Getting Started Strength Training

A good friend hit me up last week asking how to get started strength training so I figured I’d write him up a good reply and publish it here too.

My friend is about 50 and in good health otherwise. He gets outdoors regularly, walking and hiking mostly. 

So I’m writing this primarily for people 40 and over, otherwise healthy, who move their bodies regularly. Some of it might be valuable to others as well.

When we workout, we get stronger, we feel great, and we increase the probability of living longer and healthier.

Ok, let’s do this.

Fundamentals

Here are some fundamentals. These are important things to remember.

1. Consistency Is Everything - Consistency trumps everything - even intensity, form, and balance.

These are all important things. But none of them are more important than consistency. If we decide we are going to workout twice/week, then we do it twice/week forever. We can miss a session or two, whatever.

But never stop for weeks or months. When we make it a habit and stick with it forever, we make progress even if we ate like crap once, had a poor night’s sleep, or just phoned the workout in.

In sum - Keep. Coming. Back.

2. Avoid Injuries - When we are 25 and we strain a muscle or twist an ankle, we wait a couple days and we’re fine. After 40, we take longer to heal and slight injuries can become nagging injuries especially when we are impatient and return to training too soon.

A great way to avoid injury is to ramp up slowly and find our limits from the bottom up instead of the top down.

This can be difficult, because we have this image in our heads of who we were and what we could do when we were younger. Resist the urge. Start doing less than you can. Approach your limits patiently from the ground up. Err on the side of less, especially at first.

Since we take longer to heal right, injuring ourselves makes us less consistent as we lose gains and unwind developing good habits.

In sum, start slower and avoid injuries.

3. Nutrition and Rest - Nutrition and rest are critical to building strength. Eat high protein and get to bed early more days than not. 

Also, listen to your body. If you are especially tired or something hurts, take the day off and come back stronger on your next workout date. See 2 above.

4. Frequency - Start with twice/week. This is plenty for beginners. This is plenty to build muscle. This is plenty to go from beginner to intermediate. This is plenty for anyone and decreases injury risk.

5. Whole Body Workouts Only - You don't need to break up your workouts by body parts. No leg day or back day. You can worry about this when you are Lou Ferrigno.

6. Succeeding Through Failure - Improving through failure is a great lesson of life not just strength training. But it is especially true for strength training. When you do an exercise to failure, you get stronger and build muscle. 

Do sets to failure or almost to failure.

7. Between Sets - You can take longer than 30 seconds or a minute between sets. Take two minutes.Take five minutes. I don’t care as long as you get them in.

Exercises

We only need to begin with 4 exercises. This sounds wrong but it is not.

All of these four hit a lot of muscles and all of them progress so there are easier and then harder versions.

With these four, we can make huge gains while building muscle and learning a lot about our bodies.

Also, these four are equipment light so you will only need to spend $100 or so total to get cranking.

We’re going to start with four sets of each of these, so you will do 16 sets total, twox/week. The first week or two, we can do half of that, so eight sets total, two times/week.

This doesn’t seem like enough, but it is! I promise. Plus, it sets you up on a path to success rather than failure.

Here are the four exercises.

Pushups

Pushups are the best. You don't need any equipment. They're effective for beginners through experts. They work a broad range of muscles. Small changes in style provide an incredible variety to your training.

At 2:05 of this video, JT gives you the perfect form for a hollow body push up. If you are not ready for this, watch the whole video and it will give you a place where you can begin with push ups. Also, come back to this video and to JT in general to find more difficult variations, once you are ready.

Week one, do two sets to failure or close to failure. After week one, do four sets to failure or close to failure.

Bodyweight Squats

Bodyweight squats are also the best. Like push ups, you don’t need any equipment. They're effective for beginners through experts. They work a broad range of muscles. Small changes in style provide an incredible variety to your training.

Week one, do two sets to failure or close to failure. After week one, do four sets to failure or close to failure.

Here’s a video with good form.

Dumbbell Military Press

The Military Press is a great exercise. Similar to push ups and squats, it works a lot of muscle so you get a lot of efficiency.

For this one, you will need to get some dumbbells. Here’s how I recommend you buy them. Go to a store. Do not buy them online. This way, you will know what weight to get. Watch the video I link to below so you have an idea about form and then go to the store. Pick up two dumbbells and try them. You want to be able to do eight with good form but not more than twelve or thirteen.

Week one, do two sets to failure or close to failure. After week one, do four sets to failure or close to failure.

Here is a video with good form for the standing dumbbell press.

Also, remember to bend your knees when picking up the dumbbells. ;)

Pull Ups and Chin Ups

These are hard. Not gonna lie. They’re huge though and there’s a way to get started that is incremental and totally doable.

First, finding a place - If you have a place in your house or nearby to do pull ups, that’s great. Basically, you need a bar.

If not, you have some options. The easiest and quickest way to get started is to get a doorway bar. This review of 13 models is excellent and can assist the selection process.

Before beginning, watch JT’s video here where he gives you a full progression. If you can’t do a full pull up, start with the scapular pull up that he does at 2:19 and then follow his progression.

Also, you can break these up and do two sets of pull ups and two sets of chin up (with your palms facing you instead of away.)

Week one, just do one of each to failure or close to it.

That’s it. This should last you a few months and as you get into it, you will learn a lot about your body and other exercises you might want to begin incorporating.

If you have any comments or questions, you can  leave them in the comments section, reply to this email, or email me directly at [email protected].

Good Luck!