BEGINNER BASE BUILDING

BEGINNER BASE BUILDING 

Unlike most beginner training models, I do not recommend learning the squat, bench press, and deadlift all at the same time. I have my own reasons for that. 

• The squat is the most technical of the three lifts to learn, it is best the beginner put his/her time in the squat first since it also has carryover to the deadlift. Squatting should be done twice a week early on when the trainee doesn’t have a large amount of muscle mass, thus recovery needs are easily met. 
• I prefer the incline press because you simply lie down, and press. There is no setup to worry about, and people tend to get their wrist and elbow alignment more naturally than in bench pressing. Plus the incline press gives carry over to both the standing press and flat press. That’s win/win right out of the gate. 
• I prefer that guys/gals concentrate on and spend a lot of time developing back mass and strength early. Two movements that are easy to learn and progress on,   rows and chins 
•  Progression tends to make training fun, and when training is fun people tend to stay with it. 
• Trying to get a novice to learn all the nuances of three lifts can cause frustration and the cessation of training because of it. 
• Training should be hard AND fun.

I don’t have beginners do programming in training because their rate of progress tends to be very quick at first. It is too much of a moving target, also because it is far more important to focus on just learning the movements than loading weight on the bar.

Often times the things we learn early in our lifting can be the things that cause us to get stuck at a later point. Poor technique is usually the primary one. It is vitally important to establish good habits early, and learn right out of the gate that constantly perfecting technique is going to be an ongoing process for your ENTIRE LIFTING LIFE.

After 25 years I still have days where I am out of sync, don’t set up correctly, mis-groove a bench, get on my toes during a squat, etc. It is annoying, but it is part of lifting. It is vitally important that you start developing good technique early, and come to an understanding that reinforcing technique is something that never goes away. You will constantly be trying to get better in this regard. As long as you train, this will be the case. It is best to get in the practice of this early.

Another reason why it is important to come to terms with this, is because as a beginner if you rush to get weight on the bar too early, you will end up developing bad habits to move heavier weights, that will get reinforced over and over again. At some point down the line, these bad habits will end up being handicapped or something that causes an imbalance muscularly that gets/keeps you injured.

Either way, what you want to focus on early is developing a solid technique, and reinforcing good technique over and over for as long as possible before you really start worrying about loading up the bar.

BEGINNER FREQUENCY AND VOLUME 

Lots of programs have beginners training only three times a week; however, I honestly feel like because beginners aren’t very qualified as lifting or strength athletes, they should probably do more, and train more.

I generally have beginners train 4 days a week. Beginners aren’t strong enough or technical enough to cause a real dent into the fatigue zone. Training more often tends to speed up progress quite dramatically for beginners. They get more chances to squat, press, and row. Subsequently, they learn the movements faster, get stronger at a more rapid rate, and training enthusiasm stays high.

Of course, as the trainee becomes more qualified he will need to take rest and recovery into account; however, until the start pressing 300, squatting 400, and deadlifting 500 on a semi-regular basis, there’s no reason not to train 4-6 times a week.

BEGINNER ROUTINE IN DETAIL 

There are two squat days. Both entail a 10,8,5,4,3,2,1 warm-up. This means warm up to a nice, crisp top single. After that, you do your “work”. On day 1 it is 3x10 and on day 2, it is 5x5. Just pick a weight that moves smoothly. You should feel “worked” after those sets; however, your form should not be crumbling under the load of it.

AN EXAMPLE MIGHT BE 

BARX 10, 95x8, 115x5, 135x4, 155x3, 175x2, 195x1, 135x3x10 ON The 5x5 DAY YOU MIGHT DO 155x5x5

LUNGES AND 1 LEGGED WORK

 Lunges and 1-legged work is great for everyone, but especially beginners because it can keep imbalances at bay, or correct them, and helps with balance. It is good for a beginner to start using one-legged work right away, and to understand the importance of it. Most guys don’t do enough one-legged work.

DECLINE SIT-UPS AND AB WHEEL 

Having strong Abs is very important. Abs are what “brace” your torso, and gives stability to your entire body during close chained standing movements like squats, and dead-lifts. Training them is important as well. If you cannot get all 3 sets of 20 for the decline sit-ups, that’s ok. Stick with it until you can. Same applies for the Ab wheel. It will be hard at first, but eventually, you’ll be knocking them out like Mike Tyson did tomato cans.

INCLINE PRESS 

I love the incline press. I think it is the most underrated of all the presses. For most guys, it gives carry over to both the overhead press, and flat press. However, guys tend to get locked into only doing overhead and flat press when training for strength. They are missing out, because the incline press allows for heavy, but less technical, pressing work. Bring the bar down high on the chest, and press. That’s about it. I will add that I do not bring the bar all the way down. I stop it about an inch above the chest. This has been far more shoulder-friendly to me than bringing it all the way down to the chest. When I did that in the past, my shoulders complained very loudly to me about it. I cut the ROM slightly short, and never had any more issues in that regard.

ROWS, 

In my opinion, the three best rows are the dumbbell, barbell, and cable row. I like T-bar rows, however, I have found that more often than not, guys stand almost upright with them, essentially turning it into a trap movement, and fail to use the row what It is meant for, building a strong, thick back.

Lots of guys cheat too much on the barbell row as well, and while you can get a little sloppy with the barbell row, I mainly advise that you keep it fairly strict, and not be in a rush to add weight while sacrificing form.

Cable rows are awesome in that you can really concentrate on squeezing the mid-back together, and you don’t have to worry a lot about positioning or technique. Think of it as the incline press of rowing. Stretch it out, and then pull the elbows back and squeeze it all together, it is pretty simple.

I actually am not a huge fan of the dumbbell row because for me personally, it never felt like it was working my back and as well as the other two movements, but for the majority of guys I know that is not the case. Rather than use my own bias in picking the movements, I’ll defer to the masses this time.

GENERAL OUTLINE FOR BEGINNERS 

day 1 Squats - 10,8,5,4,3,2,1 - 3x10 Lunges - 3x10 Decline Sit Ups - 3x20

day 2 Incline Press - 8x8 DB/T-Bar/Cable Row - 8x8 Chins - 5x AMAP

day 3 -OFF

day 4 Squats - 10,8,5,4,3,2,1 - 5x5 1-Legged Squats - 5x10 Ab Wheel - 3x10

day 5 Incline Press - 5x5 DB/T-bar/Cable Row - 5x10 Chins - 5x AMAP

day 6 - OFF

day 7 - OFF

PLATEAUS

 Obviously, plateaus are the black plague of training, and nothing sucks worse than being stuck at a certain weight, body weight, or body fat for an extended period of time. Nothing sucks worse than busting ass for weeks or months on end with nothing to show as the fruits of your labor. Some of the main reasons this happens to people are the following... 

- Not staying with a routine long enough 

- Staying with the same routine too long 

- Improper programming, i.e. too light or too heavy 

- Training too often 

- Not training often enough 

- Poor nutritional habits 

- Poor sleeping habits 

- External training stress (life)

As you can see, there tends to be a theme here, and that is you have to find the right amount of balance in the training and life paradigm. Enough training stress with optimal recovery will produce results. Too much stress, whether that be training and/or life, without enough recovery will short circuit the process of increasing the baseline of strength.

 - Training often enough to stimulate growth/strength - Recover enough to allow super-compensation to happen - Knowing when to change up the training intensity/volume - Programming properly in accordance with said intensities and volume - Getting a handle on the external stress outside of the gym

Some of these things will be harder to figure out than others. There’s no reason to be dogmatic in the scope of thinking about your training. You should always be open to trying new things, but also have a good built-in filter about what seems logical and what does not. A lot of people that do in fact stick to routines for a very long time get stuck in a rut. They don’t know when it is time to transition into a different method or stimulus. They get stuck because they don’t understand that they have been benching 350 @ 198 for three years, it is probably not a bench routine that is going to give you what you need. You need to get bigger at that point, and that may mean more leg and back work to grow. Not just more bench work.

Each training phase that carries you to a new place, may not be what you need to KEEP DOING, to get to the next level. Volume/base building work will get you to a certain place, but once the body “settles in” into that you cannot just keep adding volume. Everything has a point of diminishing returns. At that point, you have to ask yourself if you have maxed out your current potential for volumized training based around a minimal amount of movements (which is what base building is) and if you need to change what you’re doing. This is not a question that has to be asked because you haven’t had a good training session in two weeks. But if you’ve gone months and months with little progress, reassessing could be a real option.

At that point, you may need to structure your training into something where you dial down the volume, go into “break rep PR’s” mode, and push forward from there. Every training cycle should do something that not only pushes you a bit forward but also sets you up for the next training stimulus/training cycle. Lots of systems build on each other. Going into the USPF Nationals I did months and months and months of shying away from failure, and keeping my intensities low and doing base-building work. Afterwards, I switched everything immediately to low volume, trying to hit the rep PR’s and boy did I. I started hitting PR’s like crazy.

It was the base building work that built me up for doing that. I knew after the meet, instinctively that my body did not want to move right back into lower intensity/high volume work. I went after rep PR’s and BOOM, there they were. The base building work set me up for the rep PR work. Some people will say “everything works” but this is bullshit, and I hate that saying. Some methods are shit. After 25 years, I can tell you that. That’s a fact. Not only that, but what does “work” even mean? Work for “what”? No one has ever quantified this statement because yes if you do something and get better at it, it worked. If you are trying to be a better powerlifter and are out practicing tennis and getting better at your backhand, this has nothing to do with getting better at powerlifting.

Everything does not “work”. What works, is what gets you closer to your specific goals.