January 1, 2005

Starting Out Sensibly: A Beginner’s Workout Routine

Please note: Although this workout program is intended for beginners, it’s important to understand that any weight-training program carries with it a certain amount of risk of injury. Health, and the ability to carry on any exercise program, no matter how easy or strenuous it may seem, varies from person to person. So, before you begin any exercise program, always consult your physician first, and always use caution when training.

At SeriousAboutFitness.com we’ve written about quite a few effective exercise routines. Admittedly, though, many of these have been fairly advanced programs and not something we would recommend a beginner to try. Therefore, as the year begins and we anticipate that many people will have made it their New Year’s resolution to get into shape, we thought it appropriate to publish an article outlining an effective workout program that would be applicable for someone just starting out.

As with many of the previous articles I’ve written, the basis of this exercise routine comes from the late Vince Gironda. What helped solidify Vince as a great trainer wasn’t just how many champions he trained, but how many other enthusiasts he trained successfully, too. For example, Vince’s Gym was located in North Hollywood, California, around the corner from famous movie studios. Back in the ‘60s, ‘70s, and even ‘80s, it wasn’t surprising to see a good number of celebrities in Vince’s little gym on Ventura Blvd. In fact, he even developed a training program that could get movie stars into shape (or at least the appearance of being "in shape") in as little as ten days! He said that the studio execs sometimes demanded it. Given that type of experience, it’s no wonder that a good number of beginners also went to Vince, and he could train them as well as he could train physique champions and movie stars. As a result, he created one of the best beginner programs I have ever seen.

Vince’s introductory training program is brilliant for two reasons: 1) It takes into account how much work is necessary to make a beginner’s body respond (not much, really), and 2) Despite being a fairly easy program to follow, it also allows beginner sto effectively work to their personal limit.

His beginner’s workout, which is the same for men and women, was structured as a "full-body" routine, meaning that the entire body was worked in one day. This is how it went:

Week 1

Vince would assign a beginner one exercise per bodypart – just one. During the first week, the person would do just one set of that exercise for 10-12 reps before moving on to the next bodypart. It’s not hard to figure out that this is a pretty brief workout, at least at the beginning. For example, let’s say that you select a total of 10 exercises to attack your entire body – chest, back, shoulders, triceps, biceps, forearms, thighs, hamstrings, calves, and abs – that means there will be just ten exercises, and during that first week you’ll do just ten sets in a day. You should be done in about 20 minutes or less.

For beginners, the focus is not on the amount of weight used or the intensity and length of the workout – that comes later. Rather, strict adherence to form in order to learn the exercise properly to stimulate maximum muscle development is what was important at the very beginning.

Now, Vince understood that many beginners are also quite excited and want to make progress. As a result, oftentimes they have the desire to do more – and he would let them do it. But, like almost everything, Vince had a different set of rules than almost everyone else.

Many authorities would advise a beginner to train the entire body every second day, three times a week (for example: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). Not Vince. Vince felt that beginners, at least in this first week, would have so much ambition and desire that they could do his workout up to six days that week. That’s right – he would have them come in almost every day if they wanted to. You can imagine that with six workouts done in seven days a person can make some gains and really learn how to do the movements properly. Vince always thought of everything.

In terms of the exercises selected, Vince had a pretty specific group picked out. However, some of the exercises he wrote about could only be performed in his gym since some of them required his specialized equipment and instructional knowledge. The exercises I’m mentioning here aren’t exactly what Vince would have someone perform (although some actually are), but they are all good exercises, and they will ably work all the necessary muscles. Most importantly, they can all be done in most any well-equipped gym in the world (you’ll notice I’ve outlined two different exercises to choose from for each bodypart in case your access to equipment is limited). For example:

• Chest: flat-bench or incline-bench dumbbell flies
• Back: cable rows or pulldowns to the chest
• Shoulders: dumbbell side laterals or barbell upright rows
• Triceps: pushdowns or dumbbell kickbacks
• Biceps: dumbbell or barbell curls
• Forearms: barbell or dumbbell wrist curls
• Thighs: leg extensions
• Hamstrings: leg curls
• Calves: standing or seating calf raises
• Abdominals: crunches or leg raises

Take note: I have deliberately left out instructions on how to do these movements in order to keep this article focused on how to structure the workout. All the exercises, though, are common exercises described in detail in many weight-training books. One bit of caution, though: Never strain when performing an exercise, and if a movement is causing you undo pain, stop it immediately. Always train safely and never risk an injury. Just because the exercise is mentioned here doesn’t mean that you must use it. Always use commonsense in the gym.

Week 2

In the second week the workout remains the same, but he allowed the trainee to do two sets per bodypart. Obviously, that doubles the amount of work from 10 sets to 20, so the workout now becomes a little longer. However, that first week of pre-conditioning allows the trainee to build up strength and stamina to do more work and complete it successfully. Again, 10-12 reps per exercise is what’s used.

In this week, though, coming to the gym six days a week isn’t beneficial. Plus, much of the initial enthusiasm is likely wearing off. Here one would cut down to about three times per week, coming every other day, such as Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Week 3

In the third week the workout scheme remains the same, but the training increases again. Instead of two sets per bodypart, it’s three. That’s now 30 sets instead of 20. Again, the every-other-day scheme is what’s used for workout scheduling. Now the people are starting to work to their potential, and more than likely Vince would be pushing them to make progress with every workout.

Week 4 and beyond

Following his three-week start, Vince would assess the condition of the trainees and plot out the next steps. More than likely the individuals will have made significant gains if they’re doing everything properly and coming to the gym regularly. However, that doesn’t mean they should abandon this program. For some pupils, Vince left them on the full-body workout for up to six months, or as long as they kept responding to it. Why not? If it’s working, why stop? Many, unfortunately, do stop using effective programs too soon.

Abandoning a successful program too soon is a common mistake many people make, mostly because they think that they have to keep doing more to improve more. That’s simply not true. If it were true, the fitness competitors you read about here would be up to a thousand sets with all the years that they’ve been training, and nobody even thinks about doing that.

That’s precisely why in the fourth week you don’t do four sets – the workout stays at three sets per bodypart and you continually increase the intensity of the workout and the weight you use. The only thing Vince did was change the exercise selection. According to Vince in his book The Wild Physique, "…only a small percentage of enthusiasts can keep to the same routine week after week, month after month, without getting totally bored."

So there you have it, a remarkably effective exercise routine to start the year off sensibly, and successfully, from the greatest physique trainer of them all, Vince Gironda. Good luck in 2005, and if you adopt this program and it works for you, we’d love to hear from you about your results.

...Doug Schneider
das@seriousaboutfitness.com

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