Hey Guys,

I'm getting into weight training and have put together (without much planning, as I really have no experience) a routine based on advice given to me in this forum during discussions on weight loss.

My overall goal is fat loss, and the goal of my weights routine is to build muscle to increase base metabolic rate.

I am a beginner. All movements are compound movements:

*Barbell military press (17 kgs)
*dumbell bench press (30kg)
*assisted dips (my weight 100kg-47kg)
*leg press
*bent over rows (40kg)
*In the last one I hold a bar infront of me while standing and lift the bar through about 90 degrees in elbow angle (dont kno the name!)

In each I do 3 sets of 10, 8, then 5 reps to failure in each set.

I'm a beginner with the weights, have been doing the above routine for a week or so. My goal is to build muscle to burn more calories at rest.

I concentrate on slow movements and good form. The above routine takes me about an hour.

My week's overall routine consists of alternating this weights routine with cardio (and alternating between 1 hr LSR cardio and 20min HIIT).

I'm in a caloric deficit of about 700 calories, eating 30:20:50 protein:fat:carbs.

thanks guys

mike

ditch the leg press, do squats instead, and put squats first, alternate between squats and deadlifts each workout. Also, alternate between horizontal push/pull and vertical push pull each workout. So you could sort of make two workouts, workout A and workout B

A:
Squat
Horizontal pull (bendt over row
Horizontal push (bench press)

B:
Deadlift
Vertical pull (pullups/pulldown)
Vertical push (military press)

i just used examples so you got the idea of what a vertical and horizontal push/pull was. Thats a very basic workout, you could add some ab isolation, maybe some back extention and stuff like that at the end. You alternate between workout A and B 3 times a week. you could do A on monday and friday and B on wendsday, if your priority is what is in workout A, or the other way around if your priority is in workout B. Or you could alternate so week one you get two A and one B workout and week 2 you get two B and one A workout, which would make the frequency of both workouts equal.

thanks

How long do you think I should be training for each session maximum? atm its 1 hr...

keep it around an hour. I always try not to go over an hour.
Remember, what i posted is only the basics of a routine, alot of people add more, some people for example do front squats and then they do romanian deadlifts, since front squats is mostly quad and romanian deadlift is mostly hamstrings. Though they dont go as heavy on the romanians as the squats, to avoid burning out.

So lets say one of your workouts are like this:

Front squat 5x5
Romanian deadlift 2x8
Bendt over row 5x5
Bench press 5x5

it doesnt have to be those sets and reps, but just notice the principle, the romanian deadlift is light compared to the 5x5 of squats, to avoid burning out.

since you just started i would recommend to keep reps moderate to high.. in the 10-12 range, do 3 sets. Its to teach your body the movements and let your CNS learn how to fire the monitor units so they recruit more muscle fibers (you teach your body to use more of your muscles when lifting).

If you find the first example i used with 3 exercises is too light, you could do something like this:

A:
Front Squat 3x10
Romanian deadlift 1x10
Horizontal pull (bendt over row 3x10
Horizontal push (bench press) 3x10

B:
Deadlift 3x8 (lower reps here because form often breaks down with higher reps of this exercise)
bulgarian squat 1x12
Vertical pull (pullups/pulldown) 3x12
Vertical push (military press) 3x12

Karky's been doing his homework! Nice advice, K!

thanks alot everyone. I am digesting all this info