Strength Training
Have Goals In Mind
Having goals for your strength training is just as important as doing the strength training itself. Keeping these goals in mind will help you stay motivated and help you push through.
-Short Term Goals
Short term goals are goals that can be achieved at a short amount of time. Examples of these goals can be increasing the weight you lift that day, increase your protein intake, or doing something like a bicep curl 12 times instead of 10. Having short term goals like these can be quickly achieved within a day, week, or month and help you stay motivated for those long term goals.
-Long Term Goals
Long term goals are goals that you want to achieve in the long run. An Example of these are wanting to gain or lose a lot of weight, this isn't something you can do within a month so this is a long term goal. Another example can be is living healthier. These long term goals are goals that are eventually accomplished in the long run by completing those short term goals.
Having only long term goals is not going to go well, you will eventually just lose motivation. It is important to have both long term and short term. Always make sure to plan these goals and possibly have new short term goals for every month. Doing this helped me with staying consistent with my strength training.
How do I start?
Before I get into a list of steps on how to start, you're going to want to know what rep and set mean. If you don't already know what they are, a rep (short for repetition) is the action of one complete exercise. An example of this is if you do two bicep curls you completed two repetitions of that exercise. A set is the completion of several repetitions of an exercise in a row. So if someone asks you how many sets you are doing you can say "I am doing 3 sets of 12 repetitions." Planning out your sets and reps can help make a framework for your workout.
- Begin with a simple program. The goal is to begin with a routine that works all your muscle groups for two non consecutive days. This will help you begin building a strong foundation and allow progress.
- Choose the right amount of weight. It is important to choose a weight that is not too light but also not too heavy. It is easy to tell if it is too light if you can do an entire set with minimal effort and if it is too heavy your form will be sacrificed and too demanding. Make sure to pick a weight that is challenging for you but also doesn't let you lose control.
- Warm up first. Warming up your muscles before beginning your working can help prevent injury. You can do 5 to 10 minutes of walking or jogging or warm-up sets of each exercise in your workout that day. Use a light and easy weight to lift for those.
- Focus on your form. Having good form allows you to get all the benefits of your workout while avoiding injury. To maintain proper form, always pay attention to your posture (stand tall with your chest lifted and tighten your abs), move slowly (this helps make sure you are moving with your muscles and not relying on momentum), and always remember to breathe. It helps to to exhale during the hardest part of the exercise such as moving the dumbbell back up during a bicep curl. I always try to have proper form ever since I injured my lower back when I first started exercise.
- Make sure to have rest days for recovery. Rest days are super important for your muscles to recover and get stronger and to also prevent injury. You can read this article here to learn about why it's important and what you can do during those rest days.
- Have the goal to challenge yourself but not overtax yourself. During the first few weeks make sure to learn how to do each exercise rather than test how heavy you can lift or how many exercises you can do. This is not a race, there is plenty of time for you to build muscle.
- Make sure to change things up. After a month and a couple of weeks of having a consistent schedule, this is normally around the time you can start to see improvements in your body. After this time you can change up your routine to make it more difficult. Doing the same thing for a long period of time will keep your body in the same position and won't improve. You can do things such as change the amount of weight you lift or increase your repetitions. Another idea is changing up the exercises you do for each body part or change the order at which you do them.
Choosing Exercises
It is definitely difficult to choose which exercises to do with a vast variety of them that are available to do. It can help make things less difficult by searching up workout plans or looking up videos to follow. Some may thing that they need to go to the gym in order to get a workout in and I can confirm that this is false. You can get by with a workout at home with only your self weight, dumbbells, or resistance bands. If you are trying to find Youtube videos on exercises you can do I definitely recommend going to the channel Athlean-x. I use this channel often for tips and new exercises I can do.
Here are some beginner exercises that are good to start with and can still be used for the rest of your fitness career:
- Chest: Bench press, push-ups, dumbbell floor press
- Shoulders: overhead press, lateral raise, front raise
- Biceps: bicep curls, hammer curls, Dumbbell cross body curl
- Triceps: dips, triceps extensions, kickbacks
- Back: one-arm row, lat pull-downs, renegade row
- Abdominal: crunches, plank, Russian twists
- Lower Body: squats, reverse lunges, calf raises
Choosing The Right Amount of Sets, Reps, and Weight
Choosing the right amount of sets and reps that is best for you is one of the most confusing parts of strength training. Choosing the right sets and reps will depend on what you want to achieve.
- To build muscle and lose body fat: Use weight that is challenging to complete 8 to 12 repetitions and 1 to 3 sets. Make sure to rest about 30 seconds to a minute between each set and have at least one day between sessions.
- To build muscle: Use weight that makes you only able to complete 4 to 8 reps and 3 or more sets. Rest for 1 to 2 minutes and 2 to 3 days between sessions. If you are a beginner make sure you give yourself a couple of weeks of conditioning before starting this level of difficulty.
- For health and muscle endurance: Use weight that allows you to complete 12 to 16 repetitions and 1 to 3 sets. Rest 20 to 30 seconds between sets and have at least one day between sessions.
It is definitely trial an error to figure out how much weight you should use. Begin weight a light weight and perform one set. Keep adding weight till you feel that you are being challenged but you can do the desired amount of reps. The final rep should be difficult to complete but it's not impossible.
Strength training is one of the most beneficial workouts to do for both your physical and mental health. It can definitely be hard to start and can be demotivating when you don't see progress quickly. With determination and patience you will definitely see your progress and realize that all that hard work was worth it. A great way to get through a workout and it is what I use is thinking how good you will feel after finishing a good workout. I hope this helped you have an idea on how to start strength training and good luck on this great journey.
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