Resistance Training Workouts for Beginners

May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month, which has been used to promote the importance of physical activity, physical fitness and sports participation for more than 40 years. There are countless ways to be physically active, from joining recreational sports leagues and going to the gym regularly to taking after-dinner walks and chasing your kids or grandkids around the playground, and all of them are valid and have benefit. 

In this blog, we’ll focus on resistance training (also called muscular training and strength training), as it’s an often misunderstood and undervalued component of an overall healthy lifestyle and provides benefits that improve not only sports performance but also the ability to maintain function and independence as we age. Resistance training is also an essential element of preparing to safely participate in all kinds of activities, from pickleball to ultimate frisbee.  

When it comes to resistance training, the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend that adults perform muscle-strengthening activities of moderate or greater intensity and that involve all major muscle groups on two or more days per week.  

Benefits of Resistance Training 

Resistance training, whether it’s simple body-weight exercises or workouts using free weights or gym equipment, yields important benefits to one’s health, fitness, performance and overall well-being. Here are some important benefits that you might want to consider when contemplating whether to add resistance training to your exercise routine: 

• Increased physical capacity: Physical capacity is defined as the ability to perform work or exercise, and it’s an element of health that decreases dramatically with age (due to an average of 5 pounds of muscle tissue lost per decade) in adults who do not perform resistance training.  
• Enhanced metabolic function: The decrease in muscle tissue just mentioned also causes a reduction in resting metabolic rate (how many calories you burn while at rest), which results in an increase in body fat over time. Again, the best way to counter this and keep unwanted weight gain at bay is through resistance training. 
• Reduced injury risk and disease prevention: Strong muscles improve the ability to safely perform weight-bearing activities such as running, walking and climbing stairs. In addition, balanced muscle development reduces the risk of injury. In addition, resistance training may: 

• Increase bone mineral density, reducing the risk of osteoporosis 
• Improve body composition (that is, the ratio of muscle tissue to fat tissue), which is associated with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease 
• Improve low-back health 
• Reduce pain associated with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis 
• Reduce the prevalence of depression  
• Improve functional ability in older adults 

Creating a Workout 

So, what is the best way to get started with a program if you are a newcomer to resistance training? 

The first step is to identify your goals and experience level. You can read more about how those variables impact your workouts in the Training Variables section of The ACE Workout Builder for Split Routines. For general muscular fitness, you should perform between one and four sets of each exercise, eight to 15 repetitions per set, with about two to three minutes of rest between sets.  

Next, it’s time to think about what types of equipment you have available. If you have a gym membership, you likely have access to machines, free weights and kettlebells, for example. If you are looking to get started with an at-home workout, you may have no equipment at all or maybe a few light dumbbells, resistance bands or a stability ball.  

Finally, choose your exercises. Organize your workouts so that you are targeting each major muscle group (chest, back, arms, shoulders, core, hips and legs) during each workout.  

You can begin by visiting the ACE Exercise Library, where you’ll find exercises listed not only by body part, but also by experience level and equipment. You can use the exercises provided there to develop a full-body workout to be performed twice each week. If you want additional variety, create two different full-body workouts to perform each week. Note that you can safely perform a full-body resistance-training workout up to three non-consecutive days each week.