Beginners Guide To Training – The 8 Rules

June 25, 2009 on 7:08 pm | In Strength Training | 10 Comments

I get a lot of questions about dead lifting and squat from guys that are 100 percent new to training.  I love dead lift and squat, don’t get me wrong, but I hate when people try to go heavy with no form and relative body strength.  It looks terrible and the only results they get are injuries.

However, I can’t always blame them.  You glance at the magazine rack and its packed with bodybuilder and star athlete’s training programs.  Ask yourself this, who are they marketing to?  Do they expect other start athletes to pick up the magazine and try out the programs?  No! 

They are marketing to youth and guys that are new to lifting.  Unfortunately, these programs SUCK for someone at that strength level. 

I’m going to try to lay the ground work that these new lifters SHOULD follow, not some marketing BS!

The Great 8 Rules of Strength Training

1. Relative Strength – Some people might call this ‘a strength base.’ What I am talking about is an ability to control your own body weight through exercises like push ups, pull ups, dips, body weight squats etc.

Long story short, don’t bench if you can’t do push ups well. Don’t squat if you can’t do bw squats efficiently and with good form.

2. Compound Lifts - Focus on compound lifts for quicker results. Don’t get obsessed with all the fancy machines. Keep basic.

3. Form - Especially with compound lifts, form is essential for maximum gains and safety.

4. Plan - Write down your workout before you go to the gym. Don’t just choose a body grouping and go.

5. Test - How strong are you now? What’s your goals? Choose a few lifts and test them. Perform your strength training program and then test to see if you are stronger. If not, it’s time to re-evaluate your program.

6. Don’t Obsess with Numbers - Compare yourself to yourself, not to some pro athlete or someone that has trained for months. Along with #5 and #6, don’t lie to yourself. If your bench is 50 lbs, don’t write down 100. Keep things relative.

7. Don’t Train Like a Pro - I don’t care how the top athletes train via their magazine articles (which is only a glimpse at their program, if that). Train to your own strength.

8. Ask Questions - Get on sites like this and ask your questions!  Check my post on Top Strength Sites, but don’t get overwhelmed, that’s why I’m stopping at 8.

Follow these simple rules to set up your program.  There is no doubt that this will be effective.

Final words of wisdom – enjoy training, be passionate, work hard AND smart.

- Joe Hashey, CSCS –  

If you couldn’t tell by my list name, I enjoy a good rhyme (I’m one of those guys that thinks all poems should ryhme, get that “near rhyme” garbage out of here…but we will leave English class out of this).  GET TO TRAINING!