How To Start Lifting Weights

The art of keeping things simple to maximize your results

With it being January, have you noticed an uptick in people at your local gym or workout studio? Maddie and I have a home gym but shoot, we’ve even noticed an uptick in the number of people at health food stores! 

This is all well and good, of course - We want more people to adopt healthy lifestyles! But the unfortunate reality is, that there’s a reason why the top New Year resolutions set every year is to start working out and eating healthier.

People set it every year because they quit every year. In fact, a little over a week ago, January 12th was National Quitters Day. This is the day that, statistically, most people quit their New Year's goals. 

It’s not necessarily that they aren’t disciplined enough (although that can be a factor), but a large majority of people quit because they plan such lofty goals for themselves, that missing one workout, or eating fast food for one dinner quickly snowballs, dealing a crushing blow to their momentum and morale which makes it that much easier to quit altogether.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say your New Year's resolution is to start lifting weights 5 days a week.

OK… Great. What will those workouts look like?

Do you need to drive somewhere to do them? 

Where/who did you get your workout plan from?

What about your kids, do they need to be dropped off and picked up from somewhere when you want to go?

There are so many factors to consider to ensure you stick to a workout plan, so to maximize your chance of success and thus, results, you should look to make your weightlifting routine as simple as possible, especially if you’re new to it.

I’ve been lifting weights now for 19 years (dang, I didn’t realize that until I did the math) and was a personal trainer for some of that. If you are looking into lifting weights this year, here are my top pieces of advice for you to get started on the right path to success.

Practice your form

When I had a pretty major surgery that led to doctors forbidding me to lift weights for a YEAR in my early 20s, I had to find some way to scratch the itch. After all, lifting weights had become part of my identity and I couldn’t just stop. 

So, while I wasn’t lifting heavy or doing any high-rep workouts for a good pump, I was still practicing my form. When I got the OK from my doctor, I went out and bought a PVC pipe and became well acquainted with it to practice my form in my living room. I would practice squats, overhead presses, rows, deadlifts, and bench. I even practiced super advanced moves like the overhead squat with this PVC pipe. 

I credit this one year of “lifting” the PVC pipe with most of my strength and muscle gains that I’ve had since then!

It might seem counter-intuitive since a PVC pipe weighs less than a pound, but here’s why that is: Muscle is built best through a powerful mind-muscle connection and the ability to take your muscles through its full range of motion.

Before this, being in my late teens, I would ego lift a lot - that is, just lift as heavy and as fast as possible because I could. I didn’t think about concentrating on the mind-muscle connection, slowing down, or going through full ranges of motion. I just wanted to put up heavyweight!

But taking the time to focus on the fundamentals is key. I would encourage ANY beginner, before you go all in on a gym membership trying to force muscle growth, to go to the hardware store, buy a squat bar length PVC pipe, and “workout” in front of a mirror. Watch YouTube form videos and practice, practice, PRACTICE. 

Focus on your mind-muscle connection and range of motion more than anything. I promise you, if you can feel the muscles that are being worked during an exercise AND you are taking it through its full range of motion, you’ll reap the rewards so much faster.

Keep it simple

One of the things I hate most about Instagram fitness personalities and in some ways, personal trainers, is that they push working out 5-7 days per week and going hard, bro!

Sure, this might work for someone in their teens or early 20s due to the power of hormones and the lack of any real responsibilities outside of working out and going to school. But for the vast majority of people, doing less usually turns out to be more when it comes to lifting weights.

It might also sound boring, but do you remember the exercises I said you should practice earlier? Yeah, those simple compound ones… Those are all you need to build a strong, aesthetic physique - for men and women.

You don’t have to do fancy exercises on fancy machines 5 times per week.

You need to keep it simple and do compound movements that hit multiple muscle groups at the same time.

You don’t need to have a leg day, a back day, a chest day, and an arm day.

You need to hit every body part 3 times per week, in 3, full-body workouts.

Don’t make things harder than they need to be.

Take action: Take an honest look at your weightlifting routine, whether you are new or have been lifting for years. Do you find yourself missing days? Do you find that your growth and strength gains have diminished? 

It could be well worth it to cut back on the number of days you are going while also upping the frequency that you hit muscle groups, e.i. 3 full-body workouts per week.

Now… If you want something simple that you can do at home and that is a bit outside the box, I’ve got something for you! 

I just finished up our first Back to Our Roots Primal Patterns workout routine!! This is a program built around super simple workouts done with minimal equipment. 

This particular plan focuses on exercises that can be done with a sandbag and your body weight. 

It’ll challenge your body to not only build strength and muscle endurance but to also practice functional movement patterns with a piece of equipment that mimics what you encounter in daily life.

Oh, and I’m including a special discount (code: SUBSTACK) for the first 25 people who download it and are already subscribed to us here on Substack.

Sign up here to download: Primal Patterns: Sandbag Training

I would love to know what you think.

Happy Lifting!

-Sebastian