Building Muscle

Follow this starter weightlifting program. Listen to your body and you will get good results.

I will post a starter weightlifting program for you. The program is broken up by muscle group and is three days a week, but you can modify it if you like for more or less days. You can do this for eight weeks until your body gets used to the new activity, and then you can modify it by lifting heavier. You should show up at your workouts feeling strong and refreshed. If not, you may be overtraining and need to leave more days in between workouts. Keep in mind that your body grows during rest days, not training days, so you need to leave it enough time to recover. You may only need two days between sessions, but you may need three or even four. Listen to your body and you will get good results.

Here's the program.

Day 1: Chest (bench press with bar or dumbbell press, flyes, pushups), triceps (bench dips, kickbacks)

Day 2: Back (bent over rows) biceps (curls, standing or seated)

Day 3: Shoulders (lateral raises, front raises), legs (squats, lunges)

Do 10-12 repetitions, 1-3 sets per exercise. That means select a weight you can lift 10-12 times to momentary fatigue with good form. When you can easily lift the weight 12 times, increase the weight.

You can experiment with different splits. For instance, you could try the following

Day 1: Chest (bench press with bar or dumbbell press, flyes, pushups), Back (bent over rows, pulldowns)

Day 2: biceps (curls, standing or seated), triceps (bench dips, kickbacks)

Day 3: Shoulders (lateral raises, front raises), legs (squats, lunges)

There are dozens of exercises for both your lower and upper body. I've given you just a few. You can go to the EXRX web site (www.exrx.net/exercise.html) for pictures and videos of exercises organized by muscle group and select any of them. You might also want to browse some of the bodybuilding magazines for ideas on splits. Keep in mind that the people in the magazines are professionals and lift more than anyone, and you certainly don't need to lift as much they do, but you might get some ideas for splits. If you're looking for a book, I recommend books by Bill Pearl, Wayne Westcott, Thomas Baechle, Steve Fleck, or William Kraemer, but if you go to your local bookstore and browse, look for books with pictures that make it clear what you need to do.

You might also want to read the American College of Sports Medicine position statement on weightlifting. In the statement they review the latest literature on weightlifting as well as propose training guidelines. To locate it, visit www.acsm-msse.org/, then click on "Position Stands" in the left margin, and then scroll down to "Progression Models in Resistance Training for Healthy Adults."