Many workout regimens have appeared in our magazine throughout the years. Do they work? Without a doubt! However, we have a secret to share with you: Starting a fitness routine doesn’t have to take eight or twelve weeks. While it’s unrealistic to expect to become an expert in only four weeks, if you can conquer that first month, you’ll have gotten over the infamous plateau, where many people give up, and laid the groundwork for a lifetime of muscle development.
The accelerated beginner’s guide to bodybuilding is a good name for this. The first month of training with this plan will be intense but not to the point of injury or burnout. The plan is progressive, meaning that you will move on to new exercises, increase your volume, or intensify your current ones each week. You will have gained a lot of excellent muscle and be prepared for anything that comes your way after four weeks. In other words, in the next month, you will seem far more attractive without a shirt.
One of the most popular fitness objectives is weight loss. A search on Google for “how to lose weight” will bring up thousands of results, including information about fad diets, body treatments, and fitness challenges. It can be difficult, if not downright daunting, to sift through all the weight reduction advice out there in search of credible sources and then figure out what works for you.
The truth is that there is no foolproof method of losing weight and that no two people respond the same way to different exercise and nutrition fitness routine. Keep going; losing weight is a personal process that takes many forms. Whether you’re looking for a 4-week exercise program or advice on how to change your diet to lose weight, we’ve got you covered.
Fitness Routine: 4-week Weight Loss Workout Plan
The use of extreme measures, such as working out seven days a week, cutting carbs and calories, or pushing your body to its limits, is common in weight reduction programs. Still, these methods typically lead to burnout and impede results.
Staying active is key to any weight loss program. There is no prescribed or one-size-fits-all fitness routine, but this one will get you started with a mix of strength training, cardiovascular exercise, endurance training, and rehabilitation. Try it out and modify your exercises based on what you discover works best for you.
If your weight is a serious health concern, get your doctor’s approval before beginning a weight loss program that incorporates cardio and strength training.
Week One: Start Overall
Rather than “splitting up” your training, you’ll be training all of your major muscle groups simultaneously in each workout at the start of the program. During the first week, train three times a day, focusing on a single body component at a time. To give your muscles a chance to heal between sets, it’s best to train on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and then take the following two days off.
While expert lifters do the workouts in Week 1 as well, they are great for beginners because they are a collection of basic moves. Not only are you not introduced to a plethora of leg workout machine exercises at the outset, but you are also given a small number of free-weight routines. You should start learning these exercises now if you want to increase your muscle mass and strength in the long run. Before you try any of the exercises on your own, make sure you read the descriptions thoroughly.
Throughout Week 1, you will complete three sets of exercises each workout, for a total of nine sets for each body part, which is an excellent volume to start with. You should aim for 8-12 repetitions every set, with the exception of abdominal crunches. The majority of bodybuilders, both amateur and professional, use this rep plan because it maximizes muscular growth or hypertrophy.
The workouts below show that you are to perform eight repetitions in the first set, ten in the second, and twelve in the third. When you lower the weight for each set in order to complete the higher rep count, you are essentially forming a “reverse pyramid” in the bodybuilding community. The typical pyramid goes from lower to higher reps. If you were doing eight repetitions with 140 pounds on your first set of lat pulldowns, increase the weight to 120 or 130 for your second set and 100 to 120 for your third.
Week Two: Split It Up
You’re already halfway through the program, but you’ll start exercising different sections of your body on separate days with a two-day workout split. This means that instead of training your complete body in one sitting, you’ll exercise bench workouts over two days. There are a total of four days of training this week.
On Monday and Thursday, you’ll focus on your upper body, and on Tuesday and Friday, you’ll exercise your lower body. You’ll train each body part twice. You are scheduled to recover on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday.
In Week 2, you’ll see some repetitions of exercises from Week 1. Still, you’ll also add one new action to each body part routine (apart from abs) to help you train every muscle group from every possible position. As an example, the chest consists of two exercises:
- Two bench workout exercises exist the dumbbell bench press, which uses a complex movement involving the shoulder and elbow to recruit the most muscle fibers, and the dumbbell flye, which isolates the pecs using the shoulder alone.
- Presses for the chest do not isolate the pecs to the same extent as flies because they engage the deltoids and triceps to some extent.
You’ll use the same reverse pyramid rep pattern as before, but in Week 2, you’ll increase the number of reps from 12 to 15 on the third set of each exercise. While fifteen repetitions are on the lower end of the optimal range for muscle growth, these sets will help you develop the endurance you need to grow stronger with bench workout and bigger in the future.
Week Three: 3 by 3 Days
During the third week of the program, training is divided into three days: First, you will train your chest, shoulders, and triceps; second, you will focus on your back, biceps, and abdominals; and third, you will train your lower body, which includes your quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, and calves. Just like in Week 2, you’ll hit the gym six days a week to train each body part twice.
Each body routine now includes one additional exercise, giving you even more ways to train your target muscles for full development. Each muscle area will be worked out in two sets of three to four repetitions: the larger muscle groups (chest, back, shoulders, quadriceps, hamstrings) will get four sets of exercises, while the smaller muscle groups (triceps, biceps, abs, and calves) will get three sets. The result is a significant increase in volume from Week 1: 16 sets for large body parts and 12 sets for smaller ones, all while training in the 8–15 rep range.
Week Four: Increasing the Level
Training four days in a quad-way split with each body part pounded individually (with the exception of calves and abs muscles, which are trained twice) is what you can expect in the fourth and last week of the program. Due to the fact that training fewer body parts (usually 2-3), every workout enables you to work out with greater intensity and offers each muscle group enough attention; four-day splits are prevalent among experienced lifters.
It is standard practice among both amateur and professional bodybuilders to air certain muscles, such as the chest and triceps, the back and biceps, and the quads and hamstrings. Shoulders are worked out independently, and for every other workout, you’ll focus on calves and abs. These muscles are great at responding to several sessions of training so that you can concentrate on increasing the intensity of your leg workout machine rather than learning new motions. Week 4 does not include any new exercises.
Rep schemes stay in the hypertrophic range this week, but you can enhance the volume by performing additional sets of each exercise. On Thursday, you can do ten sets of calf raises, and for bigger body parts, you can do up to five sets. The increase in volume will guarantee that your muscles are sufficiently overworked to sustain the growth they started in the first three weeks. Now that you’ve finished the first four weeks of the program, you can move on to the next one.
Bottom Line
With a consistent weight reduction exercise program, you should begin to see benefits in as little as two to three weeks. When you walk on the scale, don’t be discouraged if the number doesn’t move down.
Evaluate your physical state once the four-week weight loss program is over. Have you felt a surge of energy? How about your strength? Do you feel tired? Adapt your exercise and eating habits appropriately.
For instance, you can make your strength training more difficult by doing more sets or reps, or you can try to make your treadmill workout more difficult by increasing the speed or inclination. Prioritize active recovery if you’re feeling tired, or reevaluate your nutrition to make sure you’re getting enough fuel.
