Longhorn Stampede your health and fitness partner

Woman running

Designing Your Resistance Training Program

Before designing your own resistance training program, several factors must be considered. First and foremost is your current health. Your readiness for a training program should be determined by a medical professional. This may be asked anytime while visiting your primary care physician. They are the most knowledgeable about your past and current health issues and should be able to advise you of any conditions that would keep you from participating or any particular activities you should avoid.

When starting a resistance training program it is best to start with the basics. Do not try and perform the same amount or volume as an advanced lifter. Doing so could cause harm and put you at the risk of not being able to continue a training program. Below are some basic guidelines from the American College of Sports Medicine to help you begin to design your program.

ACSM Guidelines state that, for general health purposes, one set of 8-10 repetitions for each of the major muscle groups in the body is sufficient to maintain function and basic physical strength. A weight program such as this should be done at least 2 times a week as a minimum.

ACSM guidelines provide a basic starting point to begin to design your training program. The primary goal of the ACSM’s guidelines and the goal of most beginners?is to increase overall strength and muscle size. If this is your goal then the above guidelines almost design the program for you. However, there are variables that can be changed in order to get the best benefit from your new training program. First, the exercises you choose should be consistent with the muscle you are trying to work. For example, if you want to perform a chest exercise, bench press would be a good choice.

Next, the amount of weight described by ACSM states the amount that you can do to volitional failure 8-12 times. This may become a problem if you have never lifted weights before. To find the appropriate weight, begin by learning proper technique to perform the exercise. Begin with a weight that you know you can lift. This may just be the bar in the case with the bench press. Perform the exercise several times to get a feel of the exercise. After doing so, you should be able to gauge how many times you can perform with that weight. Increase the weight until you find it difficult to finish 10 repetitions. This is the starting weight for your resistance program. Once you are able to do this amount of weight for 12 repetitions, increase by 2.5-5 lbs for smaller muscle groups and 5-10 lbs for larger groups. Continue at this weight until you can perform the exercise 12 repetitions then increase the weight. This is known as the principle of overload.

Older individuals, individuals with hypertension, or individuals with risks for heart disease should not go to volitional fatigue. This may increase blood pressure too high. It is recommended that these individuals stop when it feels “somewhat hard.? From a safety standpoint it is important that no one holds their breath during lifting. It is recommended that you breath out during the lifting phase and breath in during the return phase.

How fast you lift is also important. It is recommended that you lift to a 3-4 count. In other words, it should take about two seconds to lift the weight and two seconds to return to the starting position. It is also important to do the lift through the entire range of motion.

For individuals beginning a resistance training program, it is most beneficial to do full body routines that incorporate as many muscles as possible. This will be doing 2-3 sets of 8-12 repetitions, usually in a circuit routine. A circuit routine consists of moving from one exercise to another with brief rest periods, then performing the circuit (all the exercises again) again. Each run through the circuit is considered a set. This should be performed 2 ?3 times a week in the beginning.

To help develop your program we have provided several exercises from various body parts of which to choose from. Some exercise may incorporate two muscles groups and can count for both muscle groups. To begin your program, pick two exercises from each group for the larger muscle groups (legs, chest, back) and one exercise for each of the smaller muscle groups (biceps, triceps, calves). This will help design a program that best fits a beginning weight lifter. Additionally, please check out the section on core stability, this may be incorporated into your current workout.

Once you feel you have mastered the beginner’s program, please look at other areas to improve such as workout periodization, bodybuilding, strength, and power.