A Guide to Strength Training For Beginners
You can get stronger, leaner, and healthier with any kind of resistance training. The key is finding a style you enjoy and making your training hard enough.
Photo Credit: Becca Heuer
Introduction
Strength training belongs in any athletic or general fitness program. Combined with aerobic fitness, it significantly adds to healthspan and lifespan. Resistance training is powerful medicine whether you want to set a marathon PR or build lean body mass for graceful aging.
Strength Training Terminology
Strength training refers to a process in which the body reacts against an external force or load. This results in physical adaptations such as increased muscle size and strength and changes to tendons, ligaments, and bone.
Similar terms include resistance training, lifting, and weight training.
Other terms are used synonymously with strength training but have a distinct meaning:
Weightlifting: A specific sport called Olympic weightlifting (sometimes called Oly lifting). The Olympic lifts consist of the clean & jerk and snatch.
Powerlifting: A specific sport in which competitors perform the barbell squat, barbell bench press, and barbell deadlift.
Read more about strength sports in this article.
Strength Training Types and Equipment
Examples of strength training exercises from left to right: pushups, dumbbell curl, banded lateral raises, leg press machine, kettlebell swing, barbell deadlift
All strength training relies upon the same basic mechanisms. That means you have lots of choices about how to train.
Below are the main tools of the trade.
Bodyweight exercises
Resistance bands
Weight Machines
Free Weights
Dumbbells
Kettlebells
Barbells
You can follow similar workout routines and hit most major muscle groups with any of these options. You can learn more about movement types in this article.
The Pros and Cons of Each Type of Strength Training
All resistance training provides benefits. It just needs to meet two criteria.
First, you enjoy it enough that you'll do it 2-3 days per week for a long period. Second, it's sufficiently challenging. You'll get stronger and fuel muscle growth by progressively overloading your workouts. You can increase the weight, number of reps, or the difficulty of the movement.
If you're untrained, a beginner bodyweight workout will work for a while. You might start with 3-4 reps of a bodyweight squat, adding a couple of reps over many weeks. Eventually, those will become too easy, and you'll need to switch to a single-leg exercise like a split squat.
After many months, you'll need to add resistance in some form. That might be because you're bored with the same training style or need new ways to add resistance.
What if i want to strength train at home?
If you’d like to work out at home but are unsure whether you’ll stick with it, start with the following. Any of these will work well enough to get you a decent workout as a beginner. If you want to lower the cost, search used items on Facebook Marketplace:
One of the following:
2-3 kettlebells (light, moderate, heavy - based on your strength levels)
Adjustable dumbbells
One of the following:
TRX bands
Resistance bands
You can also add an adjustable bench if you have the space, budget, and motivation. For most people, I would recommend Bells of Steel (click here to see the model). Benches add a lot of versatility, including the following movements:
Skullcrushers
Overhead tricep extensions
Dumbbell pullovers
Bench press
Bulgarian split squats
Dumbbell rows
Hip thrusts
What Do I Need to Know about Barbell Lifting or starting a home garage gym?
First, if you fall in love with the barbell lifts, I have only one word: welcome.
Barbell exercises do have some unique requirements. You can learn more about the core lifts in this article.
A standard, safe power rack setup for a barbell squat. The barbell rests on two hooks called J-cups. That makes it easy to load, unrack, and rerack. The blacks pins or rods toward the bottom are called safeties. If a lifter can’t finish the movement, they can squat down further to place the bar down on the safeties.
A quality bar
A standard Olympic barbell weighs 45 pounds. It is 7 feet long with a 28-inch diameter. You can find other variations, including multi-purpose and specialty ones. Read here for a guide to barbells.
Weight plates
Each side of the barbell contains a sleeve. This is where you add weights, known as plates.
Plates come in either kilos or pounds. In the U.S., you will mostly come across plates in sets of 2.5, 5, 10, 25, 35, and 45.
For the amount of weight you're attempting to lift, you sum the barbell and the plates on each side.
One hundred pounds, for example, is the 45 lb bar plus another 55 pounds total on the sleeves. You could add one 25 plate and one 2.5 plate to each side.
A rig, squat stand, or power rack rack.
You will need a structure for several of the lifts. A rack allows you to load the barbell, unrack it before the movement, rerack it afterward, and remove the weights.
These come in several forms. But the basic design is parallel posts with roughly 1-inch holes at various heights. You can slide in J-cups in these holes, on which you rest the barbell. For example, for overhead barbell presses, you place the Olympic bar right above the clavicle.
Safety Considerations
A good rack also includes an important safety feature. These are usually metal rods or straps that you insert into the 1-inch slots. They significantly reduce the risk of catastrophic injury.
You must use these safeties for the squat and the bench press. Here's how they work:
Squat: The safeties give you a surface to rest the bar on if you fail the lift. Set them to a height you can easily reach, usually slightly below parallel. If you cannot complete the squat by standing up, you will squat down 1-2 inches lower until the bar lands on them. These prevent the bar from squishing you or rolling over your neck.
Bench: You need an option to prevent the bar from falling onto your chest if you fail the lift. Ideally, you will use a human spotter. They stand behind you and can catch and raise the bar. If that's not possible, use safeties. Set them just below the chest so you can rest the bar and wiggle out from underneath.
Final Words of Advice
Remember that perfect is the enemy of the good. Actually, in the case of strength training, perfect is the enemy of awesome. There are many ways to build strength and muscle, so take some time to experiment.
You can also search for a personal trainer with a specialty in strength training or a strength coach. Barbell classes have also popped up in many places, which is a fantastic option for building community while learning lifting technique.
