The Beginner’s Strength Block
In this post, I lay out the basic skeleton for the program I recommend to most beginners. But first, who is a beginner? In the world of strength training, a beginner is anyone that has not completed a 3-6 month training cycle in which they systematically increased the weight for the compound barbell lifts, even if this person has been hitting the weight room for years.
The beauty of being a beginner is that you can make exponential gains in a very short period of time. In fact, the more untrained you are, the greater your rate of progression will be. The average trainee with no experience lifting weights, for example, can expect to hit these basic strength standards after completing their initial training cycle:
Squat: Males: 1.5x bodyweight | Females: 1x bodyweight
Deadlift: Males: 1.75-2x bodyweight | Females: 1.5x bodyweight
Bench Press: Males: 1x bodyweight | Females: .75x bodyweight
Overhead Press: Males: .75x bodyweight | Females: .6x bodyweight
Chin Ups: Males: 5-10 reps | Females: 1 rep
As for the program, it consists of three 90-minute workouts each week. It requires that you squat twice a week, deadlift once a week, and alternate the bench press and overhead press so that you bench press twice the first week, but only once the second week, and overhead press once the first week, but twice the following week. These four lifts constitute the meat of the program and should never be missed.
In addition to these main lifts are four supplements or accessories: chin-ups, dips, bicep curls, and the lying tricep extension. These supplemental exercises will complement your progress on the main lifts, but can be omitted if you are short on time. The abridged version of the program will last about 75 min. (If this is still more time than you can commit to at the moment, stay tuned for an upcoming post on minimalist programming!)
Here is a visual representation of what the first two weeks of the program will look like:
Figure 1. Weeks 1-2 of The Beginner’s Strength Block
Starting Weights
For the main barbell lifts, your first workout should be done with a weight that you could confidently complete 10-12 repetitions with. Your 8th rep should feel just difficult enough to where you feel your muscles beginning to tire, but not difficult enough to where you struggle to complete the set. You should leave the first workout feeling fresh with a mild pump in the muscles worked. If you feel exhausted, you started too heavy.
To find this correct starting weight, devote your first session to simply assessing your strength. Begin with the squat and do a set of 8 reps with the empty bar. If that feels easy, add 10 lb. and do another set of 8. Continue doing this until you find a weight that feels just a little challenging. Note what that weight is and proceed to do the same thing for the other three lifts. For the average untrained person, the starting weights will likely fall in this range:
Squat: Males: 95-115 lb. | Females: 65-85 lb.
Deadlift: Males: 115-135 lb. | Females: 95-115 lb.
Bench Press: Males: 65-85 lb. | Females: 45-65 lb.
Overhead Press: Males: 45-55 lb. | Females: 35-45 lb.
Programming
As for programming the main lifts, you will begin by performing 5 x 8 for each lift and adding 5 lb. each time you squat, bench, and overhead press & 10 lb. each time you deadlift. When this gets difficult, it becomes necessary to adjust things.
The first adjustment you will make is to decrease the volume from 5 x 8 to 5 x 5. This will happen around week 4 or 5 for all the lifts.
The second adjustment you will make is to introduce light days. This will reduce the frequency with which you add weight to the bar. On the light days, you will perform 5 x 5, but with 80-90% of the weight you used on your heavy day.
For the bench press and overhead press, this will also happen at around week 4 or 5.
For the squat, this will happen around week 9.
The deadlift, because it is only performed once a week, does not require a light day.
Moreover, if 5 x 5 @ 90% feels too easy, add a few more reps, but make sure that you always leave a rep or two in the tank. Don’t go to failure!
Here’s an example of what weeks 5-6 might look like:
The third adjustment you will make is to introduce back-off sets. This means that on your heavy days, you will only add weight to the first set. The remaining four sets will be performed at 90%.
For the bench press, overhead press, and deadlift, this will likely become necessary around week 9.
For the squat, you might not need to introduce back-off sets until week 13 or so.
Here’s an example of what weeks 9-10 might look like.
The final adjustment you will make is to decrease the deadlift volume and rate of progression. Rather than adding 10 lb. each week and performing 5 x 5, you will now add 5 lb. each week and perform 1 x 5 followed by two back-off sets of 5 reps @ 90% for a total of 3 x 5. This will likely need to happen around week 13 or so. Here’s an example of what that might look like:
Week 13—Deadlift: 1 x 5 @ 240 lb, 2 x 5 @ 215 lb.
Week 14—Deadlift: 1 x 5 @ 245 lb, 2 x 5 @ 220 lb.
Week 15—Deadlift: 1 x 5 @ 250lb, 2 x 5 @ 225 lb.
Each lift will plateau at its own rate. The overhead press will likely stall first, then the bench press, followed by the squat and finally the deadlift, marking the end of your training cycle. This will likely happen somewhere between week 17-20, but can extend longer for trainees that are concurrently bulking.
Finally, note that this is a general guide and not to be followed precisely. Every trainee will differ in how they respond to the stress of the program and will need adjustments at different points in time. The point of this piece is to help you understand the general trajectory of the program so that you can apply these principles to your own training.
As a general rule, you want to make the adjustments I detail above before you reach your maximum potential within a given phase. In other words, don’t switch from 5 x 8 to 5 x 5 after you have failed to complete 5 x 8 on a given day. Rather, try to anticipate when you are reaching that point of failure and make the adjustment one week before that. Similarly, don’t wait to fail on 5 x 5 before you incorporate light days or back-off sets. Try to anticipate when you are nearing your limit and make the adjustment before that point.
As for programming the accessories, simply choose a weight that you can perform 3 x 8-12 reps with. When you can perform 3 x 12, add 5-10 lb. and repeat. Again, these can be omitted, but including them will only add 15 minutes to your workout and help you make more progress on the main lifts.
Rest Between Sets
For the main lifts, you should rest at least three minutes between work sets. As the weight gets heavier, you will need to increase your rest periods to four minutes and eventually even five minutes. If you are needing to rest longer than five minutes, you are likely in need of a programming adjustment.
As for the accessories, you will be performing supersets. This means that you will perform one set of one exercise (curls, for example), immediately followed by one set of the second exercise (dips, for example) and then rest for three minutes before you perform your second set of each exercise. The two exercises in the superset should work different muscle groups. This means that you can either couple the chin-ups with dips or the lying tricep extension, but not with the bicep curls.
Recovery
Mark Rippetoe, a well-regarded coach from Texas, once said: “you don’t get big and strong from lifting weights – you get big and strong by recovering from lifting weights.” Recovery entails three things
Eating enough.
This does not mean that everyone has to bulk, but it does mean that everyone needs to consume enough protein. For most people, this comes out to 1g per pound of bodyweight. If you are overweight, then aim for 1g per pound of lean mass. For tips on how to get enough protein, see my Guide to More Protein.
It also means that cutting weight is only recommended for those that are significantly overweight—i.e males that are > 24% body fat or females that are > 32% body fat. For more on this, see To Bulk or Not to Bulk.
Finally, it means that those who are cutting do so at a moderate pace. Losing more than 10% of your bodyweight each week will likely impact your ability to recover adequately and gain strength and muscle mass.
Sleep. Your body simply cannot recover adequately if you are sleeping less than 7 hours each night. I cannot stress this enough.
Rest Days. On a program like this, you cannot workout on consecutive days. Always rest at least one full day between workouts and avoid strenuous activity on those days. You body cannot recover if you’re always pushing it and not giving it a chance to recover from and adapt to the stress that you are subjecting it to each workout.
Conclusion
Well there you have it, a detailed guide to running your first training cycle. Lift three days a week. Add weight each week. Sleep enough. Eat enough. Rest enough. It’s really that simple!
