Knowledge

Strength Training for Beginners

This article was originally published on the Westside Barbell blog during Craig's time as Director of Education.

What is Strength Training?

When someone asks how to start strength training for beginners, they're jumping over the most important question: what is strength training? The simple answer is an intentional attempt to make yourself stronger, or increase your muscles' ability to do work. This is why working construction, even if it makes you stronger, is not considered strength training — and why someone who spends hours in the gym without results is still doing "strength training." The intention of the action is what makes it "training" as opposed to something that just happens.

Benefits of Strength Training

Basics — Read This If Nothing Else

With a basic plan and some effort you'll transform your body, increase your fitness, and build potential in any physical or athletic activity you choose. You can get these benefits starting with just three days per week if you:

The Westside Barbell Method

Louie Simmons created the Westside Barbell, or Conjugate System, based on decades of Soviet weightlifting research and his own experiments. Over two decades, his methods led to over 140 world records, working with NFL and Special Operations teams, athletes from every imaginable sport, and two Olympic gold medals.

The principles that allow the best in the world to make the fastest progress possible are the same principles that will allow you to do the same. Louie often said that a pyramid was only as tall as its base — without a broad foundation, you'll never progress very far.

Essential Equipment

Home Gym

Commercial Gym — What To Look For

The Big Four Lifts

Accessory Exercises

Within the Westside System, a workout contains a main movement, one or two secondary movements, and accessory work. Accessory exercises ensure every muscle gets appropriate work and that you're not setting up imbalances that lead to injury or poor performance. When you perform the Big Four, you work every muscle in your body — but you don't work them evenly. Accessories address that gap.

Your First Workout Plans

Beginner Weight Training (Bro-Split) — 5 Days

Not optimal — but for a complete beginner, gives wide exposure to different movements and helps you learn what each muscle feels like when worked.

Strength Training For Beginners (Westside-Inspired) — 4 Days

Rotate your first movement every second or third week. Spend six to eight or more weeks on the plan above before jumping into this one.

The Key To Progress: Progressive Overload

Progressive overload is doing more work over time — more weight, more sets, more reps. But doing more only works if you can recover and improve from it. Your body adapts to the stress of a workout by rebuilding a little stronger — but that ability has limits. Push too hard for too long and you end up going backwards.

Two guidelines for safe, efficient progress:

Form Tips for the Big Four

Bench Press

Squat

Overhead Press

Deadlift

Recovery and Rest

Passive Rest: Sleep is your most powerful recovery tool. Sacrificing an hour of sleep for Netflix is the fast track to poor results. Rest days are equally essential — an ancient story tells of a student asking a Kung Fu master how long it would take to achieve mastery. Ten years, said the master. What if I practice twice as much? Fifteen years.

Active Rest: Massage, cupping, dry-needling, foam rolling, hot or cold exposure, and light activity like walking or easy swimming — all work primarily by increasing blood flow to aid recovery and remove waste.

Tracking Progress

The more metrics you have as a starting point, the better. Track your workouts above all else — exercises, sets, reps, and weight — from your very first session.

Setting Realistic Goals

No one knows what's possible for you. Not even you. When Craig first started lifting he weighed 150 lbs at 6'2". Five years later he weighed 300 lbs and was competing professionally in strongman. Not a single person believed that was possible when he started — least of all him.

Set a direction, make the best plan you can, follow it, evaluate results, make small changes, and repeat. Anyone who tells you there is a more exact science to it is lying to you.

As Louie said: "It's ok to fail a lift, but it's never ok to fail to learn."

How To Make Faster Progress

Everyone wants to make faster progress — and there are plenty of people and places trying to sell the dream of "more progress in less time." Most of these are nonsense. But this is math.

What I'm about to share is something I learned from a former strongman turned business coach, Nic Peterson, and it completely transformed the way I approach my goals.

Where Most People Go Wrong

Regardless of the goal, nearly everyone follows the same pattern when falling short. Taking the first week of a new diet as an example:

What To Do Instead

Here's the magic: instead of pushing your nearly perfect days to 100% — what I call raising the ceiling — focus on not doing as badly as you did on your bad days. Raise the floor.

Think back to school. If you had a 90 in math but a 50 in science, which would require more work to improve? Obviously math. The work required to go from 90 to 100 is significant, whereas taking a 50 to a 60 or 65 is comparatively easy. (This is the same reason beginners gain strength much faster than advanced lifters.)

Going into week two and saying "I'm not going to drop below 60% on any day" — just taking Saturday and Sunday to 60% while keeping everything else the same — we end the week at 75.7%. If we make 65% our floor, we end at 77.8%.

These improvements are better than what we'd see pushing our 90% days to 100%. And it's so much easier.

Look at your goals and your plans, and see where you can start raising the floor. It's counterintuitive — but once you experience the difference, you'll never look at progress any other way.

The Best Pull Up Training Plan

The following is the most effective pull-up program I have ever found.

I've tested this program within the military, seeing 30+ soldiers achieve their first double digit pull-ups. I've tested this with female clients, and seen 15+ women achieve their first bodyweight pull-up. I've personally used this program to achieve 20 bodyweight reps weighing over 230 lbs. And this program got my favorite client, Trudy, to 17 full bodyweight pull-ups at 67 years old.

The Program

Pull-up training twice per week, blended into your current workouts on days that make sense.

Day One

Day Two

Important Tips

Bands are better than an assisted machine. Because of the strength curve, you need the most help at the bottom of a pull-up. A machine requires you to set resistance for your weakest position, giving you the same help even when you're stronger near the top. A band stretches — it helps more at the bottom and progressively less as you come up. You get to work more where you're capable, and as a result you get stronger, faster.

Keep your form tight. Don't sacrifice form for an extra rep or pound. It's a slippery slope.

This sounds simple — maybe too simple. Don't let that stop you. The vast majority of people who didn't follow the program told me it was because it didn't seem hard enough. None of them made half as much progress with a "harder" program. And all of them got smashed by Trudy.

A Training Plan For Athletes

When creating a training program for an athlete, there are two essential goals. In order of priority:

  1. Do not make the athlete worse.
  2. Make the athlete better.

To achieve both, one consideration stands above all others: recovery.

Every stressor — physical or psychological — within any training program must justify its recovery cost. With athletes, the bar is raised significantly, because an athlete could be spending that energy on sport-specific work. A boxer could spend 20 units of recovery energy doing seated leg extensions, or they could spend it on the heavy bag. One is significantly more useful — and this weighing of options should be applied to every aspect of a training program.

A program increases in value as the recovery cost shrinks relative to the physical improvements it generates. Regardless of specific performance goals, the following three-day program — developed at Westside Barbell — is incredibly effective at improving every physical quality required for athletic dominance, with a minimal recovery cost relative to the results it produces. To learn more about how to improve these qualities, download the Conjugate Method manual →

Three Day Athletic Training Plan

Exercises are rotated every 3 weeks. Athletes should start on the lower end of sets and reps as they build work capacity.

Day 1 — Full Body Day

Performed for time, with the goal of beating the previous week's time. Small weight increases week to week.

Day 2 — Heavy Lower Body Day

Traditional Westside Max Effort lower body structure — goal is a strength increase on the main movement.

Day 3 — Heavy Upper Body Day

Traditional Westside Max Effort upper body structure — goal is a strength increase on the main movement.

For an inside look at this training program and Craig's personal experience implementing this plan: Watch Here →

The Right Way To Train

There is a lesson I learned from Louie Simmons which I reflect on frequently: there is only one right way to do anything. Other ways, or even variations, might work — but there is only one way that is most correct. In the world of fitness and strength, everyone is searching for this one true way.

What's interesting about this lesson — outside of the standard it imposes on application — is the importance of context. As I scroll through social media I see advice touting the results of a particular program or diet as proof of its efficacy. Results are not meaningless — but just because Sally lost weight a particular way doesn't mean Sara will as well.

There is a right way for you to achieve your goals, but there is nothing resembling the right way. The search for "the" way will only delay you from finding a right way for you.

On a personal note: I know you don't want to hear this. I know this — and there are times I still find myself ignoring it, or wishing it wasn't true. But the more often you can operate with this in mind, the more progress you'll make — towards any and every goal you care about.

"Core" Training

When it comes to training your core, there are hundreds of exercise options. All of them work in the sense that they stress the appropriate muscles — but some are significantly more beneficial than others.

Transmission

The goal with core training in any area of performance is to enhance transmission — and there are two ways this occurs.

Static transmission is the transfer of force. A strong core allows a lifter to maintain optimal torso position and transfer the maximum ability of the lower body into the barbell. A weak core results in the hips rising faster than the chest, a rounding of the back, and substandard performance or injury. In static transmission, your core functions like the load-bearing supports of a building — the only good movement is none.

Dynamic transmission is different. Picture a boxer throwing a powerful cross. It appears the athlete is generating power from their midsection — but power is initially generated in the lower body, and this torque is transmitted into the upper body and delivered via a fist. In dynamic transmission, your core functions as a conductor. The optimal result is that zero power is "leaked" while movement occurs.

Despite the observable differences in movement, static and dynamic transmission serve the same function — and understanding this is essential for selecting optimal exercises.

The Most Effective Core Exercises

  1. Plank (or Side Plank): Considered basic, but the foundation for establishing static transmission strength.
  2. Ab Wheel: A perfect exercise to build dynamic transmission strength.
  3. TRX Planks: Performed with feet suspended in a TRX or hands in the handles. Build both static and dynamic strength.
  4. Hyper Extension Static Abs: A staple at Westside Barbell. Can be used for static transmission, or with a medicine ball throw to build dynamic transmission strength. See a demonstration →
  5. Paused Front Squats: Highly effective for static transmission strength. Performed with a narrow stance and upright torso.

Intermediate Routine For Size and Strength

Powerbuilding describes a training program that builds strength (from powerlifting) and muscular size (from bodybuilding). It was popularized and, I believe, mastered by Josh Bryant — whose accolades include being the youngest lifter to bench press 600 lbs, America's Strongest Man, and coach to hundreds of national and world record holders, including the current world record bench press holder Julius Maddox.

Josh is also one of my most impactful mentors and was my coach when I became a professional strongman. The following routine, inspired by lessons from Josh, is an extremely effective program for intermediate lifters. Past the intermediate level, personalization and a targeted attack on weaknesses become increasingly important.

Program Structure

Day 1 — Upper Body

Day 2 — Deadlift

Day 3 — Upper Body

Day 4 — Squat

Example Week

Day 1 — Upper Body

Day 2 — Deadlift

Day 3 — Upper Body

Day 4 — Squat

Important Notes

Why People Fail

There is one reason most people fail when they set out to achieve a goal: poor planning. Motivation, discipline, and consistency are second-order consequences of poor planning. Consider an employee with low motivation and consistency. If they were told their salary would increase 50x if they immediately changed — do you think they'd still have a deficit of motivation?

Everyone who starts a diet or workout routine and quits in the stereotypical 3–6 weeks does so because what they thought they were paying (via effort and sacrifice) didn't match what they believed they were buying (results). Going back to our employee example, this is someone who gives their best effort and finds pennies in their paycheck.

Step 1 — Understand Your Goal

Have a clear picture of what you want to achieve, and an understanding of why it matters. Ask "why" repeatedly until you reach the real reason. Determining what matters most about the goal allows you to home in on exactly what your target should be — something essential for cultivating motivation and discipline as natural byproducts.

Step 2 — Understand Where You Are

To use a GPS effectively you need two things: where you'd like to go, and where you currently are. Before moving forward, articulate in clear and measurable ways what the "gaps" are between where you are now and your desired end state. Simple, but imperative.

Step 3 — Understand The Routes

Once you've identified your goal and starting point, you're prompted to choose a route. The normal reaction is to choose the fastest one — but with goals this is more complicated. The fastest route might require driving through a mile of unpaved, pot-holed mud. If you're in a lifted truck, take it. If you're in a lowered sports car, that choice might cost you an hour and a tow truck. These considerations are the equivalent of recognizing the realities of your vehicle — your body and your genetics.

Step 4 — Put It Together

Is this possible? Despite what motivational gurus say, some goals are not possible. A very difficult goal is not impossible and should never be categorized as such. Conversely, a truly impossible goal is a stupid thing to chase.

Am I willing to do what it takes? The answer does not have to be yes. There are times I've seriously considered returning to professional strongman, worked through each of these steps, and realized I'd need to gain at least 80 lbs — something that's possible, but not something I'm willing to do. It's better to adjust the goal to a level that allows you to be honest — most of all with yourself.

Step 5 — Choose A Plan

Once you've completed the preceding steps, the right plan of action becomes obvious. Every option is no longer weighed by how "good" it sounds or by the results it's getting someone else — it's judged by the standards you've created. This produces maximal results and eliminates the reason most people fail.

Take this, and go do something great.

What Is Conjugate Training

"Conjugate" is a term that is misused and often misunderstood. Here's what it actually means — and a key element you can integrate into your own training.

What Is Conjugate

Conjugate, in its most simple form, is the idea that you can train for multiple goals at the same time. This exists in contrast to a "Linear" or "Western" approach, where you train focused on one goal — like strength — before transitioning to another, like power or speed.

The most famous implementation comes from Westside Barbell. Because of this, "Conjugate" is often associated with powerlifting, bands, and chains. These things are part of the Westside approach — but they are not synonymous with the term itself. A Conjugate approach can be taken towards any multi-faceted goal. The only requirement is that within the same program, you're moving towards a minimum of two specific metrics you're aiming to improve.

This does not mean every workout needs to focus on multiple goals. Within the Westside system the focus is on strength, hypertrophy, and explosive power — trained on four days per week with an upper and lower body focus.

Two Birds — One Stone

Because a Conjugate approach includes multiple goals, you must allocate sufficient work towards each — while not exceeding the total work you can recover from. As you consider each of your goals, search for overlap between them. For example, if you want more muscular legs and a faster 100m sprint, hamstring hypertrophy serves both goals — and making it a priority lets you progress towards both with a single training stimulus.

This type of thinking inspires critical analysis of your needs, avoids overtraining, and eliminates progress-killing errors. Conjugate training works for everyone willing to think. Get the full Conjugate Method manual →

What Is Accommodating Resistance (And How To Use It)

"I didn't invent toilet paper, but I'm smart enough to use it." — Louie Simmons

Louie didn't invent accommodating resistance — but ask someone about the Westside Method and you'll hear about the bands and chains. Despite massive adoption, very few people truly understand the purpose of accommodating resistance, how it's used, or what it even "accommodates."

What Does Accommodating Resistance Accommodate?

Accommodating Resistance — often called "variable resistance" in textbooks — was given its name because it accommodates the strength curve. The strength curve describes the change in difficulty on an exercise as you move through the range of motion.

Imagine a squat: you can quarter squat more than you can half squat, and half squat more than you can full squat. The same thing happens on a bench press, a leg curl, even a bicep curl. Your position becomes less and less advantageous as you move through the range of motion — until you reach the bottom, then begins to reverse as you stand back up.

Bands accommodate this by shortening as you lower a weight, providing less resistance at the bottom. Chains have a similar function, collecting on the floor and being lightest at the bottom. As you begin to lift, they slowly add more resistance until you reach the full range of motion. They accommodate the natural change in your strength through a range of motion, and match it.

Why Should You Use Accommodating Resistance?

Getting More From Every Rep

For most of the range of motion during a lift, you can handle more weight than you can at your weakest position — the bottom. But adding even slightly more than you can handle at the bottom means you get squished. Accommodating resistance allows you to load the stronger portions of the movement without failing at the bottom, getting as much possible work out of every single rep. That's something bars and plates simply cannot do.

Building Power and Explosiveness

If you want to be explosive, you need to lift explosively. But if you squat or bench press with full acceleration using standard weights, you'll lose control of the bar near the top. Any weight you can accelerate quickly at the bottom will be too light to continue accelerating at the top without losing control — unless that weight gets heavier over the range of motion. Accommodating resistance allows for exactly that, enabling you to train for genuine explosive power.

Using Accommodating Resistance

Within the Westside System, the Dynamic Effort Method is where accommodating resistance is used most prevalently — allowing athletes to train speed and power with submaximal loads while achieving maximum muscular recruitment throughout the full range of motion. Read more from Westside expert Burley Hawk →

A Scientific Approach To Training

Regardless of the goal, a correctly implemented Conjugate plan is incredibly effective. Applied incorrectly — Conjugate training can be a waste of time. The key to using the Conjugate system correctly is approaching progress in training with the same system used in science.

The Formula: P1 → I → T → P2

You start with a Problem (P1). For example: you miss your deadlifts at knee height.

From here you move to Idea (I) — your best idea to solve the problem. You could think it's a form issue, a hamstring weakness, or a lower back weakness. Consider all ideas and pick the best one. If you can't choose, pick the one that's easiest to test. Let's say we've decided it's either a technical problem or a lower back weakness. Between the two, lower back weakness is easiest to test.

That brings us to Test (T). Within a Conjugate program, Max Effort day is the place to experiment. You could test the lower back weakness theory with a good morning variation or a low box squat with a safety squat bar.

Once you test, you have two potential outcomes — both are useful. You might find your lower back is genuinely weak. Or you might find it isn't. Regardless, you're now at the final step: new Problems (P2). If your lower back is weak, your new problem is figuring out how to fix it. If it's not weak, your new problem is moving to your next best idea. Either way, you start the sequence over.

The Key To Progress

This simple formula is the key to achieving your goals with a Conjugate System — and ignoring it is the fast track to failure. Conjugate training works for everyone willing to think.

The hundreds of articles written by Louie Simmons contain the answers to every training puzzle imaginable — but remember his warning: you can give the keys to the universe to a million people, but only one might actually unlock the door.

10 Things I Learned At Westside Barbell

This article was Craig's first published work. It was featured in MuscleMag in 2011 — and it was through negotiating pre-payment that he was able to fund his first trip to Westside Barbell.

I love strength. For the last four years the pursuit of size and strength consumed me. During that time I gained 140 lbs (from 150 to 290) and hit some decent lifts — squatting 600, deadlifting 650, and overhead pressing 365. But I realized that if I wanted to get really strong, I needed to learn from people who've already achieved extreme strength. That idea led me to Westside Barbell, the most bad-ass, strong-as-hell gym in the world.

To give you an idea of how strong the lifters at Westside are: the gym has been home to 33 men who've benched 700 lbs, eight who've benched 800, two who've benched 900, 17 who've squatted 1000, and six who've squatted 1100. Louie Simmons is one of only five lifters in history to achieve an elite total in five weight classes, and the only man to ever squat over 900, bench 600, and deadlift over 700 at over 50 years of age.

1. Singles build reps; reps don't build singles.

Want to get strong? Lift heavy. If you want a lift to skyrocket, you have to push it sky high by going all out for one rep. Reps have a place in your training, but you'll never build unbridled strength unless you're regularly chasing your 1RM in the major lifts.

2. Turn up the volume for size.

Higher rep schemes are a really important growth tool. Performing major compound lifts in low rep ranges will add size — but if growth is your goal, you'll still need volume work. Performing more reps on single-joint movements increases total training volume, which is the key to igniting growth.

3. Always consider the source.

When I asked Louie about advice I'd read on a weightlifting forum, he told me that if I wanted something useful to do with my computer, I should use it as a weight for sled pulls. There's a ton of faulty information out there. Go with books, magazines, and websites from trustworthy sources.

4. Attack every rep.

There's a flag hanging at Westside that reads "Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out." A lot of lifters never make progress because they think limping through a proven program is enough. The ingredient they're missing is all-out mental effort. Add serious intensity to your workouts and you'll be shocked by the results.

5. Embrace the things you hate.

We all have movements we hate. Focusing on your strengths won't get you anywhere. To make progress, embrace the things you usually avoid because of how much you suck at them. Improve your least favorite lifts and you'll be amazed at the strength you've gained when you return to your favorites.

6. Quit once and you're a quitter.

It's a long, hard road to building a big body and big lifts — but it's a crappy road without them. Everyone has ups and downs, but as long as you don't quit, you'll always be further ahead than the person who gave up.

7. Imitate before you innovate.

Want to know how to be great at something? Find the best in the world at what you want to do and mimic them. Someone has already blazed a trail straight to your goal. Benefit from their mastery before you worry about blazing your own trail.

8. There's only one right way to do something; everything else is a variation.

Are you lifting with perfect form? Is your program as good as it can possibly be? I guarantee you can't answer yes to all of those questions. Fix the basic things you're not getting right before you worry about fine-tuning less significant aspects.

9. Yesterday's training brings yesterday's results.

Are you doing the same weights, sets, and reps workout after workout while expecting your body to change? Fix it. Keep a log and make sure you're progressing with every workout. No other athlete in any other sport trains the same as their predecessors did 30 years ago — why should strength athletes?

10. Sometimes you just need to get stronger.

Lifters are always looking for the next trick or tweak — but sometimes there's nothing to fix, you just need to get stronger. I saved this for last because it was the most important thing I learned at Westside. I'm guilty of not making progress simply because I was too worried about my program and jumped around from system to system without giving anything a fair try. Don't make this mistake. Find the best program you can and commit to giving it 100% for a couple of months before second-guessing your results.