FITNESS REVIEWS AND IMAGES: Fast Track To Intermediate: 8-Week Beginner Workout

New Exercise and Fitness Review

‘Tis the time of year to pack up the holiday ornaments, store the items you intend to re-gift for next year, and shop for new pants because of the weight you gained over the holidays.

Well, it is for some people. We have a better idea for you. Get that now-XXL butt of yours back to the gym and restart your membership.

Finding a New-Year’s-resolution-inspired training program is easy: for one, you can just follow the workout below. Nothing sinks motivation faster than a lack of progress, and this one is geared toward propelling you all the way to intermediate status in just two months. No spinning your wheels on equipment for months and making no appreciable gains; the aim here is to build upon earlier successes so that momentum and motivation build from one workout to the next.

This program has two parts. The two-day beginner’s split (you cover all the major body parts over two days, repeating it twice per week) isn’t geared for rank beginners; for that, check out The Ultimate Beginner’s Full-Body Workout. We assume some familiarity with basic exercises. Maybe you’re coming back from an extended layoff or injury. Maybe you’ve been following a beginning-level routine for a while and are ready to take the next step up. Either way, you’re in the right place.

Here are a few of the highlights and features of this beginner-to-intermediate program:

1 You follow a two-day split for the first four weeks

The two-day split is broken into an upper- and lower-body workout. You’ll work all the major muscle groups to build a stronger and balanced physique, which also prevents muscular imbalances that can arise when you favor some muscle groups over others. Such imbalances could lead to injury—which will hold back your progress big-time.

Working all the major muscle groups helps to build a stronger and balanced physique.

2 The first month is geared toward understanding the
basic movement patterns, learning good technique, feeling muscles work, and determining a challenging weight for each movement

After warm-up sets, which are never taken to muscle failure, you’ll do 3-4 working sets for a target rep that’s listed in the workout.

Understanding the relationship between weight and reps is critical; while it seems obvious that the more weight you do the fewer times you can lift it, what you want to do this first month is find the exact weight in which you can do just 12 reps, and no more. If you choose a weight that’s too light and you can do more than 12 reps, add weight for your next set.

You want to ensure the last rep or two is very tough, verging on muscle failure. If you’re using sloppy form to achieve that last rep or two, that doesn’t count; you’re going too heavy.

3 Most gains in strength that come during the first
month result from neurological adaptations that take place, rather than from actual increases in the size and strength of muscle fibers

That’s one reason you aren’t going with heavier weights for lower reps the first month, or even to muscle failure. But once you can do more than 12 reps with a given weight, add about 5 percent to the weight. Keep your reps in the 10-12 range during the first phase. Resist the urge to go heavy.

Keep your reps in the 10-12 range during the first phase. Resist the urge to go heavy.

4 The second month you’ll follow a three-day split

Volume and intensity are increased for each body part, so you’ll train each muscle group slightly less often—from twice a week to once every 4-5 days. By volume, we’re talking about the number of exercises, sets, and reps. This is done by adding another exercise for each muscle group, which allows you to train the target body part from a different angle to stimulate better overall growth.

By intensity, we’re referring to the amount of weight you’re using. Instead of choosing a weight in which you can do 12 reps, you’ll be selecting a slightly heavier resistance that you can do for 8-10 reps, and sometimes as low as 6. This relatively heavier weight, in addition to the increase in training volume, is a trigger for muscle growth, or hypertrophy, when combined with good nutrition and rest.

5 For most body parts, the workouts rely on multijoint
exercises for optimal gains in size and strength.

Exercises are classified either as multijoint or single-joint moves. With multijoint exercises, two or more sets of joints are working to accomplish the lift. With a single-joint move, only one set of joints is working.

With multijoint exercises, two or more sets of joints are working to accomplish the lift. With a single-joint move, only one set of joints is working

During a bench press, for example, action is taking place at both the elbow and shoulder joints, while in a barbell curl the movement is restricted to the elbow joint. Because more muscle groups are engaged when doing multijoint moves, you can use far heavier weights, which are therefore better choices for achieving muscle and strength gains.

6 During the second month, take your sets to a point of
muscle failure

While in Phase One we suggest you choose a weight that approaches muscle failure, during the second phase, you actually want to test your physical limits. By that we mean that if you can do another rep with good form on a given set, do it. Keep going until you can’t do any more reps on your own with good form.

Keep in mind, however, that if you can do more reps than the target listed for a given exercise, you need to increase the weight. Conversely, if you can’t reach the target rep, it’s probably too heavy and you may need to reduce the weight.

As you fine-tune the amount of weight that you use, be mindful that achieving muscle failure is your goal, excluding warm-up sets. And remember, never sacrifice form to lift a weight that’s too heavy.

7 The rep targets follow a reverse-pyramid scheme
during the second phase

That is, after you do your warm-up sets for a given move (do as many as you need but never take warm-ups to muscle failure), choose a weight in which you can just reach the rep target. That will be the heaviest weight you’ll do for a given exercise, because each succeeding set is for the same rep target or a higher target (with a higher target you use a slightly lighter weight).

Following a reverse-pyramid scheme—the set sequence progresses to lighter weights for more reps—allows you to train to failure on each set, unlike a normal pyramid, when lighter-weight sets are not taken to muscle failure. Again, it’s important to note the link between taking multiple sets to failure and anabolism, the state that promotes muscle growth.

8 Increase the overload as you become stronger

Your body responds to the training stimulus by growing bigger and stronger, but if you do the same weight for the same reps each workout, it doesn’t need to respond any further. So don’t fall into the rut of repeating the same workout week in, week out.

Challenge yourself to do more reps with a given weight or increase the weight from one workout to the next—that’s the progressive stimulus you need to keep making positive improvements. That’s where using a training log to write down your exercises, sets, and reps can help. Once you can do more than the target rep listed, add weight.

9 Learn the elements of lifting correctly

Inhale and hold your breath as you lift the weight in a strong and forceful manner, exhaling only over the top portion of the movement. Then lower the weight under control as you breathe in.

Reverse direction smoothly at the bottom position, never bouncing the weight in an effort to aid in the lift. Don’t use momentum or body English to assist you in lifting a weight. And never ever lock out a joint.

Inhale and hold your breath as you lift the weight in a strong and forceful manner, exhaling only over the top portion of the movement. Then lower the weight under control as you breathe in.

Practice each exercise over and over, and soon enough you’ll do the movements naturally without having to think about all the details of good form. But if you’re repeating sloppy form from the start, you might not know it until you incur an injury.

10 Rest 60-120-seconds between sets

In bodybuilding exercises, you want to take a short rest between sets to catch your breath and allow the blood to clear away the metabolic byproducts of intense training, so that you’re sufficiently recovered for your next set.

There’s no one-size-fits-all amount of time, as larger body parts (legs, back) and more intense sets (weights closer to your one-rep max) usually take longer to recover. Most of you can start your next set after catching your breath.

11 Don’t repeat a workout any sooner than 48-72 hours

As we stated earlier, the work you do in the gym is the stimulus for muscle building; the actual repair and growth occurs outside the gym and requires good nutrition and rest. The process of protein synthesis requires nutrients, time, and your naturally occurring hormones, which are secreted primarily during sleep. Shortchange any of these factors and your growth will suffer.

In terms of training frequency, don’t hit a given muscle group more frequently than once every 48 hours. As you become more advanced and add volume, you’ll want to increase that rest period, which we do in the second phase. Hence the scheduled off-days from the gym.

The process of protein synthesis requires nutrients, time, and your naturally occurring hormones, which are secreted primarily during sleep.

Because of this no-repeat rule, how you set up your split becomes important for recovery. You’ll notice that on the three-day split, the push muscles (chest, shoulders, and triceps) are all worked one day, because many of those muscles assist in exercises for other body parts. For example, when bench pressing, you don’t work just the pecs but also the delts and triceps.

If you were to arrange your split in another manner—say, doing chest on day one, shoulders on day two, and triceps on day three—you would lack sufficient recovery time.

12 Prepare to take your training to the next level in eight
weeks

As a beginner, you’ll make noticeable jumps in strength the first month. You’ll also find that gains usually start to stall when following any given program for too long. That’s why this program introduces elements to keep you progressing: a change in your training split, an increase in the volume of work for each body part, and an increase in the intensity, which means using heavier weights for lower-rep targets.

It’s important to explore what making changes in different training variables such as these affect size and strength gains. Learning how to manipulate these variables helps keep your training fresh and offers new challenges to overload the target muscles.

Pursue the 12 keys in this article and you won’t be a beginner for long.

Prepare to take your training to the next level in eight weeks.

THE 8-WEEK FAST TRACK TO INTERMEDIATE WORKOUT

Weeks 1-4

Do the upper- and lower-body workout twice per week, inserting 1-2 rest days once you complete both workouts. You should work out four days total per week.

Do two exercises for each of the major muscle groups.

The first four weeks you’ll be practicing your form, so the weight should be fairly light. Choose a weight that you can do for 12 reps for the listed number of sets.

Warm-up sets are not included; do as many as you need, but never take warm-ups to muscle failure.

As you get stronger and can do more than the target number of reps, increase the weight slightly.

If a given free-weight exercise is too difficult, find its machine counterpart and practice on it to rehearse the form before going back to free weights.

Note: every 3-4 days

Barbell Bench Press
3 sets of 12 reps

Incline Machine Press
3 sets of 12 reps

Lying T-Bar Row
3 sets of 12 reps

Wide-Grip Lat Pulldown
3 sets of 12 reps

Barbell Machine Shoulder Press
3 sets of 12 reps

Upright Barbell Row
3 sets of 12 reps

EZ-Bar Skullcrusher
3 sets of 12 reps

Standing Cable Pushdown
3 sets of 12 reps

Standing Biceps Cable Curl
3 sets of 12 reps

Machine Preacher Curls
3 sets of 12 reps

Note: every 3-4 days

Goblet Squat
3 sets of 12 reps

Leg Press
3 sets of 12 reps

Leg Extensions
3 sets of 12 reps

Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift
3 sets of 12 reps

Lying Leg Curls
3 sets of 12 reps

Standing Calf Raises
3 sets of 15 reps

Ab Crunch Machine
3 sets of 15 reps

Tuck Crunch
3 sets to failure

Weeks 5-8

Do the three workouts in order followed by a rest day, so the cycle should repeat every five days. You can also take Sundays or another day off per week as well, so that you’re working out 4-5 days per week.

Increase the number of exercises you do for each major body part to three. The additional exercise is from a different angle, so the target muscle is worked differently.

Warm-up sets are not included; do as many as you need, but never take warm-ups to muscle failure.

On your working sets, choose a weight so that you achieve muscle failure by the target rep. Adjust the weight up or down as necessary. Some sets call for a higher rep target on the second or third set; this is part of a reverse pyramid and means you should reduce the weight by 5-10 percent and do a higher number of reps. Because your fatigue levels increase from one set to the next, it allows for multiple sets to failure with the same exercise.

As you get stronger and can do more than the target number of reps, increase the weight by 5 percent for upper-body exercises and 10 percent for lower-body exercises.

Strive to learn new movements. Most free-weight exercises have machine counterparts, but the barbell and dumbbell version is always harder because it requires you to balance the weight and keep your core tight.