I Wish I Knew This When I Started Weight Training
We’ve all seen it. The guy in the gym doesn’t know what he’s doing but thinks he’s Chris Bumstead.
When I started weight training in 2018, I was that guy. As soon as you feel the blood pumping through your muscles, you feel unstoppable. I had no idea what I was doing, and it wasn't until I began training consistently two years later that I picked up some valuable lessons.
Every year of experience comes with hundreds more lessons and more realisation that I hadn’t a clue what I was doing back in 2018. Sound familiar?
You’re in luck. I’m here to teach you the lessons I wish I had known when I started weight training. What better place to start than the art and science of doing nothing?
1. Recovery Is Just As Important As Training
You can gain strength, speed, muscle size, power (or whatever your training goal is) from doing nothing. In other words, recovery is powerful.
Rest days are the only opportunity for your muscles to repair and grow. Without recovery, you won’t see any benefit from training. Overtraining can lead to injuries and burnout, so giving your body time to recover is crucial for long-term success.
There’s a balance to find, though. You can’t use recovery as an excuse not to push yourself hard in the gym.
Designing a training routine can be a good idea for staying committed to your training, but it should be flexible depending on how your body feels on the day. For example, if you have a leg weight training session today but your legs are still aching from your run yesterday, maybe it’s best to move the weight training session to another day.
Nothing is perfect, and you will almost certainly tweak and change elements of your training every time.
2. Consistency Is Non-Negotiable
Success is never achieved by one effort of greatness.
You know this. In football, no player has ever won the most prestigious individual award (Ballon d’Or) for playing well in one game. Instead, it is how well that player has played throughout the entire year. Even then, the performance is still the result - the training behind the scenes is greatness.
Consistently taking action is the bridge from where you are to where you want to be. You’re far more likely to maintain weight training in your lifestyle if you do it consistently over time rather than spend 2 hours in the gym once. It’s a volume game.
It's better to train regularly and build sustainable habits than to go all out for a few weeks and then quit. Consistent effort over time leads to progress, even if each session isn't perfect.
3. Periodised Progressive Overload Is Essential
Without progressive overload, your training is pointless. But you need to remember that you cannot go 100% on every goal. This is why periodisation is critical to long-term success in weight training.
It can be easy to get excited and go all-out in every area because you think it will only result in more gains.
You can only effectively train for one adaptation at a time, whether it's strength, hypertrophy, or endurance. Periodisation (organising your training into distinct phases) helps you focus on specific goals and prevents overtraining.
Gradually increase the weight, reps, or intensity to challenge your muscles and force them to adapt. This principle is the foundation of muscle growth and strength gains.
For example, if your goal is to increase your back squat one rep max to 100kg, but you also would like to shave 5 minutes off your 5km personal best, you’re going to be stuck. Identifying one clear goal to focus on for a predetermined period, say 12 weeks, and moving on to the next once achieved will be far more enjoyable (and you’ll see more results).
4. Nutrition Is More Important Than You Think
Nutrition is the most important part of any training programme. You can consistently progressively overload your training for as long as you like, obeying all the principles of weight training with perfect technique; if your nutrition is poor, it will all be for nothing.
Proper fueling, hydration, and recovery nutrition are critical for performance and muscle growth. Without a solid nutrition plan, your progress will stall.
You don’t need to be a nutrition expert to achieve your goals. I like to focus on just two nutrition goals daily - calorie count and grams of protein. If you want to, you can go down a rabbit hole of every detail under the nutrition umbrella, but that’s where eating disorders are born.
By focusing on these two daily goals while peripherally focusing on the fundamentals (limit sugar, no processed foods, limit empty calories, etc.), I can achieve the fitness goals I want.
5. Filter Out the Noise - You are One-of-One
The internet is full of conflicting advice about weight training. Fitness can be made out to be a confusing and complicated mess. Scroll on TikTok for 10 minutes and you will learn that you have to eat only meat and train every day to achieve any results, but also elite athletes like Lewis Hamilton are vegan.
My point is: It’s just noise.
You already know what you need to do to achieve your goal. If you want to lose weight; consume fewer calories than you use. If you want to build muscle; lift heavy weights consistently.
The key is to find what works best for you and stick to it. Experiment with different approaches, but always prioritise what aligns with your goals and body.
Imagine you paid the most knowledgeable and experienced fitness professional to tell you the best way of training. What’s missing?
You. The missing piece is you. The scientifically “best” way of doing something might not work for you. We are all individuals with different needs, wants, abilities, and genetics. The way you train should reflect that.
6. Experiment with Training Methods
After 6+ years of training, I’m still experimenting with training methods. Don’t expect to settle on one for the rest of your life, that’s not sustainable.
There are countless training methods out there, and you have all the time in the world to explore them. Don’t be afraid to try different training methods based on your goals at the time (remember, periodisation), whether it’s hypertrophy, strength training, or endurance.
Find what keeps you motivated and yields the best results for your body.
There is no end
No one has ever claimed to be fit because they completed a difficult workout 5 years ago. There is no end to the fitness lifestyle. If you don’t accept that fact, maybe it isn’t for you.
Be ready to put in the hard work daily to get results. Even then, the results only stick around if you remain consistent.
These lessons have significantly improved my training approach, but I still have a long way to go. I am by no means an expert, because the more I learn about sport and exercise science, the more I understand how little I know.
Nevertheless, the lessons have helped me, and I hope they can do the same for you.
