As someone new to lifting or someone just getting back into it, a big part of development isn't just what you're doing in the gym, but also the habits you create during this time. One of them is the ability to be consistent with a program and not hop around from routine to routine like a clown on a pogo stick when the gains slow down.
Being a beginner is great because it's one of the few times in your lifting life where you can lose fat and gain muscle and strength all at the same time. You don't even have to do things very efficiently either. You could even be one of those idiots that does shoulder presses using the leg press machine and still make some gains.
Of course, that's kind of a problem too, because if a beginner doesn't know any better, he'll blame his program when progress starts to stall a bit. His eventual lack of progress isn't because the routine stopped working, though, it's because his motor skills are improving and his body is adapting to the stimulus. As such, growth slows dramatically.
Newbies, even the ones focused on bodybuilding and pure hypertrophy, still really need to concentrate on developing efficiency in basic exercises and progressive overload (adding more weight). Just doing those things will bring a significant amount of muscular gains. Concentrate on these basic exercises:
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