Beginner WLC
The start of something great!

Beginner WLC is built for those people who have never lifted weights or have only been lifting weights for a short period of time. If you have never lifted weights, you will need to take some time to learn the exercises. The time is well worth it and is something you're going to have to do. If you need help learning the exercises, I've provided that in the Exercises section of the website.

If you're here looking for a weight lifting program for beginners, you've found the place! Beginner WLC is the Program for you! Print this page out and take with you if you don't have the time to read it all right now. I've included everything you need to get started with a great weight lifting program for building muscle size and strength.

I always recommend that beginners, intermediates, and even advanced weight lifters buy a copy of Starting Strength written by Mark Rippetoe. You can find it at the link to the left. There aren't too many good books out there on weight lifting that teach you how to do the best exercises properly. Learn how to Squat, Bench Press, Deadlift, Overhead Press, and Power Clean properly. He even teaches you how to do many of the other better exercises correctly, such as Barbell Rows, Chin Ups, Pull Ups, Stiff Legged Deadlift, Romanian Deadlift, Incline Bench Press, and more. I highly recommend that everyone get this book, especially if you are a beginner. I cannot stress this enough. If you want to know anything else about the book, just let me know. Reading the book will get you ready for Beginner WLC much faster than without it!

It is very important that you learn the correct way to do the exercises! You can go to You Tube and watch videos by Mark Rippetoe as an introduction to what you'll get in the book. The book goes into much more detail and provides you with lots of pictures to help with instruction and learning. Here's a video of Mark Rippetoe introducing the Squat.

Contents of This Page

For those people who have never lifted weights before, I am going to need you to learn how to do the exercises I will be discussing in the exercise selection section for Beginner WLC below. I want you to learn the movements before adding any weight at all to the bar. This is very important and must be done before you start the Beginner WLC Program! If you don't have the movement down correctly, it does no good to add weight to the bar. You will most likely injure yourself. You must learn to do the exercises correctly.

Take a few weeks or even a month to learn how to do the exercises correctly. This will be one of the most valuable things you can do for your weight lifting career. You will be one of the few that know how to do the exercises correctly, and you'll be rewarded with an injury free life. You'll spend more time building muscle because you won't have to take time off because of some injury that occurred from using improper form. And you won't lose much at all in the results department during the time you spend learning the exercises. Beginner WLC will be much more productive for you, so just do it!

I never found it too difficult to learn the movements on all of the exercises. They do take some practice which takes some time. Even if you have to spend a few weeks learning the movements, the time is well worth it. If you need someone to help you, please find someone that knows what they're doing or read some more about the exercises in the exercise section of this website. Especially, purchase the Starting Strength book! I will try my best to help you learn how to do the exercises correctly. In person would be much easier, but we don't have that luxury. If you have a video camera, you can take videos of your form and post them on WLC Space. I'll review them there and provide comments and fixes if needed.

Have you practiced and learned the exercises? If so, let's move onto the Beginner WLC Program!

You should have already went over the WLC Program Overview, so you should know how the program works. If you are planning on doing Beginner WLC, please read over everything thoroughly. You might want to just skip straight to the program and start lifting weights, but please resist the urge and read everything thoroughly.

This page will help you along the way with choosing your exercises for beginner WLC. You should already know that the WLC program will last around 12 weeks including the full break at the end of the weight lifting cycle.

There's one thing that I'd like to discuss for true beginners to weight lifting before I go any further. Throughout the weeks of Beginner WLC, I want you to always focus on increasing the weight lifted. The WLC Program Overview includes Recovery Weeks for lifters that know their limits. You will learn your limits as you go, and you may need some of those recovery weeks. But, until you need them, I want you to always focus on increasing the weight. Small weight increments will work just fine. Use the recovery weeks to really work on your form and decrease weight if needed!

I am going to give you a choice between choosing exercises for each of the major muscle groups. My preferred exercises are always listed first. My order of preference will be included, but you may not be able to do some of the excercises that I have listed due to not having the equipment available or for some other reason. Please do not add any more exercises to the program. The exercises below are enough to build muscle mass over your entire body! And that's what we want! The beginner WLC program is built this way for a reason.

When going through your choices below, please note that I want you to pick the first option I have listed for each major muscle group. These are the preferred exercises for the Beginner WLC Program. Only choose another if you can't do the exercise.

If you are able to do Barbell Squats, I want you to choose that as your exercise. Barbell Squats should be the base of your beginner WLC program and is the best exercise you could possibly do! Let me say this again. You need to have Barbell Squats in your program! There really is no substitute for Barbell Squats unless you physically cannot do them.

The other exercises are there for people who cannot do Barbell Squats. For example, Hip Belt Squats can be done by people who have bad lower back problems. Hip Belt Squats take all the pressure off your lower back. Barbell Hack Squats can be done by people who do not have access to a squat rack or a power rack, which many beginners may not have access to yet. Choose Barbell Squats if at all possible! Start the Beginner WLC Program off right! There is no better exercise choice than Squats, especially to start a workout. Squats really get your entire body warmed up for the rest of the workout.

1. Barbell Stiff Legged Deadlifts
2. Trap Bar Stiff Legged Deadlifts
3. Dumbell Stiff Legged Deadlifts
4. Glute Ham Raise
5. Cable Pull Thru
6. Leg Curl - Lying/Seated
7. Barbell Good Morning

I really want you to choose one of the methods of stiff legged deadlifts. Stiff Legged Deadlifts are the best hamstring exercise by far! For some odd reason, if you can't do them I have included other good hamstring exercises. Stiff legged deadlifts fit the best in this program with regards to weight selection throughout the program. You just can't progress as much with the other exercises.

If you do not choose one of the stiff legged deadlift options here, you will be choosing another deadlift variation for one of your two back exercises. You will have some version of deadlifts in your Beginner WLC program.

Just for clarification, I include Romanian Deadlifts as a form of the Stiff Legged Deadlift. This is not the correct way to label them, but I've always thought of them as stiff legged simply because they work the hamstrings so well and I think of the stiffness of the hamstrings. So, you can either do the straight-legged version or the bent-legged version. The romanian deadlift is the bent-legged version just so you know. I actually prefer the bent-legged version as shown in the video above, especially for Beginner WLC.

1. Incline Barbell Bench Press
2. Incline Dumbell Bench Press
3. Flat Barbell Bench Press
4. Flat Dumbell Bench Press

All of the above exercises are great chest exercises. I prefer an incline bench press because I think it builds an overall better looking chest and gives your shoulders a little more attention. I think there's an increased chance of injury with the flat bench press and that is why I listed the flat bench press as 3rd and 4th.

Don't choose a flat bench press simply because you want your ego to be inflated! We're lifting weights for ourselves. We're not going to worry about what anyone else thinks about what we're lifting. It's truly not important. Let your ego go.

If you did not choose a version of stiff legged deadlift for your hamstring exercise, choose one of the four below...

1. Barbell Deadlift
2. Trap Bar Deadlift
3. Rack Deadlift below the knees
4. Dumbell Deadlift

I like to go a little different route for those that have chose a stiff legged deadlift for your hamstrings. If you have chosen a stiff legged deadlift for your hamstring exercise, choose one of these...

1. Barbell Rows
2. T Bar Rows
3. Cable Rows
4. 1-Arm Dumbell Rows

I really hope that you decided to choose a stiff legged deadlift exercise for your hamstrings because I really want you to be doing some type of rowing motion. Rowing motions give great depth to your back as do deadlifts, but a rowing motion will lead to great rear shoulder development also. I usually don't like to list 1-arm exercises, but 1-arm dumbell rows are a great exercise!

1. Rack Chin Ups
2. Pull Ups palms towards
3. Chin Ups palms away
4. Lat Pulldowns palms towards
5. Lat Pulldowns palms away

I believe Rack Chin Ups to be the best exercise for building back width. You get such a great stretch at the bottom of the exercise that you must emphasize. Pull Ups are also an awesome exercise! I would prefer Rack Chin Ups because you will be able to progress more with adding weight than you will with Chin Ups because you cannot change your own body weight. Please stay away from the assisted Chin Up machines. I have other methods of increasing your chin ups. Everyone should be able to perform Rack Chin Ups! It's not a hard exercise to learn.

Once you get strong on Rack Chin Ups, you should try doing Pull Ups. Or you can start with Pull Ups and simply work on getting better on them by doing jump up pull ups. You might not have any trouble doing Pull Ups and that's great! But most beginners will have some trouble doing very many pull ups. Rack chin ups are a great exercise that's a little easier to start out with.

1. Standing Barbell Overhead Press
2. Standing Barbell Overhead Push Press
3. Standing Dumbell Overhead Press
4. Seated Barbell Overhead Press
5. Seated Dumbell Overhead Press

Overhead presses of any kind are the best overall shoulder builders out there! You must have some type of overhead press in your Beginner WLC Program. This is why I only have variations of overhead press listed here. I would rather you do them standing because you'll be able to do a little more weight standing than seated. I also love push presses because you're able to do more weight with the help of some leg drive, but it is more of a cheating motion so I have them listed second. I've included seated exercises becuase they seem to take a little pressure off the lower back if you're having lower back overuse problems.

1. Parallel Dips no lean
2. Reverse Grip Flat Barbell Bench Press
3. Close Grip Flat Barbell Bench Press

I really want everyone to choose Parallel Dips with no forward lean. I want you to stay as upright as possible. I've found Dips to be one of the best upper body exercises. Dips will build you some great triceps. If you have trouble doing very many Dips, you will simply have to get better at doing dips by doing more dips. Use a chair and use your feet to help you up if needed. The guy in the video is using forward lean. Try to use less lean and really focus on using those triceps to lift your body.

1. Alternate Dumbell Curls
2. Barbell Curls
3. Alternate Incline Bench Dumbell Curls

I absolutely love Alternate Dumbell Curls and think they are the best biceps builder out there. You can easily shift your body weight from side to side as you perform them. This shift in body weight gives you the opportunity to lift heavier weights. Barbell Curls also allow you to lift heavy weight, but I've tweaked my wrists too many times and barbell curls add a little extra strain to your lower back. If you have had no problems with barbell curls, then go ahead and do them. They are a great exercise. I've included alternate incline dumbell curls because they give you a great stretch and you can still lift a good amount of weight with them.

I don't see a huge difference in the above exercises, so choose your favorite and stick with it. Any of them will build you some great biceps. I had to use the video of the little pink dumbbells above! Please work on using much more weight than that. The pink dumbbells reminded me of going to physical therapy a long time ago. The woman asked me if the pink dumbbells were too heavy! And she was completely serious. I just laughed. I was lifting around 60 pounds for dumbbell curls at the time. I did about 10 reps with the pink dumbbells and she went and got the purple dumbbells because she thought the pink were too light for me. Ha ha. Little pink dumbbells don't go with Beginner WLC!

1. Standing Calf Raises
2. Leg Press Calf Raises
3. Donkey Calf Raises

I've chosen to go a little different route with the calf exercises because there are so many different methods of doing a standing calf raise. I would have the Leg Press Calf Raises at the top of the list, but many people will not have access to a leg press. If you do have access to a leg press, then please choose the leg press calf raise as your exercise.

Standing Calf Raises can be performed so many different ways. My preferred method is with a hip belt because you get no stress to your lower back and you're shoulders are not supporting any weight. You can also do Donkey Calf Raises with a hip belt. I also like to do barbell standing calf raises but these are a little tricky because you either have to have great balance or you have to use the squat rack or power rack to lean back against to give you support. Any standing calf machine will work too. Dumbell Calf Raises will also work but you will need some support on those also. I like to lean back against a pole when doing dumbell calf raises and use wrist straps to hold onto the heavy dumbells for extended periods of time.

When doing calf raises, I always want you to explode up from a full stretch position at the bottom to a peak contraction at the top. I want you going up on your big toe as far as your big toe can possibly go. I want you to hold it at the peak contraction for a slow count of 3 seconds. I then want you to do a slow negative of around 5 seconds or more. You don't have to count down on the negative. Just go slow. I then want you to achieve the biggest stretch that you can at the bottom and hold it for a slow count of 3 seconds. Then explode to the top again! Do every calf raise in this manner. Calves need exaggerated motion because they get worked so much during the day. If you've had small calves your entire life, this will fix the problem! Trust me.

Please be sure to get the deepest stretch possible and go as far up on your big toe as possible. I use the 3 seconds during the peak contraction to attempt to go higher and higher. Your calves are going to be burning, but you'll just have to ignore the burning. Keep going until you get your reps. Beginner WLC will give you better calf development than any program I've ever seen!

1. Pinwheel Curls
2. Reverse Barbell Curls
3. Hammer Curls

Pinwheel curls are an awesome forearm exercise! If you don't know what a pinwheel curl is, please see the exercise section. Reverse Barbell Curls and Hammer Curls are also great exercises. I like all three of these exercises very much and do not care which one you choose. I listed them in order by the ones that have worked the best for me. I've been able to do much more weight with Pinwheel Curls and that's why I prefer them. I've done 80 pound dumbells in each arm for fairly high reps on pinwheel curls. I watched my forearm development skyrocket as I increased my strength on the WLC program. You can do the same with Beginner WLC.

I like to stagger my exercises in a certain order so that I get some rest in between sets that will work similar body parts. For example, I do not want to perform overhead press directly after incline bench press. I like to give my shoulders a little more rest so that I will be able to lift maximum weights without fatigue.

This is an important concept that many programs just can't understand. You do not want your exercises being affected by other exercises. For example, you're shoulders are going to be fatigued after you do a set of incline bench press. I don't want you to go straight to overhead press for your shoulders after doing an incline bench press. Your shoulders will be fatigued and you won't be able to lift as much for as many reps. You're going to have some overlap on compound exercises, but we want to work to minimize that overlap.

Here is my preferred exercise order for Beginner WLC:

1. Quads
2. Chest
3. Hamstrings
4. Back Depth
5. Shoulders
6. Back Width
7. Calves
8. Biceps
9. Triceps
10. Forearms

Before you start your workout, I want you to get your entire body warmed up by getting on a treadmill for 5 minutes or jump rope for a few minutes. Or do the bicycle lightly for 5 minutes. Add in some jumping jacks. I just want you to get your body ready for some work. This also helps get your mind ready too!

You will not have to do warm up sets for every exercise because your body will be ready after doing some of the other exercises. For example, after incline bench press your shoulders should not need multiple warm ups before going to your working set on overhead press. You should always at least do one set when lifting heavy weight just to get your body acclimated to the movement.

For beginners, warm ups will not consist of very many sets or maybe no sets at all because you will not be using very heavy weight yet. For example, if you are doing squats with just the bar I would only want you to get your knees warm by doing 10 or so body weight squats. Once you start using heavier weights, I want you to do a few more warm up sets. Warming up for heavier weights will be discussed in the intermediate and advanced WLC Programs.

Weight selection is not going to be complicated for beginners. When I talk about weight selection, I am talking about the amount of weight you will choose for each exercise of each workout. You're going to need to be the judge of the amount of weight you will be using because only you know how difficult the set is for you. I am going to give you some guidelines to follow, but you'll have to use your judgement.

The best way for me to explain how to select your weights is to go through an example with every possible combination for an entire WLC cycle. I am going to do so with the table below. Pay particular attention to the weight, reps, and comments columns.

Week	Workout	Weight	Reps	Comments
RISE
1	1	45	6	Very Easy. Increase Weight.
1	2	50	8	Very Easy. Increase Weight.
1	3	55	10	Easy. Increase Weight.
2	1	60	12	Easy. Increase Weight.
2	2	65	12	Easy. Increase Weight.
2	3	75	12	Tough. Too much. Keep Constant.
3	1	75	12	Easier. Increase Weight.
3	2	80	12	Tougher. Increase Weight.
3	3	85	12	Very Tough. Recovery week is next.
RECOVERY
4	1	65	10	Very easy. Worked on form.
4	2	75	10	Easy. Worked on form.
4	3	85	10	Easy. Worked on form.
INTENSITY
5	1	90	10	Not too hard. Increase weight.
5	2	95	10	Easy. Increase weight.
5	3	100	10	Very Easy. Recovery week is next.
RECOVERY
6	1	90	8	Very easy. Worked on form.
6	2	100	8	Easy. Increase by 5.
6	3	105	8	Easy. Ramp up next week.
INTENSITY
7	1	110	8	Tough. Increase weight.
7	2	115	8	Very Tough. Keep constant.
7	3	115	8	Tough. Recovery week is next.
RECOVERY
8	1	85	6	Very easy. Needed an easy day.
8	2	100	6	Easy. Worked on Form.
8	3	115	6	Tougher. Ramp up next week.
INTENSITY
9	1	120	6	Easy. Increase weight.
9	2	125	6	Tough. Keep constant.
9	3	125	6	Easier. Increase weight.
AWAKENING
10	1	130	6	Hard. Increase anyway.
10	2	135	6	Almost failure. Increase weight.
10	3	140	6	Failure on most exercises at 6 reps.
RETIRE
11	1	140	5	Do not increase weight.
11	2	140	4	Do not increase weight.
11	3	140	3	Do not increase weight.

If you go through the table above, you can see what weight selection might look like from workout to workout on a single exercise. You're going to have to evaluate how you're doing on each exercise directly after you complete the exercise. Remember, if you do not have good form on an exercise and had to cheat to get your reps in you need to work on your form before you increase the weight any further. That's what I like to use the Recovery Weeks for with beginners. But, by all means, if you are doing good with form, keep increasing the weight for as long as possible each and every workout!

Weight selection is very simple and you'll get the hang of it very quickly. Don't be scared to increase the weight! Take your time, though. Don't increase too much and hit failure before you get your reps in. You have plenty of time to lift more weight! Beginner WLC is only the beginning.

So, now you have 10 great compound exercises chosen for each major muscle group for your Beginner WLC Program. You know how to warm up. You know that you need to get your form down before adding weight. And you know how to select the amount of weight you'll be doing for each exercise of each workout on Beginner WLC.

You now have everything you need to start your beginner WLC program. Make sure to read all about the entire WLC Program on the WLC Program page. You are about to experience the best progress of your life towards the body you've always wanted.

Please read other sections of the website if you haven't already as I've included a complete guide to weight lifting including diets, cardio, planning, and more! Start out right with Beginner WLC.

Stumble It!

If you're still reading this page about a great weight lifting program for beginners because you're serious about starting Beginner WLC and want to get the body of your dreams, you can get the ultimate help from me by signing up for my online personal training. I will help you get started and design your own customized program to fit your needs. Go to that link to learn more about the training. You can get my help each day of the week for as low as $19 per week. Check it out! Serious and dedicated people only!

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