Beginner's Guide to Strength training

How often should I train?

The Australian exercise guidelines recommend strength training twice a week. 

For beginners, two or three times per week is a good start. Make sure you allow adequate recovery time, for example, training on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Then, once you build a habit, you can increase the number of sessions.

If you try to do too much, too soon, you're going to burn out, both physically and mentally, and you're not going to be able to sustain the habit.

How long for each session?

An effective session only takes around 45 minutes. You can tackle your compounds, your accessories, and everything else pretty comfortably in that timeframe.

However, this largely depends on your schedule. If you've got more time, and you like to work at a slower pace, you may take up to an hour. Or, if you can only train once a week, a longer session would be ideal for training all the major muscle groups.

If you have limited time, you can still complete a workout in 30 minutes. 

For shorter workouts:

• prioritise all the foundational movement patterns—squat, hinge, push, pull, rotation

• focus on movement quality—good reps with full range of motion

• include supersets—training different muscle groups one after the other

• eliminate distractions—such as putting your phone away.

Session quality is more important than session length. Focus on what you’re able to do and what showing up consistently looks like for you.

What is the best time to train?

There's no best time to train. Again, it depends on your schedule.

If you work long hours or frequently work overtime, you're not likely to train in the evenings after work. It's best to train in the morning because your day gets too busy later on. On the other hand, if you've been trying to train early, but you never follow through, you should go at a later time.

Don't overthink it, just show up. Showing up is better than saying, “I missed my morning session, I’ll do it tomorrow.” Plan around your commitments and your energy levels throughout the day.

Do I need a program?

Yes, there are benefits in repeating the same movement patterns for a period of time, rather than doing random and new exercises every session.

You don’t need to worry about PBs and 1RMs (one rep maxes) early on, but you should track your lifts over time to know if you’re improving. You measure progress by doing the same exercises for 6 to 8 weeks and seeing an increase in workload.

What exercises should a beginner do?

For complete beginners, simply start with machines to build a good foundation, without worrying too much about form or technique. Then, progress onto free weights to learn lifting techniques and engage stabilisers.

Focus on foundational movement patterns:

• Squat

• Deadlift

• Lunge

• Horizontal push (chest press or push up) 

• Horizontal pull (row)

• Vertical push (overhead press)

• Vertical pull (pulldown)

• Twist (core rotation)

On social media, you may see extreme and “optimal” variations, which unnecessarily complicate exercise selection. If you’re new, stick to the basics. The basics work for a reason. You don’t need to isolate specific muscle heads (you actually can't!) or get bogged down in complex equipment setups.

Sometimes people think they need something new because they’re struggling to progress, but often the answer is to keep going and increase volume (sets x reps x load) over time. 

Difference between free weights vs machines?

Machines follow a fixed movement path. For example, a chest press machine only moves in one direction, no matter how you push. Machines are great for beginners because they’re safer and simpler, but they’re also useful for advanced lifters because they allow you to load and isolate muscles more. 

As long as the machines are set up properly and you work to a similar intensity (as when using free weights), these exercises are very beneficial. For example, a hack squat machine is great for targeting the quadriceps without spinal loading (such as from a barbell).

Free weights engage more stabilisers and are generally harder. They are great for building functional strength because they mimic real-world movement and engage more of the body.

Both are effective and can be progressed. Both have their place in an effective program.

What order to do exercises?

Start your session with compound (multi-joint) exercises. These are the foundational movement patterns listed above. They are the most demanding and complex lifts, which you should do when you're fresh at the start. 

Follow this with accessory exercises that isolate smaller muscles.

Example upper body session:

1. BB bench press

2. Single arm DB row

3. Shoulder press machine

4. Wide grip cable row

5. BB bicep curl

6. Cable tricep extension

Exercise order is also goal-dependent. You should start with the most important part of the workout. 

How many sets and reps per exercise? How heavy to lift?

Again, this depends on your goal. However, a good start for beginners is to aim for 2-3 sets of 10-15 reps per exercise. Track where you fail at a given weight.

Lift heavy enough that you’re close to failure within your rep range. Pick a weight that feels difficult at the last few repetitions or "one or two left in the tank". This is called one or two Repetitions in Reserve (RIR).

How to progress weight training? 

Start with a higher rep range. If you're aiming for 3 x 15 reps and complete 15, 15, 12 reps, that is a suitable weight. Once you complete all 3 x 15 reps comfortably and still have more than one or two reps left in reserve, it's time to increase the weight. 

Progression is a cycle of increasing the weight, decreasing the repetitions, and repeating the process. Your reps will drop and build back up again. Over time, what you once struggled to do for 10 reps becomes doable for 15 reps across sets.

Other ways to progress?

Aside from weight and volume (sets x reps x load), there are a few other ways to progress in your training:

• Range of motion - Performing an exercise through a greater range of motion indicates two things: an increase in mobility and an increase in strength through range. For instance, being able to go deeper into a squat and lift weight through a greater range of movement.

• Technique - Improving your lifting technique improves your movement efficiency. When you can better utilise and activate your muscles, you get a stronger lift. Proper technique also decreases your chances of injury, especially at higher workloads.

• Unilateral (single-sided) exercises - Performing the unilateral variation of an exercise increases the difficulty and stability demands on the body. Bilateral exercises, such as a squat, may conceal imbalances or instability that a unilateral exercise, such as a lunge, may reveal.

How to train muscular imbalances?

 Start with the weak side. Perform the same sets and reps on the strong side. Resist the temptation to do more on the strong side. 

If there is a muscular imbalance, you don't want to exacerbate it by doing more on the strong side than the weak side. You're trying to bridge the strength gap over time.

Should I be sore after workouts?

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) comes from muscle damage and inflammation ("micro tears") caused by training. But soreness isn’t a true representation of progress or effort.

Muscle soreness may reflect the level of recovery. For example, if two people do the same workout, same load, everything else the same, but one gets 2 hours of sleep and doesn’t hit their protein goal, while the other gets 9 hours and recovers properly, they’re going to have different levels of soreness the next day. That doesn’t mean one person worked harder than the other.

Three factors increase muscle soreness:

1. Doing new movements - This is why beginners experience more muscle soreness. Doing new exercises and training methods also increases soreness. Your body (including your muscles, tendons, and ligaments) is not adapted to the training stress and is not recovering as efficiently.

2. Eccentric training (the lowering or lengthening phase of a movement) - For example, slowly lowering the barbell and stretching the glutes and hamstrings under load in a RDL (Romanian Deadlift). 

3. Volume - Performing a high volume of sets x reps leads to increased soreness.

Should I do cardio?

It depends on your goal. If it’s body composition, then cardio can helps increase activity levels and create an energy deficit for fat loss.

If your goal is strength or general fitness, do weights first and cardio afterwards. For example, add 10-15 minutes of cardio at the end, such as the bike, stepper or rower. 

Example rower finisher: 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off for 8 rounds. Distance in the first round becomes the benchmark to maintain for the remaining rounds.

If your goal is endurance, such as long-distance running, you can do a few strength exercises after a run to prioritise cardio training and focus on building muscular endurance afterwards.

The Australian physical activity guidelines recommend roughly 30 minutes per day of moderate activity, which can simply be walking. However, a lot of people struggle to meet this minimum target because they work sedentary jobs or are generally inactive. 

However, if you work in hospitality, healthcare, retail, or another physically active job where you’re already on your feet all day, that incidental activity counts. If time is limited, you should instead prioritise strength training.     

 How long will it take to lose weight?

It varies from person to person. The average rate of weight loss is around 0.4-0.6kg per week. However, this depends heavily on:

• Starting body weight - If you have more weight to lose, you’ll usually lose it faster. If you’re already lean, weight loss plateaus and becomes much harder.

• Activity levels

• Adherence to nutrition plan

Progress isn’t perfectly linear. Your body may respond quickly to dietary changes, resulting in an initial weight loss, followed by a frustratingly prolonged plateau. You may even experience occasional weight gain throughout your overall weight loss journey.

Body weight fluctuates constantly because of:

• Water retention

• Sodium intake

• Stress

• Hormones

• Sleep

Trust the process. Focus on the long-term trend, not a single weigh-in.

Will I become too bulky?

The short answer is no. Building a significant amount of muscle takes years of very consistent training, nutrition, recovery, and very intentional programming. Even if you were to optimise all the above, you have a natural limit for muscular development. However, it's unlikely, especially as a beginner, that you would be anywhere near your natural potential.

Also, a lot of people say they want to “tone up.” But to look toned, you need muscle. That athletic, defined look comes from building muscle and reducing body fat over time. You’re not going to wake up looking like a professional bodybuilder because you started strength training twice a week.

The difference between you and these bodybuilders is that they are training at a very high level and potentially enhanced with performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs).

How to overcome self-consciousness at the gym?

Rest assured, most people aren’t watching you nearly as much as you think. Everyone’s mostly focused on themselves. There’s a reason gyms are full of mirrors. Most people are looking at themselves, not you.

And generally, gyms are actually very supportive environments. Other gymgoers are trying to improve themselves, too. If someone sees you struggling, most of the time, they’ll help you, not judge you.