[kfoley]

For anyone looking to get started I highly recommend the StrongLifts program and the associated app, both free [1].

I neglected strength training for a long time because every time I tried to get started I would feel overwhelmed. Then I tried StrongLifts and loved the fact that it's just 5 exercises, but provides pretty much a full body strength workout.

The guy who developed the program has put a ton of effort into making sure it's detailed and accessible so that pretty much any question you could have is answered.

[1]: https://stronglifts.com/5x5/

[kccqzy]

The StrongLifts program, while still pretty good, is not for absolute beginners. The app and the website has videos and detailed instructions, but that doesn't replace a human coach being able to point out in real time mistakes in your form that you do not even realize. And if you are a beginner, any attempt to do these exercises will invariably contain so many mistakes that they are not worth doing any more.

Just find a human coach. An app is not a substitute.

[gameoverhumans]

Counterpoint: there's plenty of coaches out there that teach/reinforce bad form.

> And if you are a beginner, any attempt to do these exercises will invariably contain so many mistakes that they are not worth doing any more.

I totally disagree. StrongLifts (and the Starting Strength book it derives from) starts you with the empty bar. Unless you have a serious medical condition, putting 20kg on your back / chest is unlikely to result in serious bodily harm or damage to musculature. As you slowly and steadily increase the weight on the bar, you discover places where your form needs improvement. At least, that's how it worked for me (I only made it to ~100kg squats though).

Of course it's great if you can find a good coach. But I think an app like StrongLifts is a viable+reasonable substitute for a coach.

[kccqzy]

It's not that a beginner cannot put 20kg on their back or chest. It's that a beginner does not know how to safely put that 20kg on their back or chest. Especially the chest.

Also some exercises like the deadlift can't be done with an empty bar. Stronglifts would ask you to start with 95lbs which is too much.

To me your comment is toxic and reeks of a sense of superiority and elitism from your own experience. You labelled everyone who can't put 20kg to be someone having a serious medical condition. That's both untrue and disrespectful.

> As you slowly and steadily increase the weight on the bar, you discover places where your form needs improvement.

Please no. The beginner does not discover places where the form needs improvement. The beginner simply fails to lift after increasing the weight. The beginner injures themselves when they thought they could lift but they did not.

The StrongLifts program starting with an empty bar is not right. They should've started with a PVC pipe with the same dimensions as a bar to practice form.

My advice: find a coach and ask him/her to supervise you if you can afford it. If you can't, still find a coach for your first month doing these exercises and then switch to the app.

[nwiswell]

> Please no. The beginner does not discover places where the form needs improvement. The beginner simply fails to lift after increasing the weight. The beginner injures themselves when they thought they could lift but they did not.

This assertion is contradicted by the hundreds of thousands of people (myself included) who have progressed beyond the beginner stage after starting out with the 20kg bar and without ever requiring the intervention of a human coach.

That said, I would have benefited from one. I had to completely deload and relearn my squat form because I was consistently leaning forward and de-emphasizing my posterior chain (now it's my best lift).

Speaking from experience, it's really pretty difficult to cause yourself an acute injury (i.e., worse than a nasty bruise) with 20kg if your form even resembles the squat, bench, or deadlift.

Granted, 20kg can be a big starting weight for overhead press, and if you're a petite woman you may initially need an alternative to the Olympic barbell even for the others.

Also, deadlifts are kind of tricky: a bare bar on the floor is a deficit deadlift. But a couple of blocks can solve this issue.

[xctr94]

Wow, weight lifting is seriously ‘gate-kept’. GP needs to chill, he’s being elitist, and forgetting PTs are super expensive. I followed Stronglifts to 110kg, and just started again after 4 years. It’s fun. It’s easy. You focus on few, simple exercises, so form is easy to do well if you try.

[oarfish]

Sorry I don't mean to offend, but this comment rubs me entirely the wrong way. This attitude strikes me as gatekeeping and turning people away from barbell training.

> mistakes in your form that you do not even realize.

form is entirely overrated in lifting. There's little evidence that a particular way of moving in the gym is more or less injurious, even if it looks funny. Efficiency is another matter, but don't nocebo anyone into not touching barbells in fear of "bad form".

And while coaching is surely useful, it is entirely unnecessary for a beginner who just wants to get started. You can make plenty progress for years without a coach, but it might be faster with one.

> And if you are a beginner, any attempt to do these exercises will invariably contain so many mistakes that they are not worth doing any more.

this is also clearly untrue and way too generic. Even inefficient lifting is healthy. Youtube is all you need to get started. There's plenty dumb info there, but plenty good also

[polishdude20]

Yep, the modern view is that injuries happen due to doing too much too soon rather than any technique problems. Either way injuries are super rare if you follow a program with a good build up of stress over time.

[gadders]

Or you could go with Starting Strength, which is similar and has some good information on the form of the lifts as well as novice programming.

https://startingstrength.com/get-started

[munbun]

This honestly isn’t a great choice for beginners for a number of reasons.

For someone seeking a better introduction to strength training, please take a look at the BoostCamp app

https://www.boostcamp.app

[gadders]

It depends what you want. Bodybuilding or strength training/powerlifting.

[wtbdtloopsody]

never start with lifting weights except if you have somewhat athletic hobbies or if you did more than a bit of physical labor.

your joints and tendons can't do their jobs properly yet and you have no feeling for your skeleton and the correct positions of shoulders, hips and spine. your nerves will get pinched and your muscles will push to grow into their genetically intended position while you will bring nerves and tendons in bad positions due to habit.

joint strength, posture, bodyweight core training, 200 bodyweight squats in two sets, 200 pushups in 4 - 6 sets, 2 - 3 min hang from bar or rope (holding it as tight as possible all the time) and be sure you can roll forward and backward and wrestle with a big dog or young and strong child for fun on the ground without hurting yourself. now you can start lifting low weights.

[cyrialize]

I'm a big fan of Greyskull Linear Progression! I've always liked 3 sets of 5 more than 5x5.