The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Weight Training: Simple Steps for Lasting Gains
Honestly, at times, it’s too easy to overcomplicate exercise and weight training programming – especially for new lifters. There are general rules to follow and some great programming can be created in the details. But the simple truth is that progress is made with 4 rules:
Consistency
Just keep going regularly.
Rest
Your body grows when you sleep.
Progressive Overload
Continually add more volume (reps or weight).
Patience
It doesn’t happen overnight.
With that in mind, I usually like to program with a loose structure to help my athletes achieve their goals.
Warm-Up Routine
The first thing each person will do when they arrive at the gym is warm up. A quick note: there’s a common belief that all you have to do is use the bar for a couple of warm-up sets and add weight slowly from there. I agree – to an extent. You should warm up your big movements, of course, but that isn’t always enough to fully warm up the body.
For my athletes, I always have them do 3 exercises in 2 giant sets (think circuit) to warm up. We start with a form of lunge (usually walking lunges) to warm up their hips (glute muscles and stretch out their hip flexors). Then they do a suitcase carry to warm up their obliques and prime any side-to-side movements that we may do (it also practices frontal plane work as a two birds one stone kind of thing). The last thing is usually either Cat/Cow (to warm up their core), Downward Facing Dog To Cobra (to get a fuller range of motion in their core, hips, and shoulders), or even better yet, a Hindu Pushup (to get some tricep work and warm up in).
Main Movement of the Day
Once we’re warmed up, we head out to our first exercise: the Main Movement of the day. This is usually a big lift like Squats, Deads, or Bench. I also sometimes switch out the traditional movements for variations like Belt Squat, Goblet Deadlift, Incline Bench, etc (it’s good to switch up stimuli sometimes). It’s also important to note here that the exercise choice is dependent on my athlete’s training age/experience. If I get someone who’s brand new to lifting, the last thing I’m going to do is throw them under a Safety Squat Bar day one.
The weight progression for this is a simple percentage progression I’ve learned from 5/3/1. Once my athlete progresses to a point where I feel more wavy periodization is needed, I may switch over to 5/3/1 Strength Phase (simply switch 3×5 and 3×3 weeks) or play around a little more with variations. I also play this day by day with them. If they’re killing it, we’ll add some back down sets, or hit triples (3×3) of 90%. This was from 5/3/1 as well.
Advanced Options for Main Lift
I’ve also begun adding options to the end of the main lift for my more advanced athletes. I let them pick from Triples, a Barbell Variation (various sets and reps for whichever variation they can pick), or a First Set Last (as many reps as possible).
This is where the beauty of personal training & the relationship I develop with my athletes shines. If I’m still learning them, I don’t really give them so much autonomy. It’s not meant in an insulting way, it’s just safer to learn how they train and think before letting them steer a bit. It also shows up in the fact that having me there one on one, I can gauge their energy levels (even if they may think or feel otherwise). Fatigue is by far a mental perception along with a physical perception. Some of my people have their best sessions when they’re just ‘meh’ about the day. By making the call in person, I can play with their programming for the big lift in the moment keeping them both safe and motivated – for example, if they’re not performing like normal, we switch up some stuff to still feel as if we’re hitting everything exceptionally. They leave feeling like they’ve earned a W and I keep them from getting injured or discouraged.
Secondary Exercise
After their Main Movement, we move into a Secondary Exercise. I usually go one of two ways:
A Lat Movement Used to Support the Main Movement. For example:
- Dumbbell Rows for Bench
- Straight Arm Pressdowns to help teach “crush your armpits” for Deads
- Neutral Grip Lat Pulldowns to help associate engaging lats for Squats
A Supporting Movement for the Main Movement. For example:
- Wide Grip Lat Pulldowns (with a slight lean back) for Bench
- Walking Lunges to work each leg/glute unilaterally for Deadlifts
- 45 Degree Hypers to work posterior chain engagement for Squats
Sometimes these two things are similar or play a similar role (like rowing or pulling as a complement to bench AND working lats).
The Importance of Lats
I want to take a moment and explain more in depth the reason Lats play such a large role here for me. Most people who are new to working out do not have the developed back muscles needed for the 3 main powerlifting moves nor do they usually have back muscles developed enough for everyday health and posture. This generally becomes an easy goal to obtain from an exercise perspective for me. Even though, technically, I say the goal is to develop the lats, the other back muscles are used a lot for these major movements and overall posture is improved.
Another nice note is that usually through these lifts we begin to improve the cue of bringing their shoulders back and down for pressing & pulling movements. This strengthens the shoulder girdle and helps rotator cuff health.
Third Tier (Tertiary) Movement
After the Secondary Movement, there is room for a Third Tier (or Tertiary) Movement. This generally isn’t utilized with the first or second Foundational Programs. If we were to add one (or a few mesocycles in when I do add them in) I usually use them for a big weakness – whether it’s from a powerlifting perspective or aesthetic perspective.
Please note when I use the word powerlifting, I mean general strength training. Whether that means proper Powerlifting training for competition or just general compound movements.
Here’s an example of a Third Tier Movement I did for a recent athlete: my guy was training for bodybuilding and I wanted to improve the roundness of his shoulders by focusing on the rear delt. His traps and lats were doing well, but the small rear delt made the aesthetic fall apart. So, for his Third Tier Movement I added in a movement I knew would hammer the rear delts:
Day 1: Low Facepull
This was coupled with his Squat Day, so I knew it would be good to add an exercise that would help engage and tighten the upper back shelf.
Day 2: Band Pull Aparts
This was coupled with his Bench Day, so I knew using the reverse fly motion with a medium strength band would two birds one stone hitting his rear delts and strengthening the rhomboids/lower traps to aid in the shoulder depression needed for Benching.
Day 3: Skiers
This was coupled with his Deadlift Day, I knew this would double as a nice exercise to improve “crushing the lats,” as well as engaging the rear delts once we went past the hips (skiers are an exercise I “made up” where you do a straight arm pressdown with a long rope. The long rope allows you to go past your hips and out behind you, like you’re skiing. This engages the rear delts to a great degree).
Using these extra exercises each day really brought up the lagging body part. I don’t want to get this confused with a “weak point” in the way I use the word. I’ll explain that more farther on.
Accessories
Now comes the fun stuff for me: Accessories. These are especially enjoyable because I fell in love with lifting through bodybuilding. Lifting with my dad in the early 2000s, I learned a lot of “old school” techniques. When programming accessories, I focus on hypertrophic or isolation exercises. This means using light to medium weights with high rep volume.
I also make sure to get in multiple planes of motion throughout the week in these exercises. I check at the end of programming to make sure that I’ve hit the sagittal (forwards & backwards movements), frontal (side to side movements) and transverse (twisting movements) planes throughout the week. You don’t have to do each everyday, but it’s good to do once a week.
So, for example, let’s say on our Squat Day, we’ve squatted 5 sets of 5 reps, then we hit a Secondary Movement of 45 Degree Hyperextensions, it would be good to place some upper body work (Incline DB Bench & DB Rows) here to allow our legs to rest for a bit.
Supersetting for Efficiency
This introduces my other love, supersetting. Throwing two opposing muscle groups together not only becomes more efficient (chest can rest while back is working) but then the cardio element added really takes it up a notch. I rarely, if ever, program “cardio” in this sense. There’s no reason for it if the athlete doesn’t enjoy it, and supersetting your accessory exercises checks off the cardiovascular element.
Think about it, your heart has to work double time if you go from an Incline DB Bench Press to a DB Row – or better yet, superset an upper body movement with a lower body movement. The chest will get to rest, but my heart then has to pump blood to my hamstrings while I do leg curls. Do one superset, take a swig of water and get right back to it. The short rest times allows your body to stay in movement improving your cardio, your respiratory system, and getting more of a pump/metabolite build up to set off anabolic signals. It’s magical. It’s been the secret ingredient I’ve used for everyone from myself to friends to athletes I train. The other magical thing is that from a trainer perspective, you can get much more volume in this way. The lifter gets more bang for their buck and everyone wins. I couldn’t extoll its virtues enough.
Programming Supersets
For Accessories, I usually program two or three supersets. I can play this by ear, as well, during the day in case we’re still very sore from previous workouts or not up to 100% for any other reason. Training in person absolutely must be flexible like this. The program (and you) adapt to the athlete to reach their goals, not the other way around.
Quick note: you can add arms into the supersets with the Accessories or you can make arms their own thing separate from the accessories. That’s up to you. I usually do the latter to save the prime time (time with the coach) for the more compound movements. I usually assign arms as a little “cool down” period for my guys.
Core Work
After this we move into Core. Usually with new lifters, it’s all about stability: planks, side planks, reverse planks, glute bridges, bird dogs, dead bugs, etc. The reason being is that between the heavy compound lifting and the stability work, we’re hitting a solid amount of core to begin with. Over time I add more complicated things in like: hip touches (think rogue rows without weights) and pallof presses. Then we add loaded carries to hammer in some conditioning and some great stability work.
If you or your athlete are looking for aesthetic goals, then you can add in more “traditional” ab exercises to build them up. I do for most people anyways to help build the core muscles period. The more muscle you have, the stronger the stability will be. Some of my guys also work vacuums to strengthen their transverse abdominis muscles to help pull any protruding bellies in. I notice with some of my older guys their stomachs can grow outwards. This is another two birds one stone, it strengthens the core and helps aesthetics.
Isolation Work for Weak Points
Lastly, if it’s needed, I put in some isolation work for a weak point. For example, I’ve dealt with some neck issues the last couple of years. Maybe it’s because of being on my phone/computer a lot, maybe it’s because of a tight chest & biceps – who knows, but what I do know is it hurts and it’s something I need to work on. I begin adding some neck exercises to the end of my routines and it’s done wonders. I had another athlete who had some elbow pain from repetitive work actions (using a computer a lot) so I added some forearm work to the end of his routines to pump blood into the area and build up the strength in the tendons.
These little exercises don’t need to be monstrous or difficult. Simple “prehab” exercises that can improve the overall function and quality of the athlete’s body and life. This, like the arms I mentioned above, can be assigned after the fact. Or even supersetting in with arms to be more efficient (and make the athlete more likely to do it. I find if I add something boring with something fun, like biceps, it gets done).
And there you have it. Simple exercise program design. I usually plan 6 weeks out in advance and add a 7th deload week if necessary.