fbpx

General strength training is resistance training completed without a competitive goal in mind. It is a good place for beginners to start their strength and muscle building journey. A good program for you to use early on, and into the future, is one that focuses on the basics, and then builds from it.

 

The basics for strength training are:

 

  • Pressing
  • Hinging
  • Squatting
  • Full body work

 

These four areas will work the overall body in a way that is effective for a beginner to strength training, but also for the programs of seasoned gym goers and athletes. At the core of a program for starting strength, is the basic framework a person should carry with them in one form or another, forever.

 

The basics are always the basics and should always be worked

 

Foundational movements and ideas—the basics—form the framework for building into more complex movements and ideas. Once you eliminate the basics work, you take out the basis for building. From this, forward progress will become more difficult.

 

Strength Training Basics

 

Pressing, hinging, squatting, and full body work are the basics for any workout program. The reasons for that are pressing, hinging, and squatting are basic movements patterns that you complete every day, and that you must be able to do into the future.

 

  • Everytime you bend over to pick something up off the ground, you are hinging
  • Every time you put something on a shelf overhead, you are pressing
  • Every time you squat down to look at something, you are, well, squatting

 

Pressing, hinging, and squatting work the full body well, but with more focus on some areas than others. The exact areas to be worked with additional full body work could and will change over time. Exactly what you work on is based on:

 

  • What versions of pressing, hinging, and squatting you complete
  • What weak points you have

 

For example, if you complete barbell versions of the overhead press, deadlift, and squat for the press, hinge, and squat movements types, you may want to work on chest work, and then isolation style and unilateral work to help balance out full body approach.

 

In general, a program should only be as complicated as needed. However, what that means varies by person and situation. The idea is to limit the number of movements, volume, and other specifics to minimize the amount of time spent in the gym, but to maximize the quality of the work put in during that time. A basic layout may look like this:

 

Day 1: Barbell back squat 8 sets x 3 reps

Day 2: Barbell overhead press 8 sets x 3 reps

Day 3: Barbell deadlift 8 sets x 3 reps

Day 4: Full body work – 30 minutes of varied work

 

The Importance of form

 

Proper form can help improve performance and reduce the risk of injury. Small variances in good form will not increase the likelihood of injury or significantly reduce performance. Major variances in good form will.

 

An example can be found in the deadlift. Having a slightly round back or marginally higher than ideal starting position for this hips will have negligible impact on performance and injury risk. However, turning a traditional deadlift into a straight leg deadlift, that is a very high hip position at start, and allowing the back to round significantly will create undue tension on the back and remove the legs from performance. This will significantly decrease the potential for weight lifted and increase the likelihood of injury.

 

This is one example of many possible exercises to consider. The point is: there is no such thing as perfect form and small deviations are not of concern. However, there are certain technique points that are relatively universal for each exercise and there is a reason for this. Getting these down early on will be beneficial to progress and safety.

 

The importance of warm-ups

 

It is oddly common for people to skip warm-ups. It befuddles me. These people will treat every set as a working set, ignoring the fact that they need to prime themselves for the work. Skipping warm-ups inevitably leads to lower performance across all sets, and over time.

 

The reasons for this decrease in performance acutely and progress chronically is the body is not ready for quality work without the warm-up. So, the initial sets end up being warm-up sets, even though the person—maybe you—skipped an official warm-up. Worse even, sometimes all of the sets of the first exercise, maybe even the second, become warm-up sets. 

 

It has been a common occurrence for people who skip the warm-ups to say they were just getting in the groove in the middle or end of the workout and could have done more. Well, no kidding, since the first half of the workout was basically your warm-up. Do the warm-up.

 

Determining workout volume

One major concern starting off in strength training for beginners is how much a person should do: in a workout, in a week, in a month, etc. The goal here is to do enough to see progress but not so much that the process becomes overwhelming in any way.

 

Ways in which workouts can become overwhelming include:

 

  • Too hard on the body
  • Too much time spent in a workout
  • Too many workouts per week relative to your schedule
  • Too hard on the mind

 

These are relatively straightforward points, but let me offer an explanation. Each point matters so a brief understanding of each becomes important for beginnings in strength training and this knowledge should grow with time.

 

Too hard on the body—this means the body is excessively sore, achy, stiff, or otherwise feeling overworked. Excessive means that the discomfort is being reasonable tolerance and/or the physical effects are limiting daily activity. While there will be some discomfort, it should be within reasonable limits, and there should be virtually no impact in being able to get through the day. 

 

A program you can use now

 

Circling back to the basic example, the idea is a program should only be as complicated as needed. More is not necessarily better. The example is:

 

Day 1: Barbell back squat 8 sets x 3 reps

Day 2: Barbell overhead press 8 sets x 3 reps

Day 3: Barbell deadlift 8 sets x 3 reps

Day 4: Full body work – 30 minutes of varied work

 

Now, you could literally just do that. Each week you could try to increase load on the single lift for days 1-3, and on day four each week, you could rotate through a different set of full body exercises. So, for example:

 

Week 1

Day 1: Barbell back squat 8 sets x 3 reps

Day 2: Barbell overhead press 8 sets x 3 reps

Day 3: Barbell deadlift 8 sets x 3 reps

Day 4: Pull-up, dip, lunges, biceps curl x 4 sets of 10 reps each

 

Week 2

Week 1

Day 1: Barbell back squat 8 sets x 3 reps (increase weight from last week)

Day 2: Barbell overhead press 8 sets x 3 reps (increase weight from last week)

Day 3: Barbell deadlift 8 sets x 3 reps (increase weight from last week)

Day 4: Barbell row, dumbbell fly, thruster x 4 sets of 10 reps each

 

This is pretty straightforward and could be followed for a finite amount of time. The limiter is likely going to be the ability to increase weight each week continuously, and another variable would need changed as well in order to keep seeing progress. You might increase the volume, but reduce the weight for the main exercises, kind of like this:

 

Week 3

Day 1: Barbell back squat 5 sets x 5 reps

Day 2: Barbell overhead press 5 sets x 5 reps

Day 3: Barbell deadlift 5 sets x 5 reps

Day 4: Pull-up, dip, lunges, biceps curl x 4 sets of 10 reps each

 

Week 4

Week 1

Day 1: Barbell back squat 5 sets x 5 reps (increase weight from last week)

Day 2: Barbell overhead press 5 sets x 5 reps (increase weight from last week)

Day 3: Barbell deadlift 5 sets x 5 reps (increase weight from last week)

Day 4: Barbell row, dumbbell fly, thruster x 4 sets of 10 reps each

 

Next, you might find you are getting a bit tired of completing the same exercises each week, so a change is needed there. This change can help break the monotony, and will stimulate the body in a different way, potentially helping progress

 

Week 5

Day 1: Barbell front squat 5 sets x 5 reps

Day 2: Barbell bench press 5 sets x 5 reps

Day 3: Trap bar deadlift 5 sets x 5 reps

Day 4: Pull-up, dip, lunges, biceps curl x 4 sets of 10 reps each

 

Week 6

Week 1

Day 1: Barbell front squat 5 sets x 5 reps (increase weight from last week)

Day 2: Barbell bench press 5 sets x 5 reps (increase weight from last week)

Day 3: Trap bar deadlift 5 sets x 5 reps (increase weight from last week)

Day 4: Barbell row, dumbbell fly, thruster x 4 sets of 10 reps each

 

And then to switch up once again, you could switch up volume. This time you would circle back to the volume for weeks 1-2, but with the different exercises, like this:

 

Week 7

Day 1: Barbell front squat 8 sets x 3 reps

Day 2: Barbell bench press 8 sets x 3 reps

Day 3: Trap bar deadlift 8 sets x 3 reps

Day 4: Pull-up, dip, lunges, biceps curl x 4 sets of 10 reps each

 

Week 8

Week 1

Day 1: Barbell front squat 8 sets x 3 reps (increase weight from last week)

Day 2: Barbell bench press 8 sets x 3 reps (increase weight from last week)

Day 3: Trap bar deadlift 8 sets x 3 reps (increase weight from last week)

Day 4: Barbell row, dumbbell fly, thruster x 4 sets of 10 reps each

 

Now you are eight weeks in and should have by this point improved your form, seen marginal improvements in strength, and be comfortable in the workouts, while realistically also seeing a change in physique. Now we can throw in another four weeks, this time varying multiple variables across the period, kind of like this:

 

Week 9

Day 1: Barbell back squat 8 sets x 3 reps

Day 2: Barbell overhead press 8 sets x 3 reps

Day 3: Barbell deadlift 8 sets x 3 reps

Day 4: Chin-up, bar dip, walking lunge, biceps curl x 4 sets of 10 reps each

 

Week 10

Day 1: Barbell front squat 5 sets x 5 reps (increase weight from last week)

Day 2: Barbell bench press 5 sets x 5 reps (increase weight from last week)

Day 3: Trap bar deadlift 5 sets x 5 reps (increase weight from last week)

Day 4: Barbell row, ring dip, wall balls x 4 sets of 10 reps each

 

Week 11

Day 1: Barbell back squat 8 sets x 3 reps (increase weight from last week)

Day 2: Barbell overhead press 8 sets x 3 reps (increase weight from last week)

Day 3: Barbell deadlift 8 sets x 3 reps (increase weight from last week)

Day 4: Wide grip pull-up, dumbbell fly, overhead lunge x 4 sets of 10 reps each

 

Week 12

Day 1: Barbell front squat 5 sets x 5 reps

Day 2: Barbell bench press 5 sets x 5 reps

Day 3: Trap bar deadlift 5 sets x 5 reps

Day 4: Parallel grip pull-up, weighted bar dip, biceps curl x 4 sets of 10 reps each

And that is it. Have questions? Let me know on social media. You can click the links here, or just look up Nathan DeMetz Personal Training on Facebook and Instagram.

Demetz Personal Training About Nathan Demetz Personal Trainer

Nathan DeMetz holds degrees in Exercise Science, Business Administration, and Information Technology as well as certifications in strength and conditioning, sports nutrition, run coaching, and other areas. His credentials come from organizations such as Indiana Wesleyan University, Ivy Tech College, Utah State University, and the ISSA College of Exercise Science.

Nathan has 20 years of personal and professional experience in the health and fitness world. He works with people from across the globe, including locations such as Kuwait, Australia, and the USA.

To work with Nathan directly on your personal training goals, contact him today!