Beginer's workout question

[Anthony]

Hi everyone!

New to the board here, and so far I'm loving it! Lots of useful information on here :)

Anyways, I'm wanting to start weight lifting to gain some muscle mass. (I'm 5'10" aprox 155lbs)

Now I'm going through the ExRx.net Workout Template to devise a workout routine for myself.

I'm thinking of choosing the Full Body workout but I'm not sure if I should chose 3 days/week or every other day? What would you folks recommend?

And one other thing (sorry for all the newb questions), after I chose the workout type (Alternating Upper/Lower) do I do each of those exercises listed under it every time I work out, or do I break them up throughout the week?

I hope this all makes sense and is clear, lol!

Thank you very much to everyone who has taken the time to read this and I look forward to your responses!

-Anthony

[Matt Z]

If your doing full-body workouts then you'll be working all major muscle groups every time you workout, usually with the same exercises. In this case I would recomend training three days a week, since this will give you more recovery time than training every other day.

You may however find that even this does not allow adequate recovery time. If so, I would recomemend trying a slit routine in which each muscle group is trained only once or twice a week.

[Matt Z]

PS.) In a split routine you still train every major muscle group, just not all in the same workout.

[Stephen Johnson]

Hi Anthony - welcome aboard!

I'm thinking of choosing the Full Body workout but I'm not sure if I should chose 3 days/week or every other day? What would you folks recommend?

I would do the 3x a week routine first. Also, during the first couple of weeks, your focus should be on learning the exercises, not how much weight that you can lift. Once you're familiar with the exercises, you can designate heavy, light and moderate training days. On your heavy day you would squat, say, 100 lbs. On your next workout, you would squat 60 (light day) and the next you would squat 80 (moderate day). The weights that I gave are hypothetical, but you get the idea. The next week, you can add a small amount of weight to your exercises

And one other thing (sorry for all the newb questions), after I chose the workout type (Alternating Upper/Lower) do I do each of those exercises listed under it every time I work out, or do I break them up throughout the week?

At first, do them in a group and see how that goes. As you progress with your lifting, you can get into all kinds of variations.

Be sure to keep a training diary, so you can look back and see what works for you and what doesn't.

Good luck.

[Matt Z]

Good point. Learning proper form is critical. Also, you may want to experiment with different variations of certain exercises. For example, on squats you may want to try different stances and bar placements to see which feels most comfortable and natural for you. Always do this with light weights.

[Anthony]

Cool, thanks for all the info guys!

Definately gonna go for 3 days/week to start and mess around with different variations and weights.

Thanks again :)

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