I’m not saying you should aim to become to most jacked human being on the face of the earth.
But I am saying you need to start lifting weights.
Well, you should have started yesterday. But since you can’t do that, you need to start. Like immediately after reading this.
Not only am I going to dish out 7 of the bigggggest benefits to lifting (convincing assss reasons if I may add) but I’m also going to properly equip you with all of the tools, knowledge, and tips to not only start your lifting journey (so that you eventually can look & feel fantastic) but also so that you don’t reach plateaus with your gains & avoid getting injured.
I know you’re probably confused on where to start and what you should be doing. Either you’ve never lifted, you normally only do cardio, orrrr you haven’t lifted in years.
Whichever situation you’re in, I’m confident this article will provide you with everything needed to feel confident & comfortable as you start your lifting journey.
Just so you know what exactly you’re getting ready to learn, below is a quick “table of contents” of the different sections in this article:
Why To Get Started Lifting (7 Benefits)
Lifting Exercises You Should Start With (and Continue Doing Forever)
Equipment To Use (Machines, Body Weights, Free Weights, Barbells, Bands???)
Best Rep Range For A Beginner Lifter
How To Stay Injury Free When Lifting
How To Get Better (Areas To Prioritize)
Time Sensitive: How Many Days Per Week (And How Long) You Should Be Lifting
How To Structure Your Workouts
Closing Remarks: Reminder, Myth, Tip
Why To Get Started Lifting (7 Benefits)
Any exercise is great (for the most part). If you’re active, I applaud you. However, lifting does some thangggs for you that other forms of exericse (jogging, sprinting, stretching, basketball, swimming, etc, etc, etc) won’t do for you.
Do You Want Any (or all) of these in your life?:
Looking good with & without clothes
Being a healthy human for a long time
Turning into a better athlete
Believing in yourself & having unmatched confidence
Taking control of your life & winning in any situation
If you do, lifting needs to be a priority for you.
Here are the 7 specific benefits to lifting weights:
You Can Shape Your Body Anyway You Want.
Do you have a booty that is more flat than IHop’s pancakes? Do your shirts fit snug everywhere except the sleeves?
When you start lifting weights consistently, you start building muscle. The cool thing is your ability to grow any muscle and body part you want. If you want a big, juicy booty….Consistently do lifting exercises that target your glutes. If you want arms that hug your sleeves…..consistently do lifting exercises that target your arms.
You can completely & entirely transform how you look.
2. You Can Eat More Food (Without Gaining Fat)
Lifting weights + consistency = muscle. Anddd when you add muscle, your body needs more calories to maintain that muscle. That means you can eat more food without gaining fat.
For example….
You before lifting: Needs 1,750 Calories to stay at the same weight.
You after lifting for 3-4 months: Needs 2,000 calories to stay at the same weight.
If you’re a foodie like me, eating more food without adding fat to your frame is the win of all wins.
3. It’s Easier To Lose Body Fat
When you need more calories to maintain the same weight, it also means that you can lose fat taking in more calories. In other words, that whole losing fat thing that you likely struggle with becomes a hell of a lot easier. Your metabolism is faster. You lose fat easier.
Quick Intermission In The Benefits
Aside from physically looking better & being able to eat more food, there are other big time benefits.
4. It (Lifting) Shows That You Can Become Better In Other Aspects Of Life
Once you start lifting and you go from doing:
10 pushups to 20 pushups
Or Squatting 25lbs to 95lbs….
You had to push yourself mentally and physically to make those improvements. That translates into other aspects of life. Something that you never thought you could do, seems more possible.
5. Mood Changer - Less Stress, Less Anxiety, Great For Life.
When you lift weights, it’s not something you can just mindlessly do. You have to concentrate on the task at hand. You have to be in the moment. Because of that, there have been studies that show that it helps with anxiety. Additionally, if you’re angry…No better place to let off that steam than (productively & safely) throwing around some weight.
6. It Improves Athleticism Tremendously
Stronger, more functional muscles is going to do wonders for you balance, running, and leaping ability. There’s a reason runners, football players, basketball players, anddd any sport lift weights. It helps and makes a difference.
7. You Don’t Get Old As Fast
When people get older, most of the time they become disabled from having minimal muscle mass. There was a study done on this and the conclusion was simple:
“As you get older, the more muscle mass you have have, the less likely you are to die prematurely. In other words, the greater your muscle mass, the lower your risk of death.”
Lifting helps you now & further down the road.
Lifting Exercises You Should Start With (And Continue Doing Forever)
In 2019, where is the first place people turn when they want to start lifting weights?
YouTube? Google Search? My guess: Instagram fitness pages.
However, most Instagram pages aren’t showing or talking about the exercises or types of workouts you should be doing when you’re first starting out in the gym. After all, most of the humans doing their thing, lifting on Instagram, are pretty experienced. And for the sake of feeling comfortable, confident, and making the progress you want from lifting…..
I would advise not to jump right into doing the Banded Squats or Machine Bicep Curls that you’re favorite person is doing on the ‘Gram.
There is a specific type of exercise that you need to do (and master) when you first start lifting to see the most results with your workouts.
These exercises: Compound Movements.
Compound movements are exercises where you use multiple muscle groups.
In comparison, Isolation Movements are when you use one muscle group.
Compound movements need to be the bulk of your time when you first start lifting.
Reasons:
Since you’re working two (or more) muscle groups at a time, you can get a super effective workout in a shorter period of time. Think about spending 30 minutes working only one muscle group, then 30 minutes working two muscle groups. Wayyy more bang for your time with the latter.
You’re able to move more weight. You don’t need to be insanely strong to see the benefits of lifting. In fact, strength is all relatively to the person. However, moving more weight (in a controlled, safe way) translates well to building more muscle.
Quick summary of the reasoning for compound movements: More gains & better workouts in a quick amount of time.
You’re now probably wondering which exercises would be considered compound movements….
Gotchu.
Compound exercises that you should start doing in the gym include:
Squats
Deadlifts
Lunges (hamstrings
Pressing movement (like a bench press or push ups)
Rowing movements
Pull ups
Overhead shoulder presses
Lunges
Isolation exercises, that may seem great, but you shouldn’t spend much of your time doing (especially starting out):
Bicep Curls
Leg Extension Machines
Leg Curl Machine
Calf Raises
Hip Adduction Machine
Tricep Pressdowns
Endless others
I’m not saying those exercises are “baaad”. But I am saying that if you want to build the most muscle, strength, and get sexy the quickest….Compound movements beat isolation exercises every time.
Equipment To Use (Machines, Body Weight, Free Weights, Barbells, Bands???)
The gym is big, giant playground of equipment that you can use to build an awesome body.
However, starting out, it’s best to utilize only two things when lifting:
Your body weight & dumbbells.
Eventually, you can (and should) start getting into barbell exercises. Or more machines. Or bands. But just when you’re just starting a lifting routine, make sure you can effectively do different exercises with your body weight or dumbbells.
Get better with the basics - compound exercises with your body weight or dumbbells. You’ll be a very happy, non-confused human that is full of gains.
Best Rep Range For A Beginner Lifter
You know which exercises & pieces of equipment to use. Now, we need to discuss how heavy of weight to be lifting and how many reps you should be doing.
You know those famed sayings:
“High reps, light weight help you tone”
“Low reps, heavy weight helps you get really strong”
Yep, we’re ignoring those.
To look ‘toned’, you need to build muscle. To get ‘strong’, you need to get better at lifting weights.
Technically, you can build muscle or get stronger doing any amount of reps. 5 reps, 10 reps, 25 reps. They all work if you’re pushing yourself enough.
However, 8-10 reps work the best.
When you go lower reps than this (and heavier weight), it’s hard to maintain good form the entire time. If your form is badddd, you’re not going to be working your muscles that well and you’re at more risk of getting injured. That’s not what you want.
When you do super high reps, like 15 or more reps, it’s challenging to stay focused the entire time and also challenging to push yourself enough to build muscle & get stronger with that amount of reps.
As you become more advanced with your lifting, adventure away into doing lower & higher reps. Starting point (and what you should base most of your work outs around): 8-10 reps. That’s the sweet spot.
I realllllly want to start telling you about how to get better in the gym. Butttt, before we get into that, you need to know a somewhat boring but necessary topic when it comes to lifting…
How To Stay Injury Free When Lifting
If you get injured, and can’t work out for a period of time, you can’t reap all of the wonderful rewards of lifting - like getting swole & sexy.
The three main things, as it relates to staying injury free, are:
Warming up
If something hurts,stop
Rest days
Warming Up:
You need plenty of energy to lift weights & get better. This means running 5 miles or playing 1 hour of basketball or doing a one hour high intense class, is not what you should be doing before you start your lifting workout.
However, to get your body ready to pick things up & put them down, some warming up is needed.
I would recommend something like this:
5-10 minutes of walking on the treadmill, biking, or jogging (if you feel so inclined to do so)
5 minutes of body weight exercises & getting your joints loosened up. Examples of this are: body weight squats, lunges, push ups. Do 2-3 sets of 10 reps of those exercises.
The first lifting exercise you do, complete 2-3 warm up sets using lighter weight than the weight you are using for your heaviest sets. Example: If you’re doing 45lbs for squats, do a warm up set of 8 reps with 15 lbs then a warm up set of 8 reps with 30lbs. Thennnnn start using the 45lb weight. You want to start light to warm up & get your body/muscles acclimated
If Something Hurts, Stop:
If you prioritize your form & make sure you’re doing exercises correctly & don’t try to lift too heavy, too quickly…..It’s very unlikely that you’ll ever get injured. Lifting, when done correctly, is a very safe form of working out.
However, in the case that your form is off orrrr you decided you were feeling like Superman today (STRONG!), and you start to feel something hurting. Ya know - your shoulder, lower back, knee - Please stop immediately
Even if it’s just a minor irritation, we’re playing the long game. I want you to be swole & sexy for a longggg time. Live to fight another day & stop performing the exercise that is causing pain. You can always relax for a few days, figure out why you were having pain (bad form? Too much weight? etc). And you’ll be able to get right back to the gym in minimal time.
If you keep pushing when something is hurting/doesn’t feel right - that could lead to further problems that leave you out of the gym for months. You don’t want that.
Not trying to scare you off with this info. But it needs to be said.
This is also why it’s beneficial to have a coach or trainer helping when you’re first getting started & along your journey. A good trainer/coach, whether they are online (like me) or in person, will instruct you on how to properly and safely do different exercises.
Rest Days:
You’re going to think I was born on a different planet when I say this…
Once you start seeing progress in the gym (getting stronger, looking better) and loving your workouts, you’re not going to want to take a rest day. You’re going to want more, more, more. You’re never going to want to take a day off.
But just like anything (even tacos or sex or coffee), more isn’t always better. Moderation is key.
It’s key for you in the short term & long term. Short-term, you need it to recover so you can have good workouts & also to prevent injuries. Long-term, it helps to keep your body healthy. You can’t beat your body down every damn day with no rest & expect it to work fine.
Throughout your time lifting, take 1-4 rest days per week. AKA lift weights 3-6 times per week. When you’re first starting out lifting, 3-4 workouts per week is absolutely perfect. Take & enjoy your rest days.
Sorry to scare you & bore you (although I did briefly bring up tacos, sex, and coffee!). We’re getting back to the fun stuff…
How To Get Better (Areas To Prioritize)
Keeping this super duper simple. To get sexier, stronger, and more swole, you simply need to get better each week you step in the gym. Getting better each week is completely & entirely possible. And it should be your main priority when you start lifting weights.
The cooool thing? You can get better in many different ways:
Improve your form. Reiterating this until the end of time. Having your form on lock down prevents injury and allows you to actually feeeel the right muscles working. Always be working on your form & making sure it looks great.
Do more reps with the same weight: If you did 8 reps with 30lbs last week, and you do 10 reps with 30lbs this week, you got better.
Increase the weight: The saying “a stronger muscle is a bigger muscle” holds true a majority of the time. As long as your form feels good (no pain), go up in weight once you’re able to knock out sets of 10 reps (in your ‘starting rep ranges’). Small improvements, such as going up 5lbs, are still really impressive and add up over time. Think if you go up in weight by 5lbs every month, in six months you’re going to make a buttload of progress.
Decrease the rest time: Use the same weight and knock out the same amount of reps, but take less time in between the sets.
If you’re lifting the same weights for the same reps with same amount of rest time, every week….No gains for you. You have to keep getting better.
Your first few months (and even years) lifting weights, you’re going to be able to make pretty quick improvements. Push yourself to get better (form, reps, weight, rest time) right now when you’re first getting started.
Time Sensitive: How Many Days Per Week (and How Long) Should You Be Lifting
3-4 lifting workouts per week is fantastic.
45-60 minute workouts are perfect as well. Get in, get to work, get out. Make gains.
As you get better, or your goals change, maybe you do start adding a few more days or making your workouts 75-90 minutes.
But starting out? 3-4 days for 45-60 minutes each time is all you need to make amazing changes to your body.
How To Structure Your Lifting Workouts
Every human’s goal with lifting is different.
Some start to get strong AF
Some want to have as much muscle as possible
Some want a big ole booty and nothing else
Your specific goals will determine how much/how often you do (and emphasize) certain body parts & exercises. And because of that, I won’t put down a specific workout to do. Rather, I want to show you how you should separate your workout routine based on the number of days per week you’re working out.
Lifting 3 Days Per Week?
Balanced Approach: 3 Full Body Days
You Want The Legs (and Booty) Poppin: 2 Lower Body Days, One Upper Body Day
You Want Your Upper Body On SWOLE: 2 Upper Body Days, One Lower Body Day
Lifting 4 Days Per Week?
Balanced Approach: 2 Upper Body Days, 2 Lower Body Days
Legs Poppin? 2 Lower Body Days, 1 Upper Body Day, 1 Full Body Day
Upper Body On SWOLE? 2 Upper Body Days, 1 Lower Body Day, 1 Full Body Day
Each day of lifting, 3-4 sets of 5-7 different exercises is perfect.
Lifting Reminder, Myth, and Tip
You have to be consistent. It takes time to see progress. Don’t expect it after one week of working out. This stuff takes time. However, if you’re doing everything in this article, you will be able to see an epic buttload of progress your first 6-12 months of getting started. Keep pushing week after week.
Women do not get super bulky from lifting weights. First, women aren’t able to add as much muscle as men. Fortunately or unfortunately, that’s the reality. Even if you’re in the gym as often as a guy, you won’t be as bulky. Also, it takes year of working out 3-6 times per week to get close to being bulky for men (let alone women). Helll, I’ve tried to be bulky & as jacked as possible. While I did add a lot of muscle, I’m still not insanely jacked & bulky. Women - don’t be afraid of lifting weights. It won’t make you bulky. But it will make you sexy, powerful, and feel amazing.
Most of these same concepts apply to people that are advanced lifters as well. The longer you lift, the more your goals change, and some of the concepts change as well. These same concepts we went over, when done repeatedly, will continue to bring you results for a longggg time. I’m 7 years in to lifting consistently & I’m still making progress using these principles.
Time for you to start your lifting journey & make alll of the gains!
Have any other questions about getting started lifting? Shoot me an email: Patrick@JourneyToGains.com
Orrrr maybe you read through this & want to start working together to become the sexiest, most strong, and most prepared person lifting weights in your gym and friend group?
Apply for my personalized coaching here: www.JourneyToGains.com/coaching