Strength Training for Beginners: A Westside Barbell Guide

Introduction to Strength Training

What is Strength Training?

When someone asks how to start strength training for beginners, they’re jumping over the most important question to start with: what is strength training?

The simple answer is an intentional attempt to make yourself stronger, or increase your muscles’ ability to do work. 

This is why working construction, even if it makes you stronger than when you started, is not considered strength training and why someone who spends hours in the gym, even if they don’t get results, is still doing “strength training”. 

The intention of the action is what makes it “training” as opposed to something that just happens. 

With this in mind, I’m going to teach you everything you need to know when it comes to strength training for beginners and even give you a beginner weight training plan so that you can turn your intentions into real results. 

Before we get into the details though, here are the biggest benefits you can expect from training for strength.

Benefits of Strength Training

There are many benefits to starting a strength training routine for beginners. I won’t bore you with all of them, but I will give you my top five. 

1. Strength: This is the most obvious but the most significant. Strength is the fundamental base of all physical ability. Endurance, speed, power - every aspect of physical performance needs a foundation of strength to be possible. 

2. Muscle Mass: While training to get stronger and training for “bodybuilding” are different, there is crossover in the benefits between them - and one benefit they share is building muscle. The number one benefit? It looks good. There are people who will tell you it “increases your metabolism” or “burns more calories”, and it does… just not to a degree that matters.

3. Bone Density: This doesn’t make for a sexy headline but increased bone density makes you more resistant to injury, in everything, for the rest of your life. Enough said. 

4. Increased Cardio: It might not be common to connect strength training with increased cardiovascular health but when done correctly even a strength training plan for beginners can have a massive impact on your cardiovascular system. 

5. Confidence: There are very few things in life where you can directly measure the work you put in and the improvements you make. Strength training is one of them. When you apply the correct plan, and the correct effort, you will have irrefutable proof that you’re capable of moving towards your goals. When you begin to stack this proof, more confidence is unavoidable. 

Basics - Read this if nothing else

When it comes to getting started in the gym, nothing is better than strength training for beginners. 

With a basic plan and some effort you’ll not only begin to transform your body but you’ll increase your fitness, become a more capable human being and build potential in any physical or athletic activity you choose. 

You can get these benefits starting with just three days per week in the gym if you:

• Focus on exercises that work multiple muscles for the majority of your workout

• Ensure you’re working the back and front, as well as upper and lower body equally

• Strive to slowly, but consistently, add slightly more weight or slightly more reps, on the exercises in your program.

If you’d like to know exactly what steps to follow to get the most results possible, continue reading where I’ll break down everything you need to know to implement the ideal strength training program for beginners. 

The Westside Barbell Method

Overview of the Westside Barbell System

Louie Simmons created the Westside Barbell, or Conjugate System, based on decades of Soviet weightlifting research and his own experiments with his gym's lifters.

Over a period spanning two decades Louie’s methods lead to over 140 world records, working with NFL and Special Operations teams, athletes from every imaginable sport and even two olympic gold medals. 

Clearly, none of these groups are beginners, but regardless of your level: the best methods are the best methods. 

I don’t need as much money as Warren Buffet to follow his investment strategy and get an incredible return - and training is the same. The principles that allow the best in the world to make the fastest progress possible are the same principles that will allow you to do the same. 

Why Westside Barbell for Beginners?

Understanding that the best methods are the best methods, our number one goal is to put you in a position to take advantage of everything the Westside, or Conjugate, system has to offer. 

The goal of this beginner weight training program is to put you in a position to benefit from more advanced programs - and avoid the common pitfall of jumping ahead too early and not making progress… or worse, getting injured. 

Louie often said that a pyramid was only as tall as its base, and what he meant is that without a broad foundation, you’ll never progress very far. It’s with this in mind that we’ve written this article and have also created our 3-stage beginner protocol for the Westside Barbell Conjugate Club where we take you from beginner, to intermediate, to advanced - without the pitfalls and plateaus that plague most trainees. 

Essential Equipment for Beginners

One of the first questions you’ll need to answer as you begin your training is: where do you workout? 

There’s no right or wrong answer choosing between working out at home and working out at a gym - but one of those will be more right for you. 

If you’re not sure which is best for you, here are a few aspects to consider:

• Space: Do you have it? If you’re planning on building a home gym you’ll want, at minimum, the space of a single car garage. You might not need all of it to start, but over time that’s a safe minimum to have available. 

• Finances: Over a long enough timeline, building a home gym will eventually cost less than paying gym dues… but the upfront cost is high. If you’re not comfortable spending a few thousand dollars to outfit your space, then a commercial gym is going to be best for you - at least for now. 

• Atmosphere: Motivational speaker Tony Robbins has an expression that when you change your environment you change your state. For some people it can be enough to walk to their basement, or garage, and feel focused. For other people being in their own home can make it difficult to focus on their workout and not get pulled back into household jobs, a fight between their kids or thinking about taking the garbage out between sets. There are lifters who have set world records training in their basement, and maybe you operate the same - but many people only find out after they’ve built their home gym that it isn’t for them for this reason alone. 

Regardless of the option you choose, here is what you need to know when it comes to finding, or creating, the right training environment for you to start with.

Setting Up A Home Gym for Beginners

If you’ve decided to build out a home gym, there are a few pieces of equipment that are essential to start with. Once you’ve got these, my advice is to ignore every article written for “strength training for beginners at home”, at least until you really know what you need next. (My best advice is to join the Westside Barbell Conjugate Club so you can get form critiques from the coaches at Westside who will be able to guide you to the routines and equipment that will make the most sense for your goals)

Essential Home Gym Equipment

1. Power Rack: You want a full power rack, with adjustable safeties and holes that are no more than 1.5” apart. You should also look for a rack with pegs that can anchor bands at both the top and the bottom of the rack. This is one piece of equipment that can last you the rest of your training career if you buy a quality rack right out of the gate so ensure you’re not shopping solely on price for your rack. 

2. Barbell: Similar to the power rack, the expression “buy nice or buy twice” applies here. Get a high quality power-bar and, unless you do something dumb, you’ll have an essential piece of training equipment that lasts you the rest of your life. (There are lots of great bars on the market, personally I recommend the Westside Power Bar from Rogue)

3. Adjustable Bench: A heavy-duty, adjustable bench will get more use than almost anything else you can buy. Ensure you’re looking for a bench with an adjustable back AND seat for maximum value. If it’s an option you would also be well served going to see the bench in person, laying on it, adjusting it and inquiring about its weight capacity. 

4. Dumbbells: In a perfect world you’ll have a 10’ long dumbbell rack, loaded up with dumbbells ranging from 5lbs to 100lbs - and if that’s an option for you, do it! If not, there are adjustable dumbbells made for home gym use with the same range. Brands like Snode, NordicTrack and PowerBlock all make acceptable options - but do your homework and choose the set you prefer. 

5. Bands: A full set of bands is by far the cheapest equipment on this list but potentially the most versatile. With bands you’ll be able to perform hundreds of accessory movements, enhance your main barbell movements and mimic most exercises done on machines at commercial gyms. Check out our Shop for resistance bands. 

Finding A Commercial Gym

If you’ve chosen to find a commercial gym you’ve got much less shopping to do, but just as much thinking. Asking family or friends for recommendations is a good place to start but you’ll have to consider what their training goals are and if they line up with yours before taking their advice. 

As you begin your gym search, here are some key elements to look for in a gym.

Commercial Gym Essentials

1. Chalk: This sounds silly but it will tell you more about a gym than any other single observation. Does the gym have a chalk bowl on the gym floor? If they do, I can nearly guarantee that this gym will have everything else on this list. If not, do they allow chalk? If both of these are a hard no, it’s unlikely this gym is going to be the place you make long term progress. 

2. Racks: If a gym doesn’t have multiple power racks it might be an alright place to “exercise” but it’s not going to be the place to seriously train for your goals. 

3. Bars: This isn’t a deal breaker, but if you have the option to train at a gym that has “specialty” barbells (i.e. barbells that aren’t simply the straight, “normal” bars you’re used to) do it!

4. Environment: When you walk into the gym, how do you feel? Does the environment energize you? Whether it’s the music, the people, the atmosphere… if you don’t feel good in the gym you’re not going to want to go - and that matters. 

5. Cost and Logistics: If the best gym is $700 a month or 3 hours away from you, you need to ask yourself if this is something that’s going to work long term. Some athletes drive for hours for their workouts at Westside, other people will skip workouts if it’s more than 10 minutes from work. These aspects seem basic, but you need to ensure the gym you’re choosing is going to fit the rest of your life. 

Fundamental Exercises for Strength Training

Now that we’ve chosen where the training is going to happen, let’s talk about what you’re going to do.

The Big Four Lifts

When it comes to all of the exercises you’re going to perform as a beginner weight training, there are four that stand above the rest. These are the exercises that will be most indicative of your strength progress, have massive influence on your results and are embedded in the language of lifters when it comes to talking training. The big four are:

• Squat: The undisputed king of lower body strength and development. When done correctly the squat will work every muscle in your lower body, build tremendous core strength and enhance your athletic ability.  Save this blog for our guide to performing Squats

• Bench Press: “How much ya bench?” is the most common question you’re going to hear when people find out you’ve started lifting weights - it’s also the lift responsible for more horror stories, and shoulder injuries, than any other exercise. Read our blog on Bench Press to ensure you’re performing the lift correctly. 

• Deadlift: The deadlift is the most visual display of strength in the gym. The deadlift works nearly every muscle in your body and is a fundamental movement to develop raw, whole body strength and real life performance. Get the most out of your deadlifts with our deadlift breakdown.

• Overhead Press: While it doesn’t get the fanfare of the bench press, the overhead press is a complete demonstration of upper body strength. Neglecting this movement is a mistake many trainees make, to the detriment of their progress in every area. Find our keys to Overhead Press here.

Accessory Exercises

Within the Westside System a workout will typically contain a main movement, one or two secondary movements and then accessory work. 

Your main movement is exactly what it sounds like. It’s the most important focus of your workout, and the movement you’re doing with the most weight, intensity and focus. This is also your biggest “compound” movement of the day. (Compound movements being movements that work multiple muscles as opposed to isolation exercises which work only one)

A secondary movement is similar to the main movement in that it is a compound movement and done with significant intensity - just slightly less than your main movement. 

Accessory movements round out the workout as the smaller exercises, many being isolation movements, that target various muscle groups associated with the workout focus of the day. 

Here is a simple example:

Day: Bench Press Day

Main Movement: Bench Press

Secondary Movement: Incline Dumbbell Bench Press

Accessory Movement: Tricep Push Down

*This is obviously not a full workout, it’s simply meant to illustrate the different categories of exercises we use. 

Why We Use Accessory Exercises

When you perform our Big Four, you work every muscle in your entire body - but you don’t work them evenly. 

Depending on your personal strengths, weaknesses, proportions and technique you might get more chest (or pec) work on your bench press than I do, and I might get more tricep work than you do. It is the same for every “big” exercise in your training program. 

We use accessory exercises to ensure that every muscle gets the appropriate amount of work and that we’re not setting ourselves up for injury, or even poor performance, through imbalances of strength and development. 

We have a variety of resources available in our Blog to learn about accessory movements but when it comes to strength training for beginners, it’s unnecessary to think too deeply about this. An understanding of the general purpose of these movements is more than enough for now. 

Getting Started: Your First Workout Plan

Before we look at a specific weekly training plan, it’s important to understand that the term “beginner” exists on a spectrum. Even the more advanced lifters at commercial gyms across the country would likely be categorized as “intermediates” if they walked through the doors at Westside Barbell. 

The reason I’m sharing this is that beginner isn’t meant as an insulting term, or something you should try to “graduate” from as quickly as possible. 

Within the Conjugate Club beginner program, we have three levels that span multiple months to allow us to move someone across the entire beginner spectrum and towards the intermediate and advanced levels. 

With all of that in mind we’re going to look at two separate routines, the first is a basic, beginner weight training program. The second will be a Westside style program more specific to strength training for beginners. 

Beginner Weight Training

This style of program is the most basic, and most common plan, for new trainees. It consists of five training days per week, and focuses on a specific body part each day. If you’ve spent any time in the gym you’ll likely recognize this as a “bro-split” - and know that it’s in no way an “optimal” way to train. 

So why am I recommending it?

The advantage of this kind of program, for a complete beginner, is that it gives you a wide exposure to different movements for each muscle group and it will allow you to learn what it feels like when each muscle is worked. 

Here is an example of a week of training on this style of program:

Day 1: Chest

• Incline Bench Press 4x12

• Dumbbell Incline Bench Press 4x12

• Dumbbell Flat Bench Press 4x10

• Machine Pec Fly 4x15

Day 2: Back

• Pull Ups or Pull Downs 4x10

• T Bar Row 5x12

• DB Row 3x10 per side

• Face Pull 4x15

Day 3: Shoulders

• Seated Barbell Press 4x12

• Seated Dumbbell Press 3x15

• Dumbbell Front Raise 3x12

• Dumbbell Lateral Raise 3x12

• Dumbbell Upright Row 3x12

Day 4: Legs and Abs

• Back Squat 4x10

• Leg Press 4x12

• Lunges 3x10 (per leg)

• Dumbbell RDL 4x10

• Front Plank 2x60 seconds

Day 5: Arms

• Barbell Curl 5x10

• DB Curl 4x12

• Barbell Skull Crusher 4x10

• DB Skull Crusher 3x15

• Bar Push Down 3x15

Strength Training For Beginners

This plan differs significantly from the first in that the focus is not simply on lifting weights, but developing strength. 

This plan will move you towards a four day, Westside Barbell inspired plan, and it’s recommended you rotate your first movement on each training day every second, or third week. 

One important note: this plan isn’t necessarily better than the first plan. Third grade is more advanced than first grade, but that doesn’t mean I want my daughter jumping into that class when she’s six years old. More advanced training will only benefit you when you’re ready and you would be well served by six to eight (or more) weeks of the previous plan before jumping into this one. 

Here is an example week of this style of program:

Day 1: Squat

• Back Squat 2x5

• Back Squat 1x8-10

• Walking Lunges 4x10 per leg

• Hamstring Curl 4x12

• Abs: 3 hard sets

Day 2: Bench

• Bench Press 2x5

• Bench Press 1x8-10

• Dips 4x8-10

• Skull Crushers 3x12-15

• Lateral Raise 3x15

Day 3: Deadlift

• Deadlift 3x5

• Barbell Row 4x10

• Pull Down 4x10-12

• DB Row 3x12 per arm

• Face Pull 3x15

Day 4: Overhead Press

• Military Press 2x5

• Military Press 1x8-10

• Incline DB Bench Press 4x8-10

• Tricep Push Down 3x12-15

• Bent Over Laterals 3x15

The Key To Progress

The key to progress, whether you’re looking at strength training for beginners or thinking about world records, comes down to one thing: progressive overload. 

Progressive overload, very simply, is the idea of doing more work over time. 

It’s lifting more weight, doing more sets, doing more reps… just doing more. 

Before you charge ahead and bury yourself with work, there is a second side to this that you have to understand. Doing more work only works if you can recover and improve from it. 

Workouts stress and damage your body, and after the workout your body begins the process of healing and repairing itself. Miraculously, your body also goes a little bit further, building a little bit more muscle and a little bit more strength - just to be ready if that experience happens again. 

This ability of your body to adapt is what allows you to build a significant amount of muscle, strength and fitness over time - but it does have limits. 

If you workout too hard, or too often, and don’t allow your body a chance to heal and make these small improvements you won't see the progress you’re looking for. Even worse, if you push too hard for too long, you can end up going backwards - ending up in worse shape and likely injured. 

How to safely increase weight and intensity

When you’re starting out it can be difficult to know when to push, and when to back off. 

Unfortunately, learning this isn’t an exact science and is going to take time, personal experimentation and likely some mistakes. 

That said, there are two guidelines you can follow that will help you make progress as safely and efficiently as possible.

1. Keep your form tight. Sacrificing your form for a few more pounds or a few more reps is not going to help you build anything but an ego. A very simple rule when you’re getting started is that if more reps, or more weight, doesn’t increase how much of a burn you get in the muscle you’re working, you’re not ready for it. 

2. Keep two in the tank. As you become more advanced, the ability to push yourself to the limit is going to be a necessary ingredient for success. When you’re just starting out… it’s the opposite. For the first four weeks you’re in the gym you should be working hard but you should finish every set knowing you could get one more rep, and likely two if you had to. 

Proper Form and Technique

When it comes to strength training for beginners, proper technique is an essential part of your development. Utilizing proper form will both limit your risk of injury and increase the speed you’re able to make progress. 

*This does not mean that good technique will save you from any risk of injury, or guarantee rapid progress towards your goals, but it will give you the best possible chances. 

Injury Prevention

Some of the most common injuries in training occur when a muscle or joint takes more than its share of the work on a particular exercise or has not been developed evenly in relation to other muscles. 

If you’ve spent more than ten minutes in the gym you’ve heard someone talk about their shoulder injury from bench press. This extremely common problem is the result of poor form putting too much stress on the shoulder at the bottom of the bench press - not an inherent problem with the movement itself. 

The second kind of injury, from a proportionate weakness, is common with hamstring injuries. A strained hamstring on a squat or deadlift is commonly caused by underdevelopment relative to quad (thigh) and back strength. This mix of strong and weak muscles working together on the same movement is the equivalent of putting an eight year old on your tug of war team - they’re not going to be ready for the strain they’re put under and it’s not surprising they get hurt.  

Maximizing Gains

Proper form, while keeping you safe, will also allow you to maximize your progress in the gym. The reason for this is that the work you’re doing is actually being done by the muscles you’re intending to work. 

A common example of this is a bicep curl. Thousands of trainees looking for bigger arms assume that curling more weight will help them build their biceps - and they’re right… if their biceps are the muscle doing the work. 

A swing, and a little shoulder drive, can easily add twenty pounds to your bicep curl. The problem is both will take away from the work your bicep is doing, leaving you with no results outside of a slightly inflated ego. 

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

As you move from beginner, to intermediate, to advanced, your technique will need to evolve and improve with you. It will also become more unique and specific to your body type and leverages. 

With that in mind, here are the fundamental tips for each of the major lifts as you get started:

Bench Press

• Focus on flexing your back as you lower the weight. Imagine your back muscles being the “breaks” that control the bar on the way down and your chest, shoulders and arms being the “gas” that lift it. 

• Keep your grip tight! Some lifters like to keep their thumb back around the bar with the rest of their fingers. This is called a “suicide grip” and for good reason. Make a full fist around the bar and squeeze tight. 

• Touch just below your nipple line. As you advance this might change slightly for you but when you’re starting out it’s common to think your elbows need to be spread wide so the bar touches near your collarbone. This is a recipe for shoulder disaster and should be avoided. 

Squat

• Brace your abs is a very common instruction with squats and is fundamental for success. Learn to brace like you’re going to be punched in the stomach and hold it for the entire lift. 

• Hips first. When you initiate the movement down into your squat, start by pushing your hips back. Your squat should look and feel more like sitting on a toilet than skiing down a hill. 

• Use your whole foot. You don’t want to have a noticeable amount of pressure on your toes, or your heel, when you’re squatting. Even foot pressure is ideal. 

Overhead Press

• Vertical forearms. In the bottom of the overhead press, your elbows should be forward and directly under the barbell.

• Tight glutes. On the standing overhead press you want to keep your glutes flexed. This will give you more stability and help protect your lower back. 

• Gas and break. The same way you flex your back and support the weight coming down on the bench press should be applied to the overhead press. 

Deadlift

• Keep your hips up. A common deadlift mistake is sitting down too low. Keep your hips up and your shoulder blades over the bar at the start. 

• Brace and push. The start of a deadlift should feel like a leg press with your abs braced like a squat. 

• Come to the bar. Near the top of a deadlift you want to flex your glutes and drive your hips forward to the bar, not pull it back towards you. 

Recovery and Rest

We’ve discussed how progressive overload, and recovery from your workouts, is key to making progress with your workouts but one thing that isn’t often explained within a strength training regimen for beginners is what rest is, and how to do it. 

Even if it sounds silly to be told “how” to rest, take a minute to review the two categories of rest. These might not seem important as you get started but as you advance, and as your training becomes more intense, these will become more and more necessary. 

Passive Rest

Passive rest is what most of us think about when we hear the word rest. The idea of not really doing anything. 

This includes taking a day off from the gym, getting a good night’s sleep or even a nap on days you’re feeling especially run down. 

Sleep is going to be your most powerful recovery “tool” during your training journey. It’s when the most amount of recovery and repair happens. Not getting enough sleep will strangle your body’s ability to build muscle, get stronger and burn fat. It cannot be overstated that sacrificing an extra hour of sleep for Netflix or social media is the fast track to poor results. 

Rest days are another powerful tool to progress. There is an ancient Chinese story about a student coming to a Kung Fu master. He asks the teacher how long he would need to study to attain mastery and the teacher tells him ten years. He asks how long it would take if he practices twice as much and he says fifteen years. He asks what if he does three times as much and the teacher tells him twenty. 

Taking rest days from the gym follows the same rule. It’s essential you give your body a chance to recover and improve from your workouts if you want to make long term progress. 

Active Rest

Active rest is something many people are unfamiliar with, but can be a powerful addition to your program. 

Active rest options include things you do to, or with, yourself and also include things you can have done to you. 

Both categories work, primarily, by increasing blood flow to your muscles to help bring oxygen and nutrients to assist with recovery and repair and by removing waste. 

Things that can be done to you include any manner of body work, things like massage, cupping, dry-needling, etc. 

Things you can do on your own include foam rolling, hot or cold exposure therapy and light activity like walking, cycling or easy swimming. 

Tracking Progress and Setting Goals

Progress is the name of the game when it comes to training, but very few people track and measure their progress to make sure they’re moving in the direction they want to go. 

Whether you have a specific goal, or a more general motivation for training, the more metrics you have as a starting point the better. 

As a beginner this includes measuring your bodyweight, circumference measurements of your legs, chest, arms and waist, taking starting photos and recording your first performances in the gym. (If you have specific performance goals like push ups, running, etc, it would be wise to get a baseline test of those as well)

The reason this is so important is that you want to know what the effects of your training program are - and you want to know that as quickly as possible so you’re not wasting your time. 

The vast majority of trainees think their program is working, or think that a certain program is moving them in a particular direction. In a similar way to someone running a business, you want to know what actions move the needle and by how much - and the more data the better when it comes to getting a full picture of what’s happening. 

Logging Your Workouts

If you only track and record one thing, it should be your workouts. 

Keeping a log of your exercises, sets, reps and weight is a habit you should start from your very first workout and continue for as long as you train. 

You could also consider tracking how long each workout takes you and if there are any notes about difficulty or how certain exercises are feeling on given days. 

Starting out, here is a basic checklist for the metrics I highly recommend for beginners:

Tracking Checklist

• Workouts - tracked daily

• Bodyweight - tracked weekly

• Measurements - tracked bi-weekly

• Pictures - tracked monthly

• Performance goals (optional) - tested every 8 to 12 weeks

Setting Realistic Goals

I’m going to tell you the secret about goal setting: 

No one knows what’s possible for you. Not even you.

When I first started lifting weights I weighed 150 lbs at 6’2. Five years later I weighed 300 lbs and was knocking on the door of professional strongman competitions. (I ended up achieving my goal of competing professionally, weighing in the 320’s)

There was not a single person who believed I could do that when I was starting out, least of all me. 

In this, you and I are the same. Neither of us know what you’re truly capable of. 

The best possible strategy with goals is to set a direction and work as hard as possible to move in that direction. If you want to be stronger, fitter, more muscular or perform in a particular way, that’s all you need as a goal. 

Once you have that direction, the steps are simple:

• Make the best plan you can to move towards your goals

• Follow the plan

• Evaluate your results

• Make small changes to the plan

• Follow the new plan

• Evaluate your results

• Learn from the changes you made

• Make more small changes 

• Repeat

Anyone who tells you there is a more exact science to achieving your goals is lying to you.

You’re not a robot and making progress is not a conveyor belt in a factory. Instead of trying to map out an impossible process, set your direction, be open to learning and experimenting and focus on the next best step in front of you. If you do that, you’ll amaze yourself at how far you can go. 

Overcoming Common Beginner Challenges

Dealing with Soreness and Fatigue

When you start any new program you’re going to notice one thing right away: you’re going to be sore. 

Ideally you won’t be so sore you can’t function, but you’re definitely going to know you’ve done something new. 

This feeling of soreness is something that some people hate and some people love, but neither group is “right”. 

Soreness doesn’t guarantee a “good” or effective workout, and a lack of soreness doesn’t guarantee that your workout wasn’t effective. 

If you’re never sore it’s a likely sign you should be pushing yourself harder in your workouts, and are being a bit too conservative with how much you’re leaving in your tank. 

If you’re always crippled with soreness it’s likely you need to scale back in your workout, and would likely benefit from more passive and active rest strategies. 

Staying Motivated

Motivation is a very popular topic, and largely misunderstood. At its core, motivation is simply the reason you have for doing something. 

If you want to get stronger, that’s your motivation for lifting weights. The feeling of excitement that people associate with being “motivated” is a nice feeling, but is something that will come and go. 

To help you build consistency with your training and stick to it long term there are two important strategies that will help you translate your initial motivation into long term discipline and success:

Remember Why 

The initial motivation, or reason, you started training needs to stay present in your mind. There are times you might feel you’ll never reach your goal, or that nothing is working, or that you just don’t have “it”. 

We all go through those moments, but the reality is that the only way to ensure you never achieve your goal is by giving up. 

Collect Proof

The idea that you can just “believe in yourself”, or repeat mantras in the mirror and achieve your goals, is foolish. 

Every intelligent person requires proof of their beliefs about themselves and about the work they’re doing. 

By tracking your workouts, your physical progress and your performance you’ll have tangible evidence of your progress which is the most powerful motivator possible. 

Advancing Your Training

When to Progress Beyond Beginner Routines

Knowing the right time to switch from a beginner program to a more advanced plan is not always easy. There are three factors that are important to consider when you’re thinking about switching programs:

1. Mental Engagement: Are you still excited about your workouts and the program you’re following? If not, that might be a sign that things need to change. 

2. Results: Assuming you’re following your program and managing your recovery, are your results slowing down? If you’re starting to feel that you can’t milk much more out of your current program that’s a very strong sign you’re ready for something new. 

3. Goals: Beginner strength training programs are designed to be as general as possible. However, the more specific your goals are, the more specific your programming needs to be as well. 

Within the Conjugate Club we have a specific beginner course designed to move you from beginner, to intermediate, to advanced as efficiently as possible and have specific timelines for each program. 

If you’re coaching yourself it will be important to consider the three questions above and ideally connect with a mentor who can help guide you. 

Introduction to Advanced Westside Barbell Concepts

As you continue on your journey, the Westside Blog is a rich resource of articles to help you continue to improve. 

You’ll find articles about starting your first Conjugate Program as well as articles fundamental to the success of the Westside Methodology in terms of developing GPP, discovering and strengthening weak points as well as unique variations of exercises to improve your development. 

Regardless of where you go from here, I want to encourage you to ask lots of questions, experiment often and continue to learn as much as you can.

As Louie said, “It’s ok to fail a lift, but it’s never ok to fail to learn.”

Good luck!

FAQs 

Q: What is the Westside Barbell method and how does it apply to beginners?

A: The Westside Barbell method is a conjugate system of training developed by Louie Simmons. The Westside method involves a rotation of movements within a structured training program designed to allow trainees to make progress towards every physical goal, at the same time. 

The principles that make the Westside System so effective for advanced trainees are the same principles that will enhance progress at all levels. What changes isn’t the principle, just the intensity with which it’s applied.

 Q: How often should a beginner train for strength? 

A: A beginner should train between three and five times per week. Provided their schedule allows, more frequency is better. 

Q: Is it necessary to join a gym for effective strength training?

A: It is not at all necessary to join a gym for effective training. There are world record holders who trained their entire careers in their basement or garage. 

 Q: How long does it take to see results from strength training? 

 A: A beginner should see nearly instant results from strength training with their abilities increasing weekly over the first few months of their training. 

Q: Can I do strength training if I've never lifted weights before?

A: Yes, quite easily. Your first few weeks in the gym should be spent working at a level that feels like a 7-8/10, maximum.

Q: What should I eat before and after a strength training session? 

A: What you eat before and after workouts is a question of personal preference. Provided you’re eating a correct diet each day the specific meals before and after a workout are nearly irrelevant for beginners. 

Q: How do I know if I'm using the correct form for exercises? 

A: The simplest way to tell if you’re using the correct form is paying attention to where you’re feeling each exercise, and if you’re feeling pain in any joints. When you’re lifting correctly you should feel the target muscles flexing and burning and should not have any significant joint pain.

You can also join the Conjugate Club and get technique feedback directly from the team at Westside HQ. 

Q: Is it normal to feel sore after strength training workouts for beginners?

A: It is absolutely normal to feel sore after a workout, especially if the workout or exercises are new to you. That said, soreness or lack of soreness, does not indicate the quality of a single workout. 

Q: Are there beginner exercises for strength training?

A: There are not. There are fundamental exercises, which are essential for beginners to learn, but there are no strictly “beginner exercises”.