There are way too many articles on the internet that have a title very similar to this, and the problem is that some are from great sources while others are horribly misleading.
If you’ve been following our content for a while now, you’ll know that we deeply value an evidence-based approach to nutrition and fitness, and we’ve been doing our best to put out as much content as possible to prove that being evidence-based is certainly the name of our game.
That being said, I wanted to provide a solid list of what I think every beginner needs to know (in no particular order) when it comes to beginning the journey of creating a desirable physique.
Check ‘em out:
1. Focus on Perfect Form
Andrew and I both struggled with this one when we began lifting together 5 years ago.
I think deep down this is truly an ego problem more than anything else because practicing any movement with perfect form, especially for beginners, means that the weight used on the bar is probably going to be lighter than you want it to be.
Nobody wants to be the guy squatting with 10’s on each side of the bar at a gym where guys are squatting 450 pounds. But, guess what? They had to start somewhere too.
If you want the most efficient growth possible, starting with a primary focus on perfect form is going to be one of the best ways to help you get bigger and stronger while minimizing your risk of future injury.
Practicing perfect form is going to be more tiring than you think because it requires great mental focus to really envision the muscle being worked while being strict about your movement to ensure that a supporting muscle isn’t taking over the movement.
For example, back in the day when Andrew and I were trying to hit back movements, we would put way too much weight on the machines we were using.
As a result, we ended up rocking our bodies to use the momentum to help us pull the weights, and we used our arms pretty heavily as opposed to trying to focus on letting our back pull the weight.
As you can imagine, this didn’t give our backs as much stimulus as we probably wanted, and we weren’t giving ourselves the best chance to grow our backs.
A few other positives for trying to lift with perfect form:
You won’t need to retrain your muscle memory down the road because you chose to lift the movements correctly the first time.
I had to spend a lot of time reteaching myself correct form for back movements in the last couple of years, and it felt like a huge waste of time.
You will always have the confidence that you are completing the movements correctly, which allows you to push for better gains without the fear that you might hurt yourself.
Most lifters probably aren’t worried about this when they start out, but they really probably should be. To be honest, Andrew and I are both very surprised we survived our early lifting days without major big injuries from lifting like idiots.
2. You Can’t Really Out-Exercise a Bad Diet
I remember hearing something like this in college, “A good physique is made 25% in the gym and 75% in the kitchen.”
I always shrugged this comment off and thought I knew better. However, what you are choosing to ingest for energy and the macro and micronutrient profiles of your diet have an important role in facilitating fat loss or muscle gain.
To clear the quote up, I don’t think anyone can truly put hard percentages on the importance of exercise versus nutrition, but the idea that nutrition is just as important if not more important than your exercise is the take-home point.
Since tissue gain or fat loss is all based on an energy balance, nutrition (the foods we eat that give us energy) becomes crucial.
We encourage our clients to track their nutrition on a free app like MyFitnessPal or something similar so that they can keep track of how many calories they are consuming and the breakdown of those calories.
What’s cool about creating a nice physique is that it’s never been easier to nail down the amount of calories you are consuming with the help of technology. In fact, MyFitnessPal literally allows you to scan foods into the app and can be pretty accurate as long as you are using it correctly!
Big Picture Tips on How to Tweak Your Diet for Fat Loss or Muscle Gain
Now I can’t give any hard recommendations here because the breakdown of calories and how many you should consume is highly individual, but here is a quick way to think about it:
If your goal is to lose fat, you will benefit from weighing yourself regularly and systematically. If the scale weight isn’t dropping, then you probably just need to eat less until it does. Eventually you will find a calorie number that allows you to lose weight.
An easy way to do this is to limit fatty snacks and foods, and make sure you have several meals a day that include a lean protein, some veggies, and a complex carb source.
If your goal is to try and gain muscle, you probably need to eat more. So if the scale weight isn’t going up, add in another snack or protein shake to your day, or eat a little bit more at your meals until the scale begins to increase.
I would strongly recommend that the extra calories you add to your diet be in the form of protein or more carbs, but again, this is highly individual.
Protein is the macronutrient that tends to be most critical for muscle gain and fat loss, so if you need help targeting a number for how much protein to consume, use this article as a guide.
Lastly, it’s hard to give any “blanket statement” advice when it comes to nutrition, but if you are someone who is eating fast food 3+ times per week and slamming 64 ounces of soda every day, those habits probably aren’t helping you reach your goals.
If you want more nuanced and detailed information regarding how to sculpt your diet into something a bit more physique friendly, check us out on Instagram.
3. Prioritizing Recovery is Undervalued
I think a big mistake a lot of beginners make, including myself, is that we focus too much on trying to work as hard as we can in the gym and often think that if we aren’t sweating, we aren’t working hard enough.
This leads us to do crazy things like superset every single exercise of every workout, try only HIIT workouts, or give ourselves little rest time between sets on very big lifts which require a lot of energy.
I remember supersetting my squats with a lunge variation about 4 years ago, and looking back it’s easy to laugh at myself for some of the things I did.
I think everything is obviously dependent on goals, but when it comes to taking rest times in the gym and trying to be as efficient as possible - especially if lifting for hypertrophy (muscle growth) - taking longer rest times of 2-3 minutes is okay. For some of the bigger lifts like squat, deadlift, and bench press, it might even be better to rest a little bit longer.
In short, the amount of sweat accrued over the course of a workout isn’t the best indicator of how good that workout was if you’re training purely for physique improvements.
Other Ways to Value Your Recovery
Not only is it important to give yourself ample time to rest during your workout, but prioritizing recovery between workouts is also important. In other words, training your quads into oblivion every single day of the week probably isn’t the best way to grow aesthetically pleasing quads. Simply put, they need time to recover and grow.
Additionally, like I mentioned in point #2, your nutrition is an extremely important element in making sure we are giving our bodies the fuel it needs to recover.
Alongside nutrition, things like hydration, sleep quality, and mindful lifestyle habits can also promote optimal recovery.
I personally try to sleep 7-9 hours each night, and also try and drink about as many ounces of water as half of my scale weight in pounds. I also try to make sure I am not sitting down all day and try to stretch and walk daily.
4. Soreness Does Not Non-Negotiably Equal a Good Workout
This is another point I wish I could tell a younger version of myself.
One of the biggest myths novice lifters believe is that if you’re not sore, you didn’t work hard enough.
I rarely feel as sore after lifting as I used to, and that’s a good thing in my opinion.
Soreness generally comes from applying a new stimulus to your body that it isn’t used to, so for the first several weeks, novice lifters will get an immense feeling of soreness in their muscles.
Given the sensation of that initial feeling, it’s tempting to think that that we need to keep chasing that feeling, which unfortunately means many times we end up using too much weight or overworking ourselves by hitting 15 sets of one muscle group in the same workout.
The way we see it, an intelligent workout plan will be one that allows you to optimally hit each muscle group without completely wrecking your muscles and giving them plenty of time to recover so that you are ready to go for the next time you hit those muscles.
In other words, don’t feel the need to chase soreness for soreness’ sake. You’re probably doing yourself more harm than good.
5. Weight Training is Generally Better Than Pure Cardio for Physique Development
If you truly enjoy cardio and don’t have specific goals of creating a physique that has a little bit of muscle for aesthetics, then go for it!
However, it is important to note that weight training burns some calories just like cardio does, but weight training allows you to build muscle and work toward building a robust physique that is complimented by a nice body shape.
There is this idea out there that people need to run or jog regularly to lose weight, and that is honestly just false. Most people would likely benefit from a weight training program versus only doing cardio, even if your goals weren’t centered around gaining muscle.
Also, for those worried about looking too “bulky” from weight training, don’t worry. That probably won’t happen.
It takes years of weight training properly to end up with muscles that would create a “bulky” physique, and even then if your programming is centered around hitting exercises that grow the muscles you desire to grow, you should never end up looking bulky in a way that you don’t want to.
In Summation
There are many more ideas I could put down on this list, but I wanted to include the topics I thought were most important - or the ones that might provide the most immediate value.
Again, there is no hierarchy of what is more important here as I think heeding all of these points provides value to fitness goals for beginners.
To tidy it up, the five points I think all beginners should pay attention to (thinking of myself 5 years ago) are:
Focus on perfect form.
Pay attention to your diet.
Prioritize recovery.
Don’t buy into the soreness myth.
Implement weight training into your program if aesthetics are your primary goal.
If I had followed these points more closely when I began lifting, I wouldn’t feel like I had wasted many years of my time in the gym, and I don’t want any beginners feeling the same way that I do!
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Cheers,
Josh