3 Lifts Most Beginners Should Start With
Have you ever started to learn a language, a musical instrument, a new sport or learned to drive?
No matter what you’ve accomplished in your life up to that point, you’ll start this new endeavour as a beginner, and rightly so.
Could you imagine the carnage if on your first driving lesson you were taken to a motorway and were expected to just drive at 100km/h with little to no concept of driving basics or even any practice with the basics?
It would not be fun, and the risk of an accident would likely be very high.
Thankfully that doesn’t happen.
When you’re new to driving you’re first introduced to the basic concepts of driving a car. Here’s the clutch, brake, gears and accelerator. This is how they work etc.
You’ll be taken to a very quiet environment and the only expectation is for you to be introduced to these key components and then apply them in a low complex manner, pulling away in first gear, maybe changing gear to 2nd or 3rd and then slowing back down to a stop.
You’re introduced to the basics that you need to get started and then your following lessons build upon these basic concepts gradually. As your driving skill increases, as do the challenge of the concepts given to you to master.
…and your approach to training should be no different if you’re a beginner.
Too often beginners are jumping into training that is more like driving on the motorway than focused on establishing and mastering those key basic concepts.
They see those they admire in their gym, or on social media doing “X”, and want to, or believe they need to, train like them usually to look like them. What the beginner misses is that the person that they’re looking at had a start point, just like they have right now, and they should start where they are at as a beginner, and not try to leapfrog the key foundational stage in favour of more complex or what is perceived as “harder” training.
As a beginner, and I term beginner as anybody with less than 2 years of properly structured training, you should be focusing on the basic concepts of training and really honing your skill with these first before progressing to more complex training.
A beginner needs to be learning and refining the skill of certain movement patterns that although termed as basic, are still challenging, but allow the beginner to build a solid base of movement that will allow them to progress and build upon it for years of training to come.
Essentially the beginner needs to start where they’re at, and for 99% of people that is learning the key movement patterns in a low complexity and low-threat environment.
The key movement patterns that need to be established and learned as a beginner:
the squat movement pattern
the hinge movement pattern
the pressing movement pattern
the pulling movement pattern
single-leg or split stance movement patterns like stepping or lunging
Now, the above list has 5 movement patterns, and all 5 should be established. However, for me, there are 3 that should take centre stage as a beginner, much like the driving big 3 of accelerate, brake and clutch, a beginner’s training big 3 should focus on the squat, hinge and push patterns.
…and as a beginner, where should I start with these 3 movement patterns?
Great question…
The 3 lifts most beginners should start with are:
The Goblet Squat
Why the Goblet Squat?
It’s easier to learn than a barbell squat variation.
The kettlebell or dumbbell being front-loaded teaches greater core bracing, allows for a more upright torso and the loading acts like a counterbalance allowing you to “sit down” into your squat position better. These benefits help teach “proper” squat form better than any other squat variation.
The goblet squat has a low-threat level compared to a barbell variation which makes learning the movement much easier for the beginner. Having to stabilise a bar on your back or front and the fear of “getting stuck at the bottom” can make learning the barbell lifts daunting. Holding a dumbbell or kettlebell on your chest is much easier to stabilise and comes with little to no concern of getting stuck as the beginner would simply need to drop the weight to the floor if it occurred.
The Kettlebell Deadlift
Why the Kettlebell Deadlift?
Like the goblet squat, the kettlebell deadlift is easier to learn than the barbell deadlift variations.
Also, like the goblet squat, the kettlebell deadlift is low-threat when it comes to a beginner’s perception of the exercise. The challenge of picking up a solid ball of metal that weighs 32kg seems far less daunting than the challenge of picking up a 7-foot 20kg barbell with 12kg of plates attached to it.
The barbell push up or “full” push up from the floor
Why the Push Up?
The push-up, when executed correctly, teaches full-body tension and full-body integration, the value of which is not highlighted often to beginners if they only perform dumbbell or barbell pressing.
Like the above 2 lifts, the push-up also has a low-threat level compared to its dumbbell or barbell counterparts. Nobody fears getting stuck at the bottom of a push-up (unless you don’t like laying on the floor…).
It teaches a person to first master moving their body, before then moving on to mastering moving an implement like a barbell or dumbbell.
Much like when you learned to drive, a beginner needs time and repetitions to practice and ingrain these key movement patterns.
Simply working on these 3 lifts once per week likely won’t be enough. A beginner needs more exposure to these new skills so a higher frequency of movement practice will help. This means doing the movements, in some form, 2-3 times a week at least, ideally, if you were training 3x per week, in every session.
If you are unsure how to go about starting out on your fitness journey or you are in need of a program that will help you to progress, we know a really great personal trainer that would be a great fit ;). Learn more about how our coaching services can help you.
