GYM101- Intro to working out. Part 6: Exercises

There are two basic types of exercises- Compound exercises and Isolation exercises. As the names suggest, compound exercises work a group of muscles while isolations have a very specific target. The barbell or dumbbell curl (one where you bend your elbow with weight in  your hand) is a famous isolation exercise. Squats, deadlifts are compound exercises.

Without worrying about the details, take for granted that compound exercises are a lot more important than isolations- compound exercises give more strength and muscle gain and burn fat better than isolations. There is a bigger advantage, you feel a lot more pumped after a compound exercise than after an isolation. Bodybuilders need isolations since they have to have proper definition of each muscle. For strength training or other power sports, you don't need isolations in your routine. Nonetheless, it's good to go for isolations once in a while, only to make sure none of your muscles are weak.

A beginner doesn't have to worry about isolations and can starting working isolated muscles after some 2-3 months.

Basic compound exercises (Most important exercises first)

Squat (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kawBY5p29fQ)

Deadlift ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX8jgCFXYTU )

Bench press ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMq1rTaErMc )

Pullups ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQa7iV9sE_w&feature=related )

Military press ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAXPJ3PfdyY&feature=related )

Bent over barbell rows ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgKzGzOqiVo )

The biggest guys you see in youtube videos are those who had done a lot of squats and deadlifts...
I feel that they are "THE EXERCISES" and anyone who wants to do some serious strength training have to be good at these.
These compound exercises are the core exercises that have to be included in your workout routine at all times, never neglect any of them. If you have all of them, you can probably forget about every other exercise. Do 4-8 sets of each of these every week and you know you are going to put on some mass- provided you do them with proper intensity, allow sufficient time for recovery and have a nice diet.


As I've mentioned in my earlier posts, a beginner first needs to set his body up before starting with the weights. 2-3 weeks with body weight exercises and you can start with the above stuff.

Routines:
A good routine to include all above exercises may look like this-
Work three days a week- Monday , Wednesday, Friday.  2 days of cardio and 2 days of rest.

Monday:
Squat
Deadlift
Bent over barbell rows


Wednesday:

Bench press
Pullups
Military press

Friday
Light Squat
Light pullups or barbell rows
Light bench press or military press

Alternately, train 4 days a week, with 1-2 days of cardio and rest on the rest of the days

Day 1: Lower body (Monday)
Squat
Deadlift
Barbell rows

Day 2: Upper body (Tuesday)
Bench press
Pullups
Military press

Day 3: same as day 1, lighter (Thursday)
Day 4: same as day 2, lighter(Friday)


Sets and reps:

Each exercise has to be done for 3 sets, with 10-12 reps each. Start with very low weights and focus on form. Form is the most important thing, weight can wait. Take about 1-3 minutes of rest between sets. Usually, you take just enough rest to be ready for the next set, not hours.

"Less is more"
You don't need to spend  2 hours in the gym- a nice 30-40 min workout is the best thing to do. Three compound exercises a day with 3-4 sets each is a lot better than a 2 hour workout with 10 isolations of 5 sets each. When you work intense with the 9 sets and then take a lot of time for recovery, you make a lot of progress.

Form is most important. Weight can wait.
If you start with lighter weights and focus on form and gradually increase the weight, before you even know yourself, you're already going very hard on the body. One major problem with beginners is they start too heavy, and have to compromise with their form. Stick to low weights, focus on form, load progressively. At the end of an year, you'd be lifting a lot more than others who do with arbit form.

In the last 2 years I have worked out in a gym, I have seen just too many guys (the exceptions may be 5 at most) do barbell curls (for biceps) with improper form- everyone loads the rod with a lot of weight and keeps swinging his body to lift that weight. End result- he ends up using his back and shoulders for a workout that is supposed to work his biceps ( and hence no improvement in the biceps) and the weight he uses is probably too light to affect the back or the shoulders.

Before and after....
Before you start working out in a gym, you need to prepare your body for that. Do some jogging for about 10-20 min to pump up your heart beat and blood circulation. Stretch your body- this would allow your muscles to work at their best.
After you're done, another 5 minutes of stretching and some slow jogging for 5-10 minutes is compulsory... Though these are not very appealing, they really help in the long run, especially the stretching part- avoids cramps, relaxes the muscle, helps in recovery. And a little warm up through jogging helps in muscle movements...