someone of devank's vintage the benefits of some heavy weight training will last a lot longer than cardio fitness training. Men lose muscle mass and, to a lesser extent then females, bone as they age. Once people get over 30 weight training can help maintain (improve) their posture.

 

My opinion from personal experience.
My stats are actually almost identical to yours:
41 years old, 78kg (in avatar) at 183cm tall, not tummy though...

• The basics I would prescribe would be resistance training, body weight is perfect for this, moving your body through space for best results.
• Stick with all compound moves at this stage, including the basic barbell lifts of Squats, Deadlifts, Bench Press, Overhead Press and Barbell Rows, as well as the body through space exercises.
• Forget about all isolation exercises which are another waste of time for your proposed schedule.
• Forget all cardio at this stage as you can work on this later if you want to improve your cardiovascular abilities, but they will greatly improve naturally from the resistance training. Cardio is a huge waste of time for a recreational trainee and it will eat into your recovery abilities.
• Train hard with good form, within your abilities, then recover well between workouts. This is where I would disagree with RPI's advice of forced reps, as this will greatly eat into your recovery abilities and at your age, you need as much recovery as you can get. I say to always train 1 rep short of failure. I don't think I've failed a rep in years.
• Don't get injured !!! This will destroy your progress and being older, injuries take much longer to recover from, so don't do **** that will increase your risk of injury.
• The most important of all is diet and making slow changes. Last year I trained most of the year very consistently and only lost about 2kg, however, my body composition changed considerably. I was constantly eating a very slight calorie deficit virtually all that time and my body simply recomposed very slowly over that whole time. Keep the intake consistent and you will change, but don't rush it. I would not advise being too strict on diet either so you can stick with it, my diet has always been very relaxed as I know my calories very well, but some people have no idea how many calories are in the food and drink they consume.

 

I'd be more worried about injuring yourself.

I agree with @Ace in the Hole on pretty much everything he's noted (particularly the last point), just be very careful with squats and deadlifts. If you've never been shown how to do them with proper form, you'll risk some nasty injuries. I only do bodyweight workouts now. checkout GMB.io they have heaps of free tips.

My tips:
- reducing tummy comes from what you do and don't eat.
- if you want to run faster, practice running. If you fitness level is really low start with jogging, work up to jogging for 5 mins without stopping, then try interval sprinting.
- sprinting ability is more likely to save you from being mugged, than trying to defend yourself against a meth-head with a knife.

ps - I having nothing against gyms, I just don't have the need to use one anymore.

 

I would be doing stronglifts if I were you

StrongLifts: Simple, Effective Strength and Muscle Building

 

What do you mean by "That'll get you through 8-12 weeks? Are you saying the above should be repeated 3 times a week for 8-12 weeks?

 

I'd add
kettlebell swings (I've started on this one as, I only get to spend 30-40 mins at the gym during lunch break, and kb are all around workout - arms, core, legs ). For any videos with kettlebells, look up Pavel Tsatsouline.

 

Possibly you & I are a perfect example to show why BMI measure is crap. I remember you suggesting waist-to-chest ratio but it is hard to measure easily.

Today, I paid for a trainer to teach me what I should be doing. He was suggesting to do Chest & back on Mondays, Legs on Wednesdays and Shoulders & Arms on Fridays. Is that isolation exercise? He said, it is to work out all the muscles to the max.

I thought we should use cardio to warm up and get the heart rate pumped up.

I think I have done what I can do in this area.
Cut down drinks to 1 coffee and 1 tea with 1 sugar a day. No other drinks except water. Oh.. and weekly scotch on the rocks.
I used to eat large lunch and large dinner. But now,
Breakfast at 7 am.
Brunch with coffee at 10 am.
Small $4 Asian lunch at 2 pm.
Nuts at 4 pm.
Tea + tiny food (Eg: chicken piece ) + Fruits at 6-7 pm.
This change in diet stopped weight increase.

 

Sounds like a common bodybuilding split.
I think that committing a whole training session to shoulders and arms is very inefficient, vs a demanding session like Chest/Back.
You're probably much better off doing full body 3x per week.
There's plenty of good full body 3x per week routines available.
Google a few to see what looks like it will suit you.
At least they won't be full of iso exercises as you just wouldn't have the time to fit them all in one session.

 

OP needs to do stronglifts and add some barbell curls in

 

This is similar to my daily food intake, without the scotch....Have dropped 85kg - 78kg.

 

Old school here, so no fancy advice.

If your truly new to resistance exercise, then maybe you should start with no weights, just body weight resistance.

I would say stick to the basics, compound exercises and at this stage do whole body each workout and start very easy, you can do this for some time, prob 3-6 months, till you really are used to teh exercises and know how they should be done.

Later split body parts, over 4 days, or even 3, will depend on you personally and how your body reacts/copes, basically a leg day, back, chest, whatever is left.

Each person is different, so you sort of find your own path once you get going....

 

Def like above ^^^, full body for now 3 times a week, your not going to be doing anything to max for many months, you may end up hating it if you try that.

Also, once you do get the exercises down, and you can stress yourself more, you would never do chest and back on same workout IMO, I agree that split sounds odd.

 

Correct. Then when your improvement starts to slow you can split body up further.

 

My concern with those would be around injuries. To me they look like they are specially made to cause a shoulder injury, at least the way I see them when people are swing through with them and looks like they could easily exceed there regular range of motion. BUT haven't ever read studies on them so can't really comment.

 

Agree on the kettlebell stuff.
I really think they are more suited to advanced trainees who have already built up good tendon and connective tissue strength and resilience, especially in the wrists and forearms.
Once one has mastered a good foundation with barbells and dumbbells, Kettlebells would be a good variation.