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Blog, Motivation

Beginners Primer- Start Getting Strong Today!

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First off let me give credit to the tagline in the image for this article, that line belongs to Mark Rippetoe and it is the name of his famous book “Starting Strength.” I am not affiliated with him or the book in any way but you should definitely check it out if you’re think about getting stronger.

Now to the nuts and bolts of this article. I am assuming that if you’re following this site/blog that you are interested in getting stronger, and probably getting stronger in general as opposed to competing in powerlifting or weightlifting. The focus of the majority of my content is going to be about general strength and athleticism. There are plenty of great websites out there specific to bodybuilding/powerlifting and weightlifting. many of which will be mentioned and quoted here but my main focus is general strength as opposed to competing in a strength sport. This article is going to be a quick primer so to speak of some of the things I would recommend if you are new to this pursuit.

Now to it. Here is my advice for a beginner:

  1. Get Started-If you are completely new to the gym as opposed to a person transitioning from another sport or type of weight training my first piece of advice is to get started. That sounds so simple and that’s because it is that simple. The first step is to get started with going to the gym and making it first a habit and secondly a point of enjoyment.  A lot of why people hate the gym or are apprehensive at first is because it’s new to them and they are unfamiliar with the equipment and movements and they feel out of place among all the avid gym goers. The first simple step is to go to a good gym, meaning a gym with free weights, and walk around and get a feel for things, talk with other members and become more familiar with the setting. Every person in that gym was a beginner at one point so they all know how you feel and most will be happy to answer questions or provide help. Don’t be afraid to approach them, just be careful about when you decide to as the middle of a hard set is probably the wrong time.  The second part of this is establishing a habit of going to the gym. In the very beginning it doesn’t matter at all what you do in the gym, just get in there and start getting in there consistently. It’s easy to skip the gym for lots of reasons but after a while it really becomes hard to skip a workout or leave once YOU ARE ALREADY IN THE GYM. Getting there is the first step and once you’re there it’s just easier to rationalize working out rather then leaving and wasting a trip. Get to the gym!
  2.  Use a Proven Plan-After you’ve found a gym and become familiar with it and started cultivating a habit of going it is now time for my second point of advice: Use a proven plan. There will come a time when your own specific needs will dictate a plan of your own design but now is not that time. There are just too many trainers and coaches who have dedicated whole careers to proving what works to ignore their work. You are not a special snowflake, barring some unique physical abnormality you are just like every other person who has ever begun lifting weights. Make it easy on your self and use what has been proven to work. Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength is a good one, Wendler’s 531 is another, Bigger, Faster, Stronger is another, Stronglifts 5×5, Bill Starr’s 5×5 and on and on. These are proven plans that consist of the best overall movements for building strength and muscle and the best part for you is that they are simple to learn and require a minimum amount of equipment. The temptation to customize a plan is to be avoided at all costs especially during this stage. Worrying about big arms or calves when you can’t even squat your own bodyweight is foolish and short sighted. It’s a much better investment of your time and effort to get really strong first, then work on anything that has lagged after that point. Establishing a good base line using a simple beginner program is going to be the best bang for your buck.
  3. Set Goals-This is a crucial point because this helps provide the glue that holds your motivation and mindset together. Pick a specific goal, most likely in this instance it’s a strength goal, but it could be a specific weight loss goal, or another performance goal or even a physique goal. I remember my first physique goal and it was to be like Bruce Lee from enter the dragon. Bruce Lee was ripped and athletic and most importantly, attainable. In that movie he weighed 127 pounds and at that time in my life I weighed about 112 pounds, so ripped at 127 was an attainable goal which is a point I’ll address later. The goal needs to be specific. I absolutely hate the goal of “getting in shape.” What the hell is “in shape?” At what point are you in shape? Another one is “I want to get toned” Again, what the hell is toned? When are you toned enough? The goal needs to be specific so you know when you achieve it. An ambiguous goal is much easier to slack on once you realize that you can change the definition in your mind to suit your current level of fitness, or strength or whatever. If your goal is to bench press 300 pounds then you know exactly when you have reached it and then hopefully, you reevaluate and make new goals afterwards. These points are not numbered and listed in order of importance as your goals may dictate what plan you decide to choose, or what gym you have access to may dictate your goals at first.
  4. Manageable-This is my last point and it goes hand in hand with points 3 and 1, make things manageable. This goes hand in hand with point number one. Just like going to the gym needs to happen before you start training, having a manageable way of making this happen is key to sticking with it. If you really, really, can only get to the gym twice a week then just go with that and alter your routine to accommodate that.  You have to be able to actually get to the gym, actually able to do your workout, actually able to recover enough to hit your next one and your goals need to be realistic enough to attain them. This is a good time to put your ego aside. I know watching some guys on youtube doing crazy crossfit WOD’s or Smolov squat routines looks cool but trying to emulate these things as a beginner will run you into the ground and next thing you know you aren’t going to the gym at all, partly from being sore and partly from a new found hatred of training. It simply won’t be manageable or sustainable.  The same goes for your goals. Making your strength goal  squatting 1000 pounds is a stupid goal. That would take years to achieve if you achieved it and long term goals also become easy to drop. It’s good to envision a future but that needs to consist of small manageable goals along the way. Squat 100 pounds, then 250, then 400, etc. My first physique goal was Bruce Lee, as I got bigger my next one was Steve Reeves. It was never a Ronnie Coleman or Dorian Yates. Now lots of guys were inspired by the greats from a beginner and they always strived to be like them or hit those goals and this is what made them champions, and that’s a good thing, but along the way they made smaller goals part of the larger goal. Your goals can grow and change as you achieve them but they must be achievable goals first. This goes for your training, your meal prep, and your personal life. Make it manageable first and then make adjustments as necessary as they are needed.

Those are my best pieces of advice. Some of those points I know very well because I chose  not to do them at various times and it derailed my progress and set me back. This is the good part of experience, someone else’s experience can now help someone else avoid potholes in the road.  Get started, pick a plan, make some goals, make it manageable and get to it. Starting strength? Yes, Starting Today!

Blog, Motivation

No Machines Needed!

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In today’s world inundated with wifi, smart phones, and endless websites with as much new information as we can possibly absorb we seem to have lost sight of the simplest and best solutions for certain problems.  right this moment I can go on the computer using my phone (while also doing another unrelated task) and see all the crazy training of my favorite powerlifters, or see the craziest crossfit WOD’s, or see endless amounts of videos about using the newest machines, cables, chains, bands and all manner of complex devices. With this overload of information it can become easy to overlook the simplest and effective tool in the gym for getting stronger; the simple barbell.

It seems as though to average gym goers the barbell is an out dated tool of a bygone era. Most of them aren’t painted funny colors, you usually dont sit down while using it, there are no joints, cables or pulleys on any of them and some gyms even have an alarm that goes off if you drop one on the floor….It becomes all too easy to forget the legions of NFL players, powerlifters, strongmen, and olympic weight lifters that have built huge amounts of strength using a simple barbell and a few plates.

It may not seem exciting but the simplicity of the barbell is the key to it’s effectiveness. all my life I’ve always been intrigued by the simplest effective solution. To me a simple solution represents the pinnacle of engineering, in this case we are engineering a training plan that can get us strong and muscular and allow us to display that strength in a quick and athletic manner. The single most effective tool to accomplish this goal is the barbell.  If all I had was one barbell, I could still do almost 90 percent of all the best strength training routines on the internet, or at least 90 percent of the effective ones anyway. In addition to being simple the barbell also allows the most muscle groups to be involved in each lift, more muscle being worked=stronger and more muscles. Here are a few examples of what can be done with a simple Olympic barbell and a few plates:

  • squats
  • front squats
  • deadlifts
  • rows
  • standing overhead press
  • bench press
  • close grip bench press
  • barbell curl
  • snatch
  • clean and jerk
  • clean and press
  • power cleans
  • romanian deadlift

Right there you have a list of the single best exercises for all the major muscle groups of the body.  All the best strength and powerlifting programs are built around these few exercises. Change the rep schemes and a hell of a bodybuilding plan can be built around these exercises. Change the order and omit the arm stuff and you can build a good olympic lifting plan too. See what I’m getting at? Add a power rack  or some wooden blocks and now you have the ability to do advanced overload and partial rep versions of all these same exercises. Did you see what just happened there? I just accidentally designed the best and simplest home gym on a budget. That will be $19.99 please……

The point is, don’t get distracted by all the fancy machines, cables, pulleys and balance balls. Forget the cable curls, and the flyes and the small stuff, focus on these basic core lifts with this basic piece of equipment to build some serious strength. The simplest solutions are always the best!

 

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Are you full of shit??

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I’d like to welcome everyone to StrengthCycle.com, the goal of this site is to provide a place where people interested in acquiring general strength can come to find answers to their questions and helpful resources that will allow them to achieve their goals. This is my first official blog post and I’d like to begin with one major question that we should all ask ourselves, Am I full of Shit?

I’m going to assume that since you found this site that you already have an interest in getting strong and building muscle so that will not be a question we should ask ourselves, instead I challenge you, me and everyone else to ask this question of yourself. Knowing the answer will be the first step to achieving your/our goals, and not just in the realm of strength training, but in all of life in general.  Am I full of shit?

What prompted this question was a Sunday gym session. My current gym has just started doing a Sunday seminar/brain storm session on the topic of the three major lifts for powerlifting, the squat, bench and the deadlift. The plan is to have some experienced competitors troubleshoot the squat for everyone, have everyone lift and hit new pr’s and for everyone to share helpful tips and tricks they’ve learned over the years in relation to what helped them improve their lifts, technique or cope with injuries. This past Sunday was the squat seminar. Being that for my weight and experience my squat is my weakest lift and I am very self conscious about it, I jumped at the chance to attend.

What I saw at the gym was less then I expected, by a lot. I was expecting a lot of serious guys coming to lift and share their experience they had gained over the years and we all contribute something and learn from each other. Instead, with the exception of the experienced instructors, it was basically a shit show of meathead “bros” who have a huge ego and a very small, technically incorrect squat. Basically everyone was in a huge hurry to load 4 plates or more on the bar and attempt a huge new pr.  Lots of talk of 425 and 500 maxes and fake modesty. Everyone was talking about their knee wraps and their fancy training bullshit and their contest prep and yet in the end, with the exception of myself and the instructors there wasnt anyone there who could even squat double body weight to proper depth despite their fancy gear and advanced methods.

Now my squat is nothing special in the athletic world, and certainly nothing special in the real powerlifting world so I am the first to admit that I need work and advice and I welcome it. That brings me to the point of this article, Are you full of shit??

Are you lying to yourself and less importantly all the people you brag to about you real ability and skill level? Are you busy with all the bullshit advanced training articles and advice out there about building a big squat (or any other lift for that matter?) and not focusing on building some real baseline strength first?

I dont feel like a dick asking this question because I myself found myself in a very similar position not so long ago. due to my advanced “training age”, which is a subject for a different day, I thought of myself as an advanced lifter. I trained for a few local powerlifting contests at my local gym and I had actually done a 405 squat. Training for those contests as an advanced powerlifter set my progress back immensly. I was doing all sorts of advanced techniques like pin presses, heavy lock outs, chains, overload reps, 10 sets of 1, deadlift/bench everyday and all sorts of crap. I came to find out that my 405 squat was about 5 inches high despite looking parallel in the mirror and so on…I never told people I could lift numbers i had never lifted, I wasnt that full of shit but in regards to my level of advancement, I was certainly full of shit and my gains for the year ultimately suffered.

The minute I realized that I was a lot less advanced as far as training response is the moment that my numbers started going up. As soon as I picked a simple plan and started focusing on reps, and technique and not heavy singles my numbers quickly began to surpass my old B.S. numbers.

The point is this, being an advanced lifter has nothing to do with your knowledge of training, it has to do with your response to the training stimulus. As soon as you put you ego away and be honest with yourself your numbers will sky rocket.  At the small numbers it seems like bad technique helps you add weight to the bar but in reality bad technique hinders your true strength because first and foremost, bad technique is inefficient. Secondly since it is inefficient it can ultimately put the stress in the wrong place and cause injury.

Being an advanced lifter means you have gone up thru the weights to a point where linear progression is no longer working and new methods must be employed. This is specific topic is one for another day in  but a double bodyweight or less squat is noone’s genetic limit. If you’re full of shit and realize it, put your ego away and start over small, practice technique, progress smartly and before you know it your gains will have surpassed your b.s. totals and you’ll be in a whole new realm. You’re only lying to yourself. You’re only impressing people who dont lift. Stop trying to impress others and start trying to be honest with yourself and learning more and pretty soon it will be yourself that you have impressed the most.