A New Hero's Guide To Getting Started

Many a great hero had a mentor to help guide them on their path to becoming a hero. Luke and Yoda, Neo and Morpheus, Deku and All Might, the list goes on. Well, you are now here at the start of your heroic journey and I would be honored to be your guide. Ahead of you is a path of fitness, confidence, buffness, healthiness, and awesomeness. But before you even pick up your first weight, there are a few things we need to cover.

Commitment and Habit-Forming

I know I know, this isn't a very exciting topic, but it is an important one. Whether you want to build muscle, lose body fat, or just become stronger, you need to know that it is a process and that process takes time. You need to be committed to the process, even the dull, boring, unexciting parts. And you MUST be ready to form new habits. The truth is, most people never accomplish their fitness goals. It's not that they didn't use the right program, or they couldn't find enough information on nutrition. It's that they were not fully bought in nor committed to the process and/or were not ready to take forming new habits seriously. So how do you make sure you are bought into the process? Ask yourself these questions:

Am I willing to invest money into this process?

Am I willing to invest hours of my time learning and developing the basics?

Am I willing to make sacrifices?

If the answer was "No" to any one of those, then you need not read on. You aren't ready to begin your journey yet. However, if you answered "Yes", then we shall continue on our quest.

Learning The Basics

In order to get the most bang for your fitness buck, you HAVE to have a solid foundation of the basic exercise/movement patterns. As mentioned above, if you do not currently have that foundation, you must be willing to take a step back and reinvest into developing proficiency in those movements before you progress any further. To be honest, most lifters are beginners. Most people started lifting by jumping into their friends' program, or a program they found in a workout magazine and just started doing half-assed versions of what they saw in the photos. The exercise/movements you need to invest time into developing proficiency in are Squat, Deadlift (even Romanian Deadlift), Pull-up, Pulldown, Row, Push-up, Shoulder press, and Bench Press. These 9 movements will become the foundation for almost every program you will ever do, so it is important to develop proper form early on.

Appropriate Load and Mind-Muscle Connection

When you start out lifting, you don't need to jump right into maxing out every single set. You should start with lighter loads at first to ensure you are capable of controlling the weight through the full range of motion. This also helps you develop a strong "mind-muscle connection". The mind-muscle connection refers to the internal cue of being able to "feel" and purposefully use your muscles to move the weight as opposed to just going through the motions. It is impossible to completely isolate a muscle, but being able to focus on what muscle should be primarily performing the work will help prevent synergistic dominance and imbalances down the road. Once you feel comfortable with the exercise/movements, feel free to start introducing heavier loads. 

Focus On Improving Strength

After you have fully bought into the process, you have developed proficiency in the exercise/movement patterns that I discussed above, and have good control and a good mind-muscle connection, it's time to start increasing your strength. The first several months of lifting you will see strength gains faster than you will ever see again. This is because your body is developing neuromuscular efficiency which is a fancy term for your body is becoming more efficient at recruiting the muscle you already have. After those first few months, your strength gains will taper off slightly. You should aim to either add small increases in weight every week or add an additional rep where you can to continue providing enough progressive overload for strength increases. 

Trust The Process

Take advantage of the fact that you are a beginner. Your body is going to improve and adapt very easily at the start. There is no need to jump into more advanced programs or perform fancy variations of exercises until you have truly plateaued with the basics. By focusing on what I have laid out above, if you stick with it you will build muscle. Once you have a good foundation of strength, are proficient in your movements, and a solid foundation of muscle, then it is absolutely time to look into intermediate programs and variables. 

So what do you say, are you ready to go on your Hero's Journey?

-Coach Jason

Questions? Ideas? Concerns? Don't hesitate to reach out! 

Email Coach Jason at Jason@herophysiques.com