2765: How to Start with Strength Training as a Beginner

0:00If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind pump, Mind Pump with your hosts, Sal DiStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. In today's episode, we talk about strength training as a beginner. How do you get started? By the way, we have a program designed specifically for beginners who want to try strength training. It's called MAPS Starter. And right now, for this episode, it's half off. Go to MAPSFitnessProducts.com. Use the code NEWYEAR50 for that discount.

0:38Now, this episode is brought to you by one of our sponsors, Element. This is an electrolyte powder you can add to your water, no sugar or no artificial sweeteners. That's high enough in sodium to make a difference. Most electrolyte powders don't have enough sodium. This is 1 ,000 milligrams per serving. What do you notice from it? Better pumps, more energy, especially if you had a whole foods diet or a low-carb diet. Everybody, if you have a low-carb diet, you need to add more sodium to your diet. Element is a great way to do it. Go to drinkelementtea.com forward slash Mind Pump. On that link, you'll get a free sample pack of their most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase.

1:16All right? All right, real quick. If you love us like we love you, why not show up by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear over at mindpumpstore.com? I'm talking right now. Hit pause. Head on over to mindpumpstore.com. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the show. By now, you probably know that strength training is an incredible way to exercise. The data proves it. It's a great way to burn body fat, of course, build muscle and strength, speed up the metabolism. It's also now been shown to be one of the most effective ways of exercise for longevity and health. You want to live a long time and you want to be healthy for a long time?

1:53Strength train. Here's the problem. It's a bit complicated. So what we're going to do in today's episode, we're going to talk about how to get started with strength training. If you haven't done it before or it's been a long time, we're going to break it down so you can do it the right way and get the best results. Before you get started, maybe Doug can look up some numbers for us. It would be really cool to – let's give a prediction on – because it's the new year right now, right? So what does this year's flow of traffic and people getting into fitness – always January is – everyone's coming back to New Year's resolution.

2:27It's always a top two New Year's resolution. and so do you guys predict the highest rate of people strength training than before like what's your take on that it's gonna be an uptick a little bit right yeah after coming back from all the covid stuff and then people getting back to the gyms i feel like there's energy in that direction yeah well what the the last few years um what's that magazine is it ursha uh that yeah they report like fitness trends and strength training for the last few years have been at the top like traditional strength training, whereas before it was other forms of exercise, Zumba, Pilates, yoga, whatever.

3:05Traditional strength training is gaining a lot of popularity. Part of that is because, well, it's taken time for people to really figure out that it's such an effective form of exercise. But the other reason, I think this is the big one, is we now have the medical community promoting it. All the data is coming back showing that if you want to improve your longevity. If you want to reduce your risk of dying, your risk of cancer, reduce your risk of breaking a bone or just frailty, strength training is at the top. When you consider the amount of time you need to commit to it versus the return, for sure it's at the top.

3:47It requires little time to produce significant results in comparison to other forms of exercise. But you've had a lot of doctors now like dr gabriel lyon who yeah who preaches uh strength training um and its popularity among women has exploded and now what we're seeing is uh in people in older populations are really starting to adopt it but it's different in the past because in the past people would say strength training but it wasn't strength training it was just using weights and there's a difference right you could use weights in a way that's not strength training like a like a class or a circuit style workout.

4:24It's really more like cardio than it is strength training. Strength training is a very, has a very, there's a very clear way to do it. It's typically straight sets with rest in between sets with the goal of building muscle and building strength, not endurance, not stamina, although you'll gain some of those as a side effect, but it's literally a form of exercise that the goal is let's get stronger, let's build muscle, and then all the downstream effects of I wonder, though, too, if like Ozempic and all that had a massive impact in terms of the messaging going forward from here, too, because it's not just about losing weight.

5:00And I think that's been stressed for so long is like you just got to lose weight and everything, you know, your health markers and all this. It was not the case. People are finding they lose the weight, they'll stall the plateau. They keep going and they're going to be in an unhealthy place. And so I think the, you know, the tide, hopefully now people are understanding like muscles is a vital part of this whole process. And the only way to really build and develop muscle is to strength train. Okay. I didn't even think about that, Justin, that you just brought that. Did I tell you this? I don't know if I told you this off air.

5:31I was hanging out with, I won't say the names, but old friends of ours that go back to our early 20s and stuff. All like meathead guys, not gym, not fitness guys. like they're not personal trainers or didn't work in the gym industry but kind of meathead dudes lifted forever and stuff like that and we all used all of us used to hang out in our 20s there was five of them and their wives and we hadn't seen each other in like probably some of them's like at 10 years and we all got together and had a barbecue and everything like that uh getting caught up find out all five guys plus all five wives all in ozempic yeah i was so blown away and the just the amount of people that are just getting on it just to lose weight as a or using it as a strategy these are because we're not talking about anybody in this group is obese at all like most of them you know 15 maybe maybe 20 pounds need to lose what like that so it was really interesting for me to see somebody in my men within my immediate circle like that that are going down this pathway and so that it makes me ask what you were just alluding to justin is are we going to see a rise in strength training or because of you think it will?

6:41That's a big part, yeah, because doctors are recommending it because GLP-1 is one of the main mechanisms through which they work that make you lose weight. One of the main mechanisms is they reduce your appetite significantly. So you drop your food intake and you're going to lose weight, but the way the body adapts to that is it pairs muscle down because it tries to lower your metabolic rate to meet the new caloric intake. So if you are eating low calories, you'll lose weight until your body learns how to burn those low calories. And that's it. Then you'll stop losing weight. You'll plateau. And then you keep losing weight.

7:13You have to eat even less. And so what they're finding in the data with the GLP-1 is what you would expect if you just ate less and didn't strength train. A significant percentage of the weight is muscle. So it's like 40 % in some of these studies of the weight is muscle. And so doctors are like, we got to stop this because number one, you'll lose weight, but you'll lose muscle, which isn't good because muscle is a longevity tissue. So it's a longevity organ. We know this. In fact, some of the best studies or best ways to predict all-cause mortality are related to muscle. They're strength tests.

7:44Like a grip strength test is one now that they're saying is a gold standard single test that will predict all-cause mortality. It's connected to muscle. It's just how strong you are with your grip, which is a proxy for overall body strength. But if you lose muscle, the weight loss will plateau because your metabolism slows down. And also, you lose enough muscle, you're not in a better place. No. Now you're underweight. You're frail, brittle, and yeah, you're going to have all kinds of problems. So they're recommending traditional strength training as a result. So it's just gaining popularity in that regard.

8:17But also, one or two days a week of strength training, proper strength training, gets you a lot of results. It really does. If you want a bang for your buck form of exercise, strength training does it better than anything. And it's not because it burns a lot of calories. This is where people will sometimes debate this. Well, an hour once a week or even two hours a week, one hour once a week. Yeah, it's not a lot of calories. If you compare strength training like running, it doesn't burn that many calories. So what are you talking about? How can this possibly produce great results? It's not the calorie burn.

8:51It's how it changes the body. It's the adaptations it induces. And then those adaptations, what do those do for your health and your body? As you build muscle, you speed up your metabolism. So your body learns to burn more calories on its own. You also improve insulin sensitivity. You also make your testosterone more effective because you increase androgen receptor density, meaning where your testosterone attaches to. It has more places. Studies also show it can raise testosterone reliably, at least in comparison to other forms of exercise. It's great for skin. It's great for joint health. If done properly, it's the best.

9:29Mobility. I mean, lack of mobility is almost always a result of just either tightness, which is weakness, or just weakness. So it's this great form of exercise. The challenge, however, is in the complexity, right? So like riding a bike, basic, swimming, basic, you know, do a class, listen to the instructor. Well, strength training is individualized and there's like a million and one exercises. How do I know how to do it right? Do I just go in there and beat myself up? So this is typically the challenge. Well, you bring up how much does, you know, do people need? I also think that this is one of the biggest mistakes in the new year that's made right here.

10:06Yes. Is many people will come out of the holidays and, you know, enter into January, New Year's resolution. top two resolution almost always and highly motivated, right? You feel the dark. Yeah. You did all the eating and the enjoying and the vacation. Okay. Now it's back to work and everything else going in my life. And it's now here's my new year's resolution. And so people, people often overcommit themselves to a plan that sets them up for failure. Not only is it, and then, and I can't help but think during this time of like the introduction of these GLP ones. So you have people that are already eating less food, right?

10:46And then in addition to that, they come off of a layoff because of the holidays and they're like, okay, time to turn it up. And they turn it up while simultaneously reducing these calories. And it really sets up you for failure. I mean, maybe in the immediate week or two, you see weight loss, but eventually a hard plateau. And then this is where people get, I'd argue that this is one of the number one reasons why no one follows through on their resolution. A hundred percent. So, so the question, how much do I need? Well, number one, strength training needs to be appropriate for you. Okay. So if you're a beginner, you don't need much to get the body to move in the right direction.

11:25And anything beyond that doesn't get you to move there any faster. That's the most important part of what I'm about to say. It's not just that the right amount gets you great results. It's that more than the right amount gets you worse results. Now, why is that? because strength training is a stress on the body. It sends a signal that says, we need more muscle, we need more strength. But part of sending that signal is the stress and stress causes damage that you need to heal from and then adapt to. And if you're just getting started, you don't need much. And above and beyond that means you're going to, your body's going to spend more time healing than it will to adapting.

12:01And so you just get sore, you get beat up, you go back to the gym, but you don't ever really progress much. What strength training does it causes measurable strength gains. This is how you know that it's really working and you don't need much. Here's what the data shows. Two days a week of strength training will get you 80 % of all the results you can ever expect from strength training. So think of the best possible shape you could get from strength training. You'll get 80 % of the way there with two days a week. Now that doesn't mean that your body, your workouts are going to change or are not going to change in that two days a week or not.

12:34That's, you're progressing by adding weight to the bar, getting stronger, making things a little harder, but you don't need to add more days for a long time. Three days a week gets you close to 90 % of all the results that you would ever get from strength training. No other forms of exercise really produce this. That's good news for most people because most people, I mean, you know, having daunting as you think it is having, you know, scheduled time to work out the most we could ever really demand from people for the rest of their life is a couple of days a week. This is my experience training people.

13:05Most people are not fitness fanatics. So let's, and again, the good news is that's plenty. That's going to get you a great result. I mean, I would argue it's more than enough, especially at the beginning. I mean, I'm in the middle of, you know, I've been off now this layoff, right? So after I went through all my stuff, it's been, I think I'm coming up on 45 days. I'm back in the rhythm of things. And, you know, I'm always reminded when, and you're talking about it, this is like a 30-day layoff. I'm not like six months or a year or a bit. Or 10 years. Yeah, yeah. It's a slight layoff, but it's a layoff, right, of not hitting my protein consistently and not lifting consistently.

13:42So I'm back into that rhythm again. And I'm always just reminded of how little I have to do, even in those couple days that I go to the gym, to elicit some sort of change. I mean, it's just – I was deadlifting, 135. you know 135 is like what i would consider a non-set or a warm-up set in the past and three sets of that and my hamstrings are sore for like three days and so it's just this reminder of like and i know and it's hard because especially being a dude who's lifted a lot more weight than that on the bar i'm lifting it going like i know i can lift way more than this but i'm also reminding myself yeah but you haven't deadlifted it in a while it's like you're gonna progress yeah and I'm going to progress.

14:25Like it's like, I'll next week I'll slap on another 10 pounds or whatever. And then we can, and then so reminding people that are getting back into the swing of things, not only is two to three days going to get you 80 % of the results, even allowing yourself to progress up to those like two full hour workouts or so is like, okay. In fact, probably more ideal for people. That's right. You brought up warming up. So let's talk a little bit about what this would kind of look like for people getting started. you want to have a smart priming session in the beginning of your strength training workout and i use the word priming on purpose so we could call it a warm-up so everybody knows what warm-up is right you go in and get the body warmed up helps prevent injury but priming is a little different priming is very specific priming gets my body to move in the right way so that when i do my strength training, my joints are moving optimally sequence of firing.

15:19That's right. And this can be quite individual. So a good example would be, um, I'm going to do, let's say a barbell squat more kind of an advanced exercise, but let's just say this, we're going to start. And let's say for me holding the bar on my back is difficult. I don't have the shoulder mobility. I can't really bring my shoulders back and get in that position. My priming is going to be to activate those muscles so that when I get into the bar to do my set right off the gates, I feel good. Or let's say I have a little bit of knee pain or ankle pain or hip pain or back pain, my priming is going to target the areas that I need.

15:50So when I get into my workout, I get into my workout and I feel good. And the reduction of injury is just the, that's the, that's the bar above and beyond that, the better connection, better results, better movement patterns. Essentially my sets are far more effective because I'm going in feeling great and my body's moving away. It's just a smarter approach. And it's just something that like we hope people evolve into this. And, you know, the warmup itself was always stressed us. We're like, ah, you know, like we kind of dismiss it. But, you know, even just getting that blood flow does have some impact.

16:21But like to be specific and, you know, think of those positions like you're going to be in through your workout and set yourself up and go through those sequences and contract those muscles, really feel your way through that just a little bit just to get them lit up and then get into your workout makes a massive difference. I think the reason why people have been so eh about the warm-up is that because typically the warm-up used to be this, you know. Just aimless. Yeah, aimless, jumping jack, windmill, get on an elliptical. Which is a little better than nothing. Yeah, just a little bit though.

16:54And I think that's why. Flapping your arms. And I think that there, you know, I know we've tried our best to like really communicate priming, but I still think there's a lot there for us to continue to talk about. because we still get it within our own community. I see it in our private form sometime where someone will ask a question like, hey, what are the best exercises for me to prime before I do a bench press? And the answer to that is like, it depends on the person. It depends on exactly what's going on with them. And it's not per exercise, it's per person. Yeah. That like the way the warm-ups are.

17:28Well, here's what we're gonna, here's what we're gonna do. Just so, because if you're listening to this and you just want some good examples, I'll give you one for lower body and one for upper body that generally works well for a lot of people. And we have free videos on this on our YouTube channel. A wall press is great for upper body exercises. Most people need that kind of priming. And then a 90-90 is a great way to prime. I would agree. For lower body exercises. So we have free videos on that on our YouTube channel. We'll make sure we link. Can't go wrong with those two. And you could do those.

17:56And it'd take you five minutes, and then you get into your exercise. It makes a big difference. I totally agree with that. Because even though that's a general statement, I would argue that 90 plus percent of my clients would benefit from both. Those are mine. Yeah. Those are the ones I've been in the same thing. So I think that if you were to give out two generic type of movements, one for lower body, one for upper body, that is probably going to benefit most all people. So those are two for totally. All right. Let's talk a little bit about the stability ball. So I, you know, I've been in the space.

18:28All three of us have been in the space for a long time. So remember, we remember when they became a big thing. These are the yoga balls, right? The big, big inflatable balls. And people went crazy with them. They got so popular. People were doing everything with them, which took them outside of what they were good for and then started applying them in areas that weren't necessary. But there's a lot of value with stability balls, especially for beginners. For beginners, I love stability balls because they require you to maintain good posture, maintain good technique, keep your elbows under your hands, keep your shoulders in right alignment.

19:02because if you don't have good posture and activation, you'll fall off the ball. A bench doesn't do this, right? If I sit on a bench, I'm leaning on the bench. I'm using the bench. But if I have, I'll give an example. You can cheat a lot. Like just a traditional shoulder press. If I have someone sit on a bench with the back up, they're going to lean up on the bench and do the shoulder press. But if I have someone sit on a physio ball, well, you have to like balance, stabilize, activate my core. My elbow has to stay under my hand because if my hand goes in front of me, I'll roll back. And it just encourages better technique.

19:31So stability balls for beginners are great. Like this is what you should use for a lot of your bench exercises. Yeah, especially anything laying down that you'd normally do on a bench. It's such a better way to train that even leg drive for bench. Yes. If you can activate your legs and anchor yourself into the ground or like really use your glutes to kind of help support a rigid body, like all of that contributes to the overall strength output. So it's like, two, it teaches you to be more stabilized, secure, and it translates so well to anything else you're going to do. Well, it addresses stability, balance, and core.

20:13We just did an episode recently where you talked about the five ways for all-cause mortality. Yeah, the five tests. Yeah, the five tests. And one of those is balance. And so it was a staple go-to first thing that I use as a tool with almost all of my clients when we started a program is to address core, stability, posture, all those things are benefited from that. And I agree with you. It's one of those tools that unfortunately got bastardized. and then we kind of like threw the baby without the with the bathwater type of deal where it was like oh this is stupid people are balancing on it on their feet and squatting and doing ridiculous stuff on it so all of a sudden it became this tool that trainers talk shit about and then unfortunately then the general pop goes oh yeah no those things are dumb i heard people talk about it my trainer told me about how stupid those are it's like no it's an incredible tool it's just been used improperly for so long.

21:10But when I think back to a client who's getting started, especially in the beginning of the year, coming off a layoff or have never started before, stability ball is 100 % in our training program. It puts you in better position and better form. It just does. It just kind of forces it. So it's a great tool. The plus side of it is it's inexpensive. So it's way less expensive than a bench. So if you're just getting started, like, what do I do? Physio ball, dumbbells, like you're set. It's actually a better way to strength train when you first get started. Later on, you can use benches. But when you're first, especially the first few months, stability ball is the way to go.

21:46The next thing to really understand about this is because people will say, well, how do I measure progress? Is it by the mirror? Is it by the scale? I mean, you can measure progress with those. But the best way to measure progress is strength with strength training. I mean, I know it sounds funny, but you would be surprised at how many people don't even pay attention to this. They get started on a strength training program. They do it for six months and they've used the same weight the whole time. Yeah. If you're getting stronger, if you could lift more or do more reps, you are moving in the right direction.

22:18And the visible effects of that will follow. It's a trail. So what you first see is strength gains, strength gains, strength gains. Then the body starts to visibly change and follows that. If you continue to get, over a three-month period, if you're just getting started to do this right, you'll get stronger consistently for a while. But definitely for the first three months, your body will look different so long as you continue to get stronger. That's the thing you should aim for. I've been trying to communicate this with some of my family that are doing like an at-home dumbbell type of routine and trying to wrap my brain around why this tends to be pretty common.

22:53one of the things i think i've narrowed it down to is it for sure one i don't think this is all encompassing but i definitely think this is one of them is that they'll open up like let's say a mass program and it'll say you know 10 or 12 or 15 reps it calls for and so they choose a way that they know that they can get to get to that many reps and they're so hung up on getting to 12 reps or like that and so they just choose a way that they they feel confidently they can always do that and hope in hoping and thinking that instead of challenging instead of challenging themselves and And so the thing that I find myself communicating a lot, at least to family and friends that are running one of our programs and they see that, is giving them the permission of, hey, if last week you did that with 15-pound weights and you're back to that exercise again, maybe try 20, and it's okay if you only get nine reps.

23:40Yes. It's okay. Challenge yourself. Yes, exactly. Trying to get stronger is so important, and part of getting stronger is challenging yourself with the weight, it's more important than getting to the exact rep that you're programmed. And so I don't know about you guys, but that's something that I have found is really common. And it's like this light bulb goes off and I'm like, oh, I thought I had to get to that 10 or 12. And so I was just worried that I wasn't sure if I could get there where it's like, yeah, go ahead and put five more pounds on or 10 more pounds on. And if you're in the goal is to aim for 12 and you fall short and you get nine, that's okay.

24:14It's like, I'd rather you push the strength and do that than to pick a weight you know you're always going to get 12 at. And I think that's one of the most common things. Agreed, 100%. All right, so next is daily movement. We got to talk about this because for two reasons. One, if you're listening to this, you may be thinking to yourself, but I thought I needed to do something every day. The study shows or the studies show that daily activity is really good for me. That is true. What we're talking about is structured strength training. A couple days a week, you're great. you know, three days a week, amazing.