Skipping rope is an inexpensive piece of gym equipment! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Have you ever embarked on a new activity or workout only to be crippled by muscle soreness? Usually by the second day you’re so sore, you understand what it might be like to be 80 years old.
For those who want to start a new fitness program, going full tilt with big weights, reps and sets is only going to set you back. Why? Because some soreness is a motivator (the workout was effective!) but crippling soreness is going to cause you to delay your next workout which kills momentum (OMG I want to die!).
So what to do then? I said I was going to post a great workout for beginners that could be done with little or no equipment (see Ghetto Fitness for a quick rehash ;) http://winosguidetofitness.com/2013/01/15/ghetto-fitness).
This workout can be done by those with more experience too, but you’d need to tweak it to suit you:
- Cardio: 10 minutes
- Squat: 15 reps
- Flat bench press (or pushups if you don’t have a bench): 15 reps
- Bicep curl: 15 reps
- Cardio: 10 minutes
- Ab crunch on the ball (or on the floor): 15 reps
- Standing calf raise: 15 reps
- Exercise ball hamstring curl: 15 reps
- Cardio: 10 minutes
Don’t rest between each exercise. If you’re using weight you should be lifting 40% of your 1 rep max. What this means is: what weight would you use if you were only to do 1 bicep curl with perfect form? If the answer is 100 pounds that would be your 1 rep maximum. So you’re 40% 1 rep max would be 40 pounds. Just an example of course (curling 100 pounds is like, super hard) and you can play around with the weights when you’re just starting out. It may feel light but that’s ok!
But! If you’ve never done any kind of weight training before, there’s nothing wrong with using your own body weight for these exercises! You can add weight after a week or two.
For the cardio, this is where the skipping rope comes in handy. If you don’t have one you can set a timer and do various cardio based exercises on the spot (jumping jacks, burpees, high knees, mountain climbers, jump squats, frog leaps, switch lunges, lateral jumps…the list goes on…Google these if you have no idea what they are). If this is what you need to do for space considerations do each exercise for 1 minute until you reach 10 minutes…trust me you don’t want to do 10 minutes of jumping jacks (booooring!)
Do this workout ideally 3 but no less than 2 times per week. When you find that you’re adapting to it after a couple of weeks, rest 2 minutes after the last cardio set and repeat the entire workout again for a second circuit.
As the weeks progress you’ll be increasing your weight and doing a little more cardio too. This great thing about this workout is that it’s very progressive and incorporates strength training and cardio into the same workout so if you end up doing more during the week it’s an instant bonus!
The purpose of this workout is to activate the muscles, ligaments and tendons of your body so that after the 6 -12 weeks of training, you’re ready to handle more difficult workouts. You’re adapting the body to a whole new lifestyle after all! The weight isn’t particularly taxing but it also gives you the chance to improve lifting skills too before moving onto heavier loads. Again if you’ve sitting around for the last long while before starting this program you’ll probably notice a positive difference in weight or the the way your clothes fit. Of course diet is important but we’ll leave that alone for this post! One thing at a time right?!
For those more advance weight trainers, using this kind of low-weight, medium rep program (40%-70% 1RM as the weeks progress) is a great way to give the body a rest after an intense training period AND get it ready for a more difficult program to come….its good to let the body rest and adapt sometimes!
If you’re reading this and have more specific questions please let me know!
Or if you’re reading this and know someone who might benefit from this workout please pass it along!
Have a great weekend and happy training; happy sipping!
