Want to train your abs to have tighter curves? 10 Tips for Beginners to Become a Weight Training Coach

Seeing others develop tight curves, perky buttocks and waistline through exercise, do you also want to try to improve your figure through weight training? Or do you want to improve your athletic performance and achieve better fitness results through weight training? No matter what your purpose is for weight training, it is always confusing for beginners as to where to start. Before diving into weight training, take a look at the following 10 tips!

You don’t have to use equipment, your body is your best training tool

Weight training, to put it simply, is the use of resistance to strengthen muscles; so in addition to those big, powerful-looking machines in the gym, there are actually many other proven and effective methods that can use muscles without requiring too many tools.

For example, push-ups, sit-ups, squats, etc. are very common bodyweight workouts. In addition, the use of kettlebells, TRX, medicine balls and other props can also achieve great training results. If the terms of the tools mentioned above are unfamiliar to you, don't worry. When you first start weight training, you can start with simple bodyweight training.

Start with two days a week

How should the frequency and intensity of weight training be arranged? Hannah Davis, a fitness expert with a professional certificate in strength and conditioning trainer (CSCS), suggests that ideally, 3 to 5 days of training a week is the best frequency. However, for beginners, if they start with such an intensive frequency of weight training, the body will not be able to adapt and it will be easy to get injured or give up. Therefore, it is recommended to start with 2 days a week, with the goal of completing 20 minutes of training each time. After 2 weeks, the time can be adjusted to 30 minutes a day, and then to 45 to 60 minutes a day. The number of training days can also be increased continuously at intervals of 2 to 3 weeks.

However, doing weight training does not mean that you can skip aerobic exercise. The recommended aerobic exercise time per week is 150 minutes of light aerobic exercise or 75 minutes of high-intensity aerobic exercise.

Warm up your muscles

Before doing weight training, it is extremely important to warm up the muscles first. First, you can use a massage roller to wake up the muscles. The massage roller can help relax tight muscles and allow the muscles to effectively play their functions during exercise. Next, use dynamic warm-up to properly prepare the muscles of the whole body before exercise. Making the muscles more flexible will help improve the completion of training movements. For example, you can more completely stretch the biceps femoris when squatting, and you can also avoid the risk of injury during exercise.

Balance upper and lower body training

You may have heard people who love weight training say things like "I'm going to train my legs today", but for beginners of weight training, the average number of training days per week is small. Compared with focusing on training specific parts of the body, a balanced full-body training would be a more reasonable allocation. Full-body training can maximize the calories consumed. Mixing upper and lower body training is an ideal choice because when exercising the upper body, the lower body will have enough time to rest. In addition, the choice of training movements must also be balanced. Both push-ups and inward squeezes should be done to balance the muscle groups.

Fitness expert Hannah Davis recommends the following mixed training for beginners:

Squat + Push-up

Walking Lunge + Lat Pulldowns

Romanian deadlifts + barbell overhead press

Mountain climber + Bench Row

Aim to do 15 reps of each exercise for 3 rounds

When you first start weight training, try not to complicate the training content; start with completing all movements 15 times in a row, for a total of 3 rounds. Once you have become familiar with this type of training, you can adjust the training content and frequency.

Taking the "squat + push-up" training provided above as an example, after completing 15 squats + 15 push-ups, you can take a breath, then complete two more of the same training, and then you can move on to the walking lunge + lat pulldowns. Of course, if it is difficult for you to complete 15 times 3 times at the beginning, you can start by completing 8 to 15 times, or even just 2 times.

If you use weight training equipment, how much weight should you lift?

Each muscle group has different strengths, so training movements for different parts of the body require training equipment of different weights. So how heavy should the equipment be? The weight you choose should be a little difficult for you, but not so heavy that you cannot complete the movement correctly. This is the most suitable weight for the current stage.

For example, when your training is to do 15 times in total, you can complete the previous movements within your ability, but the weight that makes you feel exhausted after completing the 15th time is appropriate; if you can still breathe smoothly and chat and laugh with the people next to you after completing the training, it means that the weight you chose is too easy for you.

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