Exercise Basics

Working at a gym, I have the opportunity to meet a lot of individuals who come in wanting to get in shape, yet they have no idea what to do.

I have even had co-workers who work at the gym ask some of the most basic questions because they are there for a job and fitness is not their lifestyle.

Since I realized there is a need for some instruction in this area, I thought I would give some basic principles for exercise that everyone should know.

First of all, everyone needs to exercise. It is part of our DNA. Over one hundred years ago, before the age of automation, most jobs were manual. You had to physically work just to live. Because of that people were generally thinner and more fit. Now in this automated world we live in, even the basic tasks around the home can be done by machines rather than by hand.

As the world became more automated and mankind became more sedentary, mankind became more overweight to the point that it is becoming a crises, especially in the United States. I see a direct correlation between the automation of society and the rise of the gym industry. Our bodies were made to work physically. If we don’t work physically than we have to workout.

So what do we need to do to have healthy bodies. Generally we need to make two activities a priority in our lives to be healthy. One is an aerobic activity, the other is an anaerobic activity. The two words come from the ancient Greek language. Aerobic means ‘with air’. Anaerobic means ‘without air’.

When doing an aerobic activity you are breathing in air, getting oxygen into your blood stream and making your blood circulate throughout your body. There are many benefits to doing this. It helps keep your heart stronger and keeps your circulatory system running efficiently.

I experienced a massive DVT blood clot in my right leg some 10 years ago. While I was recovering the cardiologist told me this. He said most people don’t realize they have a second heart. It is your ankle. Every time you take a step you help pump your blood in your body.

It really doesn’t matter whether you walk, run, use an elliptical or a treadmill, go dancing, take a Zumba class or ride a bike. Whatever you do to get your heart pumping is good for you. Just make sure you at least do 20 minutes, three times a week. More is fine too, just don’t become too obsessed with it that you neglect anaerobic activities, because you need that too.

Anaerobic differs from aerobic in that it does not deal with exercises that effect the circulatory system. Instead it affects the muscular system. You can also call anaerobic exercises resistance training.

To do resistance training it takes a bit of knowledge and planning. To train your muscles, you first have to divide your muscles into muscle groups.

You can divide your body into eight primary muscle groups; your chest, back, biceps, triceps, abs or midsection, quads, hamstrings and calves. There are other minor groups such as glutes, obliques and trapezius muscle groups, but they are of minor concern when starting resistance training, because the exercises you do for the primary muscle groups will also exercise these muscles.

Now you may hear a lot of personal trainers promote their exercise program. Don’t believe anyone who says that their routine is the only way to exercise. There is actually a huge variety of ways to exercise and making changes from time to time is actually beneficial. But I will discuss that at another time.

One of the easiest routines for a beginner to start with is a whole body workout. If you have never weight lifted before, this is how I would suggest you start.

Pick an exercise for each of the primary muscle groups and use a weight that you can handle for 10 repetitions. Maybe on the first week you just do 2 sets of ten repetitions per exercise. Then the next week do 3 sets and the next 4 sets. Do this workout 3 times a week.

Below is a sample workout.

Chest – Bench press

Back – One arm rows

Biceps – Dumbbell curls

Triceps – Cable triceps extensions

Abs – Crunches

Quadriceps – Squats

Hamstrings – Leg curls

Calves – Dumbbell calf raises

One warning about doing full body workouts is don’t do the workout every day or you won’t see any real growth. What happens when you do resistance training your muscle fibers break down when you lift. This is how muscles grow. What happens is as you lift weights your muscles break down with micro tears in the muscles. As the muscle rests and recuperates those tears heal becoming larger and stronger. If you don’t give the muscles 48 hours to fully heal and work out the muscle again, then the muscle stays in a constant state of micro tears and does not get larger or stronger. In fact if you exercise the same muscles too often you can do more damage than good.

After a couple months of doing a full body workout, you might want to change your workout to one where you can split up your muscle groups over a few days so you can focus on each group and do more sets. This way you can exercise on consecutive days because you are not working out the same muscles.

Some people like to do a routine where they do the upper body one day and the lower body the next. In other words in this routine you would workout your shoulders, chest, back, biceps and triceps on one day and then you would workout your midsection, quads, hamstrings, and calves on the next day.

Another popular routine is the push-pull routine. This two day routine divides most of the exercises based upon the motion of the exercise. When you workout your chest, triceps, shoulders, quads and calves you primarily do exercises in which you push your extremities away from your body.

When you work out your back, biceps and hamstrings you actually are pulling your extremities toward your body. This is why it is called push-pull.

One of the reasons it is effective is because push exercises tend to work together, such as the chest and triceps both get used when doing chest exercises. Pull exercises are not generally used when doing push exercises, so you can be resting pull muscle on the days you do push exercises.

A third popular routine is a three day routine which is a hybrid of both the upper-lower body and push-pull routines. In this routine you do a push-pull routine for your upper body. What that looks like is this: on day 1 you do chest, triceps and shoulders. On day two you do back, biceps and abs. On day three you workout your lower body, i.e. quads, hamstrings and calves.

This is actually the routine I’m using at the present.

Let me just add a few end notes. Start working each muscle group by doing 2 or 3 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions when you begin. As you get acclimated increase to 3 to 4 sets. Then add a second exercise for that muscle group. Increase the work until you reach a workout of 24 to 30 sets per workout.

To build muscle, keep the reps between 8 and 12 reps, but as you get use to the weight slowly increase the weight you use maintaining the number of repetitions.

Learn how to perform the exercises correctly. Incorrect form can lead to injury.

Don’t swing the weights. If it is too heavy, lighten it. It is much better and profitable to lift a lighter weight with control then to swing a heavy weight so you can say you did it.

Weight training is not a race. Lift the weights slowly. Slowly up and even slower coming down.

Focus on training when at the gym or your home gym. Only take a minute or two between sets. 24 to 30 sets should take only 45 minutes to one hour and 15 minutes to complete. Any longer and you are taking too long between sets.

If possible, try to cover working out your whole body twice a week. I know with our busy lives that can be difficult, but if you train your whole body twice a week you will definitely see a difference.

Lastly, watch what you eat. Good nutrition is vital to success when exercise. Your body needs fuel to burn when working out so make sure it is quality fuel.