Why Full Body Routines Are Superior For Beginners

Most people new to training usually follow a split, so they'll have a chest day, leg day, back day, and shoulder day or something along those lines. The idea being that they don't want to train a muscle group more than once a week otherwise it'll get overtrained. Overtraining for a beginner is bullshit because like I have mentioned before, they are not adapted to heavy workloads. That means they need to build up their ability to recover from workloads. The more advanced you are, the higher the workload you need to make progress. Elite Olympic lifters squat heavy almost everyday.

The Bulgarians didn't believe in overtraining

"If you got a job as a garbage man and had to pick up heavy cans all day long, the first day would probably be very difficult, possibly almost impossible for some to complete. So what do you do, take three days off and possibly lose your job?

No, you'd take your sore, beaten self to work the next day. You'd mope around and be fatigued, much less energetic than the previous day, but you'd make yourself get through it. Then you'd get home, soak in the tub, take aspirin, etc. The next day would be even worse.

But eventually you'd be running down the street tossing cans around and joking with your coworkers. How did this happen? You forced your body to adapt to the job at hand! If you can't' squat and lift heavy every day you're not overtrained, you're undertrained! Could a random person off the street come to the gym with you and do your exact workout? Probably not, because they're undertrained. Same goes with most lifters when compared to elite athletes.

– John Broz 2002"

However, most of us don't plan on competing in the Olympics so we probably won't ever work up to such workloads. Olympic weightlifters also only train the back squat, front squat, clean and jerk, snatch and their power variations (power cleans and power snatches) which can be done on a daily basis. For normal trainees, bench pressing everyday would not a good idea as you'll most likely ruin your shoulders. Deadlifting everyday would also be hell on your lower back. But I was simply proving a point about 'overtraining', it's not all its cracked up to be.

Full body routines that incorporate a squat, press and pull every session (like Stronglifts 5x5 or Starting Strength) are great for beginners, because they train the lifts which give the most bang for their buck, as well as build up their work capacity. Your legs get trained by squatting, instead of doing leg press, leg extension and leg curls. You train your shoulders by overhead pressing, rather than doing front raises, side raises and rear delt raises. Your triceps get trained by benching and overhead pressing, no need for tricep kickbacks. Your back gets trained by barbell rows and deadlifts. This is called training economy. Getting more out of doing less exercises.

What do you think will make your legs grow quicker as a beginner? Squatting once a week or squatting three times a week? When you're a beginner you're undertrained, overtraining is not possible. Full body routines also build mental discipline in trainees. Squats are difficult, but you get them out of the way first. This builds a mentality that doesn't dread 'training legs'. Once you finish 5 sets of squats, other exercises don't seem so bad in comparison. Full body routines teach you to squat often because they are the best exercise for your body. As the name implies, every session you train your entire body.

Which brings me to the limitations of split routines for beginners. What if life interfered and you had to miss one of your sessions? Does that mean that muscle group misses out on getting worked for the week? Most beginners like training their upper body so chances are it'll be the leg day that gets missed. If this happens enough times you'll end up as Captain Upper Body with small chicken legs, which is plain ridiculous looking and you'll be those guys who wear long pants at the gym to hide their skinny legs.

Couldn't find a real photo but you get the idea

So when is it suitable to use a bodypart split for training? When you're lifting heavy enough weights on an exercise to produce a workload that you cannot recover from in time within the same week to lift heavy again, on the same exercise. If you're not even benching at least 1.5xbodyweight, squatting and deadlifting 2xbodyweight and pressing close to your bodyweight then doing those lifts once a week is not enough. Once you hit these guidelines you'll be smart enough about your training to make a decision if its time to do the lifts once a week. And skinny guys if you weigh 60kg don't even bother following these guidelines you need to put on more muscle.

Smarter, more experienced trainees also don't think about splits in terms of chest, legs, back and shoulders but rather bench day (and bench assistance), squat day (and squat assistance), deadlift day (and deadlift assistance) and overhead press day (and shoulder assistance).


In conclusion:

• Full body routines let you hit all your muscles more times in a week than in a bodypart split, which will make you gain muscle quicker
• Full body routines don't neglect muscle groups, but on a bodypart split if you miss a day that muscle group misses out for the week
  
• Full body routines allow beginners to adapt to high workloads

Sources:

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/max_out_on_squats_every_day

Know Exactly Why You're Doing Something

If you were to show me your routine, and I was to ask why you were doing certain exercises, you should be able to answer me. However, this is only true if you've been training properly for at least a year. This means that the first sentence does not hold true for beginners. Chances are if you walked into the gym for the first time, with no guidance from anyone you would just start doing curls. I know I was guilty of this.

I honestly don't think the reason why people train ineffectively is because they are stupid, but simply because they are misguided. I'm sure many folks did some research on how to exercise, or bought one of those muscle magazines to try to find a routine they could follow. Its good that they took the initiative, but unfortunately they looked in the wrong place. The problem with following the routines in magazines is that most of the time, those magazines are actually owned by supplement companies. So what they'll do is give you a crap routine to follow which changes every week, in the hopes that when you get frustrated from your lack of progress you'll resort to buying supplements in hopes of making progress. Its a dirty business (I don't think its as bad in Australia as it is in America though).

I'll be honest there's no golden program that will make you super strong and muscular. I think even people who've been training for over a year struggle with this. The best program is what works for you. You are not the same as the person next to you, so if you both were to do the same program don't expect the both of you to get the same results. If you compared the routines of the strongest people in the world, none of them are the same. Some people deadlift every week, some people only deadlift in competitions and train their deadlift by doing assistance exercises (you don't have to worry about this until you can deadlift at least 3 x bodyweight I reckon).

That's why you need to be smart with your training. If progress is going great, don't change what you're doing. The stupid thing about people who change routines every week for 'muscle confusion' or whatever is that they have no idea how they're making progress. How would you know whats working or not if you keep doing something different every week? If you need to make a change, change things one at a time, don't change the whole program, that way you'll know what's working for you and what isn't. When is it time to make a change? When something stops working. Duh.

I'll give you an example. For over a year I trained my deadlift by warming up then performing a heavy set of 5 reps ( 1 x 5 ). I was able to work up to a decent weight training this way, but eventually this method stopped working for me. When I deloaded and worked my way back up I got stuck at the same weight. I figured that my body wasn't getting stressed enough from training this way, and that I needed more volume, so I'm now doing more heavy sets to ensure I'm getting more work done. And once this method stops working I will need to figure out a new way to train my deadlift. Programming is an art.

I like doing heavy deadlifts and so should you.

So the problem with more experienced trainees is that they think once their program stops working, that its time to switch to a totally different program. Most of the time, its just one lift that has stalled, so there's no need to switch to a totally new program if the other lifts are still progressing. Just find a way to keep making progress on the exercise has stalled. Stalling can be frustrating, and it happens to everyone, its just part of the game. I'll talk about stalling in another post.

Bottom line, there's no perfect program, just what allows you to keep making progress for the time being.

But it seems I have contradicted myself. Why would I recommend generic cookie-cutter programs like Stronglifts 5x5 or Starting Strength for beginners? That's because beginners aren't adapted to workloads yet. I bet after the first day of doing Stronglifts 5x5 or Starting Strength, you got sore all over your body, even if the weights were light. That's because you're not adapted to this kind of workload. The aim of these programs is to get the trainee adapted to workloads, as well as get them strong in a short period of time. So beginners aren't at a stage where they need to tailor programs to their individual needs yet. I'll write a post on what to do once Stronglifts 5x5 or Starting Strength stops working. The strength gains you'll make on Stronglifts 5x5 or Starting Strength will be the quickest gains you'll ever make, since you're increasing the weight every session.

So then what makes Stronglifts 5x5 or Starting Strength better than the routines you see in magazines? What if a beginner just stuck to a routine from a magazine and didn't keep switching routines every week?

Let me write out a day from a routine I found in a Men's magazine:

Day 1:

Bench Press
3 sets of 8-10 reps

Dumbbell Fly
3 sets of 8-10 reps

Partial Lockout
3 sets of as many as possible reps

Barbell Row
3 sets of 8-10 reps

Squat
3 sets of 8-10 reps

Dumbbell Shoulder Press
1 set of 8-10 reps

Barbell Curl
1 set of 8-10 reps

Tricep Pushdown
1 set of 8-10 reps

Standing Calf Raise
1 set of 8-10 reps

The other days are just as bad. Do you really think when doing so many exercises in one session, that you can put your best effort into each and every exercise? I'm pretty sure by the 5th or 6th exercise you'd just be going through the motions.

One session from Stronglifts 5x5 looks like this:

Squat
5x5

Bench Press
5x5

Barbell Row
5x5

Who do you think will be out of the gym quicker? The guy doing the first routine or the guy doing the second one? It's better to put more effort into less exercises, than less effort into more exercises. It's better to be good at a few things, than to be average at many things. If the only exercise you're doing for chest (and technically triceps and front deltoids) is the bench press, you're more likely to put more effort into it than if you were going to do incline bench then dumbbell flyes afterwards too.

Same concept for the other exercises. Better to put more effort into squats and deadlifts, rather than not push hard as hard as you can when doing squats, leg press, lunges, leg extensions and leg curls. Don't let your main lifts (squat, bench press, deadlift, overhead press) be held back because you have to worry about doing other exercises afterwards. Isolating muscle groups for better definition is bullshit by the way, your muscle definition depends on your body fat levels.

Why do you think the strength performance sports only have a few lifts? Olympic Weightlifting has two lifts, the Clean and Jerk and the Snatch. Powerlifting has three lifts, the Squat, Bench Press and Deadlift. To be good at something you need to do it more. Does your squatting technique suck? Squat more so you have more chances to work on it. Has your deadlift been stuck for months? Deadlift more because you need more volume. Note when I say more, I mean enough to cause stress that you can recover from. I don't mean like deadlifting every single day.

I can guarantee you Pyrros Dimas didn't do calf raises or lunges

Train hard folks, but also train smart.



Side note: I bet someone out there is going to disagree with this post. Well let me ask you this, if you have a beginner spend a year doing those routines in the magazines, or a year doing a program like Stronglifts 5x5 who's going to get better results? I know the answer because I spent a year each on both methods, and I've never gone back to the magazine routines.

Exercises You Shouldn't Bother Doing

If you're a beginner don't do the following exercises, chances are you'll do them incorrectly anyway.

Leg Press


If you think this exercise is better than squats you couldn't be more wrong. Doesn't matter how many 20kg plates you can throw on the machine, it'll never compare to a squat. Its also possible for your lower back to round at the bottom position which would place your spine in a compromising position. The leg press is more of a quad builder, and leaves out the hamstrings and glutes. Do squats which will train your legs and whole body much more effectively.

Smith Machine Exercises


The smith machine squat is not as bad as the leg press but still pretty terrible. The machine takes balance out of the equation which can make you develop really bad habits for the squat. If you look at the picture above the bar is way behind the middle of the feet, an impossible position to maintain in a free-weight squat (you'd fall on your ass). Avoid doing anything in the smith machine and you'll be better off.

Leg Extensions

A great way to tell your knees that you hate them. When you think about it your legs extend during the squat anyway, making this exercise redundant.

-------------

Pretty much any exercise that involves a machine you should stay away from for three main reasons:

1. They help stabilise the weight for you, so you're not getting the most out of the exercise compared to when using free weights
2. They force you to move through a range of motion which may not cater for your body's leverages which can be detrimental
3. Training to isolate muscle groups is redundant as your muscles don't act this way in real life. This type of training may be useful for aesthetic purposes but as a beginner you have no business training this way.
   

Just get strong on the main compound lifts (using barbells not machines) and your training will be much more productive.

Sit-ups and Crunches

It takes countless reps to even feel anything, and most people do them wrong anyway by using their hips. Doing countless situps is not going to make your belly fat go away, that's going to depend on your body fat level which you can lower by lowering your food intake (you'll have an easier time if done in conjunction with exercise that is intense enough).

A more productive ab exercise that will strengthen your abs are prone bridges.


Maintain a rigid position as shown above for 3 sets of 30 seconds. As you get better at them you may put weights on your back (you might need someone to help you with this) to make the exercise more difficult. Prone bridges don't take as long as sit ups and they're more effective.

Personal Records (PRs)

In the video above, I got the 5 reps I was aiming for, I failed my first attempt at this last week. But I didn't give up when I failed. I was even more motivated to succeed.

Moments like these are why you should train. The self satisfaction you feel when you lifted better than last time, be it through a heavier weight or more reps. You should strive to set personal records in your training. Otherwise, how do you know if you're getting better? If you got all the reps you wanted to at a particular weight and felt good about it, there's no reason why you shouldn't increase the weight next time. This is how one trains for results.

If you are serious about your training and getting results, you should keep a training log. A training log serves multiple purposes, all of them useful.

• A training log allows you to track your progress so you know exactly what weights you lifted and when
  
• A training log ensures you know exactly what you're going to do when you step foot in the gym. Not one second spent in the gym should be wasted. Have a plan and attack the weights.
• A training log allows you to recall how you trained in the past; a great way to see what worked for you and what didn't over time.
  

How to set out a training log is simple. Find a sturdy notebook that will last you a year or two. Write out what you're going to do on a certain day before you go into the gym. Keep the writing neat and legible, who knows when you might need to read back on it again. Here's an example of how I would set out a day of training in my training log:

Monday 30/1/12

Squat
20kg x 5
60kg x 5
100kg x 3
125kg x 1
152.5kg 5 x 5

Overhead Press
20kg x 5
40kgx 3
50kg x 1
65kg 5 x 3

Barbell Rows
40kg x 5
60kg x 3
80kg x 1
95kg 5 x 5

Once you have completed an exercise in the gym, you may write comments on how it felt if you wish, such as 'technique felt off today', or 'felt strong under the bar today', or 'felt sluggish going into the gym today'. If all the exercises feel terrible in the same day its possible your recovery (eating and sleeping) is not up to scratch. A training log allows you to pick up on these patterns.

Don't ever let anyone make you doubt yourself. Do they laugh at you for bringing a training log to the gym? Maybe that's because they put as much thought into their training as a brain dead monkey. Do they try to discourage you from lifting heavy weights because its 'bad for you'? Maybe that's because they've never lifted a heavy weight in their life and don't know what it means to work hard. Average people don't like seeing other people succeed whilst they get left behind so they'll try to bring you down. Don't let these people get to you.

Since I brought it up, lifting heavy weights is not bad for you. Lifting weights badly is bad for you. Maintain correct technique and you'll be fine. Squats and deadlifts are not bad for your back, in fact quite the opposite. Doing these lifts heavy will strengthen your back and improve your posture. I've even read about people who had back pain which magically disappeared once they started lifting weights.

Stay driven, set challenging goals for yourself and don't ever doubt yourself. You are more awesome than you think.

Diet

If you eat like shit, you're going to feel like shit and chances are you'll look like shit too. I shit you not.

In a diet, the main things you need to be concerned about are your macronutrients (protein, fat, carbohydrates). You want to make sure you are getting a good balance of these macronutrients in your diet, but you also want to make sure that they are coming from good sources.

Protein

Important for muscle growth and repair. You should aim for at least 1 gram per pound of bodyweight. Sources of protein include:

• Eggs
• Meat (chicken, beef, pork, lamb, seafood, etc)
• Milk
• Nuts

Fat

Fat is important for your skin and hair, and also allows for vitamins A, D, E, and K to be digested (thanks wikipedia). You need fat in your diet to stay healthy, but it needs to be the right kind of fat; unsaturated fats. Sources of unsaturated fats include:

• Olive oil
• Fish oil
• Flaxseed oil
• Fish

The fats on meat from farm animals like chicken, beef, pork and lamb are bad for you. Don't eat those kinds of fats (cut them off from the meat). I don't care if you like how chewy it is.

Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates provide your brain with energy. Try go a day without carbs and you'll most likely feel grumpy because your brain depends on it. Its not as important as protein and fats, but for skinny guys wanting to put on size, you need carbs in your diet. Sources of carbs include:

• Rice
• Bread
• Pasta
• Vegetables
• Fruits
• Cereal

Trying to Get Leaner?

A lot of people have high body fat levels because they consume too many carbs in their diet. When you consume more carbs than your body needs it gets stored on your body as fat. Society is partly to blame. I know Asians like relying on eating rice to get full. When you go out to eat, carbs are in everything; burgers, pizza, pasta etc. Next time order a steak instead of a burger.

Certain sources of carbs (rice and pasta) are also very calorie dense, which means if you had 100g of rice vs 100g of broccoli, the rice would have more calories. Girls trying to get leaner, eat less carbs and consume more protein and healthy fats. I'm not saying carbs are evil, your brain needs them for energy but watch your intake. A good way to instantly lower your carb intake is to remove them completely from one of your meals in a day. For example for breakfast instead of having cereal you could instead have an egg. Or for dinner you just eat meat and vegetables without the rice.

However, make sure the meal you have after a training session has carbs in it. This is because your glycogen in your muscles get depleted during exercise, so you need carbs to restore the muscle glycogen. Glycogen is what allows your muscles to contract during prolonged exercise, so it is important to restore it once it has been depleted.

So how do you know how much to eat so that you can lose fat? On a typical day, write down everything you eat in that day (what the food is and the portion size). If you don't know the exact portion size, write what it is relative to the size of your fist (e.g a fistful of rice, half a fist of chicken etc); sounds silly but at least its consistent. Be honest with yourself. Take a photo of yourself and take measurements of your arm, waist and thigh. Now eliminate all carbs from one of those meals and stick to this for two weeks. Take another photo and measure yourself again. Notice any difference? If you have been exercising (like what I recommended in the previous blog post) you should notice an improvement. Usually you'll lose a few kilograms of bodyweight easily at the start and then it'll get harder and harder. If you're not improving, reduce the portions of food and see how your body responds. Be sure to reduce the food portions gradually. Lower the food portions too drastically and your body may freak out and instead of losing fat, you'll lose muscle. This isn't anything fancy but as long as you're being honest with how you're eating and training hard then I don't see why this shouldn't work.

How do you know if you're training hard? If its challenging. If you need to muster some level of willpower to make yourself finish all the exercises. If your time at the gym is pleasant and enjoyable, you're not training hard enough. Don't waste your time at the gym catching up with friends or watching TV, get in, work hard and get out. As I said before, you only get out what you put in. If you really want to improve how you look, put in the effort, then enjoy the results.

One final thing. Eat fast food as least as possible because the food is most likely processed and full of saturated fats, artificial colours and preservatives and whatnot. This is why its better to prepare most of your own meals, because you know exactly what's in it. Make sure the food you eat comes from organic sources, if it doesn't rot or go off after a long time then its not organic and you shouldn't eat it. That means don't eat too many snacks or junk food either. Its better to stay disciplined and indulge once in a while (once or twice a month) than to always eat terribly and constantly feel sorry for yourself. Be sensible when you indulge also.

Now you know what 'toning up' really means (the training and dieting aspects), please stop referring to it as such. Let the people who don't know what they're doing use the term.

Skinny Guys:

If you are of average height (170-180cm) then refer to the guide below to know if you're skinny. The first two points hold true no matter what your height though (unless you're really short).

• 50kg: you are very skinny and probably can't even look at yourself in the mirror. Hell I could probably eat you for lunch.
• 60kg: you are still skinny
• 70kg: you are average
• 80kg: you are above average but not big
• 90kg: you are big
• 100kg: you are massive

If you fell in the first two categories this is what you need to do. Eat like a horse. Eat like a glutton. Pretend the more you eat, the more kittens you'll save. Trust me, if you're skinny people don't respect you. They probably disrespect you behind your back. I would know I used to be skinny too. The perfect way to get back at them is to get big and strong.

When you're skinny, what you eat is not as important because your body needs the calories. So carbs is going to be your friend because it is calorie dense. The approach here is going to be different to the previous section. Wake up early, the extra hours will give you more time to eat. Follow the template below:

Breakfast: Eggs, ham, toast, milk

Snack: Chicken or beef sandwich

Lunch: Rice or pasta, vegetables and meat (chicken, beef, pork, lamb etc)

Dinner: Rice or pasta, vegetables and meat (chicken, beef, pork, lamb etc)

Pre-bed: Protein shake mixed with milk, or just milk if you're too cheap to buy protein

If you're lactose intolerance, mix protein powder with water instead.

When first starting off, try 2 eggs for breakfast, and 1 cup of milk. For lunch and dinner, start off with 250g of rice (weigh it on a scale so you have a point of reference from now on), and say a fistful of vegetables and meat each. Don't forget to take a 'before' photo. If you're training hard (do Stronglifts 5x5 or Starting Strength, make sure technique is good, don't do cardio) the weight should be packing on for the first few months. Once you stop gaining weight, time to increase your food portions.

Increase it to 3 eggs for breakfast and 2 cups of milk. For lunch and dinner, 300g of rice and a fistful and a half of meat. Just keep how much vegetables you're eating constant. You need to save the room in your stomach for the rice and meat. Once you stop gaining weight again, increase to 4 eggs for breakfast and 3 cups of milk. For lunch and dinner, 400g of rice and two fistfuls of meat.

Make sure you don't gain weight too quickly either. Your body can only produce muscle at a certain rate, beyond that its just fat. If you're gaining 2 kilograms a week you're going to get fat.

Every time your weight stops climbing, assess where you are. How strong are you and how much do you weigh? Its good to have a certain level of relative strength just to know your strength is somewhat proportion to your size. So after months of consistent training (it could take 3 months or 6 months or even a year) and busting your ass in the gym, you should be squatting around 1.5xbodyweight, deadlifting 2xbodyweight, benching 1xbodyweight or higher (this will vary depending on if you have long arms or short arms), and pressing around 0.7-0.8xbodyweight. I wasted a year doing stupid bodybuilding programs but I still gained 10kg in the first year. So if you gain weight while training the right way a beginner should then you should be in a better position than I am now in once you have been lifting for 2-3 years.

Only once you have reached the above average weight range should you think about whether you are happy at this weight or if you want to keep getting bigger.

Sources:

http://www.eatingdisordersonline.com/nutritional/fats.php

http://www.livestrong.com/article/414187-why-do-we-need-carbohydrates-in-our-diet/

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_primary_function_of_muscle_glycogen

http://www.daveywaveyfitness.com/nutrition/shocking-but-true-your-body-needs-carbs-after-exercising/

What 'Toning Up' Really Means

A toned look means you are firmer to touch. If you were toned and pinched say your arm, you would only be able to pinch the skin and a bit of fat. If you weren't toned, you'd be able to pinch a lot more than just your skin. That being said, how toned you look depends on how much body fat you have. What many females don't realise is that it is possible to be skinny and not toned, i.e skinny-fat. So its not just about the size, but also the quality.

This guy is skinny fat

To lower your body fat level, you need to burn more calories than you are consuming. This is what is known as a calorie deficit. This means because your body cannot get all the energy it needs from the food you're eating, it will have no choice but to take energy from your body fat. This doesn't mean you can eat nothing and expect all your bodyfat to disappear either. Its a gradual process.

If you don't exercise and try to lose bodyfat purely from dieting, then you have to be careful about what you eat, and worry about how many calories you're consuming. Honestly that's no fun, and not many people succeed when purely on a diet. So the other factor that is in our control is exercise. It is easier to create a calorie deficit from exercise, because when you exercise, you burn calories. Frequent exercise will also take some of the pressure off from diet, in that you don't have to be anal about what you eat (unless you want to go down to really low bodyfat levels like for a bodybuilding contest). The most extreme example I can think of is Michael Phelps.

An example of what Michael Phelps eats in a day:

Breakfast: Three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. Two cups of coffee. One five-egg omelet. One bowl of grits. Three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar. Three chocolate-chip pancakes.

Lunch: One pound of enriched pasta. Two large ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo on white bread. Energy drinks packing 1,000 calories.

Dinner: One pound of pasta. An entire pizza. More energy drinks.

Michael Phelps

How is it that someone who consumes 10000 calories a day (from food like chocolate, pasta and pizza) can stay so lean? He trains for 5 to 6 hours a day, 6 days a week that's how. Since we aren't professional athletes like Michael Phelps, we obviously have to be more careful about what we eat.

Anyway for any girls reading this, they might be thinking 'but I've gone to the gym to exercise but still didn't get any results'. Chances are you went to the gym and went on the treadmill or stationary bike for an hour (known as steady state cardio), or you did some curls with the pink dumbbells then did a lot of crunches or situps. The problem with steady state cardio is that due to its low intensity, you only burn calories during the activity. So once you stop, you're no longer burning calories. The problem with doing endless crunches is that that's not the way to get rid of the belly fat, the correct way is to lower your body fat levels.

Doing crunches for an hour is a waste of time

The higher your metabolism, the easier it is to lose fat. How do you increase your metabolism then? By building more muscle. The more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism, the easier it is to lose fat. A lot of females will freak out from this idea, but that's because they think that they will end up looking like gigantic hulks with arms bigger than the men around them. It is impossible for a female to look like that unless they take steroids, because their body just doesn't produce enough testosterone naturally.

Impossible to look like this without steroids

Below are pictures of more realistic physiques that female can achieve.

Even still, a lot of the above women are professional athletes so most females won't achieve the same level of muscularity as them. But I was just proving that having muscle won't make females massive and scary.

So how does one train with a high enough intensity so that they can build muscle? Below is a simple program females can follow:

Session A

Squat 5 x 5

Bench Press 5 x 5

Row 5 x 5

Cycling

Session B

Squat 5 x 5

Overhead Press 5 x 5

Deadlift 1 x 5

Cycling

If you're too weak to use even the empty 20kg barbell for the bench press and overhead press, you can use those lighter barbells that you see people always curling with (you may need someone to help get the barbell into the correct position), or you can use dumbbells. For the squat and deadlift, there's no excuse you have to use a barbell. Be sure to research on the correct technique for these exercises before attempting them (feel free to ask me any questions in the comments section). The 5x5 or 1x5 that you see do not include the warmup sets, but if you're starting out with the empty bar, just do that for 5x5 (or 1x5 depending on the exercise). If you successful get all the reps by yourself, increase the weight for next time. Take small weight jumps.

Why am I recommending this for females? If you get stronger, you will build more muscle, thus improving your metabolism and ability to lose fat. Why are there no situps or crunches? Because when you perform the compound lifts, you need to breath into your diaphragm (think about breathing into your stomach) for more stability, which will allow you to brace your abs hard. This is enough ab work that a beginner will need.

As for the cycling, I don't mean sit on a stationary bike reading a magazine for an hour. This should last around 10 minutes tops. What you want to do is first warm up for 5 minutes, then set the resistance to a level that is moderately hard, then cycle hard all-out for 20 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds (cycling slowly and catching your breath), then cycle all-out for 20 seconds again then rest for 10 seconds (cycling slowly and catching your breath), etc until you have done this eight times. Finally, cool down for 2 minutes. This is known as Tabata training which is intense, but it will do wonders for your metabolism. However, when first starting out its best to cycle at a moderately fast pace for 10 minutes for the first week or so just to get your heart and lungs used to this.

Why is this better than cycling at a comfortable pace for an hour? Because in the 10 minutes you are cycling, you are doing intense work. This will raise your metabolism, so once you stop exercising, you will still continue to burn calories afterwards. Sounds better than cycling for an hour to me. If you have a heart condition it's probably best not to do the Tabata training.

Read the site below for more information on this:

http://www.tabataprotocol.com/

Basically you want to build up to your maximum heart rate (220 minus your age), and once you do reach it, next time increase the cycling resistance and build your way up again. You don't have to reach your maximum heart rate every time, you just want to build up to it say every 2 or 3 cycling sessions.

This program sounds like hard work, and it is. But hard work brings results. Take photos and measurements every fortnight to track your progress. I will be honest there are different ways of achieving the results you want, but through hard work and consistency you will get there. The more you put in, the more you will get out. The next post will cover diet.

One last thing, if you are going to the gym for the first time don't bother with the personal trainers, or you run the risk of them making you do stupid exercises like this:

Dumb and Dumber

Sources:
http://www.tabataprotocol.com/
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/08/13/the-michael-phelps-diet-dont-try-it-at-home/
http://www.muscleprodigy.com/michael-phelps-workout-and-diet-arcl-1142.html

Failure...

...don't be afraid of it. Every once in a while, you will fail during a set on a certain exercise. You better be prepared for when it happens:



Do you think before attempting the set that I was worried about failing? I'll be honest I didn't feel my best before that set, but I focused on trying my best. I was aiming for 5 reps but I got 4, not bad for not feeling too good. If I was worried about failing I'd be lucky to get 2 reps out of that set. Your willpower gives you strength. Training isn't easy, if it was, everyone would be strong. You gotta bust your ass to reap the rewards.

Here's how to fail safely on the main compound lifts:

Squat

As in the video above, simply lower yourself until the bar lands on the safety pins. Before squatting you will need to make sure the safety pins don't touch the bar when you are in the bottom position of the squat, yet aren't too low so you can lower the bar onto the pins safely if you need to. Note that I said lower the bar, not drop it. What this means is even if you have failed, keep your body tight and keep gripping the bar hard and ease onto the safety pins, don't drop down suddenly.

Bench Press

Before I talk about how to fail on the bench press, I should say something about spotters. The only time their hands touch the bar is when helping you to rack the bar when you were unable to complete a rep on your own. From that point on the set is finished. Countless of times I have seen people benching whilst the spotter had their hands on the bar during the entire set. This is an incredibly stupid way to bench because you have no idea how strong you really are unless you perform the reps unassisted. This goes for the squat also. Don't be those guys who go bragging to their mates about how much they're benching despite the spotter helping with the rep.

Anyway back on topic. The role of the spotter is to help you safely rack the bar when you fail to complete a rep. Its best to have a spotter for the bench press during your work sets (i.e the weight you are benching 5x5 or 3x5 with). During a successful bench press set, the spotter shouldn't have had to touch the bar at all. If you're benching real heavy weights that are hard to unrack by yourself, you can ask for a hand-off (or lift-off) where the spotter helps you unrack the bar, then allows you to perform the set on your own. Be sure to establish a signal that you will use when you cannot complete the rep, it could be saying 'help' or shaking your head. Once the spotter helps you lockout the bar, rack it. The set is over. Try the weight again for the next bench session. If you still don't get all the reps (on your own) on your third attempt at that weight, deload by 10% and work your way back up.

Be honest with yourself. To be successful with a strength program, you need to know if you are getting stronger. If you keep increasing the weight but the spotter is helping you with all the reps, you do not know if you are getting stronger. Hell, the spotter could be pulling the bar harder. I've seen many spotters do what resemble upright rows when spotting the bench press whilst exclaiming "its all you man!" Train for results, not your ego.

Overhead Press

Failing on the overhead press is simple. Lower the bar back onto your shoulders then rack the weight. Easy as pie.

Deadlift

Failing on the deadlift is even simpler. Lower the bar back on the ground gently without compromising your back.

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A few words need to be said about training to failure. For a beginner, training to failure is plain stupid. A beginner is still developing a feel for correct technique. As you near failure, the technique will breakdown. A beginner who has not properly developed their technique will have terrible form when near failure and run the risk of getting injured.

As I mentioned earlier, how do you really know if you're getting better if you are always training to failure? So what if you benched 70kg for 3 reps then the spotter helped you get out an extra two reps? Wouldn't it have been better if you were able to get all 5 reps on your own?

One thing a lot of people don't understand is that you get stronger when you can recover from the stress that was placed upon your body. That is why proper diet and sleep is crucial to success on a training program. But if you keep pushing your body past its capabilities with endless assisted reps and drop sets, your body may not be able to recover in time for your next session. That's why you see a lot of people who always train to failure not making much progress. I find it sad when I see people who haven't improved at all in a year. You should make it an obligation to yourself to be better than how you were the same time last year.

Training to failure is however different to grinding out reps. When you grind a rep (hopefully this is the last rep of your set), it means you got close to failure, but you didn't fail. Grinding out reps will become a normal part of your training when dealing with heavy weights. Correct technique and willpower are a must to power through these tough reps.