Train to build, don't train to burn (calories), it's silly.

More muscle will always means better physique.

It will allow you to eat more without getting fat, lose fat faster if you're eating less, and gain confidence because you are in control of your body under heavy loads.

Train to build, don't train to burn (calories), it's silly. so stop it

Don't Leave It Up To Chance With Your Fitness Goals

Dieting is hard, I get it. This is why planning ahead helps. A LOT!

Making good choices to eat less and move more requires a lot of willpower because instinctually, we prefer to sit at home and eat brownies.

So to ensure that moving more and eating less happens, you have to automate the shit out of your nutrition and training plans. Don't leave it up to "how you feel" at the moment because in any given moment, pizza will always be more appealing than broccoli.

It's easier to execute when things are set up ahead of time because less decisions need to be made from your dwindling willpower needed for other demanding, appropriate decisions like doing your taxes, help your kids with school work, and learning a new language.

This is why ppl meal prep for a whole week, hire trainers, and have ready-to-go workout clothes in a gym bag the night before gym visits. The less decision you have to make, the less you're leaving it up to chance (to fail).

Read what you need to read, have a manageable guidelines/program in place that will progress you slowly towards your end goal, and keep planning ahead, one small step at a time until you succeed.

If you don't plan ahead, you plan to fail.

JYFitness Training Books

Insecure Areas

If you lose overall fat then you'll lose your arm fat.

If you lose overall fat then you'll lose your belly fat.
If you lose overall fat then you'll lose your thigh fat.
If you lose overall fat then you'll lose your chin fat.

Fat does not distribute itself on your body base on how you sit, how you walk, how you sleep, and DEFINITELY not how you train. It distribute itself all around your body base on your genetics and how fat you are now. 

These are predetermined characteristics you're born with (except the how fat you are now, part). They aren't always favorable for your ideal look (if you believe there's an ideal look for you) and if you want to lose fat on some areas, other areas will have to go as well.

So knowing this, please do not ask your nutritionist how to lose any specific spots of fat on your body with special shakes and pills or text your trainer to switch up your workout program to hit certain areas of your body that you think has a lot of fat on it. There is no such thing as spot fat reduction! 

If you're not below 20% body fat (or 12% for males), don't worry about targeting specific muscle parts for your ideal look. Get leaner first. If you're working with a coach, ask them to teach you how to eat less while not hate it. Do that for a while until you can actually see your undeveloped areas. For now, just lift heavy and lift often.

rant over.

Motivation is Irrelevant

Motivation is irrelevant if you enjoy the activity. The goal is to make bodybuilding, weight loss, cooking healthy, or really, any projects or skills enjoyable to do/learn so doesn't feel like a chore. As long as the reward/pleasure is greater than the pain (time/money/energy invested), people will keep doing something towards a goal consistently or for the time doing it.

It's call the act of "play". Like you never need "willpower" or "motivation" to learn how to play the guitar or tennis when you were young, nor do you call it "exercising". You simply love it, so you do it, even on a cold day with sore ankles.

If you keep struggling with falling off diets and training routines, it's probably because you're investing too much of your resources (pain) on the wrong stuff (I call them fluff), therefore, making pain greater than the reward. This is when you need to re-evaluate your approach.

Why do you think you have to run 2hr/day everyday when someone else can do it without? Why do you think your skinny friend can eat pizza and margaritas every weekend and not get fat while you feel every cupcake you ingest seems to go straight to your butt? Why do you think you have to spend 60$ gym memberships and 100$ on supplements every month when others can do it while actually save money on grocery? How do others do it so effectively and painlessly and you can't? and please, your excuses aren't good enough because others have done it in much worse conditions. 

It's sad most people who go to the gym, looking for diets online, and youtube/momblogging/meathead bro trainers will never learn this. Invest your resources on real-world, result-driven, practical instructions so achieving your fitness goals would feel like a spontaneous effort.  When what you need to do to reach your goal is fun/rewarding (or with less pain) every step of the way, than you'll actually enjoy the process.  When you enjoy the process, motivation is not required.

 

The Importance of Writing Things Down

Progress rewards patience and patience make ways for more progress that leads to results. When you keep making and seeing progress, you'll keep doing what needs done even if it's inconvenient sometimes.  Stop focusing on the end result. Pay attention to your progress and forgive yourself when you have setbacks (or be more flexible with your approach so you fall less easily).

How is this done?

Training: focus on performance goals instead of physique goals. If you put in the work and track your sessions/lifts, you will clearly see that your body is adapting to new physical stressors that allow you to see quantifiable progress which will push/reward you to WANT TO train more. If you don't document, you won't get this feedback that makes you feel rewarded for the work/time you put in. This is how most people fall off training programs.

If you focus solely on physique goals that may take months or years to achieve to feel complete or accomplished, you are more likely to fall off sooner than those who actually love training. Those who enjoy the process of hardwork also get back on track sooner than those who hates it when life gets in the way. If your focus is on performance, you will have an easier time waking up early to go to the gym, brace the cold weather and soreness, and prioritize your time better because you love what you do. Feedback from physique goals (pants size, weight scale) are too slow and confusing (water retention) to give you this instant positive feedback to continue doing something you don't like.

Nutrition: focus on caloric intake/output so you can set objective goals that comes with quantifiable variables you actually have control over. Instead of completely swear off cookies and margaritas for a month (not practical and totally unnecessary), look up your favorite foods' caloric content and work that into your budget so you'll never actually "ruin" your diet. You'll have days that you eat at target and days you go over but at least you know to reflect and tweak your meal prep why you go over consistently. Is it because you're bored, stressed, or eating due to social influences? If you can make the process of dieting less restrictive, then you'll more likely have the patience to follow through. Stop focusing on what to eat or not and focus more on how much. At the end of the day, the law of physics is what matters. Not some gurus telling you what foods are "super" and "clean".

Fall in love with a performance focused program so you'll actually follow through for the long haul instead of buying into every new fluff program that requires "willpower", "discipline" and "28 day challenges". If you love it, it'll feel like you're "playing" and not "exercising". Your transformation would be a lot quicker and spontaneous this way. Make your diet as flexible and quantifiable as possible by ignoring most of the myths out there that disregard the importance of caloric budgeting. When you do fall off, you'll actually know why and get back up sooner instead of beating yourself up for weeks and months why you can't give up sugar or alcohol or whatever that's supposedly off-limit for the rest of your life.

How Most Stupid Diets Work.

They'll tell you that it's not your fault. It's the food industry, the government, or the pharmaceutical companies. "Follow the money", "join the rebels", and "take control of your body"! Again, it's not that you're lazy or misinformed, so come to the other side and do something different.

But are you really doing something different?  Something that will make an impact for your fat loss struggles?    

Gurus will argue that going on a "diet" or counting calories don't work. Then they'll persuade you with 3 easy tricks to quick and painless (and permanent) weight loss. Usually done with pseudoscience and marketing terms to sound credible or use a celebrity athlete or M.D. to sponsor their product/services.

They'll use industry buzzwords like "Toxins", "Functional Training", "#1 Fat Blocking Hormones", "Muscle Confusion", "Long Lean Muscle", "Holistic/Alternative Approach", "Clean Eating" or something generic like "Everything in moderation" or "don't diet, it's a lifestyle change" bullshit.

They'll convince you that surplus caloric intake is not the reason why you gained weight and that eating less is not the solution. Instead, they want you to eat by their rules, swallow their pills, use their blenders, buy their books, drink their shakes, and join their 21 days challenge with 3 easy payments.

Basically, they'll have you believe that tracking food intake is too complicated and it only works for bodybuilders and models who are body obsessed. You're a regular Joe that needs practical solutions because your'e too busy to cook, to track, or to train consistently.

Then with whatever trick they propose, whether it be eating 1x/day or 12x/day, wear this patch or chew that gum, eat more 'super foods' or buy all organic 'health' foods, and eat like jesus, these tricks will still somehow trick you into eating less (calories).

The problem with this is not only that you're dumber than before and already wasted a massive amount of resources (money, time, and energy) but the result is not sustainable because you're always having to give up something (or buy more of something). When you fall, and you will, (everybody fall off diets, it's only a matter of time) you'll blame yourself for lack of discipline/willpower even though the diet is set up to fail YOU.

This is not the case for those who budget their food intakes (at least initially to learn about food content for a couple weeks). In the process of preparing their food to meet their goal, they'll learn better methods of eyeballing food portions, actually COOK for themselves (instead of packaged meals), and make choices like a adult, what foods are worth the pleasure to consume for the calories it contain and at what quantity or frequency to consume at.

The only "diet" that works is the one you can follow long term.  This means it has to be enjoyable, flexible, and actually meet the goal.  A diet that is quantifiable in energy input and output so you can actually reflect against your progress and downfalls and learn from it instead of believing XYZ foods are off limit and feel defeated when you eat them.

If you're fat, understand that you'll have to go through a phase of caloric restriction and sometimes that involves feeling hungry, saying no to happy hours, or just generally not able to eat at the quantity/frequency of the caloric dense foods you wish to have all the time.

However, once you reach your ideal weight, you can slowly transition to eating at or near maintenance. By that time you'll know how it feels to be eating less, you'll have learned the skills/mindset on how to consistently not over indulge and exactly what needs to be done when you do feel chunky again. You know how to MAINTAIN which no commercial diets ever address.

A diet that works long term is a diet that doesn't make you feel like a failure when you fall every time.  Remove the negative emotional attachment to foods that make you feel guilty after consuming them. This can only be achieved if you see food as fuel and make adjustments as you go. That's the way to have good relationship with your diet while still meet the goal of 'eating less'.

By seeing food as fuels and knowing exactly why you are doing the things you're doing, then it wouldn't take another new year resolution or bikini season to get you back on the wagon again when you did end up overeating.

If you can start to see foods from a scientists point of view that they are quantifiable things, like calories (energy from your belly fat), and levels of satiation you feel from eating them, then you'd be able to more objectively make plans to eat for fullness, eat while not feel guilty, and eat to lose fat for the last time.

I've Ruined My Diet!

Find a diet that won't make you say "I've ruined my diet, again!" and you've got something sustainable. Unfortunately you'll never find that sorts of diet in commercials, health magazines, your yoga instructor, or from your doctor.

The only possible failure you CAN be getting from a diet (assuming fat loss is the main goal) is when you consistently go over your caloric intake/targets.  When you make calorie counting your "diet", dieting is no longer all-or-nothing but a learning process that you get better and better at each day.  It's like learning to ride the bike for the first time or picking up the guitar. Since it involves budgeting your energy input/output, it becomes something you can reflect and quickly make adjustment to as you go.  Like using new recipes that consist of more satiating ingredients when cooking or saying no to your 3rd pina coladas at happy hours.  It's a skill that you don't win or lose but learn from trial and error and eventually with patience and openmindedness, you succeed.

Here are some examples of balls to the wall approach that may work for some people while they're invested but do not sustain because it's not practical.  

6 weeks sugar detox, clean eating, no meat diet, grapefruit diet, blood type diet, 28day meal plan from xyz company diet, basically any new diet from amazon that disregard calorie counting or says "don't diet, just try blah blah blah"....  All these examples are just ways to do trick you into eating less calories temporarily (but not always) but usually restrictive and miserable than it needs be.  

Some so impractical that nobody can ever sustain it long enough to make it a lifestyle. This is why people go for quick fix approaches that doesn't require much learning and practice initially.  The "don't eat this, eat that" sort of schemes and yoyo throughout the year without ever considering the fact that removing body fat actually involves creating an imbalance of energy stores in the body consistently.

You like donuts?  Look it up and fit it in your caloric allowance.  You like pizza? Look it up and fit it in.  You like to have 2 glass of wine before bed?  Look it up!  If you know your energy balance while trying to lose fat, all you have to do is eat less than that balance and you'll succeed.   Once you're more mindful of your eating habits and better at eyeballing food portions, you'll never have to count calories again and it only takes a couple days to couple weeks to familiarize with all your favorite foods.  
How much of a deficit depends on your dieting experience, food preference, fitness level, current body fat mass, how dedicated you are or how hungry you're willing to be.  It's too bad most people would rather follow "3 Golden Rules of Clean Eating For Summer Abs" or "21 Days Detox and Bodyweight Squat Challenge For Firm Booty" instead of actually set time aside to learn about body physiology/metabolism, hunger hormones, and basic training philosophy.

At the end of the day, there's truly no "off limits" and you simply can't fail if you're a tracker. You'll make mistakes of going over your target on some days but at least you see your eating habits more objectively since calories are quantifiable things that you can tweak quickly instead of feeling the emotional wreck most dieters go through when they fall from pseudoscience-based eating 'systems'.  

When you don't feel like a loser all the time questioning why you don't have willpower to consistently say no to carbs or not eating after 6pm, this whole 'moving more' and 'eating less' business will get a whole lot easier for you. 

I hope the last time you ruined your diet is the last time.  Stop looking for new diets, quick fixes, and secrets and start finding a reliable and easy calorie counter you can use to learn to get better at budgeting how you eat to reach your goal.  If you need help, let me know.

http://lifehacker.com/fitness-is-a-skill-not-a-talent-heres-how-to-develop-1651281013

Fitness is for life. NOT "how much is this for a month?".

Fitness is for life. Not "how much is this for a month?".

When you hire a coach, don't ask for meal plans or a workout routines.  Ask for the guidance and resources to help you make your own ever-changing fitness plans for the rest of your life.

This means the knowledge of basic body physiology concepts, lifting mechanics, how diets (should) work AND WHY (seriously, understand the why part).  What alternative movements can you do when you're at a hotel or don't have an affordable gym where you live?

You are not fixed and so are your taste buds.  Your sleep, your mood, and the amount of willpower you have will fluctuate throughout the week, month, and years to come.  You need something flexible enough to be sustainable so you can keep doing something you don't really want to do (eat less, move more) longer if you want to reach your goal.   You need new working ideas because your current approach sucks and develop habits that are manageable so you don't quit easily.  Not another silly 28 day plank challenges, vegan diet, or a month supply of belly wraps and detoxes.  

Your physique goals, rate of progress, sense of self-confidence, activity level, and your metabolism will all change, so you better not ask for rigid, dumbed-down "golden rules" of clean eating, 5min ab routines, or whatever stupid shakes your girlfriends are trying to sell you on social media. If you actually believe in articles that suggest "5 best exercises to melt your fat blah blah blah" or "10 super foods that will cure blah blah blah", you already failed.

Be curious and experiment with new ideas that put you out of your comfort zone, not just physically but also challenges you mentally.  Maybe try lifting, maybe try being hungry from time to time, maybe workout with your partner or set little performance goal to chase after, maybe get rid of distractions, maybe actually do some work and make better choices like an adult?  Maybe.

If something has not worked for you in the past or only worked temporarily, it's time to completely overhaul your current approach (and beliefs system) and learn something new before trying to spin, spin, and spin some more.  Stop buying into cookie cutter schemes, reflect and forgive your past mistakes, and start asking better questions.  Think long term and do something incredibly manageable at your level now so you can keep doing this miserable business of "eating less" and "moving more" until you get closer to your goal.  Once you get there, hopefully your new habits will keep you there.

When you hire a coach, don't ask for meal plans or a workout routines.  Ask for the guidance and resources to help you make your own ever-changing fitness plans for the rest of your life.

Michelle Brewer
"After years of trying every type of diet and exercise program, what was one more?  As before, the first month was hard because I was very out of shape. As in the past, I watched the scale with no change, but I felt better and had more energy. And even though the scale looked the same, my new jeans were a whole size smaller. I talked to Jem and he gave me articles to read and Google and I felt better. 

Now into the second month, I took Jem's advice and got serious about my calorie intake (nothing crazy, I like food). The scale I stopped looking at for 2 weeks says I have lost 10 lbs.  All this is great, but what Jem gives has been priceless, training, advice, and just listening has been great.  

I have not only found a great trainer who takes time to teach me what I'm doing, but why I should be doing it. Jem has also become my friend which is a nice bonus. I found an old picture and went and found the same clothes so it would be easier to see the start of my transformation. I hope this inspires folks for the new year. 

I still have a ways to go but I really think I can get there, thanks to Jem.  Now I look more at the lbs I lift than the ones on the scale"

Training Philosophy and Basics

Training Philosophy and Basics

Introduction

"to be able to go to the gym and train hard is a joy and a privilege, even though the hard work necessitates driving yourself through considerable discomfort. Savor this privilege and blessing, and revel in it." -McRobert  

"You never know how imporant good health is until you no longer have it" - Charles Smith 

Unlike other trainers you've ever worked with, this is not simply an exercise template. When it comes to training & nutrition for performance, strength gain, physique, or general health, everything is contextual.  For me to throw exercise and dietary menus at you periodically may be profiting for me but not sustainably for you.  Eventually you'll have to train on your own with your own tools and knowledge to structure periodized, sound training routines in the long run.

What is covered in this program is a road map to long term success in strength and muscle development. Although this is just a sample workout routines for you to get started, ultimately you will have to sit yourself down and geek out your own ever-changing program if you ever wish to safely and productively train and move for a lifetime.

While your training should not obsess you to the detriment of your health, family and career, you have to be addicted to the iron, sights and sounds of the gym, the challenge of "one more rep," and the accumulation of small bits of iron on the bar.  you need to almost worship the soreness you suffer on the days after a hard workout. you must find training to be heaven on earth and, when in the gym, live to train.

Motivation, Responsibility, and Character.

Willingness, commitment, determination - call it what you want - is a huge part of making training deliver the goods.  You must stay the course and resist peer pressure and the herd instinct that push you towards comformity. If you imagine failure, dwell on it, and prepare for it, then you will fail.  Be alert to your thoughts, notice how much negativity there is.  Put the negative thoughts aside as soon as they appear.

World of Bodybuilding

I knew so much about that which I did not need, but knew so little about that which I needed.  Therein lies the plight of most bodybuilding junkies.  Bodybuliding and strength training are almost laugably simple; but simple does not mean easy.  all that really matters is focus and progressive poundages in good form. There are young people who have been training for over ten years and yet still cannot squat much over their bodyweight for 20reps.  Pick a handful of compound movements for you and ten devote years to getting stronger, that's all it takes.  

What matters more to you? knowing all the possible alternatives to training but being way below your potentials developement, or, knowing much less but being far bigger and stronger than the average trainees?  Only when you're big and strong should you explore "new" alternatives (kettlebell/intervals/crossfit/silly balancing stuff).

Gyms concerned with maximizing profit - wrappped up in sales of their various accessories, food supplements and fashion clothing - have made a mockery of the gym business.  It has got to the point where the last place to look for good coaching is a modern well-equiped gym.  We lets you listen to the music, employ sensual female instructors to keep you interested in renewing your membership. Training is fun and fun means lots of members, though few of them stay long term.  Modern gyms depend on a constant influx of new members to make a profit.  They promise they will not push you hard and you will enjoy it until you realize that the methods they promote will not help make you big and straong unless you have fantastic genetics.

Training Jargon

1. Reps - a set can consist of one rep (a single), very low reps (2-4), medium reps (5-12), high reps (13-25), or very high reps (25+).  Reps can be done with a pause of a second or more.  exaggerated pauses permit heavier weights to be used.

2. Sticking Point - Halfway up a rep where the resistance seems to get magnified (sometimes trainees get stuck here).

3. Sets - where an exercise is done multiple times. Warm up sets and work sets. Warm up sets are typically done with lighter weights or lower reps.

4. Concentric - pushing or pulling. the positive phase where muscle shortens like the coming up from  the bottom of the squat position.

5. Eccentric - Lowering or negative phase where the muscle lengthens while under load. Lowering phase of the bench press.

6. Training to failure - taking a set to the point where you cannot move the bar any further against gravity. A similiar phrase may be 'muscular fatigue' which is more of not being able to properly perform another set of the same muscle. In practice, most people could extend their 'to failure' sets by several reps if they were well supervised and motivated.

Equipment

Free weights are the traditional and most versatile way of training.  Machines reduce the need for instruction and the chance of 'acute' injury.  Free weights (barbell/dumbbells) properly used are safe, but they require more expertise and skill than does a machine. Machines can be a hindrance to progress of the serious traineses especially when 'chronically' used, can lock the user into a movement pattern that may not fit individual parameters (height and limb lengths).

Compound - Multiple Joint movements. i.e., squat, deadlift. Hence involves a lot of musculature - primarily the quads, glutes, and erectors.  Isolation - Involves only a single muscle per exercise, like leg extension that primarily targets the quads.  To train the whole body using only isolation work means you need a lot of different exercise.  But most of the body can be trained using a mere handful of compound movements.  There are a lot of overlaps between compound exercise and core exercises. Each training routine should have 2-4 of these movements

Here are some compound movements that also works the core:

1. Squat

2. Bent-legged deadlift, sumo deadlift (arms held between the legs), stiff-leg deadlift (work the back more than the hamstring).

3. Leg press.

4. Bench press (flat, incline, and decline).

5. Parallel bar dip.

6. shrug variations (arguably an isolation exercise)

7. pulldown (targeting lats)

8 row variations

9. pullup (pronated grip)

10. chinup (supinated grip)

11. Pullover (lats and chest)

I do not care for secondary exercises (calf raise, crunch situp, shoulder external rotator work, neck and grip work) but that's just my preference. Obviously if you need specialized work for performance/physique reasons on specific body parts, be my guest.  I see compound and secondary exercises as builders and refiners.  If you only started training and largely for size and strength, stick to the primary movements. Only advanced bodybuilders will benefit from secondary movements and even then, during contest/fat loss and drug-free conditions, they cut out the refiners as well. General speaking, the detail exercises distract you from what you should focus on in you want to get big and strong.

Also, about two thirds of your body's total muscle mass is in your thigh, buttocks, and back.  The shoulders, chest, abdominals and arms only make up about a third of your muscle mass, so do not go giving those areas in total any more than one third of your total weight-training attention

Some people are simply not design to become very strong. Bodybuilding is about selecting exercieses that are best for you.  Focus on the big basic exercises, it does not mean a rigid adherence to a fixed prescription of exerciese.  Never lock yourself into using an exercise that does not suite you.  Your prioirty for any exercise is that it does you no harm.

Routines

Training routines are comprised of groups of exercises.  They can be either full-body or split routines. A split routine divides the body into two or three parts and each part trained twice every 6-8days.

Muscular potential and Goal Setting

No matter where you are now - big or small, strong or weak, young or not so young - you need only compete with yourself.  It is you, against you.  Progress is measurable, and concrete. It can be as little as just one more rep than last week in a given exercise.   All of those small doses of progress are little thrills you will never tire of.  rate exercise high in your priorities. Resolve, now, to give your exercise program and dietary discipline the prioirty they deserve.  Keep your bodyfat level to below 15% (or below 10% if you want an appearance that is stunning - assuming that you have some muscle).  20% for female, or 15% to be stunning.  

It will not be smooth sailing, but if you want it badly enough you will get there.  We care concentrating on an area where genetic restraints have great influence.  Keep your goals very challenging but realistic.

Genetics

Genetics matter a heck of a lot - big time! Legitimate hard gainers have a battle to get to 250 pounds in the bench press. A 300 pound bench press by a genuine hard gainer is a far greater achiement than a 400-pound one by an easy gainer. but the easy gainer can never understand this because he can never understand the plight of the hard gainer.  and knowing how to successfully train easy gainers does not provide the experience and know-how for being able to successfully instruct hard gainers. This program is meant for hard gainers like you. 

The biggest champion of the training world are not the drug-enhanced genetically blessed competitive elit.  The biggest champions are the unsung heroes who applied years of dogged determination in order to build themselves up against the odds, without ever using drugs, without seeking or finding publicity, and without devorcing themselves from the rigors and responbilities of everyday working and family life.

Generally speaking, the training world focuses on the achievements and training styles of the competitive minority (genetically gifted, drug-enhanced, smear with sponsors). Even when appropriate instructions were given to the masses, it is usually downright misunderstood.  Of course, the lack of adequate application and persistence accounts for part of the failure of the masses experience with weight training but it is the lack of consistent, practical and effective information for the typical people that is mostly to blame.

Recovery

During "down" time you will prepare yourself for getting back into training with greater zeal and organization than ever before.  If you cannot stand alone and deliver the goods by yourself, you are never going to rezlize your potential for muscle and might. The deseire has got to be so intense that your body and soul are steeped in it for the long haul. Once you know what to do, you need reply on no one.  Things you should consider for optimal recover – proper nutrition, myofascia release (foam roll, tennis ball, deep massage), 8hr sleep, 1hr sun/day, supplements, and reduced physical stressor (chronic cardio) or emotional stressors (damage relationships).

Warm Up

You will warm up on the treadmill (3-5mins under 130bpm on HR) before each session or perform some dynamic stretching on the muscles you will use before lifting.  The best whole body warm up would be bodyweight or barbell (no plate) squats, burpees, or a barbell complex involving compound movements like squat, rows, push press, swings, and snatches.

You will always use 2 warm-up sets for the first exercise you do and at least 1 warm-up set for each new movement thereafter.

A warm-up set would be simply lifting the bar itself or about 50% of your 1 rep max of the exercise movement you are doing.

Then take your 2nd warm-up to 75% of your 1RM.  

A good warm up rep range should be half of what your workset targeted rep range should be.  Ex:  If you plan on benching 150lb for 10 reps that day, your warm up should be 75lb for 5reps.  You should not feel fatigue after your warm up sets.

Use this link to calculate your 1RM

http://www.nsca-lift.org/Fly%20Solo%20Program/onearm.asp

plug in your rep range and weight to find your 1RM.  Then click on the chart below to find out what your 75%, 80%, 85%, and 90% of your 1RM weight is and lift according to those weights and reps.

Programming

Optimal training frequency would be 3-4x a week or consider hit each muscle group 2-3x a week. Just follow the program I will gave you.

If you decide to throw out some exercises you do not enjoy/compliment your current training approach or having physical limitation issues, you can free them up where you see fit.  Just keep in mind that every workout should have 1 or 2 compound movements to tax the whole body or at least some movements that engage multiple muscle groups at a time.   Overall, you want to get at least 12 work sets (not including warm-up) per training session but don't go over 20 sets total unless you’re eating for mass gain.

Rest Intervals

Rest at least 1 min between all work sets.  2mins for heavy compound movements.  Active rest - dynamic stretching can help keep your body warm during longer rest periods like between deadlift/squat sets.

Progression:

For all exercises that you can perform for more than 8 repetitions (or whatever rep range I gave you) across 2 work sets with good forms, increase the weight by 10%.  Don't be afraid of adding more plates on the bar.  If you're currently benching 65lbs and you've reached 8 reps for 2 sets with good forms even into your last few reps, add 10% of 65lb (6.5lbs) to the bar which will be around 70lb with 2 additional 2.5lb plates.

When you add weight, your rep range will surely drop but that's ok, this is part of getting stronger.  In the next few workouts, you will begin to increase your reps.   When you reach the 8 repetitions again, add more plates to the bar. Whenever you feel that your form begins to suffer going into new territories, make sure the increase in weight isn't too much/sudden, had proper warm up, sleep/diet is good, rest plenty between your reps and sets.

The 8 rep progression is only one way of tracking and making progress.   For beginner lifters, a progression of 8-12rep per set can be properly implemented as well. Just depends on your preference.  After a solid year of training with little to no weight increase on the bar anymore, going lower on the rep down to 4 or 5 reps per set may help breaking the stall. 

Few exceptions to the8rep progression.

Some exercises like the deadlift, when taken repetition higher than 4 reps at 90% of your 1RM, your grip and your forearm will begin to tire out before your back and your back (at around 6reps) before your legs.  So to properly train for deadlift and tax the whole system, I recommend a lower rep range around 2-3 reps per set.  This way every rep is in good form, you lift heavier, your grip and back won't suffer.  Since you will be working in the lower rep range, feel free to increase sets up to 5-6 sets for this movements.  The lower the rep, the more sets you can afford to increase.  But as an beginner who need to practice form by keep in it around 5-6rep is still good.

This is the same with squat for those who are strong in their legs but weak with their back.  Lower back will give out at 6reps or so when their legs can take it up to 10 reps.  If you shoot for the 10 reps at 80% 1RM, you will get bad form (tilting forward with weight on your leg) towards the end of that set.  To prevent this from happening, taking heavy squat down to 4-5reps per set is a good idea..

Smaller muscle groups (ex: shoulder/calves) will need higher reps to truly stimulate them since they lift less weight, therefore less volume and get fatigue slower.  Taking shrugs or calf raises up to 15 or 20 reps isn't uncommon. In general, a 6 to 10 rep progression is a good start for anybody on any movement.  Your program will mainly base on this rep range.

Assistance/accessory movements

They are not necessary as part of a complete training program for a beginner weightlifter but can be help for those in need of changing things up and play catch ups on specific weaker body parts.  When you feel like a certain parts of your body is preventing from making gains in a movement (like squat, deadlift, chin, or bench press), it's time to think about using assistant movements to help you with the main/compound movements if you wish to keep making gains on the big 4.  

When you feel like a certain muscle group is un-proportional to the rest of the body, you can also try adding some accessory movements as well. Assistance/accessory movements are basically isolation movements where only one joint/muscle moves to resist the weight. ex: would be a leg curl, triceps kickback. There are tons. Just search on line and add them to your program 

Strength Goals

3 out of 4 of the following goals should be reached within five years

Bench press: body weight x 1.5, 

Chin-ups or pull-ups: body weight x 1.5 or 15 reps with body weight.

Squat: body weight x 2

Deadlift: body weight x 2.5

For the ladies: 

Chin or pullup 6 reps body weight

Bench bodyweight x 1.2

Squat 1.5bw

Dead 2xbw

The targets above are all for 1RM, not 6-8reps.  

Use this link to calculate your 1RM (that correlates with multiple rep ranges)

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/other7.htm

These numbers are for a raw (no straps, belt or knee wraps) single repetition (1RM).  The progress should be fairly linear, meaning that there should be no plateaus that cannot be solved in an uncomplicated manner. By "consistent" training I do not mean never missing a training day, nor do I consider taking 2-3 months off from training consistent.  By "decent training routine", I mean "not doing blatantly stupid shit" (training 5-6 days/week, 20-25 sets for chest and arms, etc.).

Lifestyle and physical changes will come at you in the most ridiculous (and sooner than you expect) way and will throw you off your feet.  By having essential and time-tested formulas provided in this program will allow you to make adjustments to counteract the unsuspected variables when the time comes.

"Regardless of genetics, gender or age, each of us has tremendous power to improve physique, fitness and health; but very few people fully exploit this power because so few people train in a way that is truly appropriate to them. Circumstance of life make some decision more likely than others; each person is responsible for his or her own exercise program's results.  You decide which exercises you use, how you perform them, and how often you train.  You decide when you quit a set, when you go to sleep, how well you eat.  You alone are responsible for your progress in the gym, accept responsibility for having created the current state of your physique and fitness.  Then assume the responsibility for changing what you do not like."  - Stuart McRobert