Ep 11: Your First Year of Lifting (Doing What Matters)
You decided to get stronger, improve your body composition, and become more healthy. You selected a simple but effective barbell-based strength training program and committed to consistent training. During your first year of lifting, there will be many new things to learn, habits to develop, and temptations to lead you off your chosen path.
After going through the process myself and talking with hundreds of other lifters, I wanted to share some thoughts to help you keep making progress and avoid some common pitfalls that could derail you. When I started lifting seriously and intelligently a few years ago, it was thanks to those who came before me that I could avoid making some big mistakes while still figuring out what worked for me as an individual. I hope these ideas help you in your first year of lifting or really any time during your fitness journey!
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Transcript
This podcast was transcribed automatically, so please forgive any errors or typos.
[00:00:00] Philip Pape: Welcome to the Wits & Weights podcast, for busy professionals who want to get strong and healthy with strength training and a sustainable diet. I’m your host, Philip Pape, and in each episode, we’ll examine strategies to help you achieve physical self-mastery through a healthy skepticism of the fitness industry, and a commitment to consistent lifting and nutrition.
[00:00:26] Welcome to episode 11 of wits and weights. You decided to get stronger, improve your body composition and become more healthy. You selected a simple but effective barbell beast strength training program, and committed to consistent traits. During your first year of lifting, there'll be many new things to learn habits, to develop and temptations to lead you off your chosen path.
[00:00:59] After going through the process, myself and talking with hundreds of other lifters, I wanted to share some thoughts to help you keep making progress and avoid some common pitfalls that could derail. When I started lifting seriously and intelligently a few years ago, it was thanks to those who came before me, that I could avoid making some big mistakes while still figuring out what worked for me as an individual.
[00:01:25] I hope these ideas help you in your first year of lifting or really any time during your fitness. Let's just jump right in. The first thing I'm going to talk about is the fact that when you start something new, when you want to get fit, you want to start working out and training. You want to start eating right.
[00:01:47] There are a lot of new habits. That you have to develop. And initially this is going to require some form of extrinsic motivation reward system and even willpower and discipline. And I know we don't like to say that something requires willpower, but the initial getting over that hump of creating something, that's a system, that's a habit that you can do everyday for the rest of your life.
[00:02:15] Initially requires. A shock to the system. And this is why I think it's important right off the bat to take that excitement. You have that enthusiasm that, you know, I'm going to lose weight. I'm going to gain weight. I'm going to start working out regularly and use that energy to properly put in place those systems that will help you continue to have it days, weeks, and months down the road, when you might not have as much excitement or motivation.
[00:02:42] And I did talk about this in an earlier episode about automating your fitness journey with things like preparing your gym bag and preparing your training, preparing your nutrition, setting things up so that not only. Is it easier to do them each day, but it's hard to avoid doing them. You make it hard on yourself to not do them.
[00:03:06] And what works for you might work, not work for someone else. And the point is rather than just jumping into this and going take the hour or the day or the week to plan. To a little bit greater extent, knowing that this is something that's going to change your life. And so you have to change your life to develop the new habits that will get you there.
[00:03:32] But I assure you that once you get over that initial few weeks or month or two of consistent training and eating that it will be so much easier. It will become a habit. It will be something that you miss. If you don't. And after about, ah, say three to six months, it's just going to be an ingrained part of your life that you're going to enjoy, especially as you then start to see the results, enjoy the process, enjoy the results, set yourself up for success with systems so that the habits become easier to develop.
[00:04:08] Okay. That was more of a mindset thing. Now we're going to get a little more detailed nitty-gritty tactical. The second. Is to make sure that you log your workouts so that you can see progress. I'm not talking about just logging your workouts. I'm talking specifically about the fact that you want to see something going up and improving over time.
[00:04:33] Now as a novice lifters, a new lifter, this is most likely weight on the bar. It's as simple as that, as you see the weight. For the same movements and the same sets and reps, you know, you're making progress. And the purpose of doing this is so that the process becomes your focus rather than the results.
[00:04:58] If you can focus on the process, the results will come. But if you focus on the results, you can sometimes screw yourself up during the process. So chances are, if you've identified a really good training, That's also fairly simple and easy to track, you know, and may have as few as say, five movements, the big barbell lifts and maybe some pull-ups that it should be fairly easy to track your progress as you get experienced.
[00:05:27] And you get stronger to the point where you have to shift to intermediate programming, which may be as early as three to six months. Then not only will you have this habit in place, but then as things get a little more complicated, for example, if you start prac V start progressing against reps or sets, or when you start moving your movements around or adding new movements, it'll be that much easier to see progress.
[00:05:55] Next, I want to talk about the programming itself, not what program you're doing, but the fact that newer lifters are always attracted to the next shiny object. The next fun program you've been on a program for, let's say eight or 12 weeks. And you say to yourself, this seems to be getting repetitive, although I'm making progress, but you know, I want to do some more tricep work.
[00:06:20] I want to do some more back work. Some bodybuilding Hyper-V. And you start to hop around to different programs and you go off the path a little bit and then a little bit more. And before you know it, you're doing some high volume or super squat programming or something with a lot of conditioning that's way off from the original plan of just getting.
[00:06:44] And this is one of the biggest temptations for newer lifters in your first year. So the counter to that is to find a simple, fun training program that doesn't have a lot of movements because we're really looking for efficiency with our limited time in the gym, and we're looking to improve technique and get stronger.
[00:07:07] So when you find that program, stick with it, avoid the temptation to program. If you think you are quote-unquote plateauing chances, are there something else to look at? For example, is it time for a de-load or a reset or are you not getting enough recovery? Are you jumping too quickly in terms of your.
[00:07:33] From session to session, you know, is it time to reduce the increments you were going up 10 pounds, time to go up five. You're going up five time to go up two and a half. These micro plates, if needed. Are you resting sufficiently between sets? I would look at all of those things before you say, ah, that's it, I've just gotten as strong as I'm going to do after four months as a new lifter.
[00:07:57] And I need to get a new. But the next thing I want to talk about is the thought that you just want to get lean. Don't worry about getting quote unquote lean focus instead. Okay. And this comes back to process versus results focus instead on building strengthening. The best way to get lean is to get bigger, to add muscle, not the other way around, not to reduce fat.
[00:08:27] Yes. Reducing fat could make a dent in your body fat percentage, but adding muscle will immediately alter your body composition, increase your metabolism and make it such that getting leaner even at a heavier weight is possible. That is our. So stop trying to get lean, get a six pack. It ripped jacked, whatever in your first year, focus on building the neuromuscular adaptation and then the actual strength and muscle mass.
[00:08:58] As you get stronger and stronger session after session by adding weight to the bar for most new lifters, you're going to want to eat more than you were eating before so that you can provide your body, the nutrition and the environment it needs to build. I'm not talking about dirty bulk or dreamer bulk.
[00:09:18] I'm simply talking about eating enough to make progress, unless you're significantly overweight, you know, you're trying to lose weight. And that is your primary goal. In which case you may want to be at maintenance or even a. You're probably going to need to eat more than you thought you needed to, as you train harder and harder, and it's this eating more and building muscle mass, that'll give you the opportunity later on to get quote unquote lean.
[00:09:47] We're actually going to talk about that in the next episode, because I just completed a building phase or a bulking cycle that I want to talk about in detail, as far as why this concept of eating more and getting. Okay, is the key to getting leaner. The next thing that's super important. When you first start and it's really important for the rest of your life as a lifter, but if you focus on this from day one, it will take you so much farther and give you the progress you're looking for.
[00:10:20] And that is form and technique study. Practice it become one with the technique of the lifts that you are mastering. And by using a simple barbell based strength training program, that's limited to maybe five movements, you know, the squat deadlift press bench press, and then some pole. You can have the focus required to really master form with those techniques.
[00:10:51] And that means when you first start, you picking a reasonable weight, you're not trying to overshoot, even if you've lifted before we're trying to do it, right. Pick a reasonable weight on the bar so that you can do a full range of motion rep with beautiful form. Now it's not going to be beautiful at all.
[00:11:09] When you first start, it's going to be downright ugly most. And this is actually bringing me to the next point, which is to either get a coach or join some sort of group, like an online group where you can get form checks early on. Don't wait, six months later, when you've been squatting two or three times a week for six months, you may have been doing it wrong the whole time.
[00:11:32] And now you've developed a habit with poor form. And I'll tell you a quick story about this. When I was learning the low bar back squat. I had a lot of habits from CrossFit where we learn to high bar back squat and who, you know, asked to grass high reps, all of the things that are not what you need when you're doing low bar back squats for strength, for, you know, in the range of around five reps and much heavier loads.
[00:12:02] Grateful. So for awhile, I tried to figure it out on my own. I read starting strength. They watch videos. You know, I took my time to take notes and practice without a bar practice with an empty bar practice with a bar, looking at my feet, my knees, the angle of my back, all of these things. And I thought I had it pretty good.
[00:12:25] Until I decided to hire a coach for one hour. It was a starting strength coach here in Connecticut to help me with my squat and press the overhead press. And within about 10 minutes he had fixed 15 or 20 different things. I was doing wrong on my squat, despite me being completely certain, I, I was almost.
[00:12:49] And he fixed everything. He fixed my stance, how I pointed my toes, the angle of my knuckles on the bar, the width on the bar, where it was on my back and on and on and on. And by the way, I'd love to talk about some of these in a future episode, specifically about individual lifts. And we'll talk about the back squat.
[00:13:12] But my point of this story is he fixed all these things in less than an hour. That was the best money spent in terms of my lifting progress, because then I could go home. I could apply proper form. I could video myself and keep refining that, and I could start making significant progress because correct form allows you to recruit your muscles in the right way, avoid injury, lift the heaviest loads.
[00:13:40] And that's what we're trying to do so that we can make. If you can't afford a coach or can't get access to one, or there's not any good coach in your area, the next best thing is to join something like a Facebook Reddit group, where you could post a video of yourself doing the lift. And by the way, let's use good etiquette.
[00:14:00] Please make sure your videos are trends. Make sure they're at the right angle with the right lighting so people can help you out and you post the video and hopefully get some good feedback and can self-correct from there. Hey guys, I just wanted to thank you for listening to the podcast. If you find it valuable, you would be doing me a huge favor by sharing it on social media.
[00:14:23] Just take a screenshot, share to your Instagram story or Facebook, please tag me so I can personally thank you. And we can talk about what you found helpful and how I can improve again, an incredible thank you for supporting the podcast and enjoy the rest of the episode. The next thing I want to talk about is the fact that when you are a new lifter or you've been away from it for a long time, You're going to make some pretty quick progress.
[00:14:51] Initially, in terms of load on the bar, you're going to be able to jump at fairly large increments, perhaps 10 or even 15 pounds on the deadlift, five or 10 pounds on the squat, five pounds on the. And some of that is what they called neuro muscular adaptation. The idea that you have the capability to lift that weight already sort of a base strength, but you are clumsy and your body hasn't been trained in those movements, in those patterns.
[00:15:21] So now that you learn the patterns pretty quickly, your body sort of catches up to its own. It's not that you're adding significant strength or muscle mass that quickly it's that you're converging to your initial set point. Then it starts to get a little. Right. It starts to flatten out the curve just a little bit and your jumps decrease, but you start to get to that sweet spot where you really are now gaining true strength and muscle mass in the process through this linear progression.
[00:15:53] Eventually though you start to hit the wall, the wall, and you know this because it starts to get a little grindy toward the end of your. It really feels hard. And so expect this to happen. At some point, this is going to come. It may not actually be too far into your, your journey, maybe about 3, 4, 5 months in.
[00:16:14] And one way to prepare for this is to always plan not to fail any reps. If you're going four sets of five, Your plan is to get all sets of all five reps, no matter what. And then your counter-argument is why, how do you do that? You know, what if you're just not as strong that day and not feeling it all right.
[00:16:36] It's not really about what you feel. It's about what you're capable of and the adaptation you've experienced. You may feel terrible and still be able to get all your reps. You may feel great. And it's. But as you reach that point, there are a few things to consider. One is to decrease the increase that's to decrease the increase, decrease the jump for the next workout.
[00:16:58] Plan ahead, knowing that you're reaching that point. Don't keep jumping five pounds. If you should be going up to. Also make sure you have consistent recovery that is sleep consistent. You're consistently eating and you're taking enough rest between sets. I mentioned this earlier, but all of these things, if you do them consistently, then you can compare the progress objectively from session to session.
[00:17:24] But if you all of a sudden, only get four hours of sleep one night and you have. 14 hours. Well, that's going to significantly impact your performance. You may then fail a rep and it's not necessarily because of a lack of adaptation so much as you've hurt yourself by limiting these other factors, recovery, rest, food, so on.
[00:17:46] So it's important to be keenly aware of your performing. In that session and get a feel for what you probably probably are capable of next session and plan accordingly. Don't just blindly jumped by 10 pounds, five pounds. What have you jumped the appropriate amount based on where you think you are in almost hitting that wall.
[00:18:08] Now eventually you'll get to a point where you truly would fail a rep. If you tried to increase the weight on the bar. And at that point, you're probably ready for intermediate. Where you start to split things up and go to something like a heavy light, medium programming or a 40 split, or even a five day something like a power building program that allows you to spread out the work a little bit.
[00:18:33] And then you're looking for weekly increases, not session to session, and eventually even less frequent increases than that, but you're still gonna measure progress somehow. All right, the next thing. And it's somewhat related to some of the recent things we talked about is always listened to your. And what I mean by that is not in it, not in a subjective sense.
[00:18:56] In other words, if you're going to go and do a set of five for squats and you just feel kind of tired that day, and this is going to be a grind, it's going to be terrible. I'm not sure I'm up for it. That's not what I'm talking about in that case. Get yourself under the bar and do the reps I'm talking about.
[00:19:13] You've got this weird tweak in your elbow and it clicks a little bit. When you try to do a bench press or your knee, all of a sudden starts to hurt or here's what happened to me? I got bicep tendonitis because my squat. Wasn't optimal for me. I was actually putting too much strain on my elbow because of too much extension of the wrist.
[00:19:38] And once I fixed my squat grip, the pain in my elbow went away and I no longer feared doing. Supinated chin-ups for example, you know, I was avoiding him. I was avoiding barbell curls, things like that because my barbell tendon hurts so much, but I had to find the root cause and I had to listen to my body and kind of trace it, do the research, try things out until I could figure out what was happening.
[00:20:06] So this is biofeedback. This is the kind of thing it gives you personalized feedback on something going on with your form and technique. Usually the gut reaction is just to not do whatever is causing the feeling or the pain. And that may be true in the short term that you need to avoid that temporarily, but more likely there's something else down the chain that's causing the issue.
[00:20:33] And so this is where we go back to form and technique, evaluate all of your movements and see if there's anything that really could be the root cause. This issue that is pain, and this is separate from true injury or true pain. For example, I had a herniated disc that was impinging impinging on my Sadek nerve.
[00:20:56] Okay. And that caused pain that couldn't go away with any other solution, then a microdiscectomy to get rid of the tissue, and then it solved the problem. That was a clear cause and effect medical issue. And. Affected by my form. Now having said that, did it make me even more rigorous about my squatting and my dead lifting in terms of keeping a neutral spine driving with the hips and my squat, having the right hip angle back angle, et cetera.
[00:21:28] In my deadlift, yes. I pay even more attention to those things. Now, just in case any of them could have contributed to that. So as you begin this journey, you're going to be super excited about trying all these lifts and making progress. And initially you're going to make progress across the board. Even if you have bad form, you could even continue for years like that with bad form.
[00:21:51] But some of these movement issues could cause injury or pain down the road. And so being a student of good form and technique and listening to your body are very helpful as it gets stronger. The last thing I want to talk about. Is a little bit different because this is a new endeavor. You want to try to absorb as much information as possible and also filter that information, using judgment and intelligence, corroborating evidence science experience.
[00:22:25] I implore you to read as many books as you can to listen to podcasts. Thankfully, you're already doing that right here right now, but there are lots of other great podcasts that are a ton of great books. Watch videos, go to YouTube to learn and develop expertise in this field of lifting. Treat it like a skill that you want to master.
[00:22:48] And yes, it takes practice. Yes, it takes training, but it also takes information and knowledge. And the scientific literature is changing all the time. We discover new, exciting things. We discover new techniques and then there's new nut jobs popping up all the time on social media that we want to learn to filter out.
[00:23:08] So reading books, listening to podcasts, watching videos, gaining knowledge, and just being aware of everything going on out there we'll emerge. In this field, to the extent that you're a student of it, as well as a practitioner and at least in my opinion, that makes it even more exciting as you continue to develop this habit through the years.
[00:23:29] Okay. Those. Some tips that I came up with for continuing to make progress and avoid the big mistakes that some people make during their first year of lifting. I'm sure there are many more that you can think of, or others have shared. And that we'll talk about on this podcast in the future, but the ones today can have a huge impact on your enjoyment, your consistency, your sustainable.
[00:23:59] As you transform your strength and body composition for better health.
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