In some cases, it makes no sense for an athlete to exert extra efforts and overly complicate the training process. If the set of muscle mass is stable, it is quite enough to use multi-joint basic exercises during training. Sometimes this is even a necessary measure. For example, if a person does not have enough time to complete high-intensity workouts, a basic training program will shorten the duration.
Time is reduced by eliminating isolated movements: only basic ones remain - just what is needed for muscle growth. At the same time, an athlete performs no more than 5-6 exercises per workout, creating the maximum prerequisites for muscle growth, but spending a minimum of time and resources on this.
Today we will look at what a basic training program for gaining muscle mass is and what are its main advantages and disadvantages.
The purpose of the basic program
The basic program is suitable for different groups of trainees:
- For experienced athletes, subject to the principle of periodization of loads or rest from hard training.
- For beginner athletes - the base teaches how to properly contract muscles and gradually build up a strength foundation.
- Ectomorphs and mesomorphs who want to gain quality muscle mass.
- Girls who are seriously carried away by iron sports and have not fully learned to listen to their bodies.
- Athletes for whom fitness and crossfit are a hobby, but not a lifestyle or profession.
Advantages of the basic program
The main advantages of such training:
- Performing heavy multi-joint movements stimulates the growth of large and small muscle groups and an increase in strength indicators.
- Saving time. You do not spend a lot of time on isolated exercises, the duration of the workout is reduced by 1.5-2 times.
- Almost complete guarantee that you will not overtrain. Often, novice athletes add a lot of isolation to the program in addition to the base, as a result, the muscles get excessive stress, do not have time to recover and do not grow.
Disadvantages of the program
However, the basic weight training program is not without its drawbacks:
- Most basic exercises are traumatic. For example, bench presses can injure your wrists, elbows, and shoulders, and barbell squats can injure your knees or back.
- Some athletes have a predisposition to oblique abdominal hypertrophy. The constant execution of the base will only make it worse. As a result, a wide waist and the risk of an umbilical hernia. But this is subject to work with really heavy weights (for example, deadlift from 200 kg).
- Psychological factor. It is difficult from day to day to set oneself up for monotonous hard work in multi-joint exercises: for most athletes and female athletes it is much easier to isolated - they do not load the central nervous system so much.
Tips for compiling a database
A few expert tips:
- When doing basic gym workouts, put more emphasis on rest and recovery. It makes no sense to train every day - your muscles and articular-ligamentous apparatus are simply not ready for this, sooner or later everything will end with injury or overtraining. The best option for such a complex is three times a week.
- Don't put squats and deadlifts on the same day. This is an excessive load on the lower back and the extensors of the spine.
- Take a day or two of complete rest before and after training your priority muscle group. This will facilitate early recovery and growth.
- Time your rest time between sets. Try to rest no more than 1.5-2 minutes, in squats and deadlifts this time can be increased to 3-4 minutes.
- Focus on exercise technique and muscle contraction sensations, not weight. Without technology, weight means nothing. But at the same time, try to systematically increase your strength indicators.
- Tailor your workouts to fit your schedule. For example, if Saturday is your day off, on which you can sleep longer and eat more, and therefore recover better, then it is better to put the hardest workout on Saturday.
- Don't forget to optimize your load. Monotonous training always leads to stagnation. If you feel that you have stopped growing and getting stronger, make adjustments to the training process. Train hard for one week and light for another, reducing working weights by 30-40%, increasing the number of repetitions and not reaching failure. This will give your muscles, joints and ligaments a break from heavy weights, which will lead to greater progress in the future.
Basic program for men
The basic training program for men involves heavy multi-joint exercises performed in the middle repetition range (6 to 12). This approach will lead to maximum muscle hypertrophy.
The split for three days is as follows:
| Monday (chest + triceps + deltas) | ||
| Bench press | 4x12,10,8,6 |  |
| Incline Dumbbell Press | 3x10 |  © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Dips with additional weights | 3x10-12 |  |
| Bench press with a narrow grip | 4x10 |  |
| Arnold press | 4x10-12 |  |
| Wide grip barbell pull | 4x12 |  © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Wednesday (back + biceps) | ||
| Deadlift classic | 4x12,10,8,6 |  |
| Wide-grip pull-ups with additional weights | 4x10-12 |  |
| Pull of the bar to the belt | 4x10 |  © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Narrow Reverse Grip Row | 3x10 |  © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Standing barbell curls | 4x10 |  © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Twisting in the simulator | 3x12 |  |
| Friday (feet) | ||
| Barbell Shoulder Squats | 4x12,10,8,6 |  © Vitaly Sova - stock.adobe.com |
| Leg press in the simulator | 3x10 |  |
| Barbell lunges | 3x10 |  © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Romanian Dumbbell Deadlift | 4x10 |  |
| Standing Calf Raises | 4x12-15 |  © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Hanging leg raises on the horizontal bar | 3x10-12 |  |
Thus, in three days you will work all muscle groups. Workouts are relatively short (no more than 1-1.5 hours), but intense. We try to work with decent weights and rest less between sets. If someone finds this amount of work insufficient, add one more exercise each. However, remember that our goal is to progress as much as possible without getting killed constantly in training.
Basic program for girls
The basic training program for women consists of exercises that are performed in a repetition range of 10 to 15. With this mode, you will not overload the joints and ligaments and quickly tone the muscles.
The split itself for three days looks like this:
| Monday (chest + triceps + deltas) | ||
| Dumbbell bench press | 4x10 |  |
| Seated chest press | 3x10-12 |  © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Bench press with a narrow grip | 4x10 | |
| Seated Dumbbell Press | 4x10-12 |  © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Wide grip barbell pull | 4x12 | © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Twisting on the bench | 3x12-15 |  |
| Wednesday (back + biceps) | ||
| Wide grip row of the upper block to the chest | 4x10 |  © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Row of one dumbbell to the belt | 4x10 |  |
| Narrow Reverse Grip Row | 3x10 | © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Horizontal pull on the block | 3x10 |  © tankist276 - stock.adobe.com |
| Standing dumbbell curls | 3x10 |  |
| Reverse crunches on the bench | 3x10-12 |  |
| Friday (feet) | ||
| Barbell Shoulder Squats | 4x10-12 | © Vitaly Sova - stock.adobe.com |
| Hack machine squats | 3x10-12 |  © mountaira - stock.adobe.com |
| Dumbbell Straight Leg Deadlift | 4x10-12 | |
| Smith lunges | 3x10 |  © Alen Ajan - stock.adobe.com |
| Glute bridge with barbell or machine | 4x10-12 |  © ANR Production - stock.adobe.com |
| Standing Calf Raises | 4x15 | © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
The emphasis in this split should be on the quadriceps, hamstrings and buttocks - those areas that most girls consider "problematic". It is better to work out the rest of the muscle groups in a relatively gentle mode so as not to overload the joints and ligaments and to focus all the training stress on the target muscle group, then the progress in it will be maximum.
Basic program for beginners
Beginners should gradually gain momentum in the training process. The optimal start for the first few months is a basic fullbadi training program where you work your whole body every workout. This will create fertile ground for further strength training: learn the correct technique, gain the first muscle mass, become stronger and prepare joints and ligaments for more serious work. Three workouts a week will be enough.
Due to the fact that beginners have small weights, the muscles will have time to recover, even working three times a week. It is necessary to switch to split when the working weights increase significantly and you feel that you can no longer recover properly.
The complex consists of two workouts that must be alternated. For example, on the first week on Monday you do the first, on Wednesday - the second, on Friday - again the first, and on Monday of the next week - again the second workout, and so on.
| Workout 1 | ||
| Bench press | 4x10 | |
| Dips on the uneven bars | 3x10-12 | |
| Wide grip pull-ups | 4x10-12 | |
| Row of one dumbbell to the belt | 4x10 | |
| Seated Dumbbell Press | 4x10-12 | © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Leg press | 4x10-12 | |
| Lying leg curls in the simulator | 3x12 |  © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Twisting on the bench | 3x12 | |
| Workout 2 | ||
| Incline dumbbell press | 4x10 | © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Bench press with a narrow grip | 4x10 | |
| Narrow Reverse Grip Row | 3x10 | © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| T-bar row with narrow parallel grip | 3x10 |  |
| Wide grip barbell pull | 4x12 | © Makatserchyk - stock.adobe.com |
| Hack machine squats | 4x10-12 | © mountaira - stock.adobe.com |
| Romanian Dumbbell Deadlift | 4x10-12 | |
| Hanging leg raises | 3x10-12 | |
Try to increase your strength indicators with each workout, but in no case at the expense of your technique. The program does not include the classic deadlift and squats, as this is too difficult and traumatic exercise to be included in the basic training program for beginners. To begin with, you need to create a muscle corset by performing other, simpler exercises on the back and legs, and only after that begin to study the technique of deadlift and squatting with small working weights (preferably under the guidance of a trainer).
