A Beginner’s Guide to Sustainable Strength Training

Coach Rob
May 21
13 min read

Throughout my career most people I talk to have failed to make sustainable changes to their fitness and health not through a lack of desire or motivation, but in believing that training only counts if it meets a high threshold of hours committed per week.

Happy to profiteer of this issue, we have influencers pushing us toward optimized dieting, extensive and convoluted recovery tips, and dos and don'ts drawn across arbitrary lines.

All this can quickly lead to paralysis by analysis—too much information and expectation can be overwhelming, especially when most of it is not required for a beginner to get started.

Rarely will you find videos on social media platforms encouraging beginners to turn up, get used to the weights and exercises, and slowly implement training into their lives. That’s because this advice isn’t sexy.

Negative training content appeals to people's anxieties, despite the research showing that lifting, even as a beginner, is incredibly safe. Moreover, progress can be made even if you take your time with the form and the weights (Serafim et al. 2023 & Aasa et al. 2017).

This article aims to provide the non-sexy, actionable advice that will build strong self-efficacy in the gym, overcome common, early obstacles, and workout consistently regardless of your lifestyle, resources, and training ambition.

How to train sustainably

Most people's lives are geared toward priorities outside of training. When this reality clashes with unrealistic expectations, people stop training altogether, instead of being sensible and addressing the dissonance between their training drive and ambition and the amount of training they feel they need to do.

Don’t allow perfect to be the enemy of good—start training at whatever capacity you can, for however long you can, and however frequently. We’re gonna talk about how to do that.

But first, if you are someone that feels intimidated by a gym environment, doesn’t feel confident starting by themselves, and wants someone to clean up their form and offer up their expertise, hit me up!

If you don’t live around Crystal Palace, aren’t interested in personal or online training, but do want to begin your strength training journey, the rest of this article will be of interest.

How often, for how long?

From my experience, the best way to implement regular training into your week is to eliminate as much friction as possible. This might mean choosing a less than ideal set up, a run down gym, having equipment at home, or working out for thirty minutes on your lunch break because that’s all you have time for. Whatever the friction is, eliminate it.

Choose a realistic frequency—even once a week is better than no times a week, you can always build on it later.
Choose a convenient location. This might take some trial and error—before work, after work close to the office, etc…
Choose an appropriate amount of time to train for. There’s nothing wrong with a thirty minute workout.
Try to train at the same time and on the same day each week to establish a routine, but don’t freak out if you have to adjust this from time to time.

Training is a bit like gardening, you have to nurture your training drive and ambition, you have to let it grow naturally, and you can’t go from seed to oak overnight, no matter how much you might want to force yourself to. Therefore, pick an amount of training that reflects both your level of enthusiasm and how much time you’re willing to sacrifice.

If you simply want to get in shape, only want to train as a means to an end, and don’t really enjoy training all that much, aim for a realistic amount of training that reflects this—maybe two times a week for thirty to forty minutes.

If your training enthusiasm is high, you’re ambitious in your training goals, and you’re willing to make it a focal point of your life, that’s great! But, I’d still start slow.

Wherever you fall on this spectrum, make adjustments to match.

Artificial barriers

Without trying to put anyone down, many people make excuses before they’ve even attempted to train regularly:

I can’t wake up early, my job is stressful enough as it is

I can’t work from the programme I’ve been given, my gym doesn’t have wifi

I don’t want to train on the weekend, that’s when I relax

Whilst these may be valid concerns, many people will throw the towel in at the prospect of training before they’ve attempted to make it work for them.

If you can’t wake up before work, or muster the energy after, try training at the weekend.

If you continue to write off every possible slot of training with excuses, however, you might be putting up artificial barriers, and you might need to ask yourself if every single one of these excuses is valid, or if something else is going on here.

I’m not trying to tell you to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and harden up. This isn’t Rocky V. Moreso, assess the validity of your concerns, and if they aren’t particularly strong, throw them away for now.

Sometimes, when we are nervous to get started, either due to the insecurity of being a beginner in the gym, or fear of failing, we create obstacles that would be surmounted with some planning and thought.

It’s important to remember everyone is anxious about training when they first start.
The first workout is the hardest mentally, it gets so much easier from there on out.
The solution to not failing isn’t to not start, it’s to be adaptable and not take anything personally, especially with new things.

Just think, you wouldn’t make excuses for brushing your teeth twice a day, whittling it down to once a day or not at all. Try to see training the same way—something essential we do for our bodies, minds and long term health (World Health Organization 2020).

How to train properly—as simple as possible but no simpler

A phrase I’m quite a big fan of when it comes to advising beginners on lifting weights is make things as simple as possible — but no simpler.

In this article I aim to make training as simple as I can without dumbing it down to the extent that the advice is incorrect.

Most people starting out need less complexity, not more. For the vast majority of people, training doesn’t need to be optimised, it needs to be done.

I’m going to outline how to construct a very simple training regime that will target all your major muscle groups, which you can do as little as once a week for forty-five minutes, or three times a week for an hour. I’ll also be linking a beginner workout plan.

Some quick terminology before we start…

Reps: repetitions of an exercise IE; ‘I’m gonna do 6 reps of squats’.
Sets: A set of repetitions of an exercise.
Compound movements: Large movements that use multiple joints, and therefore, multiple muscle groups. More fatiguing and more risky to fail.
Isolation movements: Small, single joint movements like bicep curls, that isolate a specific joint and muscle group.

A beginner’s sustainable strength programme

At least one squat exercise

In a squatting exercise, we hinge at the knee and hip joint, thus loading the quads, glutes, and often both the core and the back. Think the classic squat, and anything that looks somewhat like that is a squatting exercise.

Examples: high bar squats, DB squats, Bulgarian split squats, hack squats, leg press.

If you’re worried about form, remember that everyone, even Olympic weightlifters that have won gold medals, had to start somewhere. Watch some form videos on how to perform these exercises, and choose light weights at first to build confidence.

At least one hinge exercise

Unlike the squat, a hinge exercise will almost exclusively involve the hip joint, loading the glutes, hamstrings and often the back and core.

Examples: deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, hip thrusts.

At least one push exercise

Whenever we push a weight away from us, or our own bodyweight, we are doing a pushing exercise and are therefore loading the chest, anterior shoulders (deltoid), and the triceps.

Side note: one thing to bear in mind is that pushing horizontally will load all the muscles discussed, but pushing vertically will mostly load the shoulders and triceps, but not the chest.

Examples: press ups, bench press, DB bench press, overhead press (vertical pressing), seated DB shoulder press (vertical pressing).

At least one pull exercise

Whenever we pull something towards us, or pull our own bodyweight up, we are doing a pulling exercise. These exercises train the mid and upper back, latissimus dorsi and trapezius being the main muscle groups.

Side note: horizontal pulls will train the trapezius more strongly, whilst vertical pulls will train the latissimus dorsi more strongly. Both will get trained in either plane, however. Biceps and anterior deltoid (shoulder) will get trained in either plane of movement.

Examples: bent over row, single arm row, pull ups (vertical pull), lat pulldowns (vertical pull).

Sets, reps and weight selection

For beginners, do two to three sets of each exercise for around six to fifteen reps. The rationale is a topic for another time. For now, you’re just going to have to trust me.

Now, choose a weight that brings you close to failure within that range. Close to failure means close to a point of no longer being able to perform the lift with sufficiently good form.

How close we are to failure is called reps in reserve (Rir for short).

The closer we get to failure, the more mechanical tension we generate in the muscles, which is the primary signal for muscle growth. However, we must also manage the fatigue and intensity of our workouts, for safety and to remain consistent.

Most studies show that muscle growth requires us to be within at least 2-3 reps of failure, and closer can potentially be better, if not simply for the added reps (Refalo et al. 2023). Compound movements often need greater distance from failure than isolation movements, as they’re harder to recover, both within and between workouts, and are probably more risky to fail.

Once you’re more practiced and confident, you can push some select sets all the way to failure. This will give you a reference point for what true failure on a set feels like, allowing you to both see how accurate you’ve been historically, and more accurately judge RiR in the future.

How to make progress from week to week, month to month?

Double Progression is a way of ensuring that we progress the reps and the weights when suitable. This may be every week, every other week, or every three weeks.

There’s no guarantee in what time frame the training we do will result in the adaptation of increased strength. So, we see if we can increase reps each week whilst adhering to RPE. Once we increase reps across all the sets outside of a certain range—llets say, 8-10 reps—we increase the weights, and so forth.

This is the most intuitive and most reliable way to make progress in the gym.

For example, if my goal on squats is 3 sets of 8-10 reps, leaving around 2-3 reps in reserve per set, and in three weeks time I’m doing 60 kilos for 11 reps across all 3 sets, and my reps in reserve are largely the same, I’m gonna increase the weight by around 2-5% so as to return to the rep range.

The process then repeats itself.

When we want to add more training sessions or exercises

Anything on top of this workout will be considered a bonus. This can be an extra squat, hinge, pull or push, or it can be isolation exercises like core isolation, bicep curls, leg extensions, hamstring curls, or shoulder isolation work.

I’ve suggested a simple squat, hinge, push and pull routine for its fantastic efficiency in targeting all major muscle groups, but adding secondary compound movements or isolation work will provide additional benefit.

When to change exercise selection.

At some point, you’ll need to change up your programme to avoid boredom induced stagnation and to change the angle of resistance on your joints. I tend to do this every 6-8 weeks, but you can do this as often as every 5 weeks, or as little as every 16 weeks.

We must ensure we have continuity from week to week for at least a period of time, as constantly changing exercise selection, rep ranges, and RPEs, every week, does not give our body enough time to adapt to the exercises and thrive.

Why do we need to increase demand as we get stronger?

Because we need to make sure the stimulus for growth and strength stays the same.

We are not trying to make our sessions more and more challenging for ourselves, we are trying to maintain a baseline stimulus as we get stronger and fitter, which will require more weight, more reps, and potentially more frequency.

Most training sessions should remain around a 6/10 to an 8/10 difficulty, regardless of how strong and fit we are.

The perception that very well trained and impressive lifters are constantly training at their threshold is false—-in fact, as you get stronger, you have to pay more and more attention to fatigue, recovery, and the difficulty of your training.

Likewise, if we get stronger but we arbitrarily stick to the same reps and weights, we have lessened the stimulus over time, and will eventually cease to benefit.

Recovery, diet and expectation

Now for the most controversial topic. How do we eat and recover for our training? There’s so much information out there, surely the answer is very complex?

It’s not. All you need to do is:

Eat all three macronutrients (carbs, fats, proteins) within a balanced diet.
Eat in a deficit if you want to lose fat while you train, eat in a surplus if you want to gain weight.
You’ll gain muscle mass in a deficit or in a surplus, as long as you are training regularly, although you’ll likely gain more in the surplus.
Eat around 1.6–3.1 grams of protein per kilo of bodyweight for optimal growth. You will still grow if you don’t hit this. For general health, 0.8–1.2 grams of protein is recommended.
Eat some form of carbohydrate fairly close to when you are about to train. Low blood sugar might limit your performance.

For recovery, try to limit life stress to the extent that you can, and get as close to eight hours of sleep a night as you can. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t get this every night.

Cold plunges? Sauna? Massage? You’re just starting out—this very much falls into the do it if you want to, drop it if you don’t category.

Do some cardio

If you want to gain muscle and strength, cardio can help, but it isn’t essential. If we want to be healthy individuals that can walk upstairs, we need to train our cardiovascular system. I’ll make this very simple: we need to train at least once a week for thirty minutes. Ideally, we reach a point of training two times a week for thirty minutes to an hour. The type of cardio you do is irrelevant—choose what is most comfortable, frictionless, and enjoyable.

Types of cardio:

Swimming
Running
Cycling
Any cardiovascular machine (cross trainer, assault bike, rowing machine)
HIIT circuits
Any sport where your heart rate is elevated for more than a minute

How quickly can we expect to see results?

Most people won’t like this answer: it depends. I know this both from research conducted and anecdotally. People simply grow at different rates. One person can grow large amounts of muscle and get much stronger by only training once a week. Another person won’t see the same growth even training multiple times a week. The important thing to remember is that regardless of this, both people will continue to make progress, and consistency is the great equaliser.

On average, most people gain around 0.5 kilos of muscle a month from training regularly. Within this, you will have hyper-responders and people that don’t respond as well to training. Stick with the habit however, and anyone will see results.

Is it safe?

Is strength training safe? Yes, it’s as safe as driving a car, going down the stairs, or getting out of bed in the morning, with one study showing 30% of injuries occurring at home (Schneider et al. 2004).

Is strength training completely safe? It’s as safe as anything else you’ll do, but the control group of getting hurt or injured isn’t zero, because the risk of getting hurt or injured in anything you do isn’t zero. That being said, as far as exercise goes, strength training is one of the safest forms of activity, with an injury rate many magnitudes lower than contact sport and recreational running (Serafim et al. 2023 & Aasa et al. 2017). Moreover, the greatest risk to yourself is leading a life of inactivity and physical weakness (Cunningham et al. 2020).

Dealing with niggles

If you do pick up a niggle or an injury, it’s important to bear in mind that most injuries picked up in the gym are mundane and resolve quickly, even back injuries which we tend to catastrophise (Pengel et al. 2003).

So long as the pain is not severe for a long period, you can probably address it by managing load and exercise selection.

Try reducing the weights on the lifts associated with the pain until there is none, and only return to training that area at the same intensity once a few weeks of pain-free movement has been established.

If the movement is still painful at any weight, change the movement. For example, if the barbell bench press is flaring up the shoulder, see if swapping to a dumbbell low incline press provides relief. You can always return to these exercises once you’re feeling more confident and pain-free.

The goal in the gym from a longevity standpoint is to take on small, short term risk—not much more than our day to day injury risk—for long term gain. This means if we do pick up an injury in or outside the gym, we always look to return in some capacity.

Side note: if you get hurt doing a lift, it usually doesn’t mean the lift itself is bad or dangerous, but that your body simply wasn’t ready for that weight at that specific time. This may not be the case in the future, especially as your body adapts to strength training.

Totally dropping exercise and activity can be necessary in some circumstances, but usually isn’t helpful or recommended, unless a doctor or clinician has explicitly told you to do so.

If you are worried, seek the advice of a medical professional, and don’t let practitioners without clinical training offer up diagnostics or specific interventions—this goes for personal trainers as well.

To summarise…

Consistency wins out over perfection.
Short, succinct workouts that train all the major muscle groups, performed for thirty to sixty minutes, two to three times, but if need be as little as once a week, can produce very good results if consistency is maintained.
A great workout for a beginner consists of one squat, one hinge, one push and one pull, performed close to failure with an eye for progression once an increase in strength has been achieved. More is better but only if it can be done consistently.
Sleep eight hours, eat a rounded diet with sufficient protein, and try to reduce weekly stress for the sake of recovery. It’s not the end of the world if our recovery isn’t perfect.
Gym injuries are possible but unlikely. If they do occur, they usually resolve with time and can be worked around without missing sessions.

Where to start?

A free programme for beginners, including instructional videos, can be found here! Alternatively, get in touch for online training, or, if you live around Crystal Palace, personal training.