What Is Strength Training And How Do You Get Started?

There are so many benefits to strength training. If you want to get stronger, improve your physical health and mental health, decrease chronic dizziness or chronic pain, boost your confidence, and much more, strength training is the way to go.

If you’re thinking about giving it a try, you might want to know what strength training workouts are like and how to get started. If so, this article is for you.

What Is Strength Training?

The term “strength training” is often used interchangeably with “weightlifting” or “resistance training”, but that’s not really accurate. Strength training is a specific type of resistance training.

Resistance training is the umbrella term for any exercise that challenges your muscles against some kind of resistance. That resistance could be in the form of dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, resistance bands, or bodyweight exercises like push ups or squats.

Within resistance training, you can target different things:

• Bodybuilding, also called hypertrophy training. The purpose of hypertrophy training is to increase muscle size.

• Muscle endurance training, which makes your muscles more fatigue-resistant. Pilates, yoga, and many group fitness classes and workout videos are working on muscle endurance.

• Power training, which makes your muscles better at moving forcefully. This is the kind of training that athletes need for explosive movements like sprinting, jumping, or tackling.

• Strength training, which makes your muscles stronger. You’ll be able to move more weight, or move your bodyweight more easily.

You perform each of these type of training differently. The way you train to make your muscles stronger is different than the way you train to make them bigger, which is different than the way you make them better at handling fatigue, or at moving explosively.

While these type of training are different, they’re all related. You don’t flip a switch and go from 100% hypertrophy to 100% strength. There’s a lot of overlap.

When you first start lifting weights, you’ll get a little bit of all the benefits, no matter what kind of training you focus on. But eventually I do recommend dedicating your training to one method at a time.

What Does A Strength Training Workout Involve?

True strength training means:

• Using heavy weights that are challenging for you to lift between about 4-8 repetitions.

• Taking breaks between hard efforts.

• Training with the intention to get stronger, to lift more weight or do more challenging exercises over time.

In a typical strength training session, you would start with a warm-up to get your body and mind ready for the workout. That usually lasts 5-10 minutes. You might do leg swings, arm circles, upper back activation drills with a resistance band, and glute activation drills, for example.

Next are the main exercises. When I program a strength training workout, I include five major movements: a push, pull, squat, hinge, and core exercise. I might also include some accessory exercises, like a rotation exercise or isolation exercises for arms or calves, depending on the person.

I usually arrange the exercises into supersets, which is when you pair two exercises together and alternate them.

Example Workout:

Warm up

1a. Chest Press - 3 sets, 6-8 reps

1b. Glute Bridge - 3 sets, 6-8 reps

2a. Dumbbell Lunge - 3 sets, 6-8 reps

2b. Seated Row - 3 sets, 6-8 reps

3. Plank – 3 sets, 30-60 sec

4a. Bicep Curl - 3 sets, 6-8 reps

4b. Tricep Extension - 3 sets, 6-8 reps

Cool down

How To Get Started With Strength Training

I never recommend anyone jump straight into heavy strength training right away. Strength training is not inherently dangerous, but it’s important to work your way up to it slowly and carefully. In fact, I usually take at least three months, often longer, before I get someone to start lifting heavy weights in the 4-8 repetition range.

The first step is to build a foundation of good movement patterns and a baseline level of strength in your muscles and joints.

That means learning how to do the exercises properly, with good form, and getting your body and mind used to lifting weights. Light weights allow you to focus on moving slowly and feeling the right muscles working. Doing many repetitions with those light weights gives you plenty of opportunities to practice each exercise.

Phase 1

I recommend starting with light weights that make it challenging to complete 12-15 repetitions of each exercise. Do 2-3 sets per exercise and practice the basic exercises this way for at least 1-2 months.

Phase 2

Once you feel comfortable with your exercises, increase the weights and do 2-3 sets of 8-12 repetitions per exercise. Work on that consistently for at least another month or two.

Phase 3

After at least 3-4 months of consistent practice, when you feel comfortable and confident, you can start to increase the weights and aim for 6-8 reps. This is true strength training.

There’s no need to rush this process. Sometimes it takes many months or even a year or longer to be ready for heavy weights. If you want to take longer before you make the weights heavier, that’s totally fine.

If you have an old injury or a history of pain, there might be certain exercises where you should keep the weights light. It’s ok to go heavy on some exercises and lighter on others.  

If you’re being consistent, you’ll still be getting a lot of great benefits as you prepare for strength training, and you’ll get even more once you start lifting heavy weights.

If You Need Help

Download my FREE Strength Training 101 eBook. You’ll learn which exercises to do, how to choose the right weights, and how to make progress as you get better at lifting weights.