How to Start Strength Training

How to start strength training? Get under a barbell, learn five movements, and add weight every session. That's it. Everything else is either a detail or a distraction.

The fitness industry has convinced beginners that starting strength training requires twelve weeks of "functional movement screening," a personalised nutrition plan, and £200 worth of supplements. This is rubbish designed to extract money from people who don't know any better.

Real strength training is simple. Simple doesn't mean easy, and it definitely doesn't mean you should wing it. Here's everything you actually need to know.

What Strength Training Actually Is (And What It Isn't)

Strength training is the systematic application of progressive resistance to develop the ability to produce force. In practical terms, this means lifting progressively heavier weights using compound barbell movements.

Strength training is not:

• Bodyweight circuits that make you sweaty

• Resistance band workouts from Instagram

• Light dumbbell exercises for "toning"

• High-rep machine work for "muscle endurance"

• Anything described as "functional fitness"

If you're not progressively adding weight to your movement patterns, you're not doing strength training, yes you can add resistance to bands,machines but that's for another article. You might be doing conditioning work, cardio, or general physical activity. These aren't worthless, but they're not strength training.

The defining characteristic of strength training is progressive overload. You must systematically increase the resistance over time. Once you can perform a movement with a given weight, you add more weight. This is how you get stronger. There's no other way.

How to Do Strength Training at Home (You Probably Can't)

Can you do strength training at home? Only if you have proper equipment.

"Bodyweight strength training at home" is not a thing beyond the first few weeks of absolute beginner status. Once you can perform 20 bodyweight squats, adding more reps doesn't make you stronger. It makes you better at doing lots of squats. This is endurance work, not strength development.

Press-ups, pull-ups, and bodyweight squats are useful exercises for someone who has never trained. They're not sufficient for continued strength development because you cannot progressively overload them in a meaningful way. Progression schemes like "do more reps" or "slow down the tempo" are attempts to work around the fundamental problem: bodyweight exercises don't allow you to add resistance systematically.

What you actually need for strength training at home:

• Olympic barbell (20kg)

• Weight plates (at least 140kg worth for lower body movements)

• Squat rack with adjustable safety bars

• Flat bench

• Space (roughly 2.5m x 2m minimum for safe lifting)

This setup costs £300-800 depending on new versus used equipment. If this seems expensive, compare it to the cost of gym memberships, physiotherapy for injuries sustained from being weak, or the ongoing expense of fitness classes that don't make you stronger.

If you cannot or will not invest in this equipment, you need a gym membership at a facility with barbells and squat racks. Commercial gyms with rows of treadmills and machine circuits aren't suitable. You need a gym with free weights and space to deadlift.

The Five Movements That Matter

Strength training requires five barbell movements. Not fifty exercises, not complicated split routines, not "muscle confusion." Five movements performed with progressive overload.

The Squat

The squat is the fundamental lower body movement. A proper squat means descending until your hip crease is below the top of your knee (below parallel), then standing back up. This trains the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and entire trunk musculature under load.

The squat is not:

• A quarter squat where you bend your knees slightly

• A goblet squat with a light kettlebell

• A Smith machine movement with a fixed bar path

• Anything performed on a BOSU ball

You need to squat with a barbell on your back, progressively adding weight. This is non-negotiable for lower body strength development.

The Deadlift

The deadlift involves picking up a loaded barbell from the floor and standing up with it. This trains the entire posterior chain (hamstrings, glutes, back, traps) and teaches total-body force production.

The deadlift is the most straightforward movement mechanically. You grab the bar and stand up. Most people can learn adequate deadlift technique in a single session with competent instruction.

The Press (Overhead Press)

The press involves pushing a loaded barbell from your shoulders to overhead while standing. This develops shoulder strength, trunk stability, and teaches you to produce force while maintaining a rigid torso.

The press is not a seated shoulder press on a machine. The standing barbell press requires full-body coordination and stability. Machines that support your back and guide the bar path eliminate the training stimulus that makes pressing effective.

The Bench Press

The bench press develops the chest, shoulders, and triceps while lying on a flat bench. It's the upper body equivalent of the squat in terms of total muscle mass trained.

The bench press must be performed with a barbell. Dumbbell pressing has its place in training, but it cannot be loaded as heavily or progressed as systematically as barbell bench pressing.

The Power Clean

The power clean teaches explosive hip extension and develops power (the ability to produce force quickly). It's more technically demanding than the other four movements but valuable for complete strength development.

If you cannot learn the power clean initially, substitute additional deadlift work until you can receive proper coaching on the movement. Don't skip it permanently. Power development matters.

How Much Strength Training Per Week?

Three sessions per week. Not more, not less, not "it depends."

Training Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday provides 48-72 hours between sessions. This recovery period is when adaptation occurs. Your muscles don't get stronger during the workout. They get stronger during the recovery period when your body repairs tissue and adapts to the training stress.

Beginners often assume more training equals faster progress. This is false. When you're untrained, your body needs significant recovery time to adapt to the novel stimulus of heavy loading. Training four or five times per week as a beginner means accumulating fatigue faster than you can recover. Your performance will stagnate or decline, and you'll conclude that strength training "doesn't work for you."

It works fine. You're doing too much of it too soon your not a Bulgarian don't act like one

Three sessions per week allows maximum frequency (you're training each movement pattern 1-2 times per week) while providing adequate recovery. This is the optimal frequency for beginners. You can increase training frequency once you're no longer a beginner and have adapted to the basic training stress.

How Long Should a Strength Training Session Last?

45-60 minutes for most people. If your sessions regularly exceed 90 minutes, you're either socialising too much or doing unnecessary work.

A proper session structure:

Not foam rolling for twenty minutes. Just get warm and move your joints through their range of motion.

Barbell warm-up sets Progressive warm-up sets building to your work weight. For example, if you're squatting 80kg for your work sets:

• Empty bar x 5 reps X2

• 40kg x 5 reps

• 60kg x 3 reps

• 70kg x 2 reps

• 80kg x 5 reps (first work set)

Your actual training. For beginners, this typically means:

• 3 sets of 5 reps for squats

• 3 sets of 5 reps for press or bench press

• 1 set of 5 reps for deadlifts yes just one!

Rest 3-5 minutes between heavy sets. Force production requires full recovery between efforts. If you're breathing hard and your heart rate is elevated from the previous set, you cannot produce maximum force on the next set.

Cooldown (5 minutes)Optional light movement and stretching. This matters less than the fitness industry claims. Getting stronger matters. Spending fifteen minutes on a foam roller after training doesn't.

The Actual Programme for Beginners

Here's what you do three times per week, alternating between two workouts:

Workout A:

• Squat: 3 sets of 5 reps

• Press: 3 sets of 5 reps

• Deadlift: 1 set of 5 reps

Workout B:

• Squat: 3 sets of 5 reps

• Bench Press: 3 sets of 5 reps

• Deadlift: 1 set of 5 reps (or substitute Power Cleans: 5 sets of 3 reps once you've learned the movement)

Week 1: A, B, AWeek 2: B, A, BWeek 3: A, B, AContinue alternating.

Progression:

Add 2.5kg to your squat and deadlift every session. Add 1.25kg to your press and bench press every session. If you successfully complete all prescribed reps with good form, add weight next session. If you fail to complete the reps, repeat the same weight next session.

This continues until it doesn't. Eventually, you won't be able to add weight every session. When this happens consistently (you've failed the same weight three times), you're no longer a beginner and need different programming. This takes months, not weeks.

Starting Weights: Lower Than You Think

Most beginners want to start too heavy because ego matters more than sense. Don't.

Approximate starting weights for untrained adults:

Men:

• Squat: 40-50kg

• Deadlift: 20kg above squat

• Press: 30-35kg

• Bench Press: 40-50kg

Women:

• Squat: 20-30kg

• Deadlift: 10kg over squat

• Press: 15-20kg

• Bench Press: 20-30kg

These weights should feel relatively easy for your first session. You're learning movement patterns, not testing your maximum capacity. The weight will increase rapidly. Starting too light means you waste a few sessions lifting weights that are too easy. Starting too heavy means you develop poor movement patterns under load you cannot control properly.

Choose too light every time.

Common Mistakes People Make When Starting Strength Training

"I'll teach myself from YouTube videos."

You won't. Not properly. You can learn concepts and principles from videos. You cannot learn to execute technically correct barbell movements without real-time feedback. Every repetition is practice, and if you're practicing incorrect movements, you're building poor patterns that become harder to fix as the weight increases.

The cost of a few coaching sessions is less than the cost of the time wasted training incorrectly or the physiotherapy needed after injuring yourself due to poor form.

"I need to lose weight before I start lifting."

No. Start lifting now. Strength training while losing fat preserves muscle tissue. Waiting until you've lost weight through diet alone means losing both fat and muscle, then trying to build back the muscle you unnecessarily lost. This is backwards.

"I need to build a base with machines first."

No. Machines that guide the bar path and support your body eliminate the training stimulus that makes barbell movements effective. Starting with machines doesn't prepare you for free weight training. It teaches you to rely on artificial stability and fixed movement patterns.

Learn barbell movements from the beginning with light weights and proper coaching. This is how you build a base.

"I'll hurt myself if I start with barbells."

You're more likely to hurt yourself being weak than being strong. Proper barbell training with correct form is safer than most recreational activities. The risk comes from learning poor movement patterns with weight you cannot control, which is exactly why proper coaching matters.

This is why you start light, learn correct form with expert guidance, and progress gradually.

"I don't have time for strength training."

You don't have time for three 45-60 minute sessions per week? Then you don't have time to be strong. Priorities are revealed by actions, not statements. If strength training matters to you, you'll find the time. If it doesn't, you won't.

"I'll do a split routine like bodybuilders use."

Bodybuilding splits where you train different body parts on different days are designed for advanced trainees using pharmaceutical enhancement, looking to gain as much size as possible, not strength, and even the best bodybuilders still lift heavy with the main lifts. You're a beginner. You don't need or benefit from this approach. You need to train your whole body frequently with progressive overload on compound movements.

How to Learn Proper Form (This Is Where Most People Fail)

This is the part where most beginners go wrong, and it's the most important section of this entire article.

You cannot learn proper barbell technique from YouTube videos and articles. You can learn concepts. You can understand principles. You cannot learn to execute a technically correct squat, deadlift, or press without real-time feedback from someone who knows what they're looking at.

Why form matters more than you think:

Poor form doesn't just limit your progress. It ingrains incorrect movement patterns into your nervous system. Every repetition you perform is practice. If you're practicing poor movement patterns, you're making those patterns stronger and more automatic. As the weight increases (and it will), those poor patterns become dangerous and increasingly difficult to correct.

A coach who understands barbell training can identify and correct problems you cannot see or feel:

• Hip drive timing in the squat

• Bar path deviations during the press

• Back angle problems in the deadlift

• Elbow position in the bench press

• Proper rack position for power cleans

These aren't abstract concerns. These are the difference between lifts that get stronger for years versus lifts that stall after weeks because you're fighting against mechanical disadvantages you don't know exist.

What to look for in a coach:

Not every "personal trainer" understands barbell training. Most don't. Weekend certification courses teach machine circuits and bodyweight exercises heck even people with PHDS in biomechanics struggle to correct a deadlift on the floor due to no in-person experaince. You need someone who:

• Can demonstrate and coach the squat, deadlift, press, bench press, and power clean

• Understands progressive overload programming

• Has experience coaching beginners through the novice phase

• Can identify technical problems and provide actionable corrections Most importatnly, has followed the process themselves!

One session with a competent coach at the start of your training is worth more than six months of guessing. Two or three sessions in your first month establishes correct movement patterns before you've practiced incorrect ones hundreds of times.

The cost of skipping coaching:

"I'll just watch videos and teach myself" seems economical until you've spent three months squatting with poor form, developed knee pain, and now need to deload significantly and relearn the movement correctly. Or worse, you've injured yourself and need physiotherapy that costs substantially more than coaching would have.

Proper coaching isn't an expense. It's an insurance policy against wasting months practicing incorrect movements and potentially injuring yourself.

If you absolutely cannot access coaching:

Some people live in areas without qualified coaches. Some cannot afford coaching initially. If this is your situation:

• Video every work set from the side angle

• Compare your movement to demonstrations from credible sources (not random YouTube fitness influencers)

• Post videos to forums or communities where experienced lifters can provide feedback

• Be prepared to correct problems when they're identified, even if it means reducing weight significantly

• Accept that this approach is slower and riskier than working with a coach

But understand that this is a compromise, not an optimal solution. Get coaching as soon as you can afford it or access it.

Nutrition for Strength Training: Simpler Than You Think

Eat enough protein. That's the critical variable for strength development and muscle preservation.

Protein target: 1.6-2.2 grams per kilogram of body weight dailyExample: 80kg person needs 128-176g protein per day

Good protein sources: meat, fish, eggs, dairy, legumes. The source matters less than hitting your total daily intake.

Total calorie intake depends on your goals:

If you're losing fat, which is a stupid idea if you're wanting to get stronger but hey ho: eat 250-500 calories below maintenance while hitting your protein target. You can get stronger while losing fat as a beginner, but the process is slower than if you were eating at maintenance or in a surplus.

If you're maintaining weight: eat roughly the same calories you expend. You'll gain strength rapidly as a beginner eating at maintenance.

If you're underweight: eat 250-500 calories above maintenance. You need to gain weight to maximise strength development if you're starting significantly underweight.

You don't need supplements. Protein powder is convenient, not necessary. Creatine monohydrate improves performance slightly (5-10% strength gain) and is inexpensive, but it's optional. Everything else is marketing.

How Long Before You See Results?

Strength increases session to session for the first weeks to months. This isn't muscle growth. It's neural adaptation. Your nervous system is learning to recruit muscle fibres more efficiently.

Visible muscle growth takes longer. Most people notice changes in appearance after 8-12 weeks of consistent training. Others notice changes before you do because you see yourself daily.

Meaningful strength development (doubling your starting weights on major lifts) takes 6-12 months for most beginners following a proper programme with adequate nutrition and recovery.

The timeline matters less than consistency. Train three times per week, add weight when you can, eat enough protein, sleep adequately. Do this for six months and you'll be stronger than 90% of the population. Do this for five years and you'll be stronger than 99%.

The Bottom Line: How to Start Strength Training

How to start strength training?

• Get access to a barbell and rack (either buy equipment or join a proper gym).

• Find a qualified coach who can teach you the five movements correctly.

• Learn the squat, deadlift, press, bench press, and power clean with expert guidance.

• Train three times per week, alternating between two workouts.

• Start with light weights and add 1.25-2.5kg each session.

• Rest 3-5 minutes between heavy sets.

• Eat enough protein.

• Don't eat like a teenager

• Sleep adequately.

• Don't get pissed every other day, drugs are bad M'kay

The movements are simple. Executing them correctly requires coaching. This isn't the fitness industry trying to extract money from you. This is the reality of learning technical skills. You wouldn't teach yourself to drive from YouTube videos. Don't teach yourself to squat from them either.

Invest in proper coaching at the start. Follow a simple progressive programme. Be consistent for six months. You'll be stronger, more capable, and more resilient than 90% of the population.

Stop researching and start lifting. But start lifting correctly, with someone who can teach you how guess what it happens that I can do that for you? Book on for a FREE strength consultation

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