So, you’ve decided to hit the weights and make the sickest gains the world has, and will ever see. That’s good — real good. Here’s the thing though, you don’t really know where to begin or what to do. That’s okay, and that’s also why we’re here.
In this article, we’ll break it down for you so that you’ll know exactly what to do and when to do it. We’ll discuss the aspects of weight training and give you a simple workout to help get you started. As-well-as provide you with all the in’s and out’s of nutrition and calorie tracking.
It’s important that I note that this isn’t a ‘7-day wonder gains’ routine. I’m not promising you anything of the sort.
What will be laid out in this article is a weekly routine that should be practiced for several weeks before you start making some serious gains. However, the gains will come, so don’t worry about that.
This bodybuilding 7 day beginner routine is just to help build the foundation for all your future gains.
The Training
As with most bodybuilding/shaping/sculpting journeys, the training aspect plays an integral role in making your body change into the image that you’ve created for yourself in your mind.
With that being said, as a weight training beginner, you’ll be able to train more frequently than someone who has been hitting the weights for a few years.
Experienced lifters have to train harder than their newbie counterparts in order for them to incur a positive change on their bodies.
Beginners, however, don’t have to train as hard or as intensely to see that change happen.
At the same time, their bodies bounce back more rapidly. This is because the muscle damage their bodies have experienced, isn’t as severe as the more experienced lifter’s damage is.
In this case, muscle damage is a good thing. It’s what you need to do if your goal is to transform your physique into something similar to that of a Greek statue.
Muscle Damage
Muscle damage occurs when you overload the muscle through a form of resistance. This resistance doesn’t have to come from weight training, it can be from running, picking things up, body weight training, and so forth.
Muscle damage is when micro tears are created in the muscles through the form of resistance training/activity. After these tears have been induced, an inflammatory response is activated to start the healing process of the damaged muscles.
When the muscles are inflamed, they give you a feeling of being stiff. This is commonly known as Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness (DOMS). And the most basic way to get rid of DOMS is to sleep it off.
Rest
Resting is another crucial component of making gains. People commonly think that gains are made in the gym. That is incorrect. Muscle damage occurs in the gym, gains occur when you’re sleeping.
That’s why it’s recommended that you get at least 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep in, every night. Anything more than that is a complete bonus.
You see, when you rest, your damaged muscle tissues are going through a repair process, but this process isn’t complete without a great nutritional plan, but we’ll cover that in a bit.
Training Split
In this bodybuilding 7 day beginner training program, we’ll have you, the beginner, train most muscle groups twice a week. Seeing that your recovery is faster than that of a more experienced lifter, you’ll be able to get away with training certain muscle groups twice.
You’ll be on a 4-day training schedule that will have you training for two days, then resting one day, and then train on the following two days again.
The muscle groups will be split into chest/arms/abs, back/shoulders, legs (thighs and calves)/abs.
With this split, I’ve found great success in the past and found that training muscle groups like this have benefited me, and helped to add the muscle mass that I carry today.
Rest Between Sets
For the purpose of this program and the results that we’re looking for, resting in between sets will vary from one exercise to the next.
For the heavy compound movements, we’ll want to rest up for 2 minutes. With the lighter compound and isolation movements, we’ll want to rest between 45 seconds to 1 minute.
The Training Routine
Monday — Chest, Arms, Abs
- Flat barbell bench press — 4 sets, 8 reps (2 mins. rest)
- Incline DB press — 4 sets, 10 reps (2 mins. rest)
- Incline DB flyes — 3 sets, 12 reps
- Cable crossovers — 3 sets, 12 reps
- Barbell curls — 4 sets, 10 reps
- Concentration curls — 3 sets, 12 reps
- Overhead DB extension — 4 sets, 10 reps
- Rope pressdowns — 3 sets, 12 reps
- Planks — 3 sets, 30 seconds
Tuesday — Back, Shoulders
- Deadlifts — 4 sets, 8 reps (2 mins. rest)
- Bent-over barbell rows — 4 sets, 8 reps (2 mins. rest)
- Wide-grip pulldowns — 3 sets, 12 reps
- DB pullovers — 3 sets, 15 reps
- Seated military press — 4 sets, 8 reps (2 mins. rest)
- Front barbell raises — 3 sets, 12 reps
- Side DB raises — 3 sets, 12 reps
- DB shrugs — 4 sets, 8 reps
Wednesday — Rest
Thursday — Legs
- Squats — 4 sets, 8 reps (2 mins. rest)
- Lunges — 3 sets, 10 steps each leg
- Leg extensions — 3 sets, 12 reps
- Stiff-leg deadlift — 4 sets, 8 reps (2 mins. rest)
- Lying leg curl — 3 sets, 12 reps
- Standing calf raises — 4 sets, 15 reps
- Seated calf raises — 3 sets, 15 reps
- Planks — 3 sets, 30 seconds
Friday — Repeat either Monday or Tuesday’s workout (personal preference)
The Nutrition
Get into this lifestyle and before long you’ll hear someone say that bodybuilding is 80% nutrition and 20% training. I call BS on that. I say that it’s 100% nutrition and 100% training.
To me, training and nutrition are equally important in achieving your physique and fitness goals. Without giving your all to one or the other, you’ll guarantee to yourself that you won’t have optimal results in meeting your goal.
The Basics
The best place to start with your diet is to cut out all the junk. I’m not even going to say what junk is because I know damn right that you’re well aware of all the junk that you’re eating. And just because it’s not making you fat, doesn’t mean that it’s okay to eat.
After getting rid of all the nonsense in your diet, you can start by upping the protein. Protein contains amino acids which are the building blocks for making muscle gains.
Track Your Calories
Tracking your calories is very beneficial to achieving your goals. By knowing what and how much you put into your body, you’ll be able to learn how to manipulate certain things in your diet to make your body do what you want it to do.
Whenever you go out to buy prepackaged food, be sure to write down the nutritional information based on how many servings of that specific food you’ve eaten.
If you’ve eaten two servings and the nutritional label lists, the nutritional info based off one serving, then just multiply the numbers by two. But be cautious of foods that have information that looks “good.”
Meaning, some companies will provide nutritional info for really small servings. If you increase that servings size and its calories according to what you’re going to consume, you’ll see that those numbers can reach pretty high.
However, when you’re buying non-packaged foods, get yourself a calorie-counting book or phone app to help you keep track. If this is the route you’re going, be sure to purchase a food scale too as it will greatly help you get more accurate numbers.
Conclusion
There’s no better time than the present. The best way to get something started is by just jumping straight into it.
This bodybuilding 7 day beginner program is just there to help get you started. It shouldn’t be relied upon for the rest of your lifting career, but you shouldn’t forget your roots either.
We hope that this article provides some clarity and helps you to get started on your fitness journey. This is just the beginning and you should always strive to push yourself further and keep looking for ways to improve your body and increase your knowledge.
Create a goal and a deadline for yourself, and once you’ve done that, keep chasing it until it’s yours.
