Best bodybuilding workout for beginners

In this article, we'll explore the best strength training for beginners looking for quick results while maintaining safety and eliminating unnecessary complexity.

Starting to lift weights can be motivating, but also intimidating. There are so many different workouts, techniques, and terminology. At first, it can be difficult to know where to begin.

What is considered a beginner in bodybuilding and why it matters

Basically, anyone with less than six months of training can be considered a beginner in bodybuilding. However, this will still depend on a few factors, such as consistency and initial progress.

For example, a person may have (much) more than 6 months of training and still be a beginner, because they are unable to maintain regularity (frequently miss workouts) and/or are following an inadequate routine, which increases the learning curve for the basics of bodybuilding.

This may seem like unnecessary and even elitist segregation, but it helps prevent problems in the long run and will likely improve your bottom line in the long run.

For example, it doesn't make sense to instruct a beginner to do a complex squat variation if they can't yet do free squats with proper technique.

Additionally, a beginner can get great results for a long time just using free squats, without having to complicate things by adding more complex variations too early in the routine.

The point is that depending on your experience, you'll want to adjust your workouts to match your level to get the most results.

What is the best strength training for beginners?

Right off the bat, any basic routine, even generic routines set up in commercial gyms, will bring good results if followed regularly by a beginner, since a person who has never received training stimuli is like "fertile ground."

However, if you could choose just one workout, full body training 3 times a week is usually the best strength training workout for beginners.

Full body is a program built around training the entire body in the same workout session, rather than dividing it into different parts.

With other types of workouts, you might have an upper-body day, or chest day, or arm day, or leg day, or back and biceps day, or something similar. But with a full-body routine, every session is a full-body day.

Full-body workouts take advantage of the higher training frequency and the fact that multi-joint compound exercises target multiple muscles at once, without having to use numerous exercises for each muscle group, which would make the workout very long.

Plus, muscles grow faster when you train them 2–4 times per week. 3-Day Full-Body Workouts put you in the middle, avoiding extremes and still keeping your muscles growing all week long.

Finally, using full body in the beginner phase is convenient and builds the habit of training more easily since you only need to commit to going to the gym three times a week.

Full body workout routine for beginners

A three-day-a-week full body routine is divided like this:

Week 1Monday: Full Body ATuesday: day off – restWednesday: Full Body BThursday: day off – restFriday: Full Body ASaturday: day off – restSunday: day off – restWeek 2Monday: Full Body BTuesday: day off – restWednesday: Full Body AThursday: day off – restFriday: Full Body BSaturday: day off – restSunday: day off – rest

Repeat the cycle (go back to week 1 where the second week is workout A).

Full body workout ADumbbell bench press – 3 sets x 5-8 repsPulley pulldown (back) - 3 sets x 10-15 repsFree squat – 3 sets x 5-8 repsLeg curls – 3 sets x 10-15 repsDevelopment – 3 sets x 5-8 repsStanding Calf Raises – 3 sets x 10-15 repsAbdominal – 3 sets x until failure.Full Body Workout BIncline Dumbbell Bench Press – 3 sets x 10-15 repsSeated Row – 3 sets x 8-12 repsLeg press – 3 sets x 10-15 repsStiff – 3 sets x 10-15 repsLateral Raise – 3 sets x 15-20 repsSeated Calf Raises – 3 sets x 10-15 repsLeg raises for abs – 3 sets x to failureHow long should you rest between sets?

As a general rule, you can rest 2 minutes or more between sets of compound exercises that work a large amount of muscle mass, such as squats, rows, deadlifts, leg presses, and so on.

When in doubt, it's better to err on the side of giving yourself more rest than too little. If you feel like you're not ready for the next set, give yourself some extra rest.

You won't need as much rest between isolation exercises or those that train small muscles, and you can rest 60–90 seconds between sets of these exercises. However, you should still listen to your body and err on the side of giving yourself more rest if necessary.

Don't try to save time by cutting your rest periods short and rushing from one exercise to the next. The hypertrophy stimulus generated will be much greater if you get a good rest, as you'll allow your ATP (energy) reserves to recover sufficiently to use maximum load in the next set.

How to get more results from training

To get results as a beginner, it's important to train regularly and intensely, but before you think this is obvious, keep reading.

With each workout, you need to try to stimulate your body to do more work, which is called progressive overload . Only then will your body be stimulated to adapt, thus becoming bigger and stronger.

This can be achieved primarily by increasing the exercise load each week. When this isn't possible, try doing more repetitions.

Remember, you won't be able to make progress every workout or every week. The important thing is to understand that you always need to try to do more than you did in previous workouts.

Once you get stuck doing the same thing over and over, your body won't respond to training and you'll hardly see any changes in your body.

A word about diet for beginners

When it comes to diet, maximizing your rate of muscle growth requires consuming more calories than you need to maintain your weight, as well as eating enough protein.

In practical terms, this means consuming between 250 and 500 extra calories per day, on top of what you already eat. The exact number will vary from person to person, but it will be within this range for most people.

1 – Can I replace exercises if necessary?

If you're having trouble with an exercise, you can replace it with another that serves the same purpose. For example, replace the free squat with the hack squat.

However, it is recommended to make changes if there is a real need and if you have the minimum knowledge to make the replacement.

2 – What does it mean to do “8-12” repetitions?

When you look at the number of repetitions for each exercise, you'll see two numbers. This is the repetition range to use.

Using the 8-12 example, this means you should choose a load that you can do at least 8 reps with and no more than 12. If you fail before doing 8 reps, the load is too heavy, and if you can easily do 12 or more, the load is too light.

3 – How long should I do this training?

You can use this workout for as long as you need and as long as you see progress (assuming you're training and eating right). However, you don't have to do full-body workouts throughout your beginner phase if you don't want to.

If you want to change, do this workout for 10-12 weeks and only then progress to the Upper/Lower workout , which would be the next step for a beginner.