Beyond General Fitness: Weight Training: Beginning

Now that you as an athlete have chosen to work on a lifting routine there are some decisions that need to be made.

First do you want muscle size or just strength?  Men usually want size while women usually want lean.  They both build muscle just depends on the look that you want.   Also you can gain size for a bit and then lean out later after getting the size that you want.  If you are looking to gain bulk or muscle size you want to life heavy weights for around 8 to 10 reps.  If you are looking to gain lean muscle then you want to do lighter weight for 10 to 15 reps.  Upon additional research the lined out statement is in fact incorrect.  Muscle is muscle and doing more reps at lower weight will in fact build muscle the same just take longer to do it.  For the sake of building muscle and doing it in a timely matter it is best to lift weights that are heavy in a 8 - 12 range so that the last 2 reps are difficult.  I will go into this more in a different post.

Second do you like going to a gym or do you want to work out at home?  Going to a gym you have to learn the machines or procedures, but they have personal that can help you out with that stuff.  At home you have the luxury of doing your own thing with it having to worry about what others think.   The only problem is that if you have problems or are unsure how to do something you don't have much help. 

With working out at the gym they provide all equipment that you might require, but at home you won't have nearly as many options.   A home gym might have limited space and supplies.  

With home gyms you can choose between weights or bands and not have to have as much equipment.

There are also home workout routines that you can find online that will help building muscle.  I'll attempt a few random exercise routines here in another post, but these are just examples.  If you want something more you can use apps like Stronglifts 5x5 or look on you tube for free videos.  There is also Beach Body that has a lot of workouts that work for some people.  I'm sure that there are even more then I could ever possibly list, but with just a little looking I'm sure you can find something that works for you. 

When you have finished with the above the next thing we will talk about is diet. 

Images from Coucoujolie and Mens fitness