Pump it up: Your beginner’s guide to lifting & strength training

Benefits of strength training

Let’s rewind a bit before diving into the nitty-gritty – why is strength training essential in this day and age? Despite its growing popularity, skepticism persists about its impact on appearance, with the fear of looking ‘bulky’ being a common misconception, especially among women. Dominic debunks this myth, clarifying that while strength training can promote muscle hypertrophy and size increase, it doesn’t necessarily result in a bulky appearance.

If anything, as shared by Dominic, “Resistance training is essential for overall physical and mental health.” The physical benefits range from increased bone density and a reduced risk of osteoporosis to improved quality of life and prevention of chronic conditions such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes, as it increases your metabolism and converts your fats into muscle mass. Additionally, mental well-being plays a crucial role, helping keep chronic mental illnesses like depression or anxiety at bay and transforming negative coping mechanisms into a healthy outlet through exercise.

Understanding the fundamentals

Now that we’ve covered the ‘why,’ let’s delve into the ‘how.’ Lifting and strength training go beyond the question of ‘how much can you bench?’ It involves a series of exercises using types of weights and compound movements to target specific muscle groups, ensuring steady progress in increasing your strength. This is where you’d also have to start monitoring your form and technique.

“Proper form and technique are imperative when it comes to any form of resistance training. Improper form could limit how effective an exercise is, as you may not be targeting the intended muscle. This could also lead to muscle imbalances and increase the risk of injury, which could lead to long-term problems with your joints, tendons, and ligaments,” emphasises Dominic.

Common choices of weights can include the following.

Body weight

As the self-explanatory name suggests, bodyweight exercises utilise your entire body’s weight, requiring little to no equipment in your training. Examples of exercises that primarily use body weight include pushups, planks, and squats.

Free weights

Commonly known as dumbbells, kettlebells, or barbells, free weights are considered the quintessential tools for strength training. They can also serve as an extension for exercises typically done with body weight, such as squats or lunges. Undoubtedly, the most common uses for dumbbells are bicep curls and lateral raises.

Weight machines

While weight machines may sometimes look intimidating, they are actually the best place to start with strength exercises. They assist with stability, allowing you to monitor and adjust your form and technique. The most common ones you’d see in the gym are for lateral pulldowns, leg press, and cable rows.

What to invest in

Needless to say, when starting out on a new journey, there are always things you have to invest in to ensure you start out on the right foot. As Dominic would suggest, getting a personal trainer to start out does help tremendously. “It takes a lot of the guesswork out of the equation, especially for someone who is new to strength training,” he elaborates.

Apart from that, there are still some essentials you could consider investing as you progress in your fitness journey.

Deadlift straps

While this is not essential for a complete beginner, it is still good to know about, especially as you start progressing to lifting heavier weights. Deadlift straps create a barrier between your skin and the weight, while also relieving tension from your hands. The reduced tension and extra layer of protection can help prevent most powerlifting hand injuries from occurring.

Try: Iron Bull Strength’s Basic Lifting Straps (S$22)

Flat-soled shoes

For the longest time, people have been investing in shoes with a good amount of cushioning for the gym, as it usually helps absorb the impact during exercises like cardio. However, when it comes to strength and lifting, it’s a whole new ballgame, and those types of shoes proves redundant. Here, flat-soled shoes are all the rage as they put your foot in a flat position, promoting balance, stability, and natural movement mechanics. While there are shoes out there dedicated to lifting and strength training, the easier choice, especially for beginners, is to use everyday sneakers like Converse or Vans as those already provide a flat base for you to work on. Alternatively, if you prefer a free option, going barefoot is also quite common, but just watch your toes!

Try: 1Hund’s Trainer Pro (S$90) or Vans’ SK8 Low (S$99)

Attire

Remember the saying, ‘look good, feel good’? Well, when it comes to hitting the gym, it’s no different. Standard gym clothes include outfits that are both comfortable and practical, but who says we can’t have fun with it? In today’s day and age, many fitness wear brands on the market pride themselves on fit and function, creating innovative and impactful products to help you perform better. Additionally, the experimentation with a wide variety of colours ensures you feel extra confident as you nail that PR– Personal Record.

Try: Oner Active or Alphalete. For more ideas read our full article on the best activewear wear brands in Singapore. 

Maintaining your gains

To wrap it up, it’s equally important to learn how to maintain those gains – otherwise, all that hard work would be for naught. Beyond exercise, your diet, rest, and even mental strength play a crucial part in your long-term progress.

Improving your diet

It’s safe to say the standard balanced diet includes a fair combination of greens, proteins, and carbs. However, increasing your protein intake has proven valuable in aiding better performance and building muscle. Additionally, when it comes to maintaining your diet, as advised by Dominic, “Learn how to track your daily caloric intake and expenditure; this directly impacts weight management.”

Moreover, taking dietary supplements such as creatine could help improve your progress. While creatine is a natural molecule that your body produces, it only produces a minimal amount – getting an extra boost through supplements can help increase muscle content and boost overall strength, allowing you to lift heavier over time. However, a word of advice: drink plenty of water if you start taking creatine, something you should already be doing by default!

Keeping yourself consistent

Last and most importantly, understand that getting strong is a long-term journey that requires commitment and consistency if you want to go the distance. Real transformations don’t happen overnight – they take days, months and even years of regular workouts and continually pushing yourself. But with an open and patient mindset, embracing both successes and temporary setbacks, you have the power to attain your fitness goals however long they take – just remember to trust the process!

To cap it off, Dominic shares his final advice:

“Do not rush into anything you’re unsure of. Master the forms and techniques before progressing onto something new or heavier. Lastly, set yourself up for success by keeping the end goal in mind but set yourself smaller goals in between.”

This article was first published in City Nomads.

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