Workout plan for beginners to help you define your body

The goals associated with the sport practice are several and can vary according to the person, the sex, the age, the body type, the experience, the time of the year in which they are, etc.

Gaining weight, slimming, increasing strength, muscle mass, endurance, setting and burning fat or just feeling good… These are just some of the most common goals among physically active people who attend the gym or practice sports regularly.

When the goal is to get a lean and defined body, it is necessary to burn fat and protect the muscle mass.

This type of training can be a good option for the cutting phase.

With this training plan the goal is that you can burn fat mass and ensure that the muscle mass does not suffer from it.

If your fitness level is beginner – less than a year of experience – then check out what I’ve prepared for you!

Lose weight vs define: the difference

The training to define implies that you burn fat and work your muscles, so you can tone your body.

This goal can be confused with lose weight, but it is not the same thing.

When the goal is to lose weight, the focus is on diet – calorie reduction – and you can add training to burn calories and thus reduce weight – where cardio takes on a predominant role. In the process of weight loss there may be loss of lean mass and sagging.

At the same time losing fat mass, you can also lose muscle mass – especially when there is a very large focus on cardio exercises.

When the goal is to define, the focus is also on the diet, but training is even more important and more specific than in the previous case. The goal is to preserve the muscles, something that, in a slimming process, is not always a priority.

According to Journal of the American College of Nutrition

“The addition of an intensive, high volume resistance training program resulted in preservation of LBW and RMR during weight loss with a VLCD.”

LBW – Lean Body Weight; RMR – Resting Metabolic Rate; VLCD – Very-low-calorie-diets

Therefore, exercises with weights – free weights or body weight – can help in this process, as well as diet, whose priority becomes protein (food supplements can also be important).

This kind of exercise can also be an added value in the slimming process so that you can maintain a toned, stronger body and to avoid the sagging that may occur during the process.

At some point, it is possible that these two goals-define and lose weight-can be crossed!

Did you know that bodybuilding exercises also help burn calories?

See what kind of training and exercise you can do in a training plan for muscle definition.

Types of training

Cardio is important, it has proven effect at burning calories during training. In a plan for muscle mass gain, cardio is reduced more than in the case of a plan for definition.

However, it is not enough because doing only cardio can help you lose fat muscle mass, but also lean mass.

To do this, adding weight training is a good option, especially intense workouts that have shown to be critical to burning calories even after training.

One of the types of training that has proven effective for this goal is circuit training.

“You’ll move quickly through 8-10 exercise stations to work different muscle groups with little to no rest between stations. Each station has a different exercise. You may do bicep curls or jump rope for 60 seconds.”

In this type of training, the rest time is virtually null or very short.

It involves intensity and therefore increases the heart rate by causing more calories and fat to be burned.

According to Dr. Michael Smith

“If you’re looking for a full-body workout in 30 minutes or less, circuit training does the trick. You get the benefits of muscle building and toning along with an intense cardio workout.”

See more about the benefits and types of circuit training here.

Training Organization

Training will be organized as follows:

• Number of repetitions: 15

• Number of sets: 3

• Rest Time: 1 minute between sets and 30 seconds between repetitions

Shorter rest periods keep your metabolism accelerated, something that will be decisive for calorie burning.

A greater number of repetitions will allow the body to use more ‘ energy ‘ to continue exercising.

The load (weight) must be moderated and adapted to each person but remember! Too many lightweights will not exert enough stress on the muscles.

Training plan for muscle definition: beginner level

Day	Part of the body	Exercise	Sets	Repetitions
Monday		Cardio – 10 minutes on the treadmill with low intensity
	Legs	Squats	3x	15
	Legs	Kettlebell Swing	3x	15
	Chest	Bench Chest Press or Push ups	3x	15
	Back	TRX Row	3x	15
	Triceps	Dips	3x	15
	Shoulders	Barbell Shoulder Press	3x	15
	Core	Plank	3x	30s-1min
		Cardio – HIIT Training – 15 minutes: 30s Jumping  and 30s resting
Tuesday		Rest day
Wednesday		Cardio – 10 minutes on the stationary bicycle
	Legs	Sumo Squat with Kettlebell	3x	15
	Chest	Dumbbell Pullovers	3x	15
	Back	TRX Fly	3x	15
	Biceps	Barbell Scott Curl	3x	15
	Shoulders	Upright Barbell Row	3x	15
	Core	Side Plank	3 (each side)	30s-1min
		Cardio – HIIT Training – 15 minutes: 30s doing High Knees and 30s doing Butt kicks
Thursday		Rest day
Friday		Cardio – 15 minutes on the stepper or on the elliptical machine with low-moderate intensity
	Legs	Sumo Squat with Kettlebell	3x	15
	Back	Lat Pulldown	3x	15
	Chest	Pec Deck Flymachine	3x	15
	Shoulders	Dumbbell Front Raise	3x	15
	Shoulders	Dumbbell Lateral Raise	3x	15
	Triceps	Machine Triceps Extension	3x	15
	Back	Back Extension	3x	15
		Cardio – HIIT Training – 15 minutes: 30s doing Burpees and 30seg doing Jumping Jacks
Saturday		Rest day
Sunday		Do some cardio. For example: – 15 minutes of high knee skips: switch between 30s at a slow pace and 30s at a faster one
Rest time		Between Sets: 1 minute Between repetitions: 30s

In this training plan are contemplated a few days of pause. Always remember that the body needs rest because otherwise it will go into overtraining and you will be doing more harm than good.

During training your muscle fibers are damaged and, for your muscles to grow, you will need rest because that is when they rebuild and recover.

Conclusion

This plan will allow you to improve your muscle definition and increase your endurance at the same time.

As you have seen, although it is not the only option, it is very important to add more regular cardio to your training, being the HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) a good bet.

You always ask for help if you have any questions.

Try this plan and tell what you think!

See more about how you can respond to this goal on Zumub’s website.