Welcome !
Logout
Member Home
WEIGHT LOSS FREEDOM FORMULA
Welcome
Start Here
Strategies Master List
Education
Diet Calculator Simplicity Weight Loss Plan Flexible Weight Loss
Fatloss Boosting Tactics
Fat Burning Foods
Diet Killers
Dieting Tips
Keto Diet Paleo Diet
The Carb-Smart Plan
Diet Vacations
Psychology/Mind
Physical Activity
Troubleshooting Weight Loss Healthy Recipes (Vol 1) Healthy Recipes (Vol 2) Healthy Recipes (Vol 3)

Resistance Exercise Basics

If you are new to resistance exercise, please read this page. You'll need to know the terminology we use in the exercise descriptions. We'll also explain sets, reps, and how to build a workout schedule or routine you can follow.

Basic Terminology

For those who aren't familiar with resistance exercise, here's a little basic explanation of how a resistance training program works. It's generally made up of several specific exercise moves that involve the lifting and lowering of some kind of resistance or weight. You repeat each move a certain number of times before taking a break and then doing it again.

As an example, take one of the most basic of exercises: push-ups. You lower your body towards the ground, then lift it back up. In this case, your own body is providing the resistance or weight as you lift it up. Each time you do a single push-up, it's called a repetition or rep. You might do ten push-ups, take a break, then do ten more. Each group of ten push-ups would be called a set. The break in between sets is called the rest interval.

  • Repetition (Rep) - The lifting and lowering of the weight a single time. A single push-up is one rep.
  • Set - A series of repetitions. A group of ten push-ups followed by a break is one set.
  • Rest Interval - The length of your break in between sets. You might rest for one minute in between sets of push-ups.

Muscle Groups

Each exercise move works a certain muscle group. For example, push-ups work the group of muscles around your shoulders, including your chest and triceps (the muscles on the backs of your arms). Many workouts, including ours, provide enough exercises to work all of the major muscle groups in your body. At a more advanced level, you might spend an entire workout on just your lower body or upper body.

You don't really need to worry too much about which muscle groups you're working, but here's a quick rundown of some of the major muscles and muscle groups for the curious. When we describe the actual exercises below, we'll also mention which muscles the exercise will work.

Your muscles can be grouped into three rough groups -- upper body, core, and lower body.

Upper Body

  • Biceps -- muscles on the front of upper arm
  • Triceps -- muscles on the back of upper arm
  • Deltoids or Delts -- shoulder muscles
  • Pectorals or Pecs -- muscles of the chest

Core

  • Abdominals or Abs -- stomach muscles
  • Trapezius or Traps -- muscles of the upper back
  • Rhomboid -- muscles of the middle/upper back
  • Latissimus Dorsi or Lats -- muscles of the lower back

Lower Body

  • Gluteus Maximus or Glutes -- buttock muscles
  • Quadriceps -- muscles on the front of thigh
  • Hamstrings -- muscles on the back of thigh

Equipment

One of the common barriers to starting an exercise program is the need for equipment. Getting all the equipment you need can take a lot of money. That's why we've designed this beginning exercise program so it requires no specialized equipment. Every exercise can be done using simple objects you have at home, or using your own body weight. If you belong to a gym, you don't really need to worry. Naturally, all of the exercises we recommend can be done with the equipment that's available at a gym.

Half of the exercises described here are what we call bodyweight exercises, meaning they can be done with nothing other than your own body. The other half require something to provide resistance. At a gym, a simple set of dumbbells will do the trick. At home, you can find many objects around the house that can do the job just fine.

If you want to get some real weight lifting equipment, you can find cheap sets at just about any yard sale or even online. Rubber tubing can also work for many exercises, and it's fairly inexpensive. If you are exercising at home, you may reach a point where you need more specialized equipment to do the more difficult versions of these exercises. When you get there, you can consider buying a small weight-lifting set for the home or perhaps purchasing a gym membership.

Everyday Objects:

  • Dumbbells
  • Milk jugs. Filled with water or sand, these make perfect weights for many exercises. A gallon jug of water weighs about 8 pounds.
  • Small food cans. They work just as well as dumbbells in many cases.
  • A heavy book. Placing a heavy book on your chest can provide just the right amount of weight for some exercises. A ream of paper works just like a heavy book, and many people have reams of paper around for their home printers.
  • Rocks. True "Paleo" style!

Purchased Equipment (optional)

  • A simple set of dumbbells
  • Rubber tubing

Schedule

You can do your workout two or three times a week, depending on your own schedule and how you feel. Two times a week is the minimum. Any less and you won't get the benefits you need. More than 3 times per week is unnecessary unless you are aiming for increased muscle or more fitness. If you are on a rapid weight loss plan, definitely avoid more than 3 workouts per week.

Whether you decide to work out two or three times a week, you'll want to spread them out as evenly as possible across the week. For twice a week, you could do Monday and Thursday, Monday and Friday, or something similar -- so long as there are at least two days between workouts. For three times a week, you could do Monday/Wednesday/Friday or something similar, as long as there is at least one day between each workout.

Sets and Reps

For your first exercise session, aim for ten repetitions (reps) of each exercise, and that will be one set. For now, that's all you need -- just one set of each exercise. Rest for one full minute before moving on to the next exercise -- that's your rest interval.

If you did make it all the way to ten reps without too much trouble, great! If you have a hard time getting ten full reps, don't push yourself too hard. Just do as many as you can without overdoing it, and call it good. If you feel too sore and tired afterward, you may need to scale back and do fewer reps next time. For your first two or three sessions, you may need to continue adjusting how many reps you do in order to strike a balance between too easy and too hard.

However many reps you settle on, keep that as your goal for at least your first week or two. Remember, you don't want to overdo it. The main goal to start off with is just to exercise without getting overwhelmed. After the first or second week, try to add one to three more reps to each set. Every two to three sessions, try to increase the number of reps you do by at least one rep. If you just can't do the extra reps without getting too tired or sore, go back to your previous amount for another week and then try again.

The goal is to reach one full set of 15 reps. When you start feeling fairly comfortable with 15 reps, your next goal will be to add another set. Your first time adding a second set may be tough. As before, do as many reps as you can to start off with, without overdoing it. If that feels too challenging, go back to a single set for another week or two before trying to add another set again. For your second set, continue adding more reps each week just like you did for the first set, until you can do 15 full reps in your second set, too. Then you'll add a third set.

When doing more than one set, your rest interval will be one full minute between each set. Say you're doing three sets of 15 push-ups. You'll do your first set of 15 push-ups, then rest for one minute. Do your second set of 15 push-ups, then rest for one minute. Do your third set, rest a minute, then move on to the next exercise.

When you reach the point where you're doing three sets with 15 reps each, the next step is to progress to more difficult exercises.

Progression

To get stronger and continue getting the benefits of resistance exercise, you need to progress. That means you need to make your muscles continually work harder. When you're starting out, simply adding more reps and sets does the job. Without overloading yourself, you can keep adding reps and sets until you're doing three sets of 15 reps for each exercise. When that starts to feel easy, you need another way to progress.

To keep making your muscles work harder, you need to add more resistance. For some exercises, that means just adding more weight in the form of dumbbells or any of the equipment we mentioned earlier. You can start off by adding 2 to 5 pounds and seeing how you feel. The extra weight might bring you back down to 10 reps per set, so you would keep working until you got back up to 15 reps, then add more weight again.

Say you've started off lifting ten pounds. Once you can do three sets of 15 reps with ten pounds, you would add more weight. So then you'd do the exercise with 12 or 15 pounds, trying to get a full three sets. If you can't get at least eight or ten reps in each of your three sets, you've probably added too much weight.

For other exercises, you can make your muscles work harder by progressing to more advanced moves. Take the push-up, for example. You'll start off with the simplest form of push-up, the wall push-up. When you can do three sets of 15 reps and it starts feeling too easy, you'll move on to the kneeling push-up, and finally a full standard push-up. As with adding extra weight, moving on to a more advanced form of an exercise may reduce the number of reps you can do. Just do as many reps as you can while working your way back up to 15 reps, then move on.

In the exercise descriptions below, we've outlined the best way to progress for each exercise. Some exercises have basic, intermediate, and advanced forms, while others simply require the addition of more weight.

Keep in mind that you may progress with some exercises faster than others. You may be ready to progress with your push-up earlier than your crunches, and that's fine. Go ahead and move to the next level with your push-up, and keep working on your crunches until they become easy enough that you feel ready to take them to the next level.

If you continue gradually progressing as we've described above, by the time you've reached a point where your workouts have gotten really intense, you won't even have noticed how hard it was, and you'll be feeling great! What would have felt intense to you when you started will feel normal or even easy, because you've advanced so far.

Optional Exercises

If you have worked your way through all the methods above, or if adding more weight doesn't seem to be helping as much anymore, there is another way to progress: adding new exercises to your routine. Doing two or more different exercises that work the same muscle group is a great way to give your muscles an extra challenge. When you're doing three sets of 15 standard pushups and it starts feeling too easy, you can start adding the lateral raise to give your shoulder muscles an extra workout.

These additional exercises should be considered optional and shouldn't be done until you've reached the goal of three sets of 15 reps with the original set of exercises. We've described some ideas for these optional exercises below.

Lifting Technique

Beginning weight lifters need to observe a few simple lifting techniques to help avoid injury and get the most out of their exercise routine.

Breathing. The best way to breathe when lifting weights is to exhale (breathe out) when lifting the weight and inhaling (breathing in) when lowering. However, even that isn't as important as simply making sure that you breathe in the first place. For some reason it seems to be instinctive to hold your breath when you're putting forth a lot of exertion, perhaps because you tend to tighten up your diaphragm to help with the effort. If you find yourself holding your breath while doing an exercise, just start breathing however feels best. It's more important that you do breathe than how you breathe.

Lifting Speed. When you're starting out, it's best to lift in a slow and controlled manner. That's the best way to avoid injury and make sure you're doing the movements right. The ideal timing would be to lift the weight in about two seconds and lower it in about two seconds.

Both breathing and lifting speed can be more easily controlled by counting as you do each exercise. Do a two-count as you lift, then a two-count as you lower. This can help you focus on breathing so you don't hold your breath without realizing it, while simultaneously ensuring the right lifting speeds.

Disclosures | Privacy | Terms | Disclaimer | Contact
©2025 LeanBodyInstitute.com. All Rights Reserved.