Strength Training 101: A Beginner's Guide for Longevity
Every Monday, we revisit one of the listener questions we’ve answered in a previous episode. It’s been edited for clarity & brevity here, but if you want to get the full version, links to the full episode are below the text.
Patrick:
Here’s a question in our Move factor:
I am a 25-year-old woman aiming to maximize my longevity. Although I am fit and healthy, I have often overlooked strength training. I am now ready to stop making excuses and commit. Where should an absolute beginner start when it comes to strength training for longevity?
Ben:
It's impressive that a 25-year-old is interested in optimizing for longevity; it shows maturity beyond her years. Most people in their 20s tend to focus on different things, so kudos to the listener.
Okay, for someone who’s an absolute beginner, who’s never been to the gym, never worked with moving external loads —
Patrick:
She says she’s otherwise fit and healthy —
Ben:
Right, so I’m guessing she’s doing things like yoga or running some 5ks —
Patrick:
Maybe just a beginner with “strength” training.
Ben:
Right. So that’s where I’d start.
I’d say, go buy or go to a gym and start using an empty barbell.
Lay on a bench and try to do some empty barbell bench presses, with the goal of just trying to stabilize in a static position. Can she press it up and just hold it here without wobbling?
Then, similarly, can she put the bar in a front rack position, on her shoulders? Can she put it in the back rack position? Can she just get into these basic, starting positions?
Then, can she get into the end-range positions? Can we get the bar to the chest under control? Can we squat all the way down to parallel in a squat?
From there, if she were my athlete, I’d work on moving well between those two positions of the bench press, the squat, and the deadlift. I’d have her doing three sets of ten reps of those movements, and that’s all I’d focus on.
I would have her do that three times a week - Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Three sets of ten back squats with the empty barbell, three sets of ten deadlifts, and three sets of ten bench presses.
She’d do that for 2-3 weeks, adding half a pound or five-pound plates, then continuing every week to add a little bit more weight.
Patrick:
For the sake of conversation, what if this person - even if he or she was also brand new to proper strength training - came in with enough basic strength that an empty barbell didn’t present any real challenge? Same prescription?
Ben:
Yup, I would just continue to borrow from Mark Rippetoe’s “Starting Strength” protocol.
But, yes, the basic principle applies.
It’s useful to know that truly a beginner in weight training - how we define that - is that they can lift more weight basically every time they come into the gym. They’re just making adaptations so quickly.
An intermediate lifter, maybe someone like who you’re describing, can make those gains every week or so.
The advanced lifter can make gains every quarter, or even longer.
For me, it takes me three or four months of purposeful focus to add five pounds to these basic lifts, because I’ve been training them for so long.
So, at the start, our listener can expect progress often as long as she starts low and slow, is focused on movement quality over adding weight, and is consistent. If she tops out in a week or two - if she just can’t move any more weight, it either means she didn’t start out light enough, or she’s rushing the process.
We need the slow runaway to develop and build up the capacity she’ll need down the road.
Original Episode: