The fitness industry can be an overwhelming maze of information, especially for beginners. Many myths, often called "bro science," circulate. I started working out about four years ago, but I still consider myself a beginner because I spent the first two years training without learning much about it.
Why start lifting in the first place? You should see weight lifting as a metaphor for life; progress comes from small, repeated steps (read Antifragile).
More lean body mass can improve health and metabolic fitness. You may feel more energetic, creative, productive, and motivated. And you'll look better and be more attractive of course.
After spending a year training without a plan, I found Julian.com's guide to building muscle to be very useful. After that I hired Menno Henselmans and later Rob of Nothing Barred Fitness as online fitness coaches.
Those sources, combined with my own experience, led to this guide for beginners like me. I started working with Rob a year ago and gained six kilos in twelve months while keeping the same waist measurement.
In this article I want to share the basic principles of beginners' fitness that I learned, so you can avoid some of the time and energy I wasted. I do not claim to be an expert, but the basic principles are straightforward.
Basic principles
Genetics affect your starting point and rate of progress, but they need not stop you from building muscle. Some people will gain muscle more easily than others.
Consistency is key here. You will not see a difference overnight, but consistent training can show results over months. Fitness is a long term game.
To grow muscle as a beginner, you should do three things:
- Do compound exercises with progressive overload in proper form
- Be in a small energy surplus with enough protein
- Get enough rest to recover
1. Do compound exercises with progressive overload in proper form
Compound exercises are the ones that use multiple joints and multiple muscle groups in conjunction to perform a movement. They work with bodyweight, barbells or dumbbells. Good examples are the squat, bench press and deadlift.
I prefer free weights to machines for these movements, though technique matters with either approach. Poor technique has caused me several injuries.
Progressive overload means the training challenge increases over time. You can achieve this by doing more reps or sets than in your previous workout, by adding weight in small increments, by improving your form or by doing reps more slowly.
Good form helps you train the intended muscles and reduce injury risk. This has been one of the biggest challenges in my own training. If you look around in the gym, many people could improve their form, including experienced lifters.
You shouldn't focus on lifting as much weight as possible as quickly as possible. That's not a sustainable approach. Take it slowly. Focus on proper form first and forever.
You will get a lot of comments on this approach. Friends will think they know better than science (bro science). They may advise you to go faster or add more weight. Stay calm at all times, stick with your plan and think only about the long term. Count on at least a few years to reach your goals.
Three one-hour workouts a week can be enough, if you alternate between the two workouts listed below. That is three hours a week in total.
For the exercises, I became a fan of reverse pyramid training, a training style in which the first set of a given exercise is performed with the heaviest weight and few reps. Each subsequent set is performed with a lighter weight but for higher reps.
You can do three sets per exercise, 4-6 reps, 6-8 reps and 8-10 reps.
In each workout, add one rep to one of the sets. When you can complete the target number of reps in all three of the sets, add more weight in the smallest possible increment to one of the sets.
Squats for example:
- Workout 1: 80x4, 75x6, 70x8
- Workout 2: 80x5, 75x6, 70x8
- Workout 3: 80x5, 75x7, 70x8
- Workout 4: 80x5, 75x7, 70x9
- Workout 5: 80x6, 75x7, 70x9
- Workout 6: 80x6, 75x8, 70x9
- Workout 7: 80x6, 75x8, 70x10
- Workout 8: 82,5x4, 75x8, 70x10
- Workout 9: 82,5x4, 77,5x6, 70x10
- Workout 10: 82,5x4, 77,5x6, 72,5x8
- Workout 11: 82,5x5, 77,5x6, 72,5x8
- Workout 12: 82,5x5, 77,5x7, 72,5x8
- Workout 13: 82,5x5, 77,5x7, 72,5x9
- And so on.
If your gym doesn't have 1.25-kilo plates, buy them. Small increments are very important to keep proper form, avoid injuries and keep progressing over time.
Workout A
Chinups
Targets the biceps, lats, traps and abs.
- Place your hands shoulder width apart with palms facing you.
- Pinch your shoulder blades together during the movement.
- Keep your spine in a neutral position during the movement.
- Keep your feet crossed to avoid cheating.
- Bring your chin above the bar, then lower yourself slowly.
Squat
Targets the quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves and abs.
- Start with goblet squats to learn proper form first.
- Place your feet shoulder width apart, pointed about 45 degrees outwards.
- Keep your spine in a neutral position.
- Sit down between your legs, as low as possible.
- Keep your knees from collapsing inward.
- Reps that don't go below parallel don't count.
Shoulder Press
Targets the delts, triceps, traps, chest and abs.
- Start with a unloaded barbell to learn proper form first.
- Place your feet shoulder width apart.
- Grip the bar just outside shoulder width, forearms perpendicular to the ground.
- Keep your spine in a neutral position.
- Pinch your shoulder blades together.
- Move the bar vertically over the middle of the foot.
- Lower the bar in a controlled way.
Workout B
Bench press
Targets the chest, triceps, delts, traps and abs.
- Start with dumbbell chest presses to learn proper form first.
- Keep your wrists straight.
- Keep your arms at roughly 45 degrees to your body and lower the bar toward chest level.
- Pinch your shoulder blades together.
- Keep your spine in a neutral position.
- Don't get your arms below 90 degrees in the bottom position.
Deadlift
Targets the glutes, quads, hamstrings, calves, lats, traps, erectors and abs.
- Start with romanian deadlifts to learn proper form first.
- Put your feet at hip width apart.
- Place your hands just outside your hips.
- Pinch your shoulder blades together.
- Keep your spine neutral during the whole movement.
- Raise your hips and shoulders at the same time.
- Move the bar up and down above the middle of your feet.
Rows
Targets the traps, delts, rhomboids, biceps and abs.
- Start with dumbbell rows to learn proper form first.
- Place your feet shoulder width apart.
- Grip the bar just outside shoulder width.
- Lean forward about 45 degrees, bending your knees slightly.
- Keep your spine in a neutral position.
- Pinch your shoulder blades together.
- Keep your head up and your arms perpendicular to the ground.
- Pull the bar into your belly button.
- Lower the bar in a controlled way.
Again, remember that good form matters more than adding weight or reps too quickly. Use instructional videos or work with a personal trainer to check your form. For me, an online coach was the biggest win of all.
Warm up briefly before your workout. The aim is to prepare your muscles and joints for movement. 5 minutes on a stationary bike, some bodyweight squats, glute bridges and some pushups will do the job.
Then, before each exercise, do a warm-up set with half of the weight and half of the reps you are going to do.
Train alone to be able to concentrate on executing the exercises with proper form. Don't rush, maintain focus. I find that training with friends can distract me and tempt me to do too much.
2. Be in a small energy surplus with enough protein
To build muscle, your body needs water, protein, and energy.
You should be in an energy surplus to provide your body with the energy it needs to build muscle. But you can't add unlimited amounts of muscle at a time. You shouldn't expect to gain more than 0,5 kilos of muscle per month, which is a rough upper estimate for many beginners (without using drugs). Only the lucky few can gain up to 1 kilo of muscle per month. Eating more does not translate directly into more muscle.
It takes about 3000 calories to build 0,5 kilos of muscle. Therefore, you need to accumulate a surplus of 3000 calories across a month, so that's only 100 calories a day.
Eating 100 calories above maintenance should be enough. But since calories estimates are not exact and you don't expend the same amount of calories each day it's better to make it 300 calories above maintenance to make sure you are in a surplus. That's every day, not only on training days.
You'd better eat unprocessed food, but for the purpose of muscle growth that's not necessary. Try to aim for 80%+ unprocessed food.
Contrary to popular belief, you don't need an excessive amount of protein. Around two grams of protein per kilogram of body weight is more than enough for many lifters.
Again, this is just a ballpark. Aim to hit your macros on average over the long term. And don't forget to calculate your calories again from time to time because your body composition might be changing.
To track macros and calories I'm using MyFitnessPal. Beware to always check the numbers on the packaging, as their database is user-generated and has a lot of errors.
3. Get enough rest to recover
Rest is at least as important as training and eating enough. You should sleep at least eight hours, every night. Nine hours is even better. Muscles recover and grow during rest, not during the workout itself.
Your best bet is to get into a rhythm. Go to bed and get out of it at roughly the same time every day. This includes weekends. Your body gets used to it and releases hormones just at the right time, if you don’t trick it.
Also, rest days are important. Use the other four days for recovery rather than another lifting session. Plan at least one rest day between workout days. For example, hit the gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and take the other days off.
When exercising, rest 90 seconds between sets. Use the stopwatch on your phone or smartwatch to measure it. This is important because with different resting periods you can't measure progress.
Take a deload week every six weeks. That means either taking a week away from the gym or reducing weights and reps for a week. This deload week lets your body fully recover from small injuries so you don't get in trouble later.
You have to track everything
Logging everything is very important. Without logging, you don't know what you are doing on the long term. You can't see the little progress you are making that compounds in the long run.
Don't even think you'll remember your lifts and intake the next time. If you want to make progress, you should log.
To track macros and calories I'm using MyFitnessPal. For my training and body composition I use Google Spreadsheets.
Weigh yourself every morning in underwear, after going to the bathroom and before drinking or eating anything. This makes it easier to see long-term weight trends. Besides that, measure your waist circumference every week to make sure you are not gaining fat, and adjust calories if necessary.
Please contact me if you want me to share an empty version of my log so you can use it.