The fitness industry is a jungle of information overload, especially for beginners. A lot of myths (also known as “bro science“) are being told. I started to work out about four years ago but I still consider myself a beginner because I didn’t invest in knowledge in the first two years.
Why would you start lifting anyway? You should see weight lifting as a metaphor for life; you can make progress in very small steps (read Antifragile).
Having more lean body mass massively improves your health and your metabolic system. You’ll get more energy, creativity, be more productive and motivated. And you’ll look better and be more attractive of course.
After wasting a year of working out without any 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.
The combination of those information sources and my empirical experience made me come up with this abstract for fitness beginners like myself. I started today one year ago with Rob and gained exactly 6 kilos of body mass in my first 12 months, while keeping my waist circumference the same.
In this article I want to share the basic principles of beginners’ fitness that I learned, to save you wasted time and energy. I don’t pretend to be an expert but if you follow the theory it’s quite simple; it’s physics.
Basic principles
Having bad genetics is not a thing. Your physical basis is genetic and you can become naturally bigger because of genetics, but everyone can gain muscle.
Consistency is key here. You don’t see differences overnight. You do so in months, if you do the right things. 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 đź’¤
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 dumbells. Good examples are the squat, bench press and deadlift.
Compounds don’t use machines because those emphasize unnatural movements that will probably get you injured. I had several injuries.
Progressive overload means you are lifting heavier weights over time. You can achieve this by doing more reps or more sets than your last exercise, by adding weight in small increments, by improving your form or by doing reps more slowly.
Proper form means executing exercises effectively in a way you target the right muscles and avoid injuries. This is absolutely the biggest pitfall for anyone lifting. If you look around in the gym, 90%+ of people has bad form, including the big guys.
You shouldn’t focus on lifting as much weight as possible in as short time 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 will probably advice 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 per week is enough, if you alternate between the two workouts listed below. That’s only 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 maximum amount 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: 80Ă—4, 75Ă—6, 70Ă—8
- Workout 2: 80Ă—5, 75Ă—6, 70Ă—8
- Workout 3: 80Ă—5, 75Ă—7, 70Ă—8
- Workout 4: 80Ă—5, 75Ă—7, 70Ă—9
- Workout 5: 80Ă—6, 75Ă—7, 70Ă—9
- Workout 6: 80Ă—6, 75Ă—8, 70Ă—9
- Workout 7: 80Ă—6, 75Ă—8, 70Ă—10
- Workout 8: 82,5Ă—4, 75Ă—8, 70Ă—10
- Workout 9: 82,5Ă—4, 77,5Ă—6, 70Ă—10
- Workout 10: 82,5Ă—4, 77,5Ă—6, 72,5Ă—8
- Workout 11: 82,5Ă—5, 77,5Ă—6, 72,5Ă—8
- Workout 12: 82,5Ă—5, 77,5Ă—7, 72,5Ă—8
- Workout 13: 82,5Ă—5, 77,5Ă—7, 72,5Ă—9
- Etc, you get it right?
If your gym doesn’t have 1,25 kilos discs, 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 neutral position during the movement.
- Keep your feet crossed to avoid cheating.
- Bring your chin to above the bar and get down 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 neutral position.
- Sit down between your legs, as low as possible.
- Don’t let you knees flare inside or go before your feet.
- Reps that don’t go below parallel don’t count.
Shoulder Press
Targets the delts, triceps, traps, chest and abs.
- Start with a naked 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 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 45 degrees to your body, raise the bar on nipple level.
- Pinch your shoulder blades together.
- Keep your spine in 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.
- Put you hands just outside of the 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, rhombs, 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.
- Learn forward about 45 degrees by bending your knees.
- Keep your spine in 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, beware that proper form is way more important than lifting heavy weights and doing more reps. Be sure you have proper form by watching YouTube videos or hire a personal trainer. For me, an online coach was the biggest win of all.
Do a short warming up before your workout. The goal of this is to make your muscles warm. 5 minutes on a hometrainer, some bodyweight squats, glute bridges and some pushups will do the job.
Then, before each exercise, do a warming 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 found training with friends provokes lower concentration, more bro science and the tendency to do too much.
2. Be in a small energy surplus with enough protein 🥩
To grow 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, this is the genetic max for most of us (without using drugs). Only the lucky few can gain up to 1 kilo of muscle per month. So it doesn’t work like the more you eat, the more you grow.
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 aren’t really exact science 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 believe, you don’t need an excessive amount of protein. Two times your body weight (in grams) is more than enough.
Again, this is just a ballpark. Try to hit your macros on average on 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 đź’¤
Resting is as important, or even more important, as working out and eating in a surplus. You should sleep at least eight hours, every night. Nine hours is even better. While you rest your muscles recover and grow, not in the gym.
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. Abstain from working out in those four remaining days and give your body the rest to recover. 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. This means whether you don’t go to the gym at all for one week or drop all your weights and reps in half for one 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. Like this you can monitor the long term weight gain. 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.