Weight Training For Men: 5 Classic Exercises to Help You Get Strong

Weight training for men offers many benefits beyond gaining strength. As we age, gravity and a sedentary lifestyle takes its toll. The pounds add up, it becomes harder to walk up the stairs, our joints become stiff, and we lose muscle mass and flexibility over time.

Many of the negative aspects of aging can be reversed by working out just two or three days a week for just under a half-hour per training session. As well as improving physique and appearance, strength conditioning helps men with weight management, metabolism, mental health, and so much more.

A Basic, Effective Plan

Here are 5 classic home gym workouts that should be included in your daily routine to keep you fit and strong:

Push-ups – These aren’t old school and shouldn’t be ignored; they are phenomenal for the chest, shoulders, back, triceps, and abs. If you can only do a few on the floor, try some easier variations until you build up strength. Start by doing dozens of wall push-ups or knee push-ups to begin with until you gradually work up to regular-guy push-ups.

Pull-ups & Chin-ups – Use a VKR station, a pull-up station, or the monkey bars on a playground, but do them as often as possible. These are a blast to build the back, chest, and arms. You may only be able to do a few at first, or not a single one, but keep trying. An assisted VKR/Dip station with adjustable weights is an ideal machine to get you started.

Cable crunches – You can do crunches on a mat or add weight using the cable pulley to get excellent weight training workouts for targeting the abs. To do them, put the pulley at mid or high position. Use a rope attachment (or a straight bar using an underhand grip) and select a low weight. Kneel below the high pulley and grab the rope with both hands with your wrists against your head. Keep hips stationary but slightly flexed, and your back rounded so that the abs stay contracted throughout the exercise. Slowly crunch down allowing your elbows to travel toward the middle of the thighs. Return and repeat.

Five Tips for Men’s Workouts

1. Whenever possible, choose free weight and bodyweight exercises over circuit machines in order to add the instability element to the movement. This is because that, whenever secondary muscles are called upon to help balance the load of a barbell or dumbbells, the gains are greater.
2. As far as the number of reps and sets, follow the standards for weight training for men. Go with 6 to 12 reps, and three sets for each exercise. Don’t mess around between sets; keep it to no more than 30 second intervals. This will keep your body from resting too long before the next set.
3. Don’t just go through the motions in the weight room. You will have unsatisfactory results that way. Put in a focused, concentrated effort for 30 minutes to reap huge results that you will see in a matter of weeks.
4. Increase the load progressively as your muscles accommodate to the weight. This ensures continual improvement. For example, choose a resistance heavy enough so that you can only lift about 8 reps with good form. When you can lift more than that, add more weight and start again so that you can only lift about 8 reps. Also, vary the exercises every few weeks to keep the muscles guessing.
5. The last tip is another standard practice in regards to weight training for men and that is to work the largest and strongest muscles first before the smaller ones. This means legs and core (big muscles) before the arms and abs. If you tire out your arms with bicep curls before you do your big lifts you will not be able to lift effectively to full capacity.

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