How to get started with strength training?

[Matt S.]

I've had great success doing a 3-day, full-body split.

It's simple to follow, time efficient, and gives you the weekend off.

All it is is 3, full-body lifts per week (training upper and lower body in the same session). I'm a big believer in focusing on big compound lifts that engage your whole body simultaneously.

And as everyone has said before, nutrition and form are crucial for great results and feeling your best.

Here's the program I've used for over a year: The Best Beginner Workout Routine To Get Strong And Build Muscle

 

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[AceVentures]

My advice to a complete beginner: find a good trainer at a good gym and pay. Do this for 6 months.

I've been working out consistently for 12 years now - and I'm still learning. If there was one thing I could change about my journey it would have been to start paying for help sooner. I now routinely pay good money for trainers as well as different programs. I'm always studying and learning. Without this investment in myself, I would still be where I plateau'd 6 years ago. Instead, I'm 40lbs heavier than I was at my best, and I'm all around way stronger than I've ever been.

The ego doesn't let most of us do this. It's similar to driving. Everyone thinks they're great at it. Likewise, any a**hole who has gone to the gym and gotten a good pump thinks they're a champ. Shit advice spreads like wildfire. 99% of the people I see at the gym have no F*cking clue what they're doing, and they're hurting themselves more than they're gaining anything.

For instance, so many people will tell you to do squats, bench, rows, deadlifts, overhead press. These are great exercises. But nobody will remind you that you have to be a champion to do these movements correctly. Nobody will tell you that doing these movements without perfect form will only hurt your body over time. Nobody will tell you that as a beginner you have more to gain by doing unilateral movements at light weights and slow tempo until you become better coordinated and learn to recruit larger and larger motor units into cohesive tension. These are things you learn after repeated failures (if you haven't broken your body and given up by then).

Put your ego aside. Pull out your wallet. And pay for help. This step will prevent you from conditioning improper movement patterns that will stiffen your neck, your pelvis, your spine and ultimately degrade your quality of life over time (even if you get a nice pump).

 

[Guest931Xfjyx]

Hello,

I am back with a report on how the last week went. In the last days, I trained on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. For each training, I did the following exercises: leg press, back extensions, crunches, pectoral, vertical row, shoulder press, dips, and biceps curls. I tried a couple of different things this week set- and rep-wise.

The training per se will not really be a problem. I will do it consistently as I did it in the last decades. I just have to ensure that I am doing the proper form, but this is why I am using primarily machines for the start (as JLE suggested) - so that I don't do too much wrong. I will shift to free weights later on.

The more challenging part for me will be eating more. I know that from experience because I already tried to gain some weight years ago, but after one month, I gave up because I could not stand it anymore (I gained two kilos nonetheless). The problem was that I changed how I ate and how much from one day to another. So, this time, I am giving myself more time.
This week, I ate one additional snack (sometimes two) to the three meals I usually eat - without any pressure and without counting calories. I am planning on consuming one protein shake as one "snack" and then eating another one every day, and I will eat more food that is rich in complete protein.
I am sure I ate too little protein in the last couple of years and too few calories (at least to build muscle or gain weight). I will make the changes in a slow but consistent manner.

I have a couple of questions if you don't mind. (As I said last week, I can easily find the information I am asking for on the internet, and I have already looked up most of these questions. But there are so many different answers and ways to do it that it is quite confusing sometimes.)

Just now seeing this, and honestly I'm proud you stuck to your word. Commend yourself for that. You're not alone in the problem of consuming more. I fortunately am an absolute pig and would be a colossal slob if I didn't workout. You at the very least have an advantage when it comes to cutting weight, but yes, having the appetite for gaining weight will likely always be a struggle. I have some suggestions as it pertains to this if you'd like for me to elaborate but ideally you should still be consuming your caloric surplus from real whole foods.

I'll go down the list answering your questions:

1. Should I warm up before the training or not? (I did, but I would like to know if it is necessary.)

Yes absolutely warm-up before training. This can either be with a resistance band or by mimicking the movements you're going to be performing or even by simply getting in the machine with no weight loaded and going through the motion before adding some weight. You don't need to do this for every exercise. Realistically listen to your body. Warm up the general muscle groups you'll be training, and if it's heavier weight definitely try and pyramid up to your working set weight as you progress.

2. I did three sets, each with 6 to 10 repetitions. Should I train for muscle failure in each set?

That's not bad. I come from a bodybuilding background and not necessarily a powerlifting background. If your primary goal is strength then keep the 6-10 rep range. If it's muscle hypertrophy I'd like to see the rep ranges anywhere from 10-25, on very few movements I'll even go as high as 50 reps per set. I don't think you should necessarily push yourself to failure as you're just beginning an exercise regime for the first time, but yes, that should be an eventual goal if you feel comfortable exerting yourself to that point.

4. Should I keep the same weight for each set, or is it better to lower it a little bit for each consecutive set? Do I have to change the reps in this case?

You're asking more advanced questions. For now, I think you should still keep the same reps and same weight for each set. Eventually though, as you progress, I would switch your sets to be from two or three different weights each with their own rep range so you can build strength across rep ranges.

5. Should I do each exercise every training, or is it better to only do them every second training, aka splitting the exercises into two workouts?

I really just wanted to get you moving. I wanted to see if you'd follow through. But since you have -- three days a week is great. If you can keep this up week after week I think something like "PUSH/PULL/LEGS" or "UPPER/LOWER" would be great for you. If you need some help devising a routine for either of those I can also help start you off with something simple.

6. What about cardio? I'd like to do that twice a week for around 30 minutes, but I have no idea if that would be counterproductive for muscle growth. What is your opinion on that?

Doing cardio will not hinder your muscle growth. I'm happy to hear you actually want to do it. There's a lot of guys who just love to lift weights and never think for a second about their cardiovascular health. Please, absolutely, do your cardio. Even more cardio than that if possible. As a personal example, I do 40 minutes of cardio 6 days a week and take bodybuilding quite seriously. It improves your insulin sensitivity, digestion, and conveniently your appetite. You likely won't burn a significant amount in only 30 minutes either. Absolutely do cardio. More than just 2 days a week if you're up for it. The one thing I would recommend though, is to not do cardio right before your training. Either do it fasted first thing in the morning, or after your workout session.

7. Is there a specific muscle group/exercise that needs to be added? If so, what would that be?

There is no specific exercise or muscle group for anything. The question is, what do you want to grow? You're not doing this wrong. Generally people are put on a program that exercises every general muscle group. That's suggested. You're free to do that if you'd like. It's not wrong if you don't. Hope you're getting where I'm going with this.

8. How many times per week should I do strength training? Two or three times or more?

You should strength train as often as you can stay committed to it. If it's three days a week, well, that's awesome. If you can stay consistent six days a week, that's incredible. The answer to this question is heavily dependent on your goals, how much time and effort you want to devote to this, and whether you can actually stay consistent with it over the long term.

------------------

I hope some of my answers were able to help you there. I can expand on any concepts if you need additional clarity. I get you don't fully understand, and you just want to make sure you're doing everything right, but really this takes nothing more than the basics. There's no need to overcomplicate anything. Nail the fundamentals. By going to the gym at all you're already doing better than most will ever achieve.

 

[Johnny boy]

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[Taktik]

I'm no PT, but I've been submerged in the gym for three years doing natural bodybuilding. I've seen great success so far & my lift strength classes me as an intermediate lifter. here are my two cents.


Yes.

• Do a bit of light cardio (5-10 minutes) to prepare your central nervous system and provide blood to muscles.
• I always do a lighter weight and then move up to working sets. Example: I squat 100kg for a barbell back squat on push pull legs, so I start with bodyweight squats --> 60kg with 15 reps --> 80kg with 12 reps --> 3*10 reps 100kg working set. I may also do some dynamic stretches.
• In your case, do a single warmup set for your leg press, pectoral & vertical row, just to get these muscles ready.
• When doing shoulder stuff, warm up your rotator cuffs. Believe me, you don't want to have cracking & clicking shoulders when you lift, it's bad for them.

Perhaps for the final set, you can push it to complete failure; if you do it for your first set, you may fatigue yourself too much. Be sure you're giving yourself a ~2-minute rest time for your central nervous system to recover.

The way to think about it is that the real gains are from those final few reps where the body can't push any longer. The muscles tell the brain, "Hey, we can't lift this external force," and the body allocates resources to strengthen that region. The first 8 reps are just to fatigue. Those last 4 that you do are where the real stimulus happens. You want to be going near to or actually fail to stimulate that growth.


I think you'd do this depending on your goals. I'm primarily focused on hypertrophy, so I keep it in the 8-12 rep range. It's about a 1-5 rep range if you're more strength-based. If you're more endurance-based, it's 15-20 reps.

My rule is this: if you can't do 8 reps, the weight is too heavy - drop the weight. If you can do 12 reps, the weight is too light - up the weight. This essentially is just progressive overload each time I hit 12 reps.

What you could do is drop sets which are fun to do. Go have a look at some articles. It pushes the muscles to complete failure, and I do it occasionally.



So this is where you start training different groups on different days. Bro splits, Arnold splits, push/pull/legs - I have legs 1 & legs 2, so I can get both deadlifts and squats into my workouts. For now, keep to what you're doing.


Peter Attia's book on longevity, "Outlive", recommends three hours of cardio for optimal health. It's great you're thinking about this because many gym people skip it.

Search up Hit Interval Training & the talk test for great exercise for VO2 max and heart health, respectively.

And I disagree it's against muscle growth. You'll burn many calories, but you must ensure you eat more. I'll often do a full push/leg/pull day, then finish off with 20-30 minutes of cardio (stairlift/running) & I've only seen benefits to my lifts.

• I can lift heavy and don't feel like I'm about to pass out (my heart can push more blood around my body)
• I learn better
• I think I sleep better
• I feel more at peace
• If I need to run for something, I won't be out of breath or have a stitch.

I akin people saying that they don't do cardio to being as ridiculous as people saying they don't need to train legs because they walk around. Cardio helps not only the gym but also life and longevity. It directly strengthens the heart and makes the brain sharper.


The first thing that comes to mind is compound lifts. I'm a complete compound convert, seeing my strength increase significantly once I moved over.

• They train muscles to work together.
• They train many muscles at one time.
• They are more likely to emulate day-to-day tasks (eg: deadlift --> picking up a box)

One of my most significant growth spurts was moving to compound lifts. I now only use machines near the end of a workout when I'm fatigued and haven't worked a specific area enough.

For now, do three times because you're just starting.

• Get the habit in place
• Don't overwhelm yourself with all the things you're learning
• Try to begin moving to compound lifts once you're comfortable with the machines
• Focus on your technique regarding compound lifts - ask gym staff to spot you. FORM IS EVERYTHING. Don't turn leg day into spine day. Keep your back safe with proper technique.
• Once you begin to see a plateau, consider something like push-pull legs or a bro split that can be upped to 6x/5x a week if you want to.

You can generally stimulate muscle growth by performing 8-20 weekly sets of group exercises. It's a linear scale; the more you produce, the more output.

While I've been writing this, here are some key learning points I've found:

• Eat a calorie surplus, but avoid dirty bulking. MyFitnessPal can help with logging calories. What you eat outside the gym directly impacts building muscle. I didn't eat enough protein for months and saw no progress. I saw improvement when I was in line with 2g/kg protein and upwards PLUS ate excess calories.
• Compounds should be the focus. Machines are an assisting tool.
• Talk to gym staff. They'll talk to you for hours about how to structure routines, diet, new exercises and cool facts about body mechanics.

Final later note: It entirely depends on what your goals are. I noticed this thread is called strength training. If you're referring to powerlifting, that is COMPLETELY different compared to bodybuilding. Yes, we may do the same exercise, but the nature of training is different. What I've written is from the prospective of a natural bodybuilder.

Thanks for answering my questions. I really appreciate it.

 

[Taktik]

My advice to a complete beginner: find a good trainer at a good gym and pay. Do this for 6 months.

I've been working out consistently for 12 years now - and I'm still learning. If there was one thing I could change about my journey it would have been to start paying for help sooner. I now routinely pay good money for trainers as well as different programs. I'm always studying and learning. Without this investment in myself, I would still be where I plateau'd 6 years ago. Instead, I'm 40lbs heavier than I was at my best, and I'm all around way stronger than I've ever been.

The ego doesn't let most of us do this. It's similar to driving. Everyone thinks they're great at it. Likewise, any a**hole who has gone to the gym and gotten a good pump thinks they're a champ. Shit advice spreads like wildfire. 99% of the people I see at the gym have no F*cking clue what they're doing, and they're hurting themselves more than they're gaining anything.

For instance, so many people will tell you to do squats, bench, rows, deadlifts, overhead press. These are great exercises. But nobody will remind you that you have to be a champion to do these movements correctly. Nobody will tell you that doing these movements without perfect form will only hurt your body over time. Nobody will tell you that as a beginner you have more to gain by doing unilateral movements at light weights and slow tempo until you become better coordinated and learn to recruit larger and larger motor units into cohesive tension. These are things you learn after repeated failures (if you haven't broken your body and given up by then).

Put your ego aside. Pull out your wallet. And pay for help. This step will prevent you from conditioning improper movement patterns that will stiffen your neck, your pelvis, your spine and ultimately degrade your quality of life over time (even if you get a nice pump).

Great advice. Any tips on how to find a good gym and a good trainer?

 

[Taktik]

Just now seeing this, and honestly I'm proud you stuck to your word. Commend yourself for that. You're not alone in the problem of consuming more. I fortunately am an absolute pig and would be a colossal slob if I didn't workout. You at the very least have an advantage when it comes to cutting weight, but yes, having the appetite for gaining weight will likely always be a struggle. I have some suggestions as it pertains to this if you'd like for me to elaborate but ideally you should still be consuming your caloric surplus from real whole foods.

I'll go down the list answering your questions:



Yes absolutely warm-up before training. This can either be with a resistance band or by mimicking the movements you're going to be performing or even by simply getting in the machine with no weight loaded and going through the motion before adding some weight. You don't need to do this for every exercise. Realistically listen to your body. Warm up the general muscle groups you'll be training, and if it's heavier weight definitely try and pyramid up to your working set weight as you progress.



That's not bad. I come from a bodybuilding background and not necessarily a powerlifting background. If your primary goal is strength then keep the 6-10 rep range. If it's muscle hypertrophy I'd like to see the rep ranges anywhere from 10-25, on very few movements I'll even go as high as 50 reps per set. I don't think you should necessarily push yourself to failure as you're just beginning an exercise regime for the first time, but yes, that should be an eventual goal if you feel comfortable exerting yourself to that point.



You're asking more advanced questions. For now, I think you should still keep the same reps and same weight for each set. Eventually though, as you progress, I would switch your sets to be from two or three different weights each with their own rep range so you can build strength across rep ranges.



I really just wanted to get you moving. I wanted to see if you'd follow through. But since you have -- three days a week is great. If you can keep this up week after week I think something like "PUSH/PULL/LEGS" or "UPPER/LOWER" would be great for you. If you need some help devising a routine for either of those I can also help start you off with something simple.



Doing cardio will not hinder your muscle growth. I'm happy to hear you actually want to do it. There's a lot of guys who just love to lift weights and never think for a second about their cardiovascular health. Please, absolutely, do your cardio. Even more cardio than that if possible. As a personal example, I do 40 minutes of cardio 6 days a week and take bodybuilding quite seriously. It improves your insulin sensitivity, digestion, and conveniently your appetite. You likely won't burn a significant amount in only 30 minutes either. Absolutely do cardio. More than just 2 days a week if you're up for it. The one thing I would recommend though, is to not do cardio right before your training. Either do it fasted first thing in the morning, or after your workout session.



There is no specific exercise or muscle group for anything. The question is, what do you want to grow? You're not doing this wrong. Generally people are put on a program that exercises every general muscle group. That's suggested. You're free to do that if you'd like. It's not wrong if you don't. Hope you're getting where I'm going with this.



You should strength train as often as you can stay committed to it. If it's three days a week, well, that's awesome. If you can stay consistent six days a week, that's incredible. The answer to this question is heavily dependent on your goals, how much time and effort you want to devote to this, and whether you can actually stay consistent with it over the long term.

------------------

I hope some of my answers were able to help you there. I can expand on any concepts if you need additional clarity. I get you don't fully understand, and you just want to make sure you're doing everything right, but really this takes nothing more than the basics. There's no need to overcomplicate anything. Nail the fundamentals. By going to the gym at all you're already doing better than most will ever achieve.

Thanks a lot for the reply and the kind words. As I said, it wasn't hard to get going as I was always doing some sort of exercise for decades. So it doesn't feel like a big step, but you are right: most people never even make it to a gym.

Your answers made a lot of things clearer, and I realized that I don't really have defined a goal for myself, aka if I want to focus on hypertrophy or strength. (I wanted to just start training in the gym as cardio alone was not enough anymore.) I will reflect on that in the next few days and adjust accordingly.

 

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[AceVentures]

Great advice. Any tips on how to find a good gym and a good trainer?

Where do you live?

 

[Taktik]

Where do you live?

Middle Europe.
Or do you need it more precise?

 

[Guest931Xfjyx]

***Start Here***

Your Guide To Navigating The Substack

www.bowtiedox.io

Read this

And eat human food not rabbit food

I've seen this guy on Twitter but I've never actually looked through his long-form content. He's actually built an admirable list of diverse topics to read from.

I find his list inspiring from a future fitness-content creator's point-of-view.

Not a bad link at all.

 

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[Johnny boy]

I've seen this guy on Twitter but I've never actually looked through his long-form content. He's actually built an admirable list of diverse topics to read from.

I find his list inspiring from a future fitness-content creator's point-of-view.

Not a bad link at all.

It's the plan I'm on. For diet I follow the 4-hr body by tim ferris.

 

[Kevin88660]

Hi,

I realized in the last weeks that I need to take my training more seriously. Soon, I will be 40, and what I did until now will not cut it anymore.

It's not the case that I am unfit. I trained three to four times a week for more than a decade. I mainly used a rowing machine in the last two years, and sometimes I did calisthenics, but I never really took the training seriously in the sense that I tried to get better. I trained at least three times a week, even when I did not want to, but I just trained without tracking my progress. So, I am not unfit, but I don't have a lot of muscle mass, and I am also not strong; never was. I also eat a pretty healthy diet (mostly vegetarian and vegan for over five years; I eat meat less than ten times per year - I don't like it anymore).

I have now decided to start lifting weights to gain muscle mass and strength and to be more serious about it.

The only problem is figuring out how or what to do. I have already looked up a lot of information about strength training on the internet in the last couple of days, and I have to say that I feel pretty overwhelmed.
There are so many different options/solutions/suggestions, sometimes even contradicting one another. It's rather confusing.

I hope that someone with experience can help me and get me started in the right direction so that I am doing the most important things that will have the most impact.

Thanks a lot.

Depends on what you are training for.

Strength/Aesthetic/Longevity.

You will track different stuff.

If you are trying to get bigger definitely it is good to get a coach to make sure your postures are correct, the reps and rest times are suitable…

If you are training for longevity the details of the exercise don’t matter that much other than knowing you are doing 30 min of lifting of 30 min of cardio today. You should be doing annual blood work to track your blood.

 

[Johnny boy]

View attachment RPReplay_Final1697471455.mov

 

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[freek]

Hi,

I realized in the last weeks that I need to take my training more seriously. Soon, I will be 40, and what I did until now will not cut it anymore.

It's not the case that I am unfit. I trained three to four times a week for more than a decade. I mainly used a rowing machine in the last two years, and sometimes I did calisthenics, but I never really took the training seriously in the sense that I tried to get better. I trained at least three times a week, even when I did not want to, but I just trained without tracking my progress. So, I am not unfit, but I don't have a lot of muscle mass, and I am also not strong; never was. I also eat a pretty healthy diet (mostly vegetarian and vegan for over five years; I eat meat less than ten times per year - I don't like it anymore).

I have now decided to start lifting weights to gain muscle mass and strength and to be more serious about it.

The only problem is figuring out how or what to do. I have already looked up a lot of information about strength training on the internet in the last couple of days, and I have to say that I feel pretty overwhelmed.
There are so many different options/solutions/suggestions, sometimes even contradicting one another. It's rather confusing.

I hope that someone with experience can help me and get me started in the right direction so that I am doing the most important things that will have the most impact.

Thanks a lot.

I followed this bulking routine for strenght and muscle for the last 8 months and got from 76 to 92kg ( i am 185cm or around 6 feet tall). Not extremely lean but i still have visible abs. This is what i did:

Worked out 5 times a week (missed 1 day in the entire 8 months due to illness).
monday: bench squats
tuesday: deadlifts
thursday: bench, overhead press
friday: squats
saturday: pull ups

Also around 3-5 other exercises every time but the focus was on these movements. the other exercises were bicep curls, lateral raises, tricep pushdown, leg extension, leg curls, calf raises (ok, have to admit only did this about 5 times).

Don't over complicate things and go to failure on each set.

For sets and reps i did this for the compound movements:
month 1 10-12 reps 3 sets
month 2 7-10 reps 4 sets
month 3 3-6 reps 4-5 sets (also pr time)
repeat x3

my bench went from 80kg to 115kg
deadlift from 130 to 190kg
squat from 90 to 150kg

nothing exceptional but a significant difference.

In terms of food i ate as much as i could, simple. Eat real food, i mostly ate meat, nuts, eggs, peanut butter and yoghurt.
Supplements: creatine 5g/day.
Sleeping well probably also helps, or at least go to bed at the same time for the growth hormone release. I did not really sleep well during these months, this is something i still need to improve on. This program that i created for myself got me a lot of muscle, strenght, compliments from guys and blowjobs from girls . Ps people that say that girls do not like muscles are lying to you, follow this program and see for yourself

However you don't have to follow this plan, but it worked for me for building muscle and strenght. The most important thing is to pick a plan and stick to it. You are not gonna find the 1 supplement or the special program that will make the difference. Eat, Train, Sleep, consistent. That's all you need.