Five data points every beginner should be tracking in a log book or app;
Sets
Reps
Weight
Workouts
Calorie Intake
This will give you all the information your need to know to get stronger.
The biggest challenges beginners face when getting stronger:
Building a consistent routine
Learning technique by themselves
Pushing themselves safely without a spotter
Easily fixed with the help of a good coach.
Most strength training apps aren’t worth downloading.
Here’s three that are:
Iron Path
Coach’s Eye
Starting Strength
What gets measured, gets improved.
My favourite websites for strength training programs and advice:
Lift Vault
Jim Wendler
Starting Strength
Power Lifting To Win
Stronger By Science
Great resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced trainees.
The Moment Model is the most important framework in strength training.
It uses physics, biomechanics and physiology to explain why the basic barbell exercises should be perfumed as described in the book Starting Strength.
Read, learn and implement it you want to get stronger.
If you want to improve your technique, after every rep, ask yourself if you:
Kept the barbell position over the balance point?
Worked through a full range of motion?
Maintained good posture?
Constantly reviewing this three things will rapidly improve your form.
Five examples of where being stronger is useful in every day life:
Moving furniture
Lifting up children
Gardening and yard work
Home repairs and DIY projects
Helping others in an emergency
Lifting weights is hard, but it makes life easy.
The best beginner routine for getting stronger:
Starting Strength. You perform three exercises, for three sets, three times per week and increase the weight by 2.5-5kg every time you train.
It doesn’t get any simpler or more effective than that.
Five mistakes beginners make when they start strength training:
Lifting with bad form
Using too much weight
Not following a program
Only training the upper body
Prioritising assistance exercises
Easy to avoid when you know what to do.
The most important lesson I’ve learned in 15 years of coaching:
Everyone can get stronger. Man, woman, young, old, big or small - it doesn’t matter. If you show up, put in the work and stay consistent you will get stronger than you thought possible.
There’s no doubt about it.
Social media is full of bad training advice.
Here’s three strength training coaches worth listening too:
Jim Wendler
Mark Rippetoe
Mike Tuchscherer
I’ve learn a ton from all of them.
Five reasons why all athletes should be doing strength training:
Hit harder
Run faster
Lift heavier
Jump higher
Throw further
Being stronger is literally a cheat code for sports.
For me, the biggest benefit of being strong is this:
It gives you a head start in almost every sport imaginable. You will be better than 85% percent of your peers in BJJ, Rugby, Football, Athletics and Rock Climbing by being stronger.
It is literally a cheat code for sports.
Here’s a quote I like to reflect on when I come up short:
“If you don't get what you want, it's a sign either that you did not seriously want it, or that you tried to bargain over the price.” - Rudyard Kipling
It always helps me figure out where I went wrong.
Three secret coaching cues I wish I knew when I started Deadlifting:
Keep the bar over the middle of the foot
'Take the slack’ out of the barbell
Knee’s in the pit of the elbows
Would have saved me a lot of back pain.
The biggest insights I’ve had from 25 years of strength training:
How strong you can get in your 40’s, 50’s and 60’s
How simple the strength training process is
How afraid people are of lifting weights
How young strength makes you feel
How little you need steroids
What's yours?
I’ve helped over 50 clients Squat 1.5 x their bodyweight.
The crazy part is I use the same system every time - they perform three sets of three exercises times per week and add 2.5kg to the bar every single time they train.
It doesn’t get any more simple or effective than that.