If you’re confused about how to start strength training, you’re in the right place!
Strength training is the one exercise everybody should be doing in some capacity.
Yes, you read that right – everybody.
It is the single form of exercise that can improve the quality and length of your life!
I know – serious stuff.
But even apart from that unparalleled benefit, when you start strength training, you’ll improve your overall health, function and physical appearance.
Now that I’ve got your attention, you’re probably thinking, “well I have to start strength training, but I have no clue how!”
That’s exactly what this beginner’s guide is going to help you do.
I’m going to explain:
- What strength training is
- The benefits of strength training
- The answers to common questions about strength training
- How getting stronger can help you lose body fat
- How to put together your own strength training program & get the most benefit out of it
- And I’ll even lay out some sample programs for you to get started with
If you’re ready to learn how to transform your body and look, move and feel the best you ever have, read on!
Beginner's Guide to Start Strength Training
What Is Strength Training And Am I Doing It?
So what exactly is and what workouts count as strength training?
Strength training (resistance training, lifting weights, etc.) is use of any resistance (bodyweight, bands, external weight) to produce muscular force so you can build strength and muscle mass.
And through progressive overload (forcing your muscles to do more over time), your body goes through the process of rebuilding and adapting, which leads to strength improvements.
Let’s figure out if the workouts you’re doing count as strength training –
This is actually a really simple thing to determine. The only question you have to ask yourself is…
“Are my workouts leading me to get stronger over time?”
If yes, then congratulations – you are strength training!
But this begs the next question –
“How do I know if I’m getting stronger?”
And now we start getting into the nitty gritty details…
Am I Strength Training?
Step 1 - The Exercises
The first step to determine if you are strength training is to look at what specific exercises your workouts are primarily made up of.
There are 7 primary strength movements you should focus on building strength in.
These exercises are your body’s natural movement patterns.
They include variations of the:
- Squat
- Hinge (includes deadlift and bridge variations)
- Lunge
- Horizontal Push (chest press and pushup variations)
- Vertical Push (overhead press variations)
- Horizontal Pull (row variations)
- Vertical Pull (pulldown and pull-up variations)
If you are primarily doing variations of these movements in your workouts – then you’ve passed step 1 of the “am I strength training?” test!
You’ll notice there are some exercises that I haven’t included here like leg curls & extensions, bicep & tricep exercises, calf & shoulder raises, etc.
These exercises are classified as isolation exercises.
And they are important!
However, total body, compound movements should make up the majority of your strength training program for a few reasons.
First, isolation exercises only hit one muscle group at a time while compound movements target multiple muscle groups for every single rep done.
Which means, they have a bigger training stimulus than isolation exercises and can lead to more and bigger changes in your physique and strength over time.
Second, compound movement more closely resemble the ways in which your body moves outside of working out.
Because of this, they have more carryover to daily life.
And third, compound movements are a more time-efficient way to work your entire body!
You’ll learn how to combine compound and isolation movements in your workouts later in the article.
Am I Strength Training?
Step 2 - Progressive Overload
Now comes the original question, “How do I know if I’m getting stronger?”
Progressive overload is how you get stronger!
It is the requirement for getting stronger and involves forcing your body to do more over time.
Through the process of progressive overload, you introduce a new stimulus to your body.
Your body adapts to that stimulus by getting stronger.
Then, you give it a new stimulus and it adapts and gets stronger and the cycle continues!
There are many ways to apply the principle of progressive overload.
The new stimulus could be:
- Better movement quality – lifting the same weight with better form, more control and less effort
- Bigger range of motion – lifting the same weight while getting deeper into a movement
- Increased time under tension – lifting the weight with a slower tempo
- Added volume – lifting the same weight for more sets/reps
- More power – lifting the weight with more speed
- Heavier weight
- More difficult exercise variations
If you are getting stronger in any of the ways explained above in primarily the exercises covered in step 1 – then you can confidently say you are strength training!
But if you are now realizing that you workouts don’t count, keep reading and learn exactly how to start strength training!
Beginner's Guide to Start Strength Training
The Benefits of Strength Training
Like I mentioned above, getting stronger has the unparalleled benefit of improving your quality of life and the length of your life!
When you start strength training, you’ll experience long-lasting positive changes in your physical, mental and emotional health.
- Increased strength, muscle mass, mobility & endurance
- Improved joint health
- Decreased chance of pain & injury
- Decreased risk of chronic disease (such as type 2 diabetes & heart disease)
- Improved sleep quality
- Higher energy levels
- Increased feelings of confidence & empowerment
Because of all these benefits, strength training has a direct impact on your daily life.
Improved Quality of Life
When you strengthen your body, you are going to be able to move more effectively and efficiently in your daily life.
You’re going to be able to do more, get less tired and not worry about pain and injury.
Strengthening your body’s natural movement patterns (which we talked about above) means you’re getting stronger in the ways you move for every activity you perform in daily life!
In addition:
- Your bones, connective tissue and joints will get stronger
- Your coordination and balance will improve
- You’ll have better endurance
- And you will improve your ability to move mindfully and intentionally as you build body awareness
And all these benefits of strength training will add up to an improved life – a life in which you’ll be able to be more activity, independent and do what you love to do better and for longer!
Improved Body Composition
While an improved quality of life is the most powerful benefit of getting stronger, you can’t forget its effects on your body composition.
If you have any goal related to weight loss, muscle gain and looking more toned and defined, you have to start strength training.
It is the most important form of exercise to change the shape of your body!
Along with proper nutritional adjustments, building strength is the most effective way to lose weight, look more defined and maintain that progress forever.
Increasing your muscle mass increases your metabolism – when you have more muscle, you will burn more calories at rest.
Now I won’t lie – that number is not a huge one.
But an increase is an increase, right?
And further, doesn’t it make sense that people who have more muscle mass are probably people who generally lead more active lifestyles, eat a higher quality diet and eat enough protein?
Well these habits conveniently also lead to an increased metabolism!
And this increase in your total daily energy expenditure (total daily calories burned), in addition to a generally healthier lifestyle, only makes it easier to stay lean long-term and maintain any body composition (fat loss) progress forever!
Improved Mental Health
Even apart from the physical benefits, when you start strength training, you’ll also experience a positive change in your mental and emotional well-being.
Every single client I have worked with has mentioned at some point along our journey that they feel more confident.
It makes sense – it’s empowering to be and feel strong.
And the improvements in sleep quality, energy levels, mood and brain function all amount to this increased confidence and empowerment.
Beginner's Guide to Start Strength Training
Is Strength Training Dangerous?
The videos and stories that show people getting hurt while lifting weights are why this myth is completely understandable.
However, strength training is not inherently dangerous.
In fact, it makes you more resilient to pain and injury!
It allows you to perform daily activities more effectively and efficiently with a decreased risk of injury.
It also strengthens your joints, connective tissue and bones!
So why is this myth still so widely believed?
Because those videos and stories show situations in which someone wasn’t properly strength training.
If you want to get the benefits of lifting weights without putting yourself at risk for injury, follow a well-designed program that allows you to get stronger in a safe, smart way.
Here are some tips to make sure you’re staying safe and preventing injury so you can get the most out of your workouts when you start lifting weights:
- Prioritize good form – take the time to learn and practice proper form of the exercises you’ll be performing.
- Follow a well-designed program, like the ones you’ll learn to create and the sample ones below!
- Follow the principles of progress overload safely and without sacrificing form.
Beginner's Guide to Start Strength Training
Does Strength Training Make Women Bulky?
The fear of getting bulky is a common reason you don’t see women lifting heavy and pushing themselves in the gym!
Let me put your hesitations to rest – just because a woman starts lifting weights, particularly relatively heavy weights, doesn’t mean she’s automatically going to get bulky.
The truth is – everybody’s body responds differently to training. Some women absolutely have the capacity to build a lot of muscle mass and achieve a bulky look if she chooses to.
Key words – “if she chooses to.”
But this requires specific things, including consistently eating in a calorie surplus over a very long period of time.
If you are eating in a way that aligns with your goals, you’re not going to wake up one day and realize you got bulky on accident!
Let me give you an example of myself –
These pictures were taken 4 months apart.
During these 4 months, I ate in a moderate calorie deficit and the only exercise I did was strength training.
I lifted heavy, pushed myself to within a few reps of failure in all my working sets and I did this 3-4 days per week.
Does it look like I got bulky?
I absolutely gained strength and muscle – but the result was a toned, defined look.
Now take a look at my online coaching client, Kelly –
Can you guess what kind of exercise she did while losing weight?
You got it – strength training.
As these pictures clearly show you, strength training does not make women bulky!
As long as your nutrition is adjusted for your goals (in these cases, a moderate calorie deficit and enough protein), you will make real changes to your body and look toned and defined.
Verses if you were to lose weight without strength training, you’d just end up looking like a smaller version of yourself, without any muscle tone.
Beginner's Guide to Start Strength Training
Should I Lift Light Weights for High Reps to Get Toned?
Another myth that goes along with “heavy lifting makes women bulky” is lifting light weights for high reps will tone the muscle you already have (as opposed to lifting heavy for low reps will lead to the growth of bulky muscle).
You already learned above that heavy lifting doesn’t lead to bulkiness, so let’s go in another direction with this one.
There is no such thing as “lean/toned” and “bulky” muscle.
Muscle is muscle.
That’s it.
Toning is a combination of increasing muscle mass and decreasing body fat.
And again, the only way to lose body fat is to consistently eat in a calorie deficit.
And the only way to build muscle mass is to lift heavier weights over time!
If you’re not challenging your muscles and forcing them to adapt, they won’t get stronger.
In order to increase the amount of muscle you have, you have to follow the principle of progressive overload.
And lifting an 8 pound dumbbell week after week does not count as progressive strength training.
Beginner's Guide to Start Strength Training
Can I Target Fat Loss in a Specific Body Part?
Another common mistake to avoid is only doing exercises that work the body parts you want to lose fat from.
For example, only doing ab workouts because you want a flat stomach.
Spot training is the idea that you can lose fat from one specific body part if you do exercises that target that muscle group.
Unfortunately, spot reduction doesn’t work!
It would be nice though, right?!
Just do a ton of crunches and BOOM – a flat belly!
But if that was the case, don’t you think everybody would be walking around with a flat stomach?
You can absolutely build muscular strength & endurance by working out a specific part of your body, but it won’t result in fat loss.
Fat loss is a result of changing your nutrition (consistently eating in a calorie deficit), not exercising.
And everybody will lose fat from different areas of their body at different rates.
Just like you can’t control where you gain weight, you can’t choose what body parts you lose it from either.
If you want to lose fat in a specific area, you need to create a calorie deficit, eat enough protein, build strength & do these things consistently and for long enough to see results!
Beginner's Guide to Start Strength Training
Should I Be Sore After a Workout?
Let’s tackle the topic of muscle soreness now.
If you aren’t sore the day after a workout, does it mean you didn’t work hard enough and that your workout wasn’t effective?
Absolutely not!
It’s a common misconception that muscle soreness in the days following your workout means it was an effective one…
Or if you aren’t sore after a workouts, it wasn’t effective.
But soreness is not a measure of a good workout!
So what is muscle soreness?
Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is the muscular soreness you feel 24-48 hours after a workout.
It is the result of inflammation from small tears in your muscle fibers caused by:
- Focusing on the eccentric (lengthening/lowering) portion of an exercise
- Performing a new exercise or one you haven’t done in a while
- Increasing the intensity of an exercise
Your goal shouldn’t be to feel sore after a workout.
If you are sore, that’s fine!
And honestly – if you’re never sore, you’re probably not working hard enough.
But if you aren’t sore, it doesn’t mean your workout was ineffective.
If you want to know whether your workouts are effective, track your progress and performance over time.
If you see that you’ve been progressing in some way, then you know your workouts have been effective…
Soreness, or not.
Beginner's Guide to Start Strength Training
Should I Strength Train Everyday?
Just because strength training is good for you doesn’t mean you should be doing it everyday!
Part of getting stronger and getting great results from lifting weights is resting.
It’s a 2 part process and neither part works without the other!
The first part is your actual workouts.
During your strength workouts, you are creating little tears in your muscles and breaking them down.
When you rest, your body heals these tears.
This rebuilding process is what results in stronger muscles!
Without working out, the body doesn’t have a stimulus to change.
And without rest, there’s never any adaptation to the stimulus… therefore, no change.
Taking enough rest days is also important to your training longevity.
If you’re never resting, you’re always going to feel sore, tired and burned out.
And this is enough to lead you to quitting.
So you should be taking at least 2 rest days per week from lifting weights.
On those rest days, you can do low intensity cardio, walking, stretching – all of which will help your body recover faster!
Beginner's Guide to Start Strength Training
Do I Need to Confuse My Muscles?
Yes and no.
Let me explain –
Confusing your muscles isn’t actually a “thing” because your muscles can’t be confused!
So in this sense, no – you don’t have to confuse your muscles to get results.
You don’t have to always search for new exercises or new workout routines.
The best workouts are the ones that are made up of the most basic exercises, which I mentioned above (squats, deadlifts, lunges, hip thrusts, pushes and pulls).
That being said, you can’t just keep doing the same thing over and over and expect to get results.
You do have to challenge your muscles by increasing the amount of stress you put on them over time.
This is where progressive overload comes in, as I explained earlier in the article.
This continuous increase in stress is what forces your muscles to get stronger.
And in order for this to work, you can’t be constantly switching up exercises and workouts to “confuse” your muscles.
If you don’t stick with the same training program for a period of time, you’re not giving your muscles the repetitive tension they need to get stronger.
So, no you don’t have to confuse your muscles with different exercises and workouts all the time.
This would actually hinder your progress.
But you do have to challenge your muscles to do more over time… and that’s where the “variety” comes in!
Beginner's Guide to Start Strength Training
Should I Do Cardio Instead of Lifting Weights for Weight Loss?
I saved the biggie for last!
One of the most common questions I’m asked is, “shouldn’t I be prioritizing cardio to burn more calories if I have a weight loss goal?”
This is a big misconception!
The only requirement for weight loss is a calorie deficit – not any specific type of exercise.
And this deficit is created throughout nutrition – not exercise.
You eat less calories than it takes to maintain your current weight.
So why does it matter how many calories you’re burning in your workouts?
I’m not saying cardio can’t support a weight loss goal.
But you shouldn’t rely on it to burn as many calories a possible to create your deficit.
This is a shortsighted and inefficient approach to weight loss.
Here’s why:
Reason #1
Your body is super smart.
It adapts and becomes more efficient over time – even in the case of exercise.
Take a look at how your body adapts to cardio:
As your body becomes more efficient over time and gets used to the cardio you’re doing, you’ll be burning less calories in the same workout.
And the only way to get back to that same number of calories burned is to increase how much time you’re spending doing cardio or the intensity (speed/incline).
Problem solved?
Not so much.
This cycle continues –
So whatever you do to keep making that cardio harder to burn the same amount of calories, your body will keep adapting to it.
The result is more time invested and more stress on your body for the same amount of calories burned.
Your body adapts to strength training, as well.
But in a different way!
Take a look:
Your body adapts to strength training by becoming more efficient, just as it does with cardio.
But becoming more efficient at strength training means you get stronger and build muscle.
And once your body has adapted, you use progressive overload to make your workouts harder.
You increase the weight you’re lifting or volume (sets/reps) you’re performing.
The result is spending the same amount of time but making continuous, productive progress in the form of increased strength and muscle.
And the more muscle you have, the higher your resting metabolic rate!
So while cardio may burn more calories per session, that number will dwindle over time.
And continuous strength training results in an increase in muscle –
Which is going to lead to an overall increase in how many calories you’re burning on average each day at rest.
Reason #2
This chart shows a breakdown of how your body burns calories throughout the day.
Most of your daily calorie burn happens at rest.
This is called your basal metabolic rate.
70% of your total daily calorie expenditure comes from keeping your body functioning at rest!
Of the calories you burn outside of your basal metabolic rate, the majority come from NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis).
15% of the calories you burn daily come from doing all activities outside of sleeping, eating and exercising.
Next up is thermic effect of food.
10% of your daily calorie burn comes from digesting and processing the food you eat.
And last, coming in at 5% of the calories you burn daily is exercise activity thermogenesis.
That’s right…
Exercise makes up the least amount of the total calories you burn in a day!
Taking this into account, why would you even care how many calories you’re burning in your workouts?!
It’s not going to be a significant enough number that you can rely on it to create a calorie deficit for weight loss.
Moreover, the point of exercise is not to burn calories.
Now to be very clear, I am not discouraging you from doing cardio.
And I’m not saying doing cardio won’t help support your weight loss goal.
I’m encouraging you to prioritize lifting weights so you can maintain and build muscle, increase your metabolism and actually change the way your body looks!
Create your calorie deficit to lose weight by adjusting your nutrition, instead of trying to burn as many calories as possible through exercise.
And finally, use cardio for its true purpose – to improve your health.
Beginner's Guide to Start Strength Training
How Lifting Weights Can Help You Lose Body Fat
There’s big difference between losing scale weight and losing body fat.
If given the choice, you would want to see your body change as you lose weight…
You would want to lose inches, have your clothes fit better and look more toned and defined.
All these changes are a result of losing body fat… not just seeing the number on the scale go down.
The big difference between the two is whether you maintain your muscle mass or not.
If you’re just focused on losing weight on the scale, that’s going to include losing muscle mass (in addition to fat).
And the result is not going to be what you expect.
Only focusing on weight loss (without an equal focus on muscle maintenance) will result in:
- a decrease in metabolism
- a decrease in strength
- no real change in how your body looks (no muscle tone or definition)
- hard to maintain results
If you want to avoid these less than desired results, you have to have a muscle maintenance goal, in addition to your weight loss goal.
And this is only possible if you start lifting weights!
Fat loss is a result of losing weight (by consistently eating in a moderate calorie deficit) and maintaining your muscle (by eating enough protein and lifting weights).
As you can see, by incorporating strength training into your weight loss approach, you can completely change the results you get for the better.
- You’ll end up stronger
- Your metabolism will be supported
- You’ll be setting yourself up to successfully maintain your progress long term
- And because you’re only losing body fat, you’ll improve the way your body looks!
Beginner's Guide to Start Strength Training
How To Create Your Own Effective Lifting Program
Basic Terminology
The first step to creating your own strength training program is to understand some basic terminology.
Let’s take a look at this sample workout from one of my online coaching client’s strength training programs:
The second exercise is a dumbbell split squat.
And it’s prescribed for 3 sets of 6-10 reps per leg with 120 seconds of rest between sets.
A set is a round of consecutive repetitions.
A repetition (rep) is 1 complete motion of that exercise, from start to finish.
In this example, you would perform anywhere from 6 to 10 split squats on each leg, 3 times.
After each set, you will take 2 minutes of rest before the following set.
You’ll also notice there are some exercises listed as A & B.
This is called a superset.
For example, 2A is a dumbbell split squat and 2B is a stability ball rollout.
This means you’ll alternate sets of both these exercises.
You’ll do 1 set of the dumbbell split squat, then 1 set of the stability ball rollout and continue alternating the 2 until you have completed the number of prescribed sets!
How Long Should Your Strength Workouts Be?
How long your workouts are is not as important as what you are doing in your workouts.
But since you’re reading this guide, I’m going to assume you’re doing what you need to 😉
Generally speaking, your workouts will take you between 45 and 75 minutes!
If you’re getting done super quick, it’s likely that you aren’t pushing yourself intensely enough (using enough weight) or taking appropriate rest periods between sets.
And if your workouts take you 2 hours, you’re probably dilly dallying around and not staying on task!
How Many Days Per Week Should You Lift Weights?
Now we’ll move onto setting up the basic framework of your strength program.
You’ll first need to determine how many days per week you’re going to lift.
The majority of my online coaching clients strength train 3-4 days per week.
This allows you to train each muscle group with an appropriate amount of volume (2 times per week and 10-20 intense sets per muscle group per week) to make strength progress and allows for enough time for recovery.
Training Splits
Depending on how many days per week you are going to strength train, choose one of these training splits.
3 days per week (usually training on Monday, Wednesday & Friday or Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday):
- 3 full body days
- 1 upper, 1 lower and 1 full body day
4 days per week (usually training on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday)
- 2 lower & 2 upper body days
Rest Days
Now you’re probably thinking, “Juhee, if I’m ONLY working out 3-4 days per week, what am I supposed to do one the other days?!”
Great question.
Earlier in the article, you learned about the importance of rest days.
Without them, you’re not going to make strength progress!
So on the other 3-4 days of the week during which you’re resting from your strength workouts, you’re going to be doing some active recovery.
This is physical activity that’s actually going to help your muscles recover from lifting!
This includes any low-intensity activity like walking, yoga, etc.
In addition, be sure to stay hydrated, eat mostly nutritious foods and eat enough protein.
Basically, you want to support your body and give it the tools it needs to recover.
How To Structure Your Workouts
Keep in mind this is how I like to structure strength workouts.
There are many other ways to do it that also work well.
But I’m going to show you how I design my own and my online coaching clients’ workouts 9 out of 10 times.
Phase 1 of a Strength Workout: The Warmup
The first phase of your strength workout is the warmup.
The purpose of a warmup is to increase blood flow, heart rate and body temperature, improve joint and muscle tissue mobility and prevent injury.
You should be spending about 10 minutes warming up with a few exercises for your lower and upper body.
I’ll give you a warmup routine to follow later on when we get to the workouts!
Phase 2 of a Strength Workout: The Main Exercises
The first 1 to 2 exercises of the day will be your main compound strength movements.
These are the most important exercises of the day – your main focus.
These exercises will be full body, compound exercises that work multiple major muscle groups.
You’re going to choose 1 or 2 of the following exercises:
- Squat
- Deadlift
- Chest Press
- Pull-Up
- Overhead Press
Perform 3-4 warmup sets (sometimes more if the weight you’ll be using for your working sets is up there), as described below, to work your way up to your working weight and prime your body for those heavy sets.
You will do anywhere from 2 to 4 working sets at your working weight (the heaviest weight you’ll be using for that exercise).
Stay in the 3-6 rep range so you can use a relatively heavy weight to build maximal strength.
This weight should be heavy enough to challenge you in this low rep range.
You’ll take 3-5 minutes off rest between sets to fully recover.
Phase 3 of a Strength Workout: The Accessory Exercises
After your main strength movements, you’ll move onto accessory exercises.
You’re going to choose 2 to 4 of the following exercises:
- Romanian Deadlift
- Lunge
- Hip Thrust/Bridge
- Hip Extension
- Shoulder Press
- Row
- Pulldown
You won’t need many or any warmup sets for these since you’re already warm from your previous, main exercise(s).
You will do anywhere from 2 to 4 working sets at your working weight.
Stay in the 6-12 rep range so you can use a relatively moderate weight to build strength and muscular size.
You’ll take 2-3 minutes of rest between sets.
Phase 4 of a Strength Workout: The Isolation Exercises
The last exercises in your workout are going to be isolation exercises.
These movements work one specific muscle group at a time.
Choose 2 of the following exercises:
- Leg Curl
- Leg Extension
- Bicep Curl
- Tricep Extension
- Shoulder Raise
- Calf Raise
You’ll do anywhere from 1-3 working sets at your working weight.
Stay in the 8-15 rep range and take 1-2 minutes of rest between sets.
Warmup Sets
The purpose of warmup sets are to safely work up to the heaviest weight you’ll be using for your working sets.
You don’t want to just jump straight to a heavy weight, especially as you get stronger!
You want your muscles, joints, nervous system and brain to be primed for it.
You’ll use your warmup sets to incrementally prepare your body.
And further, your warmup sets will also give you a good idea of what weight you can handle on your working sets.
Here’s an example of how you would warmup:
- Warmup Set #1 – 55-60% of your working weight for 5-6 reps
- Warmup Set #2 – 70-75% of your working weight for 4-5 reps
- Warmup Set #3 – 80-85% of your working weight for 3-4 reps
- Warmup Set #4 – 90-95% of your working weight for 1-2 reps
You can take about a minute of rest between these warmup sets.
What About Core Work?
I’ll admit – I used to believe that only doing full body, compound movements was enough core work.
Squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press and pull-ups absolutely train your abs.
But it is important to also work them directly to make them stronger!
Examples of exercises to include:
- Variations of planks, crunches and cable crunches
- Russian twists
- Dead bugs
- Hollow body’s
- Rollouts
- Pallof presses
- Bird Dogs
You can include 1 to 2 exercises per workout and do 2 to 3 sets of each.
Your core exercises can be placed either at the beginning or the end your workouts.
When designing my online coaching clients’ workouts, I’ll place them right at the beginning, alternating them with warmup sets for their first exercise.
Or I’ll place them at the end, alternating them with sets of their isolation exercises.
Either approach works, so you can go with the one you prefer!
Beginner's Guide to Start Strength Training
6 Ways To Make Your Strength Workouts More Effective
Following a well-designed strength training program is only the first step to actually getting results from it.
If you want to maximize the effective of your workouts, there are 6 key factors to follow.
1. Form
The first is your technique or form.
You learned about progressive overload earlier, which we’ll get more into in the next section.
It’s the main principle of how you get stronger – by pushing your body to do more over time.
Usually this is done by using heavier weights.
However, using good form in your exercises is far more important than using heavier weight.
Meaning, you never want to use a weight that’s so heavy that your form suffers.
If you’re using bad form, you’re just wasting your time!
You’ll either not get the most out of the exercises you’re doing, not make progress, get injured or all the above!
Invest the time and effort into learning the proper form of all the exercises you’re going to be performing in your workouts so you can get the most benefit out of them and be able to progress safely.
You can do this either by using Google and watching exercise tutorials or by hiring a coach you trust to guide you through the process.
2. Progressive Overload
The second factor to getting results from your workouts is progressive overload.
You can’t start strength training with this great program you’ve designed and then just use the same weights over and over again and expect your body to change!
If you want to see physical improvements, you have to give your body a reason to change.
And you do that by forcing it to do more over time.
When you look at your training log – where you track how much weight you used and how many reps you were able to perform for every single exercise – you want to see a clear improvement from the first to the last week of your program.
In week 1, you’re going to start a little light and figure out what your strength level is on all your exercises for the rep range you’re working in.
Now you still want to choose a weight that pushes you intensely enough – to within 2-3 reps of failure while maintaining proper form…(more on this later in the article)!
Starting on week 2 of your program, you’ll begin progressing by using the double progression method.
You will first push yourself to progress by reaching the top end of the rep range you’re working in with a given weight.
Then you’ll increase the weight you’re using by the smallest amount and again build up to the top end of the rep range over time.
For example, let’s say you’re performing a dumbbell chest press for 3 sets of 6-10 reps.
This is what an example of the double progression method would look like:
- Week 1: 20 lb for 3 sets of 6 reps
- Week 2: 20 lb for 3 sets of 8 reps
- Week 3: 20 lb for 3 sets of 10 reps
- Week 4: 25 lb for 3 sets of 6 reps
Note that it doesn’t have to look exactly like this – this is just an example.
Now there is a chance you won’t be able to progress each week – that’s normal.
You don’t have to progress in every exercise of every workout.
But progressing over time is a requirement for you to get stronger and build muscle!
What’s most important is that you’re continuously working intensely enough and pushing yourself to improve.
3. Program Continuity
The third factor to getting results from your workouts is sticking with the same weekly strength workouts for at least 4 weeks.
If you’re always doing different workouts and changing up your program, you never give your body the repetitive tension it needs to get stronger.
And you can’t even track if you’re making strength progress!
Sticking with the same weekly workouts for a period of time allows you to:
- See how your performed the previous week (weight used, reps performed)
- Push yourself to improve in some way based on the previous week’s performance (progressive overload)
- Recover and adapt to what you did
- Repeat the process every week
- And track the strength progress you’re making week by week
Remember, you don’t get stronger in one workout.
Strength progress comes from consistent effort in the same workouts over the course of time.
4. Training Intensity
A lack of intensity is one of the major things that can hold you back from getting results!
And by intensity I don’t mean sweating a bunch and huffing and puffing.
Training intensity refers to how hard your working sets are – how close you get to failure.
On every working set of every exercise, you should be using a heavy enough weight that pushes you to within 2-3 reps of failure.
Failure means you couldn’t manage to do even 1 more rep no matter how hard you tried.
Let’s take the dumbbell chest press example from above.
You’re performing sets of 6-10 reps.
If you choose a weight that allows you to easily get to 10 reps no sweat and you could’ve done 6, 7 or 8 more reps – that weight is too light.
You need to be using a weight where reps 8, 9 and 10 are tough and you could only do 1, 2, or 3 more reps after.
Creating this intensity is how you’re going to progress over time and get stronger and change your body!
So how do you know what working to near failure feels like?
First, you need to practice pushing yourself to that point!
Second, a big sign that you are nearing failure is that your reps slow down involuntarily –
Like you have to put in all your effort to really grind out those last few reps!
5. Training Log
The next factor to improve the effectiveness of your strength workouts is to keep a training log.
As you’ve learned throughout this article, the results you get from your workouts is based on how much progress you make over time.
Keeping a training log gives you the information you need to make that progress.
You should be tracking how much weight you used, how many sets and reps you performed, how much rest you took in between sets and how you felt for every exercise in every workout.
You need to know these details so you know what to push yourself to do to make progress the next week when you do the same workout.
A training log also allows you to see the progress you’re making!
When you look at it, you should see a clear increase in numbers from the first to the last week of your training program.
You can keep it very simple by using the notes app in your phone or even go old school and use a notebook!
Choose whatever you want – what’s most important is you have detailed information.
6. Protein
The 6th and final component to getting the most out of your strength workouts is eating enough protein!
Protein is the only macronutrient that helps you build muscle.
When you’re strength training, you’re breaking down your muscles.
In addition to rest days, eating enough protein is what’s going to help your body rebuild and recover.
As a general recommendation, aim to eat 0.7-1 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight daily.
While you should be getting the majority of your protein from whole food sources like meats, egg whites, greek yogurt, etc, a protein shake is a convenient way to supplement your daily intake.
You can use any one you prefer, but I suggest you look at a couple of things before choosing.
First, make sure the majority of calories are coming from protein (as opposed to having a ton of carbs and fats in there too).
And second, use a high quality protein shake so you can avoid stomach issues, etc.
Here is a link to my personal favorite protein that I’ve been using for years.
If you’d like to try it out, you can use my code “JUHEE” at checkout to get 20% off!
Beginner's Guide to Start Strength Training
Strength Training Workouts
If you’ve read this article in its entirety, then you now know the ins & outs of how to start strength training.
Now I’m going to lay out a sample 3 and 4 day per week strength program you can follow.
Both of them will follow the basic framework of the guidelines you learned above.
Feel free to change and substitute exercises based on your preferences, skill level, injury history and goals.
The key to these workouts again is following the principle of progressive overload consistently.
Download your free 3 and 4 day per week strength program by filling out your name and email address below.
Your copy will be in your inbox in minutes!
Enjoy!
