A full-body training plan for beginners
Do you finally want to get back into fitness training and have big plans? Do you want to melt away your body fat, build up your muscles and tighten your tissue? Now, in addition to your new-found motivation, all you need is the right training plan to get you started. But what does this look like? In addition to dietary adjustments, lifestyle optimization and targeted interval training, it plays an important role in achieving your goals. The following blog article is about strength training and what a training plan for beginners can look like. You can find the corresponding example plan, including videos of the individual exercises, at the end of the article.
What you should look out for as a beginner
As already mentioned, the most important building blocks for achieving success are strength training, nutrition, interval training and lifestyle optimization. Structured strength training is essential to firstly reduce body fat and secondly build muscle. These are also the two most desired goals of my personal training clients when they start training.
A brief note for women: muscle building is to be equated with the often-heard goal of tightening tissue. Without muscle building, at least through strength training, no tissue can be tightened. The fear of muscle mountains is unfounded because testosterone is significantly lower in women than in men and it takes an immense amount of training coupled with a strict diet to build up supposedly “unsightly” muscles.
The two most important points to consider when starting strength training are:
1. Development of basic muscular strength
The development of basic muscular strength should take place on all main planes of movement. This includes horizontal and vertical flexion and extension in the upper body, as well as flexion and extension of the knee and hip joint. Exercises such as: Pull-ups, bench presses, rowing, barbell neck presses, dips, squats, split squats, deadlifts, 45-degree back extensions and lying leg curls are elementary here.
2. Establishing optimal mobility
If you are unable to perform exercises correctly because you simply lack the basic mobility, you will miss out on progress as the muscles involved in the movement are not optimally trained across the entire range of motion. On the other hand, the risk of injury increases, as the part of the movement that is not trained and not moved will always remain weak.
As soon as these foundations have been laid, further training programs can and should be used to build on them.
What is the right training program for me?
On the one hand, this depends on how often you can train per week in the future. On the other hand, it depends on how much training experience you have. The more advanced you are, the more it makes sense to split up individual muscle groups and train them on different days. Advanced does not mean how often you have trained so far, but whether you have made progress in terms of weight gain and what your maximum strength values are. Depending on this, either a full-body or a split training plan may be suitable for you.
If you train twice a week, which is the minimum amount of time you should invest in order to achieve results, a full-body training plan would be right for you. From three to four sessions per week, you can train in a split plan.
In most cases, I use an upper body/lower body split with my clients during personal training in Stuttgart. With this variant, you can train on two consecutive days without any loss of performance. The following day should be a break for optimal regeneration.
The full-body training plan for beginners
The following is a possible full-body training plan for beginners. As already mentioned, every beginner has different basic requirements. This means that the program may be too demanding for one person, too demanding for another and just right for a third. If you are looking for a plan that is optimally tailored to your needs, then get in touch with me for a no-obligation personal training consultation.
The structure is designed so that you train the lower body at the first double station, the upper body at the second and the two less complex but still important exercises at the third.
A1 LH squat, heel elevated, 4 sets of 8-10 repetitions, tempo: 4010, pause: 10 sec. to video
A2 45-degree back extension, dumbbell in front of chest, 4 sets of 6-8 repetitions, tempo: 3011, pause: 150 sec. to video
B1 Lat pulldown to chest, close neutral grip, 4 sets of 6-8 repetitions, tempo: 4010, pause: 10 sec. to video
B2 30-degree dumbbell incline bench press, neutral grip, 4 sets of 6-8 repetitions, tempo: 4010, pause: 120 sec. to video
C1: Rowing with rope to neck, pronated grip, 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions, tempo: 2012, pause: 10 sec. to video
C2 Lower arm support, 3 sets of 1x 60sec hold, pause: 90sec to video
Notes on the full-body training plan for beginners:
- Increase the weight of each exercise step by step to one heavy set per training session
Note the weight used for each set in each workout in your training plan - Increase the last heavy set per workout by one repetition or one weight level in each workout.
- Train at least two to three times a week to make progress.
- As soon as you can no longer make progress with the training plan, switch to a new program based on the old plan. Depending on the training frequency, this should be the case after 6-8 sessions.
- There should be at least one day’s break between the individual training sessions.
- The exercises are performed in what is known as “double station training”: “You perform one set of the A1 exercise followed by one set of the A2 exercise and repeat the exercises up to the prescribed number of sets until they are completed. Follow this principle until all exercises are completed.”
The explanation of the tempo used in each case, using the example tempo: 2012:
The first number ALWAYS stands for the release of the weight. In the example, this means that the weight is released for 2 seconds (eccentric movement).
The second number represents the pause after releasing the weight. In the example: 0 sec. Pause in the lower position of the movement, i.e. no pause here.
The third number stands for the lifting of the weight. In our example: the weight is lifted for 1 second (concentric movement).
The fourth number represents the pause after the weight has been lifted. In the example, this means: 2 sec. pause at the end of the concentric movement which is thus performed under tension. - You always warm up specifically for what you are training. In other words, if the A1 exercise in the training plan above is the barbell squat, you should warm up exactly the muscle groups intended for it.
Here is an example: With a starting weight of 40 kg in the first work set, this would be 2 warm-up sets as follows:
- Warm-up set: 20kg x 6
- Warm-up set: 30kg x 4
followed by the first work set: - Working set: 40kg x 8-10
I wish you every success with the training plan for beginners. Would you like individual advice and support? Then get in touch with me!