Exercise

Beginner Weight Training Tips

July 22, 2009
By J White

Weight training has long been recognized to have many health benefits. For those of you just starting out, these beginner weight training tips will help you to avoid some of the common pitfalls and mistakes many beginners make. By following these tips, you can look forward to lowering your risk of injury, getting more out of each workout, and avoiding some unnecessary pain.

Beginner Weight Training Tips

Stretch

Stretching is a long held practice that is designed to lengthen your muscles and loosen your joints so that you can move more freely. However, you don’t want to over-stretch as it can lead to unstable joints. Holding each stretch for 10 seconds or at the most 30 seconds, is sufficient.

Start with light weights

It may be tempting, especially for guys, to prove how strong you are. As a beginner, you need to resist that urge, since this is the easiest way to become injured. Instead start with light weights, light enough to do 10 to 15 reps. Also perform at the max three sets.

The next day after your training you are going to experience some soreness. The level of soreness you have will depend on the amount of weight you tried to lift and the duration you spent on each exercise. If you used light weights and performed the recommended amount of sets, your soreness should be bearable. If you went overboard … Well, let’s just say that the pain will go away in a couple of days.

Develop proper form

When you begin weight training, the most basic skill that you want to develop is proper form. This helps to avoid injury, as well as helping you to maximize the working of the muscle.

Some common mistakes that you need to look out for has mostly to do with your back. For instance, when bench pressing always keep your back on the bench. When performing leg exercises such as squats, keep your head up and your back straight.

To avoid joint injuries, do not lock your elbows. When you do, you transfer part of the force of the weight from your muscles to your joints, which can lead to overextension.

Go from light to heavy

When weight training, you should always go from light to heavy weights. By exercising in this manner, you give your muscles a chance to warm up and increase the blood flow to that area. Also, this progressive type of training is the best way to develop and strengthen muscles.

Carry weights with two hands

For safety, when you are transferring weights to different places in the gym, always use two hands. It may appear more manly to use one hand, but the weights can slip and cause an injury, if not to you, then maybe to someone else. And as a reminder, again do not lock your elbows.

Replace weights & wipe down

As a courtesy, replace your weights to their proper place. Guys need to be particularly attentive about doing this, since you tend to lift more weights than women. If you don’t and a woman is following you on a machine, it can be very difficult for her to take off the weights that you have left on the apparatus.

Also, wipe down the bench after you have finished. No one wants to sit or lie down in your sweat.

Rest

Muscle grows after you have finished weight training, not during. So the process can take place you need to rest your muscles. If you exercise your muscles everyday, they will not get a chance to recuperate and grow.

As such, most trainers recommend that you exercise your major muscle groups only once per week. The only muscle group that takes exception to this advice are your abdominals, which you can train several times a week.

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