I’d like to get everyone’s opinion on what they feel the absolute best training program is for a beginner, wheter it be an article on T-Mag or one of your own design.
We’ll classify beginner as someone with little to no actual lifting experience who wants to “get into shape” and is prone to burning out and never coming back to the gym.
I almost always use a basic 3-day split with traditional 3 sets of 8-10 reps aimed at introducing them to the major movements (squat, bench) and typical movements and exercises (curls, leg extensions, triceps pulldowns) introducing them to proper form and tempo.
I’ve found that more than 3-4 days or too much intensity (OVT) and you don’t see them again.
Assuming they make it 4-5 weeks with the beginner program I introduce them to ABBH, EDT, or similar.
[i]Monday
Squats-5x5(Do four progressively heavier sets of 5 with the 5th set being your 5RM.)
Deadlifts-5x5(Do the same)
Bench Press-5x5(Do the same)
Incline DB Press-2x12-20
Wednesday
Light Squats or Lunges-4x8 each leg
Good Mornings-3x8-12
Shoulder Press-5x5 or Dips-4xmax until you get 12 each time. then add weight.
Pullups-4xmax
Friday
Squats-warmup to a 3 reps with 5 more lbs than you used on Monday. On the following monday use this weight for your 5th set.
Bent Over Row-5x5
Incline Bench-5x5
Tricep Extensions-2x12-20
Do this and quite worrying about all of the elaborate programs. Bench, Squat and pull. it will lay the best possible foundation. The best thing that ever happen to my training was reading this program by Bill Starr in Muscle Media 2000 around 1995.
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For beginners, I like three whole-body workouts a week. I’ll focus on the important lifts (squat, deadlift, bench, row, shoulder press, curl, weighted crunch) for sets of 8-10. The first week should be a time to get the form down. Add enough weight the second week to make it tough, but keep it at one set per exercise. Add an additional set for the next two weeks (so you’ll eventually be doing three sets), and keep training this way for six weeks. I don’t know that it’s the best, but my clients always got phenomenal results with tailored variants of this basic program.
HST by Bryan Haycock is a great program for anyone in my opinion, but a beginner will benefit greatly due to the progressive loading from workout to workout and the compound lifts used. you cold even take it a step further and split up biceps, quads, hams, calves, and forearms on their own day and just do an A workout and a B workout and do three days a week. Do A on mon and fri of week 1 and do B on Wed of week 1. Then do B on mon and fri of week 2 and A on Wed of week 2, etc. This gives plenty of stimulation of each muscle group per week with plenty of rest and less of a chance of overtraining, esp for beginners. I like the A and B workouts for beginners because it is a little less volume, even though they could probably utilize more volume, because most beginners don’t eat and supplemnt well enough or should i say on a consistent enough basis to recover from three total body workouts per week. plus you cut down gym time by a lot, which is another plus for beginners. just my two cents
Bump on the Bill Starr based program. Here is one I used last year for 6 weeks with great results.
DAY ONE - HEAVY
Squat: 5 sets of 5
Bench: 5 sets of 5
Powerclean: 4 sets of 5
Good Mornings: 2 sets of 6-8
Weighted Situps: 2 sets
This is not the same 5 x 5 method that Poliquin suggests. Here, pyramid up evenly to a new 5RM on the 5th set.
DAY TWO - LIGHT
Box Squat: 10 sets of 2 (like WSB DE Day)
Military Press: 5 sets of 5
High Pulls: 4 sets of 5
Chins: 3 sets of 6-10
Leg Raises: 2 sets
DAY THREE - MEDIUM
Squat: 4 sets of 5, 1 triple, 1 back-off
Bench: 4 sets of 5, 1 triple, 1 back-off
Bent Rows: 3-4 sets of 5
Good mornings: 2 sets of 6-8
Triceps and Biceps: 2-3 sets of 8-10 each
For the first two exercises on Day Three, the first four sets are the same weight as DAY ONE. For the 5th set, the triple, add about 5-10 lbs over your 5RM from DAY ONE. For the back-off set, drop to a weight where you can squeeze out 8-15 reps. The goal for progression in this program is to come back and use the weight used for the triple for your new 5RM on the next week’s DAY ONE.
Agathos, for a beginner a would choose a 3 days split based on the big 3: Squat,Deadlift,Bench press:
Monday: Pullups,Squat
Wednesday: Bench press,Barbell row
Friday: Deadlift, Military presses
The beginner has to learn the proper form of the execution of these exercises. He has to add 5% more load at each workout at least for the big 3. He has to learn the periodization of training. After some months he may add some abs, calves and grip work. No isolation exercises. The beginner should follow a proper bulking diet. Some Cardio to prevent an excess bodyfat.
I like Dan John’s beginer program squat, bench, power clean, and press 8-6-4 same weight throughout and when you can do all of the reps add weight. I used this this year with some new freshman (they did deadlifts until they could do a proper power clean) and the biggest differance i can remember is a guy who started with the bar on squats and ended up doing his bodyweight (120-130 i believe)on the bar.
If you believe that a beginner should prioritize form, I can’t see how you can support squatting, deadlifting, AND benching, all in the same day, AND with maximal weights.
If I ran a novice through that program, they would send me a mailbomb. You can’t shove all this in front of them the first day. Chris has the right idea.
I like to start my clients off with a ME Squat day. sarcasm
Seriously WTF???
It is fairly obvious that some of you have absolutely no experience training a novice lifter. I don’t know of many people that could perform even one chin up on their first workout let alone a power clean. AND…even if they could, this could quite possibly lead to injury. As has been said, benching, squatting, deadlifting in the same day would be too much.
A low volume whole body workout for the first few weeks is in order. If a person is too sore they’ll never come back.
My post above was out of context with the original question. I apologize. I merely wanted to post another example of Starr program variation. It is definitely not for a raw novice as a first program.
To the original question, I don’t think you can go wrong with a basic M-W-F, Push/Legs/Pull split, keeping the total work sets per session to a maximum of 12-15, reps in the 8 - 12 range. Doing that for 4-6 weeks should provide a decent base.