Press The Beast

Beginner Muscle Building Course

The following are recommendations for those interested in building up their bodies with a barbell. It is the best all around tool for building strength and muscle, allowing the most weight to be used and presenting a near infinite variety of lifts. My hope is that those of you who follow the recommendations fall in love with this ingenious tool and become proud to call yourself a barbell man or woman.

There will be some assumptions: first, that you are capable of the ABCs of fitness. That is, you can run, jump, do push ups, perform sit ups—maybe you've played some sports in the past and retain some of that "get up and go" acquired in high school basketball; for many this is not a given, and thus it is a privilege. Second, that, whether or not you are in shape, you are basically in good health. For the former my recommendations involve getting a taste for a wide variety of physical activities and learning the basics of the various major domains of fitness; for the latter basic locomotion, such as walking or exercises within a pool, and exercise targeting the main obstacles to greater fitness, whether weight loss or joint health or whatever else is needed.

Assuming you are more or less a healthy individual, we have the following goals: gain familiarity with the fundamental barbell movements and achieve a basic amount of strength and muscle. There are many reasons to train—barbell sports like powerlifting or bodybuilding, performance in other sports, for general health, to look good, to get huge and bulbous, etc. Each of these require different levels of commitment and different plans. However! there is no point to pursue specialization before basic skill and strength with the barbell has been achieved. This is one of the most common mistakes in the weight room.

For this, and any other routine, you will record the number of repetitions and weight used for all lifts performed. This is non-negotiable for the student of the barbell. Use a notebook or, failing that, record the information on your phone. Do not use some sort of app to track your training; rely on yourself. Having a record of what you have done is more important than what in particular you have been doing.

The routine below is a full body routine to be performed thrice a week. I prefer to train three times a week because it gives me time away from the gym and makes it easier to fit in cardio or sports. The repetitions for each lift are rather high: for the beginner the more touches you get with the more opportunity you have to build skill. The exercises are, for the most part, major compound movements—those that use most of the body—as they overall build muscle and strength more effectively than more targeted exercises. Each lift will be explained, followed by the recommended method of progression:

Press - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
Bent Row - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
Curl - 2 sets of 8-12 reps
Squat - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
Deadlift - 3 sets of 6-8 reps
Ab Exercise - 1 set

Between each set rest about 2 minutes. You may rest longer between sets of the squat and deadlift.

Press: the "press" refers to the overhead press, where the barbell is taken from the shoulder and then locked out overhead. Always start this lift from the floor, lifting it up quickly and bringing it to shoulder level. From there you'll need to lean back a little bit before you start the press or you might hit yourself in the chin. While the bench press is more popular these days, the press is the king of lifts. It demands command of the weight from the floor all the way overhead. Some gamers have spent too time much hunched in a chair and have difficulty raising their arms overhead; these limitations are often in the lats, so they should look up stretches for that area and continue to try their best on the press in the meanwhile.

Bent Row: is a little bit more complicated to perform than the press. Here you bend over the bar and pull it up to your belly, keeping the body roughly parallel to the ground. I like to do this with a little elevation: standing on a weight plate is often convenient. On the way down you want to round the back to get a stretch in the lats; then, at the top of the pull, arch to work the spinal erectors. Done properly, this is the single most complete back exercises. You will see gym goers everywhere absolutely mangle this exercise; many do it too stiffly, without rounding the back; others are basically standing vertical and driving with their legs to perform the lift. Do it right and there's nothing better.

Curls: perform these with a barbell. Most will need to start with nothing on the bar. Use a strict style. The number of sets are a bit lower here because these are less essential for muscle building than the others which target more muscles on the body.

Squats: the most important lift for putting on muscle, as it targets the glutes, the thighs, and the back: all the biggest muscles in the body. Perform the squat with the barbell on the back, and go all the way to the bottom—thighs to calves—before coming up quickly. Don't feel the need to spend an eternity in the hole, just get the lift done. Take one or two breaths before each rep—don't rush it—, and perform the squat with your belly full of air. More than any exercise, people have difficulty with the squat due to limited mobility. This can come in the hips, the ankles, or just a lack of coordination through this position. If you have trouble completing a squat then do the following: first, substitute the barbell squat for what's called the goblet squat, first used by Dan John; to perform these, just hold dumbbell or kettlebell at your chest and squat as deep as possible, using the counter balance to get deeper than in the more challenging back squat. Do these for a while to get used to squatting, and improve your mobility; test the back squat at least once a week to see how you're doing. Second, spend time at home, the beach, wherever, going in as deep a bodyweight squat as possible. Seriously—watch TV while squatting, read a book while squatting: this position ought to be as natural and easy as standing. Stretching is, of course, also helpful.

Deadlift: while often the most intimidating lift for newcomers due to the numerous horror stories of the fabled "Snap City", you literally just have to pick up the bar from the floor up to your hips. Key points: keep the arms straight, thinking of them like hooks; keep the bar close to your body, it is usual for the bar to scrape against the shins during the lift; keep the back neutral throughout the lift, neither rounded nor overly straight, and press with the legs to get the weight up. Like the squat, you want to take a deep breath before starting each rep. Because deadlifts tend to be most strenuous, you will perform less reps per set of this exercise.

Abs: sit ups, leg raises, hanging leg raises, ab roll out. Whatever. Pick something you know and like and hit it for as many reps as you can. "Beat the books" whenever you can, as in do more than you did before. Switch up the exercise when you feel like it.

After each workout I recommend stretching. The best bang for your buck is the straddle stretch, where you splay your legs wide while sitting on the ground and bend forward deep as you can. Hang out in this position for a bit, then reach to the side and touch your toes for a good stretch in the lats. A detailed stretching routine would be another article, so just do the stretches you know and love.

For weights, feel free to start very light. In fact, it is often prudent for total newbies to weightlifting to start with just the barbell (typically 45lbs). This will be heinously light on everything except the curl and maybe the press. Women may need to use a lighter bar for these lifts depending on their strength. It's good to start light! Barbell men and women prize skill above all else, and improving the quality of your reps before using a real load will help to establish a longer runway of progress.

Each time you enter the gym add 5lbs to each upper body lift, and 10lbs on the squat and deadlift. This is called a "Linear Progression," where the weight increases by a fixed amount on a fixed schedule. Once you can no longer hit the targeted number of repetitions in a given exercise you'll need to change your strategy. You will first find your limit on the curl. Good! At that point, reduce the weight a bit and use what's called "Double Progression." See how I've provided a rep range for each lift? Curls are to be performed for 8 to 12 reps; a Double Progression means that once you can hit the lift for 12 reps on all 3 sets you're ready to increase the weight. Continue to use the Linear Progression method on your other exercises until they stall out.

Once you're using Double Progressions on all exercises you've, effectively, completed the beginner course! I recommend continuing the routine for at least 2-3 months beyond this point, getting used to the slower rate of improvement in the Double Progression method and working with challenging weights. You may find, for instance, that you can't hit your rep targets very quickly or that, some days, you need to adjust the weights down to finish the workout because you aren't feeling too hot. While the beginner is prone to go to failure as often as possible, I recommend leaving some gas in the tank and letting improvement come "easily." Try doing an extra rep here or there and, slowly but surely, you'll grow in strength. Learning to work with your actual human body and autonomy within the above structure is what will establish the skills needed for long-term success in the world of barbells.

If you've completed the Linear Progressions then went on for another few months and simply have not had enough of the Beginner Muscle Building Course then feel free to add some variety. No strength or muscle course will continue working forever, and boredom is bound to set in eventually. The following recommendations are all "same, but different." Despite how small the changes are, they inject a surprising amount of interest into training:

Whatever method you use, keep to it for 2-3 months. 8 weeks is a good minimum for most training courses.

If you continue on with the Beginner Muscle Building Course, introducing reasonable variety as you go, then you will eventually stumble on some inevitable limitations. Namely, you will get strong enough on the squat and, especially, the deadlift that all the prescribed work can not be reasonably performed three times a week without exhausting yourself. Many full body routines used by more advanced lifters drop deadlifts or perform stiff-legged deadlifts, sometimes just for 1 set, instead. This is a good time to look at doing a new routine. It's also a good time to assess what your goals really are, and design or choose a routine appropriate to see your aims fulfilled.

And there you have it! Complete this routine, using your own judgement as you come across challenges or obstacles, to become a consummate barbell man or woman. I believe in you.

P.S,

As far as diet goes, I strongly recommend a weight neutral approach in almost all cases. By focusing on eating health your weight will likely normalize in any case: if you are a bit too husky you'll shed some pounds, while if you're undersized you'll pack on some quality beef. In general, however, your success with this routine will be greater if you increase the amount you normally eat; the Linear Progression method will continue to provide gains for longer if you pair it with lots of food. Eat according to your energy levels, and adjust as needed.

Now this weight neutral approach may no longer be suitable in the future. A serious muscle building course requires eating prodigious amounts of food, for instance. For now, though, I recommend only a few simple guidelines. Eat more protein: at least 100 grams a day. This is much lower than most recommendations for weight lifting (which are often too high, anyway) but serves as an easy entry into muscle building habits. Eggs and milk are the two best foods for this end. Next is to cut out junk food and snacking if you've habit of doing so and substituting them for fruits and vegetables. You don't want to be super worried about avoiding foods you enjoy, so I recommend cutting out the low value junk food (maybe that's chips or candy) for high value treats like ice cream or baked goods when the occasion calls for it.