When you start out in
this game, you know best.
Those isolation
concentration curls are going to get your 11" guns to 22"
Olympia worthy monsters within a year. Those lateral raises with
2.5kg dumbbells are going to make your shoulders broad as can be.
That beer gut? By steadily increasing from 50 to 1000 crunches a day
you're going to get an 8 pack that puts Lazar Angelov to shame.
My own
opinion? Your worst coach is yourself.
Sadly these
misconceptions of nearly every newbie trainee is one of the main
reasons why there is a significant lack of progression in gyms around
the world. It's also why nearly every routine put together by someone
new to the game is a butchered mess of isolation work that will give
just that, newbie gains and nothing more. There are several things
which I have found to stand out though -
- “If I'm not sore the next day I don't feel like I've had a good workout”
DOMS (Delayed onset of
muscle soreness) is not associated with progress, nor do you have to
wait until the soreness subsides before you work out again. As long
as weight is being added to the bar every work out, you are making
progress. This is the number one factor, not soreness, the
sooner people understand this the sooner they will start making
gains. If you are so sore that you can't raise your arms above
your head the next day, you are just an idiot.
- Ridiculous amounts of volume, less is more in this game
It takes a lot for a
newbie to exhaust their CNS (Central nervous system) to the point it
can't recover, but it has been done (look up the dreamer bulk story
if you're curious). Not only will this kill any kind of progression,
but it's brought upon you by a ridiculous amount of isolation work.
This isolation volume is not only counterproductive for a newbie
lifter, but it's also a complete waste of their time. What kind of
hypertrophy do you think you will get by lateral raising 5kg
dumbbells with poor form? Very little compared to the guys who can
bang out 12kg's with perfect form for much higher amounts of volume,
why can they do this? They have achieved a decent level of strength
(through whatever manner) already.
- Lack of compound exercises (big multi joint movements, bench/squat/deadlift etc.)
Most people new to
lifting have poor coordination when it comes to handling a barbell,
look at the bench press of someone who has never benched before and
you'll see exactly what I mean. The compound exercises not only
contribute to strength/hypertrophy in a far more meaningful way to
any newbie than any kind of isolation centric routine, but they also
teach coordination of the muscles so that they work together as
intended. Someone on a diet of leg extensions and leg press may have
the strength to squat reasonably heavy, but their balance,
coordination and general movement pattern will be all over the place
if they have never squatted before. I know these movements are hard,
I know your average personal trainer won't advise you to do any of
this, because squatting on a bosu ball with pink 2kg dumbbells is the
new thing, but this and the things mentioned above are associated
with one STRONG correlation between them -
LACK OF GAINS
The issue when you
start out is, the internet is at your fingers, there's a wealth of
misinformation out there. So not only do you create a butchered
routine, you most likely switch it up to another one every couple of
weeks because you don't get the progress you're looking for. This
goes on until you either discover the light and find something that
works, decipher the bioscience of the internet, or give up and go
back to drinking beer and watching ludicrous displays down t'pub in
your gym time.
The prime reasons for
enrolling a coach -
- You are your own worst critique, selfbias is natural and unavoidable, in your eyes, you are a contender for the next Mr Olympia title before you've even set foot in the gym. You are not a special flower, the same rules that apply to everyone sure as hell apply to you too. An honest coach can give you a no bullshit opinion and also a suitable routine for your level of progression. This may be gaining strength as a newbie or fixing a weak point. These things are nearly impossible to decipher for yourself without a second opinion.
- A newbie lifter will benefit the most from a routine made up almost entirely of compound exercises, isolation work should not even come into the equation at this point. Routines such as starting strength are great, as is the book (probably the closest thing you'll get to a coach in text) for learning how to do the exercises. However, learning to do these compound exercises correctly by yourself takes time. A coach can teach you the exercises within a few sessions at max, experience is invaluable as is a keen eye to correct mistakes. This is also the reason many people film their lifts and post to youtube for critique.
A new lifter is in a
prime position to make incredible strength gains, one of our clients
was able to increase his squat from 20kg to 60kg within 3 weeks by
using a nice simple compound based routine. Myself? I think I did
that in about 6 months when I had my self designed routine taken out
of a book with a few 'intelligent' additions to the program and about
10 times as many exercises. My own opinion on isolation work is that
you should have achieved a 1RM of at least 0.8xBW Bench, 1xBW Squat,
1.2xBW Deadlift before any of this even becomes considerable to add
to your program, even at those levels of strength there is still
PLENTY of room for linear progression before any kind of assistance
work is needed.
My current
routines are produced through the critique of several people and my
progression is faster now than it ever was as a newbie, this in
spite of newbie gains being the best time to make gains. They're also
still very much based around compound exercises, rather than a
butchered routine that attempted to increase the weight on everything
every workout with about 20 different isolation exercises per body
part. If anyone considering lifting weights reads this, please search
for a good, experienced, coach, or at the very least hunt down a copy
of the Starting Strength book, the cost will be well worth the
increase in progress and the time saved!
Ripptoe, M.
and Kilgore, L. (2010) Practical Programming for Strength
Training. 2nd
Edn. Aasgard Company
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