Done properly, weightlifting is a sport with a low incidence of injury, due to its controlled movements. Taking up weightlifting does not require a lot of previous fitness experience, but you should let an instructor show you all the exercises. As a weightlifting beginner, you have to learn proper posture before lifting heavy weights. Machines offer you a safe way to strengthen major muscle groups in preparation for more specialized lifting with dumbbells for small muscle definition.
Step 1
Warm up for 10 minutes with a cardiovascular exercise. Use a machine such as a stair stepper, elliptical trainer, treadmill, stationary bike or rowing machine. Stretch for flexibility. Do not stretch your muscles too loose before you lift weights. Perform the first set of each weightlifting exercise with a weight heavy enough that you feel its resistance, but light enough that is easy for you to move. Perform a set of eight repetitions to warm up your muscles and to learn the proper posture.
Step 2
Strengthen large muscle groups on machines that give you combination moves. The leg press gives your whole lower body an overall strengthening stimulation and prepares you for squats with a barbell. The chest machine helps you to feel where your pectoral muscles are and helps you toward barbell bench-press exercises.
Step 3
Train your cardiovascular system five days a week. You burn off extra calories and see faster results in fat loss. Cardiovascular exercises strengthen your aerobic muscles, which are different from the muscles you are stimulated with weight training. Targeting both types of muscle fibers balances your body's composition and leads to an overall lean physique. As your endurance and stamina with cardio grows, so does your ability to lift higher weights.
Tips and Warnings
- Balance each day's session to stimulate opposing muscles. If you are able to do eight repetitions in perfect form and could do more, increase the weight. If five repetitions are the most you are able to do in perfect form, you have enough weight. Eat a diet that provides your body with 60 percent of your daily calories from carbohydrates to give your muscles energy to burn. Eat ½ to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight daily. Keep fat to 20 to 25 percent of your total calories.
- Consult your before starting any exercise program.
Things You'll Need
- Gym access
References
- "Sports Nutrition"; Anita Bean; 2004
- "The Men's Health Gym Bible"; Michael Mejia, M.S., and Myatt Murphy; 2007
- "The Exercise Bible"; Joanna Hall; 2003
- "Journal of Applied Physiology"; Carbohydrate-protein complex increases the rate of muscle glycogen storage after exercise; K. M. Zawadzki et al.; 1992
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