Fitness
Weightlifting
7 things beginners need to know about weight training
Get to grips with these weight-training basics to raise the bar on your fitness pursuits.
For the complete beginner, the prospect of weight training can be a daunting one. What if you’re not strong enough? What if you’re too strong? What if you begin to look like The Hulk?
First, some clarity. The term weight training refers to a type of strength training that uses weights for resistance. Those weights can be of the dumbbell, kettlebell or barbell variety (and any other object used for resistance), but can also include your own body weight – think squats, lunges, press-ups and so on.
With the right approach, weight training can aid everything from athletic performance to weight loss – which brings us onto our first point...
1. Anyone can benefit from weight training
Gee Atherton weight training
© Laurence Crossman-Emms
Whether you’re a mountain biker, a cliff diver, a runner or an open-water swimmer, weight training can help you become fitter, stronger, and better prepared for a multitude of adventure pursuits.
“Strength and conditioning coaches teach all athletes correct mechanics (through weight training) so that they perform more efficiently in their sport,” explains personal trainer Joe Peat.
He highlights that simply lifting weights is only part of the process; the way you weight train is also important. “There is a relationship between strength and speed,” he says. “Olympic weightlifting and plyometrics are popular with strength coaches to train athletes to become more powerful. Train slowly and you will be slow on the field; train fast and you will be more powerful.
“From my perspective, the key is to make the training specific for the athlete or client I’m training. Weight training like a bodybuilder is unlikely to carry over to athletic sports performance, whereas snatches, cleans and squats have been shown to increase sprint performance. Along with enhancing athletic performance, lifting weights will also significantly decrease injury risk in all sports.”
2. Weight training won’t make you big and bulky (unless that’s your aim)
Athletes train in a different rep range to bodybuilders
© Brett Hemmings / Red Bull Content Pool
Many people are put off the idea of lifting weights, because they fear it will lead to unwanted bulk, but the bulging biceps of gym buffs and professional bodybuilders are not achieved in the weights room alone. An increase in muscle size requires a calorie surplus – consuming more calories than you burn – hence the reason bodybuilders are never without a high-calorie protein shake in hand. But if you continue to eat a healthy, balanced diet – and ensure your post-workout meals contain good amounts of recovery-assisting protein – you will get stronger and fitter, but don’t have to worry about looking like The Hulk.
“There is so much more at play in building mass than simply lifting weights,” explains strength and conditioning coach Laura Hoggins. "You have to be training muscle groups frequently and at such high volume, with the correct nutritional plan, calorie surplus and high protein to gain size. Specifically for women, it’s also just really hard to get big (trust me!).”
The volume of your training also affects the size of your muscles, as Peat explains:
“If the goal is not to get bigger then working more in the strength rep ranges of one to five would be beneficial. Just look at some of the weightlifters in the Olympics: some of the girls in the weight categories of 56kg and 62kg have world records in the snatch of 138kg and 153kg, and they will be squatting more than those weights.
"Athletes train differently to bodybuilders: strength training in the one to five rep range, with heavier weights, generally trains the nervous system and builds strength in the tendons (without increasing muscle size). Bodybuilders generally train in the eight to 12 rep range, which increases muscle size.”
3. Weight training can be used for fitness as well as strength
Even if you’re not particularly fussed about improving your strength, weight training can be beneficial. If the thought of a 20-minute run or more traditional forms of cardio fill you with dread, you might find weights to be a more dynamic and exciting way to keep fit.
“A popular method is ‘density training’,” explains Peat. “This was made famous by old-school bodybuilding coach Vince Gironde, who would perform high-volume weight training sessions and decrease rest periods each week throughout a training block. One of his effective systems would be 8 sets x 8 reps of one exercise. He would start week one with 60 seconds rest between sets and take 10 seconds off each week – some of his top athletes got down to 10 seconds between sets! You should use the same weight for all sets and only increase the weight once all reps have been completed.”
Another, more common weight-training method to improve fitness is circuit training. “There are usually around eight to 10 exercises in a circuit,” says Peat. “Do each exercise for one minute and take 30 seconds recovery between each exercise.”
Hoggins agrees that circuit training can be a great way to improve fitness, but – as with the density training – emphasis should be on “little rest, to keep the heart rate elevated throughout the session”.
4. Weight training can help you lose weight
For the aforementioned cardio-phobes, the good news is weight training can torch comparable calories to running, swimming or cycling. The bad news is, you’ve got to be prepared to work.
“Most people want to be 'toned' and to achieve that you need to build muscle and lose stored body fat – lifting weights is the best way to achieve that,” explains Peat.
“To lose body fat you need to create a calorie deficit. Therefore you need to burn more calories than you take in with food. Cardio training will burn calories while you exercise, however weight training is great at increasing your resting metabolic rate (RMR: calories burned at rest) and non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT). Increasing RMR and NEAT will lead to a higher amount of calories burned throughout the day.
"Too much cardio training will lead to fatigue and muscle breakdown, therefore the focus should be on big compound lifts such as squats, deadlifts, pull-ups, bench press and push presses."
5. You should increase volume slowly
As with any new fitness activity, for your safety, continued progress and – when heavy weights are involved – dignity, it’s important to take weight training one step at a time.
“I would start a complete beginner with two to three weight sessions a week,” says Peat. “Volume can be slowly increased, but it also depends on the age of the client: if a young person comes in with no injuries, I could start him on three times a week. A 50-year-old with no weight-training experience and some niggles would need to start a little slower. There's no rush!”
Hoggins also says beginners should focus on quality of training over quantity. “As a beginner, I would start off doing resistance training two to three times per week,” she says. “You want to ensure you’re giving your body time to recover between each session.”
6. Form is more important than intensity
Perfect your technique before adding extra weight
© Zoran Milich/Getty Images)
The same rules apply to the weights you choose: lift light and increase the load only marginally when you’re absolutely sure you’re strong enough to do so.
“Form and technique are more important than intensity,” says Hoggins. “Make sure you really nail the movement patterns first before you start piling the weight on. Find a place where you can connect with a fitness professional to ask them if you have any pre-existing injuries or need any adaptations given to your programme.”
Peat agrees that “you don't need to be rushing volume and intensity. Generally I would get beginners working more in the eight to 12 rep range, as the weights will be around 65 percent of an individual's one-rep max,” says Peat. “The eccentric phase (lowering of the weight) will be slow and controlled – somewhere between three to four seconds – and three to four sets per exercise would be fine.
“The last thing you want is a connective tissue injury – often as trainers we see people loading themselves with weights their bodies are not prepared for. If you injure a ligament, tendon or cause inflammation to the joints you're looking at months of rehab and an expensive physio bill! Take training slowly, control the weight and try to increase the intensity by 1-2kg each week, add an extra rep or simply pay attention to how fast you're pushing or pulling the weight. It's all progress!”
While it’s important to remember you’re not Arnold Schwarzenegger, you do need to train with enough weight for the exercises to be effective – that, though, is very subjective.
“The weight you select very much depends on the individual,” says Hoggins. “You want to be lifting a weight that feels like a challenge towards the last few reps, and you have just one or two more reps left in the tank.”
7. You’ve got this!
For the complete beginner, gyms can be daunting places, but Hoggins stresses the fact that everyone starts somewhere and, more importantly, no one really cares what you’re up to!
“Unleash your inner badass and have the confidence to walk into that weights area and get it done,” she says. “It is unlikely anyone is paying you much attention; they’re just thinking of themselves, too! So don’t worry about not being able to lift the most or being unsure about certain exercises you do!”
