General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Beginner and need help. Rss Feed  
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2011-04-10 7:05 PM

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Regular
89
252525
Midwest City, Oklahoma
Subject: Beginner and need help.

I'm really wanting to get stronger and have never really done any strength training on my own. I want to increase strength everywhere especially in my chest biceps and triceps, though I would still like to improve strength in my abs and in my legs. I was wanting to know if there is any basic weekly workout you guys do or if you can help me get started on what I should be doing to improve. I have never really strength trained so I am in over my head. I do have a weight bench and dumbbells. Please any help or advice will be greatly appreciated!

 



2011-04-10 8:37 PM
in reply to: #3438950

Elite
2608
2000500100
Denver, Colorado
Subject: RE: Beginner and need help.
All you have are dumbbells and a weight bench? Nothing wrong with that - I just want to know what equipment you have available. We can work that for now if that is, in fact, all you have. Also, do you plan on doing weights along with your tri training?
2011-04-10 10:21 PM
in reply to: #3439101

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Regular
89
252525
Midwest City, Oklahoma
Subject: RE: Beginner and need help.
I plan on expanding in the future but for now that's all I have and this summer I am mainly focused on strength more than triathlon.
2011-04-11 12:38 AM
in reply to: #3438950

Elite
2608
2000500100
Denver, Colorado
Subject: RE: Beginner and need help.
We can do a lot with dumbbells. If you have the kind where you load weight plates, you can always buy extra weight plates as those are very cheap. Let's face, if you get to where you can do some of these exercises with close to 100 lbs. per DB, will you be strong? Yes, I think so. Here's what we'll do.

You'll have a Workout A and a Workout B. Train 3 days per week to start. Alternate the A and B days, which means that some weeks you'll have two A workouts and some you'll have two B workouts.

Selecting weights: After warming up, select a weight you think you'll be able to use for 10 reps. If you don't know exactly, don't worry about it. Using that weight, do as many reps as you can for each set but DO NOT go to failure. That means for the first set or two you'll get around 8 reps, the last few sets you'll only get around 6, even less. That's perfectly fine.

NOTE: If your dumbbells are extremely light and you can do more than 10 reps with your heaviest pair, then you'll just have to do more reps. Again, don't go to failure.

Rest as long as you need between sets. For each exercise, I want you to do 30 TOTAL reps before going to the next. Take as many sets as you need to get to this number. For example, you might go something like 8, 7, 5, 5, 3, 2.

Workout A
1. Overhead press
2. Lunge movement (any kind of lunge or step up movement is fine)
3. One arm row
4. Ab exercise (your choice of ab exercise)
5. OPTIONAL: 10 minutes of "free time"

Workout B
1. Dumbbell thruster. Here's a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNTW7B09VJg
2. Pull ups would be ideal IF you have access to a pull up bar, otherwise do one arm rows again.
3. Push ups
4. Romanian deadlift
5. OPTIONAL: 10 minutes of "free time"

For the 10 minutes of free time you can do whatever exercises you want: bicep curls, chest flyes on the bench, extra ab work, triceps work, whatever. The reason I am limiting you to 10 minutes is because I don't want you doing curls for an hour and then be all sore and not feel like working out the next day. Remember that this is completely OPTIONAL. If you're wiped out from the main exercises skip it or just do a few sets of your favorite exercise and call it a day. You don't have to go the whole 10 minutes, either.
2011-04-11 7:09 AM
in reply to: #3438950

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Payson, AZ
Subject: RE: Beginner and need help.
My routines would be a bit tougher but yeah, that's a good start.  BUT, when you do get around to adding to your equipment I'd look at Play It Again Sports.  You can get lots of strength training equipment for a very reasonable price.
2011-04-11 11:06 AM
in reply to: #3439283

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Regular
89
252525
Midwest City, Oklahoma
Subject: RE: Beginner and need help.
Thanks so much... This is great information and I appreciate the start!


2011-04-11 1:53 PM
in reply to: #3439391

Elite
2608
2000500100
Denver, Colorado
Subject: RE: Beginner and need help.
bzgl40 - 2011-04-11 7:09 AM

My routines would be a bit tougher but yeah, that's a good start.  BUT, when you do get around to adding to your equipment I'd look at Play It Again Sports.  You can get lots of strength training equipment for a very reasonable price.


Well, he's a beginner so I didn't want to kill him! We can make this tougher as we go along.
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