Get Lifting

Disclaimer

Frankly, I’m still a beginner. I have written what I have written mostly to inspire you to lift weights, not coach you. I don’t know everything, and I don’t know if any of what I have written will work for you. You be the judge; I’m no expert. But I do stand by this: you should lift.

But First, Why?

I don’t want to give you the usual schlock about why you should lift weights; you know, “It’s good for you!”, “To get shredded!”, and other silliness. Yes, those are reasons, but I think there are a few more important reasons than those.

To Get Strong

Part of being a real man is being strong; this is proven by the general disdain for weak men. Culturally, everyone thinks less of the weak man than they do the strong man, and it is only with significant cultural brainwashing that any of us would think that the two types of men are equal.

Think about it: what advantage does the weak man have over the strong man? Anything the weak man can do, the strong man can do, and do it much better. Further, the strong man can do things the weak man cannot do at all such as picking up heavy stuff and moving it around, or defending himself in a fist fight. Pray tell, is there any advantage to being weak?

Now of course, there will be some reddit-tier internet lurker who thinks “Brains over Brawn” is a valid way of life. Ironically, if he has so much brains, then he would know that it is smart to be strong. You can write the syllogism yourself, I can’t be bothered to do so right now. I’m not encouraging you to become a juiced-up meathead, but every man needs a little meathead in him. We can read metaphysics and pump iron; these two things are not mutually exclusive, in fact, they should be combined.

Doing Hard Things

We live in a world that has become terribly comfortable, comfortable to the point that it is causing us to degenerate like the mice in the mousetopia experiment. If you live in a developed first world country, you have to seek out physically hard things unless you take on a rather physical job. But for most of us, myself included, we don’t really need to work our bodies too hard to get by. Strength training is a great voluntary action that will fill that void, but absolutely no one can do it for you.

Perhaps more importantly, there is a certain satisfaction that accompanies the accomplishment of any hard thing. As a pianist, I can proudly say that have memorized and played through the third movement of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and performed it on stage. You might say that it is a touch difficult…

Being able to load up a significant weight on the barbell and own it is a similar experience. Much like music, it takes a lot of discipline and dedication to achieve heavy weights, but once you hit some minor goals, you end up hooked, always chasing after the next personal best. While I have characterized it as almost “fun,” the truth is that it is very hard and makes you want to quit (again, a lot like music). Stick with it though, and you’ll have done something that is difficult that you can be proud of.

Actually Getting Started

Enough has been said on why you should get strong, and but one justification remains: why weight lifting instead hard manual labor? The reason is simple: you can plan exactly what loads to handle with weight lifting. Regular labor is purely chance-driven: some days might be fairly easy, other days might actually be too hard for you. This inconsistency is not reliable for consistent strength improvements.

So, where to begin? This is the part where I’m supposed to hock my own crappy program to you that will forever scare you away from the weight room, either because it is too hard, too easy, or too stupid. Instead, I’ll share my experience with three well-known programs: Stronglifts 5x5, Starting Strength, and Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1. I’ll just say now, that all the programs are good, but each of them have a few quirks I don’t particularly like.

Commonalities

These three programs focus on compound lifts, especially the Big Three: The barbell back squat, bench press, and deadlift. They also include the overhead press. Mastering these four lifts is critical to each of these programs

Stronglifts 5x5

One of the quintessential beginner programs, Stronglifts 5x5 (SL from hereon) is one of the first things a beginner will come across on the internet. It is dead simple: start with the empty bar, perform the lift for 5 sets of 5 reps, next time you do it, add 5 pounds. Keep going till you can’t do it anymore. That is the gist.

In this program, you’ll bench press, squat, deadlift, overhead press, and barbell row. It is divided into two workouts, A and B, such that one week will be ABA, and the next will be BAB. This is a three day a week program.

It is easy to see the appeal of this program just due to its simplicity, and I can’t recommend against it, but I will share my experience with it.

It began with this program, and I will say that starting with the empty bar feels dumb. I always warm up with the empty bar on every lift but the deadlift, but for the empty bar to be my working weight felt stupid and not difficult enough. You want to feel really stupid? Go to the squat rack and slap some 2.5 pounders on each side… somehow that feels even dumber than the empty bar!

Once you get past that stage and start using 25 pound plates on the lifts, this complaint goes away. This is one thing I like about Starting Strength much better, that it advises you to select a weight that is difficult but doable rather than just progressing from the empty bar.

Once things started getting heavy, say 185 or better, SL started grinding me to a pulp. I was able to get to a 215 squat, 145 bench, 100 overhead press, and a 275 deadlift before I had serious trouble completing the 5x5. Your mileage may vary, and I think I petered out sooner than most before I needed a change.

Despite my experience, I would recommend the SL 5x5 program, but I would not start with the empty bar because its kind of a waste of time. Instead, try squatting with 95 pounds, see if its doable for 5x5 and go from there. Do this for the other lifts; don’t waste your time with super light weights except for warming up.

Starting Strength

Starting Strength (SS) is a 3x5 program that uses the squat, bench, overhead press, deadlift, and power clean. It also adds 5 pounds to each lift but has you starting with a reasonably difficult weight rather than the empty bar like SL. It follows an ABA BAB 3 day a week schedule as well.

I moved to this program once SL was grinding me to powder, and the reduced sets were indeed a welcome reprieve, but I made little progress. I do not blame SS for my failures, but I cannot say it helped me either. Had I started with this in the first place, I’m sure I would have had at least the same success that I had with SL, but I was already beaten down by that point. Truthfully, I’d recommend a beginner start here over SL, but I must voice my greatest criticism of this program.

The power clean is a very technical lift, too technical for a beginner who doesn’t have a coach. I never could get the hang of this lift and just wanted to deadlift instead. No amount of words or videos helped me power clean better. If you have access to a coach who actually knows how to teach this lift, then I’m sure its great, but I felt like I didn’t have a chance on my own.

5/3/1

The previous programs were beginner programs; 5/3/1 is more of a philosophy than a particular program, and I’m not even sure where to start describing it. Let’s peel this onion.

In 5/3/1, you will add weight every month not every day. It is a 4 day a week program. The original program from the first book has you do this: take your one rep max, multiply it by 90%: this is your Training Max (TM). On the first week, you will perform the lifts based on these percentages: 65%, 75%, 85%. That is, your first set will be 65% of your TM, the second will be 75% of your TM, and the third will be 85% of your TM. The second week will be based on 70%, 80%, and 90%. The third will be based on 75%, 85%, and 95%. You’ll deload on the fourth week, and raise the weight for the next cycle, starting over with 65% and so on.

There are more details than what I have provided but this is the gist. Frankly, all the percentages turned me off big time when I first gave it a try, but I understand the logic behind the system. You are not always training at your maximum which is too exhausting, instead you train weights you know you can handle and much more gradually add weight than the other programs.

5/3/1 is complicated. I’m not explaining everything. If it interests you, buy the book 5/3/1 Forever by Jim Wendler. It is this book that made me call it a philosophy rather than a specific program. In it, Wendler provides dozens of ways to perform 5/3/1 for absolute beginners, long time weight lifters, and everyone in between.

I am convinced that 5/3/1 is great… but it is not for me, at least not now. It is a slow moving program and if you feel like you can handle more than what the program is throwing at you, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to continue using easy weights. Now, for the long time lifter whose biggest complaint is being stuck at a squat of 405, the submaximal training that 5/3/1 offers will almost certainly break his plateau, but for beginners it is just too little work with too little weight. Though I must praise Boring But Big and Boring But Strong. These are great supplementals that Wendler has tacked onto many of his templates in the 5/3/1 Forever.

Work Capacity

Let there be no doubt about it: there are several 5/3/1 variations that will build up some serious work capacity. While you won’t always be lifting the heaviest weights you can handle, doing 5 sets of 10 reps or 1 set of 20 squats, even if they are light, will put hair on your chest and tears in your eyes. The same with with the Second Set Last variation. It won’t always be heavy, but you will build up some endurance, endurance you are going to need to tackle heavier weights. I have applied some of 5/3/1’s supplemental work into what I’m doing now.

What I’m Doing Now

I grew tired of the slow progress of 5/3/1 and found a set-rep scheme on a random website that I’d never thought of: 8x3. In terms of volume, it is only one rep shy of SL 5x5 (5x5=25, 8x3=24). I have taken ideas from these three programs and frankensteined something I’m liking a lot better.

Firstly, I ditched exercises I hate, namely the power clean and the barbell row and I focus on the overhead press, bench press, squat, and deadlift. Right now, I’m focusing on building up my squat and bench so my program might seem a little unbalanced, but that’s on purpose. Its a 4 day a week program, and I’m not really recommending it since I’m just now trying it. Pick one of the other programs.

Heavy Day 1

Light Day

Heavy Day 2

Deadlift day

Repeat

Why does the deadlift get its own day, you may ask? Because deadlifting is extremely taxing, maybe more than all the other lifts put together. Even when it isn’t all that heavy, it is exhausting. When I did 5/3/1 with the Second Set Last template and Boring But Strong, the deadlift became the dreadlift. Further, if you decide to squat and deadlift on the same day, I can guarantee that one lift will hurt the other.

So far, I’m liking it. The prospect of performing eight triples for each lift gives me much more confidence that I’ll complete each set with relative ease rather than grinding out another two reps. For instance, I last squatted 215 for 8x3 and it was almost easy, not near the grind that 5x5 felt like.

Further, I intend to decrease the amount of sets as needed to work up to a true 1 rep maximum. That is, if I feel I cannot complete 8 sets of the bench press, then I’ll do 7 or 6. The point is to keep the weight on the bar increasing on heavy days, and back it off on light days. Alternatively, on light days I might just do fewer sets with the same weight. Yesterday for instance, I overhead pressed 105 for just 3 sets of 3 reps.

Some Practical Suggestions

Use the Web

Use the Internet to find out how to perform these lifts, either Youtube or simply searching around. Alternatively, buy the book Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe.

It’s Gonna Hurt

There’s no getting around it: until you are acclimated to the work you do in the gym, you’re going to be extremely sore. I’ll never forget the day after I squatted for the first time (with the empty bar mind you). It sucks, but if you keep at it your body will get used to it and you won’t feel sore at all. One day, I got greedy and squat 225 for 3x2 just for my ego’s sake, and I really wasn’t all that sore for it. You probably already know some people who lift 3, 4, or even 5 times a week. They couldn’t possibly do that if they were constantly sore. Much like taking cold showers, you will adapt.

Equipment

At least for me, the only critical equipment is a squat rack with safeties, and a bench press. The deadlift is done on the floor, and the overhead press is generally done in the squat rack, but can be done from the floor also. Find a gym that has at least those things and uses proper Olympic or Power Lifting style barbells.

There are a number of lifting helps out there like belts, shirts, grips, and other things. I haven’t needed these yet, and most people probably don’t need them at all. Eventually though, a weight lifting belt comes in handy, but I plan to go as far as possible without using mine.

Set Time for Lifting

Decide when you lift, and stick to it. Make it as much a part of your schedule as anything else. I find the early morning works best for me. Makes for a nice brisk motorcycle ride too.

Clothing

Pretty straightforward: loose fitting athletic clothes like gym shorts and dri-fit shirts.

Shoes

Shoes are surprisingly important. You won’t notice it at first, but especially as your squat gets heavier, your squishy running shoes are going to try to kill you, not to mention sap your strength. Once I got to a 200 pound squat, I realized it was high time I bought some shoes. I went with Converse Chuck Taylor shoes. They’re very flat with no real cushion between you and the floor, just a hard sole. This gives me a much better connection to the floor, which is critical in the squat and deadlift.

You could get weight lifting specific shoes, but most of them have a raised heel which I really did not want. I can squat below parallel without a raised heel so I didn’t see any need for them. Further, I was afraid the raised heel would mess with my deadlift.

Now, if you’re really cool, you lift barefoot. After all, even the best shoes still stand between your feet and the floor. But most gyms frown upon barefoot lifting, so you have to settle somewhere. If I ever have the room to buy my own equipment, I will absolutely barefoot lift like an ancient Greek athlete.

Assistance Exercises

I haven’t really mentioned any assistance moves thus far, but I’ll tell you what I have done.

Diet

I’m not prescribing some special diet here. Use common sense. You can’t build muscle on a diet of buttered rice and twinkies. Eat copious amounts of meat and dairy, and eat enough carbohydrates to not feel totally drained all the time (I speak from experience), but watch the sugar. Fill up on fat as needed. This isn’t music theory or rocket science.

One thing though: don’t even bother with calories right now. If you start getting fat, maybe then you should start watching your calories, but there’s no need to be anal about them now.

Get Lifting

Man is not some predetermined animal like materialists think, nor is he some wishy-washy purely spiritual and intellectual Manichee. He needs both brains and brawn; one without the other makes him less than a man. Don’t neglect your body in favor of your brain or vice versa. Go lift, then go read some Aristotle or something.