5 Step Strength Training Routine for Beginners

I’ve been working on a free resource for you and it’s finally done so I can finally share it!

It's called the 5 Step Beginner Weightlifting Template!

I wanted to create a weightlifting workout routine template for you as a beginner, something to get you started with strength training and weightlifting with videos and everything explained really clearly, and I think I accomplished that goal with this.

I feel like when you are looking for workout routines on the internet it’s like when you go to a restaurant with a menu with 200 things on it and you can’t even find anything to eat because there’s too many choices. I wanted to give you choice in what you are doing in your workouts….but not too much choice.

So if you look the template over, you see there are 5 steps to it, those are the exercise groups or categories. The first part is about how to use the template. Don’t skim over this part! Actually read it because there’s helpful stuff in it.

So first, to use the template you need access to heavy weightlifting equipment, basically a gym.

I know that some people hate getting gym memberships because they feel like they use it a few times then stop going but still get charged because they forgot to cancel it…but hear me out here.

If you want to get as strong as you can and build the most muscle you can in the shortest amount of time, heavy weightlifting is how you do it. I truly believe that. I have seen that in my own life, for sure.

So please consider investing in a gym membership so you can do this along with me. Unless you have a home gym with a squat rack, bench, barbells and weights then you are good…but for most of us we are going to need a gym memberships. I teach heavy weightlifting and the nutrition that goes along with that, so invest in yourself! You won’t regret it if you really commit to following along with me.

I also want to touch on another thing with how we think about weightlifting really quick.

So I use the phrase weight lifting, or strength training, or lifting weights, and I mean something specific.

I want to define that really quick for you, because some people hear those words and they may think of pushups, or doing some kettle bell squats, or grabbing some dumbbells and doing some bicep curls, or using machines, and I just want to just define what I mean when I say weightlifting.

That’s what I’m talking about. I’m not talking about jump squats with a kettle bell or burpees or high intensity cardio with weights. I don’t have anything against those things, they just didn’t get me where I needed to go and heavy weightlifting did.

 So that’s what I teach, and what I’ll be teaching on the podcast and here on the blog, which is why I really encourage you to get a gym membership, because the chances of you having all this equipment is probably pretty low unless you have an awesome home gym.

Those other methods like high intensity dumbbell workouts or whatever may work for some people, or they may like working out like that, and that’s fine. But I tried that, and it didn’t do what I needed it to do.

It didn’t literally grow my muscles visibly bigger in less time than I thought possible. It didn’t help me lose inches off my waist and actually gain inches in my legs and hips, which was what I wanted. But weightlifting did those things.

So I’m going to be here teaching weightlifting that centers around those heavy compound lifts. That doesn’t mean we won’t’ ever use kettle bells or machines, it just means that our exercise routines won’t be focused on hose. I hope I’m making this distinction clear for you!

So back to the workout template!! So you see in the first part I ask you to schedule when you are planning to go to the gym how many days per week. 2-3 is a good starting point, 3 if you want results faster.

This is days you will be lifting weights. Depending on your goals, if you need a lot of fat loss as well, you may add a day or two of cardio in there to lose that fat faster, but don’t do cardio and weights on the same day if you can.

If you absolutely have to, always do cardio after weights.

So for example, lets say you plan to lift weights on Mondays and Thursdays. Try to separate them by a day if you can for recovery.

So you use this template and create a Monday workout and a Thursday workout. You can use an app to keep track of the weights you use, I really like the Strong app because you can create an exercise in it if it doesn’t have it in the app.

You use the same exercises each Monday and Thursday for 6 whole weeks. No subbing out exercises every week, you want your body to learn the motions so you can have good form. Because once your form is dialed in, you can start adding more weight. This tells your muscles “time to grow”, which is progressive overload.

If you have no idea what progressive overload is, read this.

Next in the intro it talks about stretching and using a foam roller. Please, please, please stretch well before you lift weights.

You are going to feel like you don’t need to but just do it anyway. I’m going to do an episode over stretching, but for now be sure to stretch your hamstrings, your thighs, and open those hips up, like the butterfly stretch.

Weightlifting challenges your flexibility in ways you don’t realize, so please stretch well.

Alright, now we can get to the meat and potatoes of this workout template.

You can see there’s 5 categories of exercises here. Your first exercise will be one of the “big 3” which is the deadlift, back squat, and hip thrust. I didn’t realize this, but the “big 3” lifts is actually a phrase in power lifting that refers to the squat, deadlift, and chest press, but we are subbing the chest press out for the hip thrust.

So for our example we are doing Mondays and Thursdays, so let's create a workout.

Mondays we are going to start with the sumo deadlift. If you click the name of the exercise it will take you to a video on form. So we will do deadlifts, then go to number 2 and that’s always going to be hip thrusts.

Hip thrusts are such a great exercise because they are very easy on the spine but work those lower body muscles so you are getting that calorie burn from the big muscle groups without the stress on your back.

So category 2 is hip thrusts. You are going to do 3 sets of 10 for hip thrust, and use progressive overload to advance until you can hit 15, then add weight and drop reps back to 10.

If you picked hip thrusts as your first category, then you don’t do them again in the 2nd category, you get a 4 exercise workout for that day, yay! But you are going to add another set for hip thrusts, so 4 instead of 3, and you are going to go all out on weight, so its heavy. The hip thrusts you do in category 2 you should be able to do 10, the ones you do in category 1 should be so heavy you can only do 6, does that make sense?

For the third category we are going to do some upper body work. We are planning our Monday workout, and we have sumo deadlifts first, hip thrusts next, now we need to pick an upper body exercise, so lets do overhead press for this third one.

Now if you scanned the template, you probably noticed that 4 out of the 5 exercises are primarily lower body focused. This is intentional on my part. I feel that as women, most of the time we need strength and mass built in our legs and glutes and backs.

Our upper body needs strength but not as much mass, in my opinion. There may be some of you who are looking for big broad shoulders or big biceps, but I believe the majority of us are looking for a “toned” look. We need strength in our upper body, not so much a huge amount of mass. You train for strength differently than you train for muscle mass, so we are going to do lower reps for our upper body with that goal in mind.

The fourth category is single leg work. This works balance and core, which is really crucial as we age. As you do these exercises, be sure you are tightening up your core or engaging it. This means you are bracing by tightening your abs and side abs or obliques, and pulling that belly button towards your spine.

I included videos for all of these exercises for you in the template. If it’s a weighted exercise, like the leg press or dumbbell walking lunges, then keep using progressive overload to up the weight.

You probably won’t be able to up the weight very fast because you are going to be tired from the first 3 exercises. For our 4th category lets pick a favorite balance exercise of mine, skater squats.

The last exercise group is a set of finisher exercises.

These are body weight or band focused and are high reps mostly to burn out those legs and glutes at the end.

For this Monday workout we will pick the x band walk, that one really works that gluteus medius which is the top of your butt and wraps around the side.

And that’s the last set!

So for our example Monday workout, we are doing sumo deadlifts, then hip thrusts, then overhead press, then skater squats, and last the x band walk as a finisher.

We are resting between our sets and focusing on good form.

As a last note, if you have done a lot of cardio in the past, especially high-intensity cardio, you are probably going to feel like you didn’t do anything after this workout.

I remember it was a very foreign feeling for me to not leave the gym dripping in sweat. That’s ok!

You still worked out hard, and I bet you will really feel it in 1-2 days.

As you start lifting heavier and heavier weights, you will start to feel more tired after the workout, but it probably won’t ever feel like jelly legs. At least not for me anyway.

So your practical takeaway this week is to download my workout template and set up your 2 or 3 days of lifting.

Put it on the calendar, if you need help with finding time read this post or listen to this podcast episode, and then plan which 5 exercises you will do each day, doing different ones each day.

And let me know how it goes! I love feedback and would love to hear from you what you liked or didn’t like or if you had a question about it.

Happy Lifting!

-Rachel