How to Start Weight Training – A Beginners Guide

Last Updated 3 years ago

If you’re new to weight training, the whole process can be confusing – not knowing what to do, how to do it and why you should!

When you look around the gym there are machines, plates, barbells and dumbbells of different sizes. There are people performing a myriad of exercises that you aren’t sure whether you should be copying or not. It’s easy to understand why a beginner wouldn’t know where to start!

That’s why we’ve produced this guide to starting weight training. We’ll run you through what you need to know and why you should be doing it. We’ll start with equipment, so you know what everything is and what the differences are.

From there we’ll move on to technique, important exercises and then eventually we’ll leave you with a weight training programme to get started with.

At the end of the article you’ll feel ready and confident to step into the gym and get to work!

Equipment

Most gyms buy huge amounts of kit so it looks impressive to members, but in reality you only need a handful of pieces of equipment [1].

For decades Olympic gold medals have been won with only barbells and dumbbells for training with.

Bodybuilders in stage shape get there with barbells and dumbbells. However, for the purposes of education, I’ll roughly explain the different bits of kit so you’re aware of them.

Barbell

A standard Olympic barbell is 7 feet long and weighs 20kg. You may have other types – shorter barbells that are 5 of 6 feet long.

You also may see an ‘EZ’ bar, which has a zig-zag appearance. This is generally reserved for bicep curls.

Dumbbells

Dumbbells should come in pairs and are usually in increments of 1, 2, or 2.5kg. Typically, the heavier the weight, the thicker the dumbbell handle will be.

Most gyms will contain dumbbells from around 2kg all the way up to 50kg.

Plates

These are the weights you add to the bar. In most gyms you’ll find plates in the following sizes (all weights in KG) 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25.

They’re usually round, but occasionally you may see them in different shapes.

Cable Machines

Cable machines usually have weight stacks attached to a cable on either side. They can be used independently of each other, or both together.

You lift the weights by pulling the cables. Cables are great because you can perform a lot of different exercises with them, without having your movement governed by the machine itself.

Weights Machines

These are the standard machines you’ll see in any gym. They’re designed to train a particular body part each, so for example there’ll be a machine for the chest, for the back, for the legs etc.

That summarises the kit, so now let’s talk about how to use it!

Weight training – a beginner’s guide

As a beginner, it’s always appropriate to learn the techniques of weight training, because this is when you’re at your most vulnerable from an injury standpoint. You should also concern yourself with learning the major lifts, known as ‘compound exercises’ [2].

A compound exercise is a ‘multi-joint’ exercise that uses a lot of muscles in one go. Examples of compound exercises include squats, deadlifts, bench presses, shoulder presses, rows, pull ups lunges.

If you were to learn all of these exercises with good technique, in all honesty you have already learned 80% of what you’d need to know in order to train effectively!

The alternative to compound exercises are isolation exercises – these are exercises that train a single area using a single joint. Examples include bicep curls, tricep pushdowns, lateral raises, calf raises and the like. They’re far less important than compound exercises, especially for beginners.

How to learn technique

There are a number of ways to learn correct exercise technique – you can watch YouTube technique videos and practice in the gym. You can film yourself on your phone and compare your movements to those on the videos.

That’s a very good way to refine technique once you have the basics down – you know what it should look like, so when you know what you’re doing, you can cast a more critical eye over your own form.

The best way to learn weight training technique though is to use a personal trainer or fitness coach. When you learn to drive, you hire an instructor. When you go to school, they have professional teachers.

Exercise shouldn’t be any different – pick a good quality professional to help you learn to weight train properly. Ask them to be very strict with form – you want to learn the perfect execution of exercises from the ground up.

Focus on the quality of movement and how each exercise feels when it is performed correctly. I think it’s helpful to close your eyes as you do this, so you can feel the muscles work and get an appreciation for what body parts are working.

You don’t have to work with your trainer forever, but even if you work with them for a month or two, until you’re confident you know what you’re doing, then you’re good to go! Some people even go back for a monthly ‘top up’ to make sure they’re progressing.

Terminology

There’s some confusion around terminology in weight training when you’re brand new. Here’s an overview of the very basics, so you’ll understand what everything means!

• Rep

This is a repetition of an exercise. If you perform a push up for example, each time you lower your chest to the floor and push up to the start position, you have completed a rep.

• Set

This is a group of repetitions. Using our up example, if you were doing a ‘set of 10’, it means you’d do 10 push ups then rest. You can do multiple sets.

• Rest period

This is the rest time taken between sets (not reps). If your rest period is 60 seconds, you’d perform your 10 push ups, rest a maximum of 60 seconds and perform your next set.

• Load

This is the weight you’re going to lift. Always include the weight of the bar, so say you were bench pressing 40kg, remember the bar weighs 20kg on its own, so you’d add a 10kg plate to each end of the bar.

• Tempo

This is the speed at which you lift. You may see it written as numbers, but that is for when you’re more advanced. For now, start with a 2-2 tempo, which means two seconds to lower the weight, 2 seconds to lift the weight.

• Programme

This is the series of exercises you’ll be performing in the gym on a given day.

It will usually contain information on the exercise, the amount of sets and reps you should be doing, the weight you should be lifting and the rest periods you should take.

• Split

The split is the kind of weight training programme you’ll follow. Some workouts are a body part split, where you’ll train muscles in groups (often chest/triceps, back/biceps, legs/abs, shoulders/arms).

Other workout splits are upper/lower, where you’ll train upper body one day, lower body another day. There’s also a push/pull, where you’ll train pushing exercises one day, pulling exercises another.

• Whole body

This is a workout where you’ll train each body part in a workout. Science shows us this is the most effective way to train for muscle growth [3], especially in beginners.

Go with this approach because it means more frequent training of the muscles.

Weight training exercises to learn

As a beginner, I’d suggest you focus your attention on learning the main compound movements.

By learning these exercises you’ll train your entire body, you’ll improve your strength and physique and you’ll learn excellent technique that can improve your overall health, wellbeing and athleticism [4].

Your focus should be on exercise and workout frequency, rather than weight.

The more repetitions you perform the better, because your muscles, bones and connective tissues will adapt to the demands of weight training.

By developing the strength in the ligaments and tendons alongside the muscles, you’ll reduce your chances of injury.

The compound lifts to get started with are commonly known as ‘the big 6’ in bodybuilding and strength training circles, because these are the main six exercises that will help to build real size and strength in people.

Theoretically, you could perform these exercises alone and build a very impressive physique (although you might get a little bored just doing the same thing over and over again!)

Here are the big 6 exercises I’d suggest, with a YouTube video link to each, because it’s better to watch and learn technique, rather than to read and learn it…

Shoulder Press – trains shoulders, core, upper back and arms

Bent Over Row – trains back, arms and shoulders

Bench Press – trains chest, shoulders and arms

Squats – trains legs and core

Deadlifts – trains legs, lower back and core

Lunges – trains legs and core

Once you’ve learned the technique with a barbell, you can progress on to dumbbells, which are technically more challenging, but they will improve your strength, fitness and balance further.

Additional compound exercises

Beyond the big 6 exercises, there are other compound exercises you can learn that are also very effective. These then allow you to add even more exercise variety to your training programmes. Here’s an additional 6 exercises you can bring into your workouts…

Stiff Legged Deadlifts – trains hamstrings, glutes and lower back

Clean High Pull – trains upper back and shoulders

Pull Ups – trains back and biceps

Dips – trains chest and triceps

Goblet Squat – trains the legs

Hanging Leg Raises – trains the grip, forearms and abs

With these 12 exercises you have years of potential workouts, plus enough progression to keep you going for the rest of your life.

If you are serious about weight training, these exercises (and variations of them) will form the bulk of your training programmes for years to come, helping you to build strength and muscle mass.

Isolation Exercises

Alongside compound exercises, we also have ‘isolation’ exercises – these are exercises that use a single joint and try to isolate a particular muscle.

They’re not as effective as compound exercises, but they can be used at the end of the workout to target particular muscles.

It’s important to understand that as tempting as it might be to focus on individual muscles, it’s not an effective approach.

By training large muscle groups you stimulate the release of human growth hormone from muscle tissue, which helps muscles to grow. If you focus all of your time and attention on smaller muscle groups, you won’t stimulate the release of as much growth hormone and as a result will struggle to grow serious amounts of muscle.

So, there’s a time and a place for isolation exercises – after you’ve done your compound work!

Examples of isolation exercises include…

Bicep Curls – trains biceps

Tricep Push Downs – trains triceps

Calf Raises – trains the calf muscles

Lat Raises – trains the shoulders

Wrist curls – trains the forearms

Adjusting Sets and Reps

The general rule of thumb is that you lift heavier weights to build strength, medium weights with high volume to build size, and light weights with very high volume to build endurance.

It’s important to understand that these are generalised rules and there are circumstances where you’d adjust them, but for the most part they hold true.

When you are first starting off with your weight training journey and your form isn’t perfect, it’s advisable to stay away from the heaviest lifts, certainly until your form improves to a point where you can lift safely and consistently. With that in mind, I’d suggest you stay within a rep range of 8-15.

These higher rep ranges are less dangerous, they’ll help you build more muscle and they’ll also help the connective tissues adapt to weight training too. They’ll become stronger and more resilient, reducing your chances of injury.

When you reach a point where you are able to lift with good form, then you can focus on building your strength. For the meantime though, focus on building muscle by staying within a rep range of 8-15 reps.

Sample workout for weight training beginners

Here’s a workout programme to follow – it’s 4 sessions per week and will train all of your body across a variety of rep ranges. It’s designed to be tough but doable.

You should aim to rest 60 seconds between sets and pick a weight heavy enough to challenge you, but light enough to ensure you can do every rep for the first two sets.

If you can’t manage a full set on the 3^rd, 4^th or 5^th set of an exercise because you’re tired, that’s fine – do what you can. As soon as you can do every rep of every set of a given exercise, increase the weight on it.

Focus on excellent form and work hard throughout. If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you. It’s a bit of a cliché, but it’s true.

• Day 1

4 x 12 on every exercise

• Squats
• Bench Press
• Deadlift
• Shoulder Press
• Bicep Curls
• Tricep pushdowns

• Day 2

4 x 10 on every exercise

• Shoulder Press
• Lunges
• Dips
• Bent Over Row
• Hanging Leg Raises

• Day 3

5 x 8 on every exercise

• Clean High Pulls
• Bench Press
• Goblet Squats
• Lat Raises
• Wrist Curls
• Tricep Push Downs

• Day 4

4 x 15 on every exercise

• Squats
• Shoulder Press
• Bent Over Row
• Hanging Leg Raises
• Bicep Curls
• Calf Raises

If you follow this programme for 12 weeks when you return to the gym, you’ll look and feel very different by the end of it.

Plus you’ll be lifting significantly heavier weights by the end of the programme, showing how much stronger you’ll be.

Beginners guide to weight training – final thoughts

Building strength is one of the most important things you can do for your health and fitness. It builds confidence, reduces injury risk and will improve your mental health as well.

Follow these steps and you’ll be confident in the gym in no time!

References

[1] https://www.gymventures.com/gym-equipment-names-and-pictures/

[2] https://www.fitnesseducation.edu.au/blog/education/what-are-compound-exercises/

[3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25932981/

[4] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22777332/