So you’ve made the decision to start training? Good, now lets get you strong. Stronger is better, every single time. Some people will argue with this but the truth is, no matter what you do in life, strength finishes on top time and time again. Don’t believe me? Read it for yourself.

Strength is the most general physical adaptation the body can make. While not everyone is born with the height of LeBron James or the speed of Usain Bolt, everyone has the ability to greatly increase his or her strength. I will go a step further and say that someone new to strength training will actually be able to DOUBLE their current strength in as little as 3-6 months of proper training, rest, and nutrition. This puts you, the “novice” trainee, at a unique advantage: you have the ability to dramatically increase your strength over a very short span of time. For our purposes, a “novice” trainee is defined as someone who is new to weight training. This can be a complete newbie, or someone who has had previous training experience but has taken signifiant time off (over 3 months).

So, you ask, what is the best training protocol for a novice lifter? For novice trainees the best, most effective training involves compound lifts (squats, deadlifts, bench press, and overhead press) for three sets of five repetitions. These are all to be done with a barbell. Not machines. Not pulleys. Not the latest “military grade” fitness tools. Barbells. It really is that simple. Why a barbell? Unlike any other piece of equipment, a barbell allows for incremental loading to occur. A barbell allows the user to precisely add exact amounts of weight to progressivly load an exercise. You can read more about this here. The big idea is to train compound movement with barbells; you will thank me for it!

Linear Progression of Strength