Lifestyle
8 Body-Improving Workouts for Beginners
Putting on weight is much harder than losing weight. You can lose 1-2 pounds per week.But to put on lean weight, you’ll only gain 1-2 lbs per month. To build your muscle, you need to consume a lot more than what your body burns.
Let’s say, if you want to build 1400-1500 calories per day, you need to consume atleast 2000-2500 calories per day. It’s not easy to consume large amounts of food, so these tips by Joanna Soh Fitness and Nutrition coach will help to improve your body.
Useful Tips
Consume high-calorie food. Your diet needs to contain lots of healthy fats because they are high in calories and a lot of natural sugar as well. So whenever you’re cooking a meal, always add a good amount of olive oil in it to increase your calorie intake. Include foods that are high in calories such as avocado, peanut butter, and nuts.
Increase your omega three fatty acid intake. Omega 3 fatty acids help especially women to reset their body chemistry. This process helps you to put on weight quickly. Therefore try to consume lots of fish, beans, and leafy green vegetables.
Drink lots of milk. Drink milk atleast 2-4 times a day. Forget about the semi-skilled milk and go in for the full-fat milk. You can drink a cup of milk with every meal.
Eat more frequently atleast 5-6 times a day. Include lots of healthy carbs in your meals. Examples include potatoes, whole wheat bread, pasta, and rice. Eat them at least four times a day. Pack in lots of fruits and vegetables in your meal because they contain carbs as well. Instead of eating whole fruits, mix lots of fruits and make a huge cup of smoothie for your breakfast.
Introduce supplements to your diet. You can choose protein shakes to add to your calories per day. But do remember, that you should not replace them with a meal. It is an adult supplement to increase the calories intake. So you should still have 5 to 6 meals a day which is full of carbs, fresh fruits, and vegetables.
Exercise helps with weight gain. Commit at least 3 to 4 times a week for a minimum of thirty minutes. You will notice a difference in comparison to those who are losing weight. You need to do minimal cardio and lots of strength training. Try to keep your cardio to warm-ups and your cool downs. Try to focus on good quality strength training. You can use heavy weights as part of your training.
Instead of using light weights where you’ll be able to do 50 to 20 reps you should be able to do heavy weights, where you’ll only be able to do 8-10 reps. If you can do more than ten reps, you need to increase your weights. Always remember to rest your muscles, by this way you build muscle.
Try not to work on the same muscles everyday. Your muscles need 24-48 hours to recover. With a proper diet and workout plan, you can build up your muscle definition.
Exercise Plan to Gain Weight for Women
Tutorial: Joanna Soh
This training program is based on compound exercises. Compound exercises work more than one muscle in your body. They are more effective and efficient for muscle growth.
You need to perform these exercises 3 to 4 times weekly on every alternate day. It is not in the gym that you achieve growth, but when you rest and recover.
Follow your workout day with a rest day to assure full recovery and muscle growth. Spend no more than 60 minutes per session.
The best way to determine the right weight for you is that you should lift six reps or more. But not more than 12 reps of an exercise.Increase your weight if you can lift more than 12 reps. If you can’t do even six reps, then decrease your weight.
Structure:
10 exercises, 4 sets per exercise:rest 45-60 seconds between sets
- Set 1 try 12 reps
- Set 2 increase your weight to 10 reps.
- Set 3 increase the weight so you can only do eight reps
- Set 4 lift even higher weights so you can do only six
The goal is to achieve muscle fatigue where your body will not be able to lift the same weight or perform at the same intensity, as before. Do this exercise plan for 4-6 weeks. As you progress,try to lift even heavier weights, and increase the sets to 5 or 6. So here is the workout.
- Squat
- Bent-over row
- Pushups
- Lunges
- Chest press
- Shoulder Press
- Deadlifts
- Supported Pull up
- Tricep Dips
- Spiderman planks
Best Beginner Total Body Toning for Women Under 10 Mins
Tutorial: Joana Soh
Squat and Tricep Pushback: Spread out your arms. When squatting down, bring your arms forward and push it back.
Knee Pushups: Get down on the mat. Keep your chest apart. Lift your toes off the floor. Go down as low as you can and come up.
Lunges with Oblique Twist: Start with your right leg, step forward. Keep one leg back down. When you’re down, turn your body. Come back up. Switch sides.
Plank: Stay on your knees,Bring elbows forward, keep them at 90 degrees. Lower your bum, and hold in this position for 30 seconds. You can also hold this position with your toes. Remember to keep your body in a straight line.
Total Body Strength Training and Core Workout for Beginners
Tutorial: Fitness Blender
Structure:
- 5 min warm up
- 16-minute interval style workout
- 5 minute cool down
Warm Up
- Push- Pulls: Push your hands in front of you and pull back.
- Arm Circles: Rotate your arm back, reverse the direction and switch sides.
- Torso Circles: Rotate your torso in a circle.
- Up and Overs: Raise your knee high up and move it to your side.
- Side Lunge: Raise your leg up to your chest and touch with your hands.
- Jumping Jack: Do your jumping jacks slowly and then increase speed.
Interval Style Workout
- Pushups: First do half of the pushups on your knees and the other half on your toes.
- Toe Touch Crunch: Lie flat, crunch up and touch your toes and follow it up with Push Ups.
- Squat: If you want to increase the challenge do single leg squats.
- Russian Twist: Sit on the floor, keep your hands straight and rotate your torso.
- Supine Pushup: Lie face up, press elbows and lift your chest up.
- Oblique Crunch: Lie on your side, crunch and touch your legs.
Follow it up with
- Alternating Lunge
- Oblique crunch
Cool Down
Complete your workout with this set of cool downs.
- Chest stretch
- Arms cross stretch
- Backstretch
- Toe touch
- Seated toe touch
- Deep glute stretch
Total Body Conditioning Workout
Tutorial: Athlean XX for women
Front Raise: Start with your dumbbells, take them up to eye level and back down. Do 15 reps.
Lateral Raise: Raise your arms laterally along with those dumbbells.
Bent Over Fly: Slightly bend over your legs and do a fly.
50 Jump Squats: Squat low down and jump.
Catch Jump Lunges: Try 50 of those. Do jump lunges and catch.
Squat Kick Out: Perform a deep squat and kick out. Do 50 reps.
Curl: Keep your abs in and do the curls with dumbells. Do 12-15 reps.
Press Up Overhead: Keep your abs in, knees slightly bent and pressed up with a sandbag or your weights. Do 20 reps.
Row: Start with your knees shoulder width apart, slightly bend and keep your abs tight, shoulders back, and pull the weight. Try 12-15 reps.
Bicycle Crunches: Lie face up, keep one leg straight and one leg bent. Twist your body, touching your elbow to your knee. Perform 50 reps.
Four by Fours: Do 25 reps and follow it up with V-Ups.
Power Poses to Gain Muscle with Yoga for Beginners
Yoga increases your strength while keeping you focused on your health, nutrition and fitness goals. “There’s no need for beginners to be intimidated by all of the advanced asanas and transitions they see. The key is being humble enough to dedicate yourself to mastering the basics.”-Kino MacGregor, Yoga Teacher
Try these poses to gain strength
- Meditation pose
- Downward facing dog pose
- Dolphin plank pose
- Equal balancing pose
- Beginner side plank
The above sequence builds your strength. Try to focus on the essential elements, of a strong, stable shoulder girdle, a firm core, and a balanced mind. You will feel the magical life of strength starting to take shape.
Ultimate Beginners Full Body Workout
For the first two weeks, practice lighter weights. For the second two weeks, start with light warm up, then choose a slightly heavier weight. For weeks 5-8 try a more challenging weight for your second and third sets.
Follow this work out three times per week on consecutive days.
Weeks 1-2 (2 sets, 15 reps)
- Barbell bench press- Medium Grip
- Lying T- Bar Row
- Seated Dumbbell press
- Standing dumbbell press
- Dip machine
- Lying leg curls
- Ab crunch machine
Weeks 3-4 (3 sets: 15, 12, ten reps)
- Barbell bench press (medium grip)
- Lying T-bar row
- Seated dumbbell press
- Standing dumbbell press
- Dip machine
- Leg press
- Lying leg curls
- Ab crunch machine
Weeks 5-8 (3 sets: 12, 8, eight reps)
- Barbell bench press (medium grip)
- Lying T- bar row
- Seated dumbbell press
- Standing dumbbell press
- Dip machine
- Leg press
- Lying leg curls
- Ab crunch machine
Kelly’s Calorie Torching, Muscle Building Workout
Tutorial: Fitness Blender
Workout Structure:
Groups of two exercises
40 seconds on 15 seconds rest x2
Deadlifts: lift 24 pounds in each hand. Bend down and lift your weights carefully.
Lunge Row: lift 9 pounds in each hand. Come into a lunge and row with your opposite arm.
Ski Squat Tricep Extension: Keep your feet close together, squat down, pull your elbows up to the air at your sides. Extend.
Deadlifts Toes Out: Keep your toes pointed out and lift those weights.
Deadlift Toes In: Keep your toes pointed in, sink back down and push back up.
Crusty Lunge Curls: Step behind and across your body and curl.
Water Break
Halo + Good Morning: Hold one weight with both your hands. Rotate the kettlebell around your head in opposite directions and bend down.
Follow it up with the
- Squat + overhead press
- Wall Sit lateral raises
- Side lunge ventral raises
- Bridge and chest press
- Backbow pulls and
- Bridge +chest press
Make sure you cool down and stretch. Drink lots of water and eat clean.
Body Firming HIIT Workout for Beginners (Home Exercise Routine)
Tutorial: Fitness Blender
Workout Structure: 4 minutes warm up: 17 minute HIIT, two rounds
Stretches: Crossover toe touch stretch: Complete these stretches with 15 seconds on each side. Then switch legs. Follow it up with
- Standing crisscross crunch (1 minute)
- Torso rotations (30 seconds)
- Alternating high kicks (1 minute)
- Leg swings 30 seconds on each side
HIIT Workout:
For each exercise 20 seconds active, 10 seconds rest x3 two rounds
- Jumping jacks
- Ski squats+kicks
- Traveling pushups
- Crisscross Crunches
- Fingertip to toe Jacks
- 2-minute active rest
Conclusion
Working all your major muscle groups allows you to build a symmetrical physique. It also prevents muscular imbalances that can arise when you favor some body parts over others. Imbalances can lead to serious injuries. Since you’re a beginner, it’s important to practice the basic movements, before using more challenging weights.
Decades of research evidence points out that doing 3-4 sets of a given exercise produces maximum benefit. Typically you should do a warm up set or two of that movement before tackling more challenging weights.
It’s always wise to use multi-joint moves because you can use heavier weights and therefore enjoy greater muscle and strength gains. As a beginner, you’ll choose lightweight, but as you progress, you should try to use more challenging weights, those in which you reach muscle failure by 8-12 reps with good form. If you’re training for strength, choose even heavier weights.
It’s essential that you take a short rest between sets. Your muscles get fatigue during a set. So they need time to remove the lactic acid and changes in the pH that build up in the surrounding tissue. Getting 48 hours of rest between workouts is wise.
Finally, strive to do a little more in each workout. If your body’s musculature improves and you keep on doing the same exercise, your muscles won’t grow any further.
Avoid falling into the rut of repeating the same workout, week in and week out. Strive to do more reps or increase the weight from one workout to the next. Give your muscles the progressive stimulus to make positive improvements.