Get Fit! (Part II)

by Ryan Vetter

In the last article, Get Fit, I discussed the main components of a health and fitness exercise program, which are: diet, strength training, flexibility, and cardiovascular exercise. In this second part of Get Fit, I will give some general guidelines for a beginner's fitness program.
The following guidelines apply to those who have little experience exercising or haven’t exercised for a significant amount of time. The main focus of the following exercise regime is to develop/improve joint flexibility, cardiovascular fitness, and strength. This will serve to prepare one for the more vigorous training program that follows the initial beginner's program. It should be noted that if you are unsure of your health status or have had injuries or a recent operation, get a physician's approval before starting any exercise program.

Beginner's Sample Health and Fitness Program (3 months duration):

Initial Training Phase (4 weeks)- Strength training guidelines are as follows: 1 set, 8-12 reps, 2 times per week, and doing about 6-8 exercises in each training session that will stimulate all of the major muscle groups with rest intervals in between exercises lasting about 30 seconds. The amount of weight that should be lifted on each exercise translates to about 70% of what you can maximally lift one time on each of the exercises that you will do.

The latter is referred to as percentage of 1 rep max (%1 RM). It is a good idea to have some estimation of how much you can maximally lift on the most common exercises that you will be doing for the first few phases of your training program. A personal trainer or a gym member may be of assistance when experimenting with maximal lifts. It is important that you can just barely lift the weight on each exercise 8-12 times as this lays the foundation for the next level of intensity that you will progress to. If you can lift the weight on a particular exercise 8-12 times with ease, increase the weight, as you are not working within our target intensity of 70% 1 RM. In the last week of this four-week initial phase, increase the sets to 2 and the exercises to 10, with all of the other components remaining the same.

Cardiovascular guidelines are as follows: 15 minutes per session, 3-4 times per week, and doing low-level aerobic activity (i.e. exercise bike, rowing machine, walking on a treadmill). You should know, if you read the last article, how to determine your target heart rate range. The target range here is between 50 and 75% of your maximum heart rate (maximum heart rate = 220-your age). Depending on how fit you are, it is a good idea to start off at 50% of your max heart rate, and after the first two weeks of training, increase this to 60%, and in the last week of training, increase it again to 65 or 75% of max heart rate, depending on your physiological response. To increase the intensity, simply increase the workload on the exercise bike or grade on a treadmill for example.

Conditioning Phase (8 weeks)- Strength training guidelines are as follows: 1st week is the same as the last week of training (initial training phase). The 2nd week: 8-12 reps, 3 sets, 30-120 second rest intervals, 6-8 exercises per training session, 3 times per week, and working at an intensity of about 70-80% 1 RM. Continue this for about 3 weeks, being sure to progressively overload the muscles each training session (i.e. add about 2.5-5% weight to each exercise on each training day, being sure to stay within the target rep range of about 8 reps). After the first 4 weeks of training, adopt 1 week of active rest (i.e. play tennis, brisk walking, reduce strength training sessions to 1 set of about 8 exercises at 12-20 reps and training about 2-3 times in the week). The final 3 weeks of this phase will be the same as the second, third, and fourth, being sure to progressively increase the weight each training day.

Cardiovascular guidelines- 1st week: 20-minute sessions at 60% max heart rate. 3rd week: 30-minute sessions at 65% max heart rate. 5th week: 40-minute sessions at 70% max heart rate. 7th week: 50 minutes at 75% max heart rate. Training sessions should amount to 4 per week, training on those days that you are not strength training.

Exercises: There are numerous exercises that can be done for each of the major muscle groups, and in the initial training stage, machines should be mainly used, with a shift to free weights (non-machine like exercises with dumbbells or barbells in the conditioning phase).

The following is a sample of exercises for the initial training phase:

Bench Press (machine)
Shoulder Press (machine)
Leg Extension (machine)
Leg Curl (machine)
Lat Pull-Down (machine)
Sit-ups
Calf Raise (machine)
Arm Curl (machine)
Triceps Press Down (machine)

The following is a sample of exercises for the conditioning phase:

Day 1: Chest, Abdominals, and Back

Chest: Bench Press and chest flies
Abdominals: Sit-ups and leg raises
Back: Lat-pull down and seated row

Day 2: Legs and Shoulders

Legs: Leg Press and leg extensions
Calves: Standing calf raise
Shoulders: Shoulder Press (dumbbells), lateral raises (dumbbells), and shoulder shrugs (barbell)

Day 3: Biceps, Triceps, and Abdominals

Biceps: Standing Biceps curl (barbell) and seated biceps curl
Triceps: Triceps Press-down and triceps French press (dumbbells)
Abdominals: Sit-ups and leg raises

After the completion of day 3, repeat cycle. As can be seen, the latter phase involves working a select number of muscle groups one day, and the next day exercising a different set of muscle groups. This simply allows one to focus more on each muscle group in a given training session and allows sufficient rest in between working the same muscle groups in a given training week. Remember, the above is just a sample routine for beginners. You may adopt different exercises than the ones listed, as long as they stimulate the target muscle groups. If you are unsure of how to do any of the exercises listed above, email me and I will respond with a set of instructions for the exercise(s) in question. Look for Part III of Get Fit for sport specific training applied to sailing.

Ryan Vetter
westcoastsail.com

Editorial Staff