Weight training – do you want to gain a bit of bulk or do you want to sculpt? I started with the bulk route and recently switched to the sculpting route. Both are effective.
BULK
In order to increase muscle mass, you will need to lift heavier weight with less reps. This means that you want to lift a weight that is at least 70% of your 1RM (one rep max). One rep max (described below) is the maximum amount of weight you can lift in a single repetition for a given exercise.
Do 12 reps and three sets of each exercise. The workout is grouped into three days; chest and triceps, back and biceps, and legs and shoulders. You should incorporate ab workouts into this as well but I will cover that in a different post.
SCULPT
In order to sculpt your muscles, you will need to lift lighter weight with more reps. This means that you want to lift a weight that is about 50% of your 1RM (one rep max). One rep max (described below) is the maximum amount of weight you can lift in a single repetition for a given exercise.
Do 20 reps and five sets of each exercise. The workout is grouped into three days; chest and triceps, back and biceps, and legs and shoulders. You should incorporate ab workouts into this as well but I will cover that in a different post.
How to find 1RM:
There are calculators out there if you’d like (http://www.timinvermont.com/fitness/orm.htm). The only way to find your true 1RM is to keep adding weight until you can’t do anymore. This may take some guess work on your part if you haven’t done a lot of lifting recently. Warm up with some really light weight, do a set of 8 with 50% 1rm, then rest 2 minutes, do 80% for 2-3 reps, rest 2 minutes, finally the max.
CHEST AND TRICEPS
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| Bench Press | Incline at 45 degrees | Chest Flys | Low Flys |
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| Tricep Pulldown | Tricep Overhead | Tricep Dip | Skull Crusher |
BACK AND BICEPS
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| Deadlift | Pullups | Seated Row | Lower Back Lift |
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| Bicep Curl | Reverse Curl | Concentrated Curl |
LEGS AND SHOULDERS
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| Squats | Lunge Squat | Hamstring Curl | Leg Extension |
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| Shoulder Press | Upright Rows | Shoulder Shrugs | Front and Lateral Raise |
