Workouts for men and women: If you want to lift heavier weights, a full-body strength workout must add to your routine. And you don’t need to overdo the number of exercises for this.
If you are looking to get stronger, the exercises you choose and the way you plan your workouts are especially important. When it comes to exercises to help you get stronger, the big, basic compound movements are the best value to add to your workout. For example, think about squats and rows instead of leg extensions or biceps curls. Because these exercises activate large muscle groups, they can also put more strain on them than movements that isolate smaller muscles.
Next, plan your workout. If your goal is to build whole-body strength, straight sets where you finish a set, rest, and return to the same exercise for one or more work periods and rest are better ways to accomplish this than circuits. Where you go from one workout to the next without a break, circuits keep your heart rate high (and increase your cardiovascular system), but they don’t give you the recovery you need to move heavy weights set after set.
It brings us to our next point – a really important one. If you’re strength training for the specific purpose of getting stronger (and not for general fitness or to build muscle or endurance), you’ll need to rest longer than you think. For this reason, rest for two to three minutes after each set in the full-body workout below.
“You should have sufficient rest for your heart rate to return to its original value”. “The goal here is for you to recover almost completely here so that you feel like you can repeat the same number of reps with the same weight for three or four rounds.”
Speaking of reps, you’ll also keep it lower than usual with circuit workouts if you train for strength. In general, if you’re training for pure strength – say, if you’re a powerlifter – you’ll keep the reps very low, in the range of less than five. However, you will only slightly increase this rep range up to the six to eight range in the whole body strength workouts. It may be safer for users who are not used to lifting near their maximum, but it will still benefit from this muscle-building process.
However, it’s important to realize that the three strength training benefits for your muscles – strength, hypertrophy (or muscle building), and endurance – exist on a continuum. So if you do more than 15 repetitions in a circle, you’re mainly building your muscular endurance, but you’re also gaining strength and muscle. So although strength is the primary goal of this workout, you will also gain muscle building and endurance benefits throughout your workout.
As you keep the rep range lower, these movements become more intense, which means some exercises will come a long way. For example, this full-body strength training only involves five movements. But because it works for all of the main movement patterns – squats, hinge, push and pull – you get a super-efficient routine that hits your quads, thighs, glutes, shoulders, chest and back muscles. So yeah, pretty much all of your muscles will feel it. Ready to work on some strength? How to get started
Table of Contents
Workouts for men and women : Requirements
A set (or more if you want to use different weights for different exercises) of dumbbells you consider “heavy to lift”. The weight will vary from person to person, but choose a difficult weight for you in the last few reps. For example, if you’re using a weight that you think you can hold up to two more, but you are missing the last one, it’s a good choice for that weight. You also want an exercise mat for extra comfort.
Exercises
- Farmer carry
- Goblet squat
- Romanian deadlift
- Bent-over row
- Push-up
Directions for the workouts
1.For the Farmer Carry, travel the distance prescribed below. Rest as needed. Complete three sets in total.
2.For the remaining exercises, do 6-8 repetitions of each movement. Rest 2-3 minutes. Complete 3-4 sets in total. Then move on to the next exercise.
1. Farmer Carry
- Place the dumbbells (weights) on the floor next to each of your feet.
- Squat down to grab the weights with a neutral grip with your palms facing inward.
- Stand up with your chest held high and your core strengthened.
- Go forward, keeping your torso straight, and tensing your abs, so the weight does not fall on your lower back. Next, imagine that there is a string connected to your head that pulls you towards the ceiling.
- Move forward 50 feet. If you don’t have the space to do it all at once, you can reduce the spacing.
- When you’re done, crouch down to put the weight back on the floor.
Farmer Carry works as a dynamic warm-up and strength exercise. It trains your grip strength (which you need for force-intensive movements such as deadlifts and pull-ups), as well as your core stability and your shoulders. (workouts for men and women)
2.Goblet Squat
- Stand on your feet a little wider than your hip width, toes slightly outward, weight in both hands in front of you so that it hangs vertically.
- Squeeze your core and keep your chest up and back flat as you shift your weight onto your heels, push your hips back, and bend your knees to squat.
- Raise your heels and press down on your glutes for one repetition.
- Continue for 6-8 repetitions.
This movement works your quads and buttocks. Screw your feet into the ground so that your knees don’t buckle.
3.Romanian deadlift
- Stand with your feet hip-width apart, and your knees slightly bent. Hold a dumbbell on your thighs in each hand.
- Hinge at the hips, bend slightly at the knees. Push your buttocks back away and keep your back flat. Your torso should be nearly parallel to the floor, and the weights should touch your shins.
- Hold your core tight and push your heels up to stand straight. Keep weights closer to your shins as you pull.
- Take a break at the top and squeeze your bum. It considers as one rep.
- Continue with 6-8 repetitions.
The deadlift works on the back of your body, including your hamstrings and glutes. Keep your core and back moving, so your lower back doesn’t try to get the upper hand. (workouts for men and women)
4.Bent-Over Row
- Stand on your feet hip-width away from each other and hold a dumbbell in each hand with your arms at your sides.
- With the core activated, lean forward at the hips, push your butt back, bend your left knee, and be careful not to circle your shoulders. (The flexibility of your hips and hamstrings determines how far you can bend.)
- Look at the ground few inches in front of your feet to keep your neck in a comfortable position.
- Do a row pulling the weights towards your chest, keeping your elbows close to your body and at the top of the movement, squeezing your shoulder blades for two seconds. Your elbows should cross your back as you bring the weight back to your chest.
- Slowly lower the weights, extending your arms toward the floor. It considers as one rep.
- Continue for 6-8 repetitions.
This movement works the back of your body, like your rhomboids and lats. Your biceps will also help you with the move.
5.Push-Ups
- Start on a high plank with your palms flat, shoulder width apart, shoulders just above your wrists, legs stretched back, and your core and buttocks tight.
- Bend your elbows and lower your chest part to the floor.
- Drive through your palms to straighten your arms. It considers as one repetition.
- Continue with 6-8 repetitions.
This movement works your pecs, shoulders, and triceps. To make this easier, raise your hands on a step or bench. If after eight reps of floor push-ups you have a few reps left in the tank. You can make it more difficult by lifting your feet on that step or bench instead.
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