Choosing Your Starting Weight. If you’ve never done these exercises before, you first need to learn correct technique before thinking about heavy weights.
- Squat, Bench Press & Overhead Press. Start with an empty barbell.
- Barbell Rows. Start with 30kg/66lbs including the barbell.
- Deadlift. Start with 40kg/88lbs including the barbell. Put small plates on the floor for Deadlifts to get the correct bar height.
- Pull-ups, Chin-ups & Dips. Start with your own body-weight.
If you’ve done these exercises before & your technique is ok: do workout A the first day working yourself up to one heavy set of 5 reps on all exercises. Do the same for workout B two days later.
Start the next week with 30% less weight.
You can also use bigger increments. If your technique is good & the weight feels too easy: increase the weight by 5kg/10lbs per workout on the Squat & 10kg/20lbs on the Deadlift. Go back to smaller increases when this gets heavy.
Progression. Add weight every workout. Even if it’s only a small increment, it adds up. Start with an empty barbell on Squats & you’ll lift 50kg/110lbs 1 month later, 80kg/175lbs 2 months later.
- Squat. Add 2,5kg/5lbs each workout. 5kg/10lbs if it’s too easy & your technique is ok. Go back to 2.5kg/5lbs increments when this gets hard.
- Bench Press & Barbell Rows. Add 2,5kg/5lbs every time you do them. You can try 5kg/10lbs, but won’t be able to keep that pace for long.
- Overhead Press. The toughest exercise of all. Starting with an empty barbell & adding 2.5kg/5lbs will be ok for most.
- Deadlift. You can lift the heaviest weight on the Deadlift. Add 5kg/10lbs every time. Switch to 2,5kg/5lbs increases when 5kg/10lbs gets hard.
- Pull-ups, Chin-ups & Dips. Switch to weighted Pull-ups/Chin-ups/Dips when you can do +10 reps on the first set with your own body-weight.
Stalling. You won’t be able to add weight every workout indefinitely. You’ll stall on the
Overhead Press first. Next the
Bench Press. Then the
Squat. And finally the
Deadlift. There are the 3 scenario’s for stalling:
- You didn’t achieve 5×5. Retry up to 3 times. Bad days happen.
- You didn’t achieve 5×5 for 3 workouts. Perform a soft deload.
- Achieved reps regress as workouts go by. Fatigue sets in. Hard deload.
After 2 hard deloads on the Squat, you’re past the beginner stage. Switch to the
Beginner Strength Training Program II.