#well. not quite tomorrow— well technically it is depending on the time zone. i should just state the date.

[chilapis]

It would appear that the exam adrenaline fading away and the sentimental joy from such genuine appreciation melting me to bits has resulted in my comprehension of aesthetics dropping to a staggering 0. No promo or rentry/carrd tonight everybody; likely tomorrow. I love you all so much. Look at this mentally disturbed European creature that has stolen my heart

[anamorales]

Strength Training for Beginners: The Best Routines, Workouts, & Exercises!

So you want to get strong, and you have no idea how to start (like this cat).

In this Beginner Strength Training Guide (part 2 of our Strength 101 series) – you’ll have both the confidence to start getting strong with resistance training AND a plan to follow.

We’ll be covering the following:

How do I start strength training or resistance training?

Which strength training program is right for me?

Best strength training workouts for beginners.

How much weight should I lift?

The 9 best strength training exercises.

How to know you’re doing an exercise properly (form checks)

Strength training for weight loss.

“Just TELL ME What Strength Program I should do.”

These are the exact strategies we use with our 1-on-1 Coaching Clients to help them build confidence and start strength training, and I’m excited to cover all of this in this massive guide.

Let us help you start strength training! Learn more:

This is also quite a lot to absorb, so we’ve combined this article along with the rest of our strength articles into a “Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know” guide.

Grab it free when you join the Rebellion by putting your email in the box below.

Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!

Everything you need to know about getting strong.

Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.

How to find the right gym and train properly in one.

I identify as a:

Woman

Man

How Do I Start Strength Training?

Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life.

You’ll look back years from now and thank “Past You” for starting strength training today.

And I promise, you WILL strength train today.

After all, strength training or resistance training doesn’t need to be scary or overcomplicated!

Strength training really comes down to two things:

“Movement of any weight against “resistance”(including your body weight) – Doing ANY exercise  that pushes your muscles outside of their comfort zone, forcing them to rebuild stronger to prepare the next challenge.

Progressive overload: doing slightly more than last time (lift heavier weight or do 1 more rep) consistently. Your muscles will have constantly have to adapt and rebuild themselves stronger.

That’s it.

This means if you drop down and do ONE knee push-up right now, technically you’ve done a strength training workout.

It also means if you then do TWO knew push-ups tomorrow, then you are officially following a strength training routine.

In other words, YOU CAN DO THIS.

Now, there are many different “strength training” and “resistance training” paths.

Like a “skill tree” in a video game (with branching paths and progressions), you can progress up one path, and mix and match movements from others depending on the situation.

These paths depend on your goals and what equipment you have available to you.

Here are the types of strength training:

BODYWEIGHT TRAINING

Bodyweight training is simply doing an exercise in which your own body is the “weight” you are “lifting.”

Duh.

This is the BEST place for anybody – regardless of weight or age – to start their strength training journey.

Why is this the best place to start? Two big reasons:

#1) You always have your body with you (unless you are a ghost, in which case, this is awkward). This means you can work out ANYWHERE with bodyweight training:

Our Beginner Bodyweight Workout Routine in your living room.

Our Hotel Workout in a hotel (obvi).

Our Park Workout in a…well, you get the point.

#2) Using your body for resistance training is the most “human” thing ever! By learning to push and pull and hang and squat and lunge, you are doing what your body is literally designed to do.

By getting strong with bodyweight movements, you’re making yourself antifragile and less injury prone.

Bodyweight training isn’t as easy to ‘scale’ the difficulty as some of the other strength training methods (“put more weight on barbell”), but you can get REALLY strong with just bodyweight training.

For example, you can start with knee pushups, then go to regular push-ups, then elevated push-ups, then even up to things like handstands and handstand push-ups.

You just have to know HOW and WHEN to scale up (we can help there too).

Let us create a bodyweight training program for you!

DUMBBELL TRAINING

Dumbbells are a great first step into the world of weight training and strength training:

Most gyms will have dumbbells, even if it’s a basic gym in your apartment complex.

A set of dumbbells doesn’t take up a lot of room, which means you can have a pair at home without a large footprint.

Dumbbells make it easy to add difficulty to a bodyweight movement: holding dumbbells while doing lunges, for example.

Dumbbell exercises can be less intimidating than barbell training for some, and are a step towards barbell training.

Dumbbells have an added stabilization challenge, and will point out muscle imbalances pretty easily (“oh my right arm is stronger than my left arm.”).

You can scale easily. Once the 10 pound weights become too easy, pick up the 15 pound ones!

KETTLEBELL TRAINING

A kettlebell is essentially a cannonball with a handle on it. They come in any weight imaginable, they don’t take up a lot of room, and can be used in dozens of ways for a great compact workout.

Our 20-minute kettlebell workout has 8 simple exercises you can do with just one weight.

Although there are “adjustable kettlebells,” you’ll most likely be working with a single kettlebell, and then adjusting your movements for “progressive overload” (making the workout slightly more difficult each time).

If you are a member at a gym, they’ll probably have multiple kettlebells that you can use to level up.  

BARBELL TRAINING

Male or female, young or old, if your goal is to get strong quickly, use 20 seconds of courage and get comfortable training with a barbell (I’ll help you, I promise):

“Progressive overload” is easy – you simply add weights to either side of the bar, allowing you to progressively lift more and more weight each week.

It’s much easier to go heavy safely – especially for lower body movements like the squat and the deadlift.

The biggest downside to barbell training is that in order to train at home, you need to have purchased a squat rack, a barbell, a bench, and enough weights for your house or garage (which can be an expensive investment, especially when starting out!).

If not, you definitely will need to join a gym.

WHICH RESISTANCE TRAINING PATH IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

Not sure which path to pick? You’re not alone – this stuff can be overwhelming. Check out our 1-on-1 Coaching Program. We get to know you and your goals, will check your form via video, and make adjustments based on your progress!

Let us build a strength training workout for you that fits your busy life! Learn more:

Which Strength Training Program is Right for Me?

So, what’s the best workout program to start as a beginner?

Realistically, it’s the one that you will actually do.

Barbell training might be optimal in terms of building pure strength quickly, but if you don’t see yourself actually getting to the gym regularly – or you’re too self conscious to enter the free weight section (for now) –  no problem!

Start with bodyweight training.

Conversely, bodyweight training might seem convenient and easy to start now, but if you can’t motivate yourself to work out at home, you might be better off joining a gym.

So let’s get you a workout program!

As we cover in our “How to Find the Perfect Workout Plan (for you)”: MOST beginners will be best served by following a “full body” or “total body” routine, 2 to 3 times per week, with a day of rest in between each workout.

This full body workout will have 4-5 big compound movements.

A compound movement is an exercise that recruits LOTS of muscles simultaneously and forces your body to work in unison.

An example would be the barbell squat, which recruits every muscle in your core, butt, and legs to work together to lift the weight.

This is WAY more efficient – and effective at building pure strength – than doing 5 different isolated leg exercises.

Why do 5 exercises when 1 exercise will get you better results in 20% of the time?

To answer your next question, let me tell you about how many sets and reps you should do as a beginner! As we explain in our “how many sets and reps” guide:

Reps in the 1-5 range build super dense muscle and strength.

Reps in the 6-12 range build equal amounts of muscular power, strength, and size.

Reps in the 12+ range primarily build muscular endurance and size and also cardiovascular health.

Many beginner strength programs will encourage you to keep things simple and just do 5 sets of 5 reps for each exercise in an effort to optimize progress as a beginner interested in strength gains.

I personally encourage people to aim for a weight that they can lift for 8-10 reps. This gives you a chance to really work on your form and lift safely!

The max lifts will come later, my friend. You gotta learn to walk before you can run!

“Staci, which workout plan is best for me?” 

It depends on your goals!

If your main goal is general fitness and fat loss, doing a circuit training workout will likely help you reach your goals (make sure you see our section below for “strength training for weight loss”).

If your main goal is to get stronger and/or put on muscle, following a more traditional, pure-strength style gym workout is going to get you there faster.

TRUTH BOMB: ANY strength training workout will help you reach nearly any goal provided you do two things:

Eat correctly for your goals too. How you eat will account for 80-90% of your success or failure when it comes to weight loss or bulking up.

Increase the difficulty of your workouts. This is that “progressive overload” stuff we were talking about earlier. Doing 1 more bodyweight squat, lifting 5 more pounds, or completing your circuit 10 seconds faster than last workout. By forcing your body to constantly adapt, your muscles will never get complacent and have to keep burning extra calories and rebuilding themselves stronger.

Depending on your current situation, and how quickly you’re looking to cut through the “trial and error” and get expert guidance, I might have an interesting solution for you.

We have a pretty killer 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program here at Nerd Fitness. You’ll work with a coach that will build a workout program for your body type and goals, check your form to make sure you’re doing them safety, and even help plan out your nutrition too.

We help busy people transform from newbies to strong badasses! Learn more:

The 5 Best Beginner Strength Training Programs

“Alright Staci, are there any ‘out of the box’ beginner workout programs I can start following now?”

Yup! Let me share with you some of our suggestions:

Here are 5 resistance training workouts you can follow TODAY. Pick the level that you feel most comfortable with, and then level up when you feel ready:

#1) BEGINNER BODYWEIGHT WORKOUT:

Our Beginner Bodyweight Workout has a variety of rep ranges to promote endurance, strength, and cardiovascular health.

Complete one set of each exercise and then moving directly onto the next exercise:

20 body weight squats

10 push ups

20 walking lunges

10 dumbbell rows (using a gallon milk jug)

15 second plank

30 jumping Jacks

Repeat for 3 rounds

Want to stick with bodyweight training? When you’re ready to level up, check out our advanced bodyweight training circuit.

Otherwise, you can move onto weight training when you feel comfortable!

#2A) BEGINNER NERD FITNESS DUMBBELL WORKOUT

If you are just getting started with dumbbells and you’re looking for a beginner workout program to follow, this is our Level 3 Gym Workout, “Dumbbell Division”:

10 goblet squats

10 push-ups

10 dumbbell rows per side

I knew you’d ask, so here is Goblet Squat video explanation (from the Nerd Fitness Academy):

And here is our video on how to do dumbbell rows:

#2B) BEGINNER NERD FITNESS KETTLEBELL WORKOUT

Our Beginner Kettlebell Routine is a workout you do anywhere you have room to swing a kettlebell.

So, probably not in a phone booth or a closet or a bathroom stall. But other than that, pretty much anywhere else.

Complete 3 Kettlebell Workout Circuits:

8 Halos (each side)

10 Goblet Squats

8 Overhead Presses (each side)

15 Kettlebell Swings

8 Bent Over Rows (each side)

6 Front Rack Reverse Lunge (per side)

#3) BARBELL TRAINING: 2 DAY WORKOUT SPLIT

As we cover in our “how to train in a gym” guide (where we take you from “lost sheep” to “barbell badass”), this routine is a much more focused weight training, strength building workout that gets your feet wet with barbell training. Click on ANY exercise to learn how to do it properly.

NF BEGINNER BARBELL STRENGTH WORKOUT: DAY A

Do 3 rounds of:

10 barbell squats

10 push-ups

10 bodyweight rows

NF BEGINNER BARBELL STRENGTH WORKOUT: DAY B

Do 3 rounds of:

5 barbell Romanian deadlifts

10 push-ups

10 dumbbell rows per arm

WHAT ARE SOME OTHER POPULAR STRENGTH TRAINING PROGRAMS?

#1) “Starting Strength” is considered the gold standard beginner barbell weight training program by many. We highly recommend you pick up the actual book if you are serious about barbell training – it’s one of the most important training books you can ever read.

#2) Strong Lifts 5X5: A solid workout program that starts you out very slow, with just the barbell, and helps you master form before you get too heavy. It also keeps things VERY easy with “do 5×5.” Strong Lifts has been around for a long time and is a solid program.

#3) Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1: This program allows you a little more freedom to do exercises that you enjoy, or work on personal weaknesses, because you choose some of the assistance work.

Note: You can modify any of the barbell training programs to be done with dumbbells, if that’s what you have at home!

Lastly, you can always write your own workout plan! I wrote my own workouts for a decade and it taught me a LOT about training and health.

We do have our own 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program where you’ll work with a coach that will build a strength training workout program for your body type and goals, check your form on each exercise via video, and even help you plan out your nutrition too.

If you want to learn more about our coaching program, you can click in the box below: Want step-by-step guidance and form checks? Learn more:

How Much Weight Should I lift?

We have a FULL resource on how to determine your starting weight for lifting, but I’ll give you the gist here.

The simple to learn but tough to implement answer: lift enough so that you can get through the set, but not too much that you have NO fuel left in the tank at the end.

And then, try to lift sliiiightly more than last time.

How much weight should I start with?

If you are using dumbbells or a kettlebell, always err on the side of “too light” versus “too heavy.” You want to learn the movement correctly and build correct form.

If you are training with a barbell, ALWAYS start with JUST the bar, no matter the exercise (By the way, a standard barbell weighs 45 pounds).

“How fast should I add weight to the bar?”

Here’s what we teach all of our coaching clients: add the minimum amount of weight each week you can, even if you THINK you can lift more. It’s better to finish a workout full of momentum and say “I can do more!” than defeated and saying “that was too much, crapola.”

Think of it this way, even if you are adding just 5 pounds per week to the bar, within a year you would be lifting 300+ pounds!

So go SLOW. Team NF’s Steve even bought little half pound weights and increases many of his lifts by just 1 pound per week. It’s a big part of how he transformed (jokingly) from Steve Rogers to Captain America.

And if you are looking for this content in easily digestible form, make sure you download our free Strength 101 Guide when you join the rebellion below:

Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!

Everything you need to know about getting strong.

Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.

How to find the right gym and train properly in one.

I identify as a:

Woman

Man

The 9 Best Strength Training Exercises to Learn

If you’re new to all this “strength training” stuff, hopping into a program and going from zero to sixty might be a recipe for failure.

Instead, be patient, and take the time to learn these movements first.

I’m going to share with you the 9 best strength training exercises for beginners.

Click on any of these exercises to get a FULL explanation of the movement, step-by-step:

1) The Push-Up: The best exercise you could ever do for yourself when it comes to using your bodyweight for push muscles (your chest, shoulders, and triceps):

2) The Bodyweight Squat: This exercise serves a dual purpose: it is the foundation for building strength AND helps build proper mobility. If you are going to ever do barbell squats, you need to work on hitting proper depth with a bodyweight squat first!

3) The Inverted Bodyweight Row: Until you can get your first pull-up or chin-up, these exercises are GREAT to start building your pull-muscle strength: your back, biceps, and forearms.

4) The Pull-Up and Chin-Up: Once you can support your bodyweight above the bar, the world becomes your playground. No strength training routine should be without pull-up or chin-up work! (Click here if you can’t do a pull-up or chin-up yet?)

5) The Bodyweight Dip: As you start to get stronger with push-ups and need to find a way to increase the challenge, consider doing dips – warning: these are very advanced, but incredible strength building exercises.

And now we’re into the best weight training exercises:

6) The Barbell Squat: Probably the best exercise when it comes to building strength and muscle throughout your whole body. It also burns crazy calories and makes life better. This is a MUST:

7) The Barbell Deadlift: Maybe the best exercise of all time. Actually no, it IS the best exercise of all time. It’s certainly the most primal: “pick the weight up off the ground. Done.”

This is a very technical lift, so make sure you read our article on how to do it with proper form:

8) The Barbell Press: Press a barbell above your head. This recruits all of the muscles in your chest, shoulders, and arms in order for you to lift the weight over your head.

As a bonus, you need to really flex and brace your core, which gets those muscles working too.

9) The Barbell Bench Press. Lie on a bench, and lower a barbell until it almost touches your chest. Pause, and the press it back up towards the sky. Repeat! And get strong.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: commit to trying ONE of these movements in the next week. Use 20 seconds of courage, recruit a friend who has lifted or trained before, and try your best.

And if you want somebody to help you put these into a workout program, teach you HOW to do these movements properly, and have the confidence to know you’re training correctly for your goals…

Let us create a workout program that fits your busy life!

How to KNow you’re doing a strength training movement Properly (Form Checks)

Always start out with just your bodyweight and make sure your movement is correct!

If it’s a barbell movement, use a broomstick (or PVC Pipe).

If it’s a dumbbell movement, use two sections of PVC or something else that is light and small to simulate a dumbbell.

When it comes to movements like squats, deadlifts, pull ups, bench press, your form is crucial. Develop good habits with lightweight and you will save yourself months of frustration later and will protect you from injury.

If you’re struggling with certain elements of a movement, don’t get frustrated! Just understand that you’ll have areas in which you can improve.

How do you know if your movement is correct?

Do regular video form checks! Record yourself and watch the video.

Alternatively, an expert reviewing your specific movement can be invaluable. 

If you’re looking for someone who can do video form checks, provide feedback, and adjust your workouts based on your progress, you can check out our 1-on-1 Online Personal Training!

I’ve had an online coach for 4 years and it’s changed my life.

Never wonder if you’re doing a movement properly! Get form checks from our coaches:

You could also get expert guidance in person: Look around at your local strength and conditioning gyms and see if you could hire a coach (here’s how to find a good personal trainer) for one or two sessions just to go over the basic movements.

If you can’t do either of those two options, no big deal! Videotape yourself and compare it to the videos here in the articles. You can also post your video to the form check section of the Nerd Fitness Forums.

When I started, I really liked practicing all of the movements at home because I could watch a video online at the same time as I was watching myself do it in a mirror.

Strength Training For Weight Loss

So you’re looking to lose weight, and tired of hours of cardio (me too).

And you’re wondering if strength training for weight loss – by following one of the workouts in this guide is a viable solution.

Or, gasp – will strength training make you too bulky? (SPOILER: it won’t)

Yes, Strength training will help you lose weight IF you do two key things for effective weight loss:

Calorie restriction: eating fewer calories than you burn every day

Strength training with progressive overload (picking up heavier stuff)

As we point out in our “Cardio vs Intervals vs Weight Training” article, strength training is the MOST efficient method for weight loss.

Not only that, but you can find study after study after study that shows you the benefits of strength training for weight management when combined with “calorie restriction.”[1]

As I cover in our “Why can’t I lose weight?” article, here’s why eating a caloric deficit and strength training is SO magical when combined:

When you strength train – by picking up something heavy – your muscles are “broken down” during the exercise itself, and then they rebuild themselves stronger over the next 24-48 hours.

Guess what happens during those 24-48 hours?

Your body will divert as many calories consumed as necessary to “Rebuild Muscle!”

It also diverts additional calories to “Burn as Fuel” to handle this increased “muscle rebuilding” activity.

Which means two amazing things:

Your metabolism is revved up for this time period, burning more calories than normal.

Rebuilding muscle is a calorie taxing activity!

Not only that, but when you eat a caloric deficit, your body doesn’t have enough calories to fuel all the day’s activities. In these instances, your body will pull from your stored fat to make sure all the work still gets done.

This is the trifecta of physical transformation victory:

You get stronger and keep the muscle you have.

You burn through the fat you’re trying to get rid of.

You’re decreasing your body fat percent and keeping your muscle = look good naked.

In other words, strength training + eating right is the BEST path for weight loss out there! And yes, in certain situations, you can actually lose weight AND build muscle at the same time.

So how do you put this into practice? Pick one of the strength workouts in this article. Calculate your daily caloric needs. Learn about healthy eating. And start.

In other words…

Pick up something heavy, and eat a vegetable.

These are the types of things we work on with our 1-on-1 Coaching Clients: helping them lift weights confidently and eat correctly for their goals! Let us help you:

Let our coaches create a custom strength training and weight loss plan for you!

“Just Tell Me What Strength Training Program to Follow!”

Okay! Unless you are collecting underpants, you should now have a workout program you want to try out!

“Staci, this is a lot, can you just TELL me what to do?”

Okay fine.

Here are the steps again for you:

STEP ONE: PICK YOUR WORKOUT PATH:

A) If YOU ARE TRAINING AT HOME. Pick one of these 3 based on what equipment you have:

Beginner Bodyweight Workout (no equipment)

Kettlebell Beginner Workout

Dumbbell Division Workout (Level 3 of Gym Guide)

B) IF YOU ARE TRAINING IN A GYM: Amazing! I love gyms. Read our “How to train in a gym” guide and go from Level 1 to Level 5 over the next month.

This will help you go from scared newbie to barbell-badass.

STEP #2: TRY A NEW EXERCISE: In addition to following a workout program, I’m gonna push outside of your comfort zone – that’s where real growth happens. Learn ONE new movement this week. Pick one of the exercises below and try it out!

How to squat

How to deadlift

How to bench press

How to do the overhead press

How to do a pull-up

How to do a push-up

How to do an inverted row

STEP #3) GET A YODA: If you are somebody that just wants to be told exactly what to, how to train for your goals, and are good at following direction, consider hiring a coach.

I’ve been working with an online coach since 2014 and it has changed my life – and I do this stuff for a living!

Read our guide on “Is a personal trainer worth it?”

Consider the NF Online Coaching Program!

Let us help you get strong, every step of the way! Learn more:

STEP #4) JOIN THE REBELLION! If you like how we do things around here at Nerd Fitness, we’d love to have you in our community of misfits, mutants, and rebels! Sign up in the box below and I’ll send you our free Strength 101 guide:

Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!

Everything you need to know about getting strong.

Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.

How to find the right gym and train properly in one.

I identify as a:

Woman

Man

No matter what you do today:

Don’t be afraid of doing anything wrong – truth be told, the majority of the people in the gym don’t have any idea what they are doing, and are just as nervous as you are!

Muster up your 20 seconds of courage if you need to, and let me know in the comments how it goes!

What questions do you have about getting started?

So, what’s the biggest thing holding you back from starting strength training?

-Staci

PS – Check out the rest of the articles in our Strength Training 101 series:

Strength Training 101

Strength Training 101: Finding the Right Gym

Strength Training 101: How Much Weight Should I Be Lifting?

Strength Training 101: How to Build Muscle Quickly

Strength Training 101: How to Squat Properly

Strength Training 101: How to Deadlift

Strength Training 101: How to Bench Press

Strength Training 101: How to Do a Pull-Up

Strength Training 101: How to Do a Bodyweight Row

Strength Training 101: How to Do a Dip

Strength Training 101: How to Overhead Press

photo source:[2]

Footnotes    ( returns to text)

Like this study and this study and this one.

 Gregor Winter: Dimitry Klokov, Ken: Cat Dumbbells, William Marlow: Assorted Weights, Kaleb Fulgham: Dumbbells, W_Minshull: Stormtroopers in Gym, Lego Lifting, Rainstorm, Kristina Alexanderson: Teddy Love, Jason Ternus: Stormtrooper Pushups

Strength Training for Beginners: The Best Routines, Workouts, & Exercises! published first on https://immigrationways.tumblr.com/

[lindafrancois]

Strength Training for Beginners: The Best Routines, Workouts, & Exercises!

So you want to get strong, and you have no idea how to start (like this cat).

In this Beginner Strength Training Guide (part 2 of our Strength 101 series) – you’ll have both the confidence to start getting strong with resistance training AND a plan to follow.

We’ll be covering the following:

How do I start strength training or resistance training?

Which strength training program is right for me?

Best strength training workouts for beginners.

How much weight should I lift?

The 9 best strength training exercises.

How to know you’re doing an exercise properly (form checks)

Strength training for weight loss.

“Just TELL ME What Strength Program I should do.”

These are the exact strategies we use with our 1-on-1 Coaching Clients to help them build confidence and start strength training, and I’m excited to cover all of this in this massive guide.

Let us help you start strength training! Learn more:

This is also quite a lot to absorb, so we’ve combined this article along with the rest of our strength articles into a “Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know” guide.

Grab it free when you join the Rebellion by putting your email in the box below.

Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!

Everything you need to know about getting strong.

Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.

How to find the right gym and train properly in one.

I identify as a:

Woman

Man

How Do I Start Strength Training?

Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life.

You’ll look back years from now and thank “Past You” for starting strength training today.

And I promise, you WILL strength train today.

After all, strength training or resistance training doesn’t need to be scary or overcomplicated!

Strength training really comes down to two things:

“Movement of any weight against “resistance”(including your body weight) – Doing ANY exercise  that pushes your muscles outside of their comfort zone, forcing them to rebuild stronger to prepare the next challenge.

Progressive overload: doing slightly more than last time (lift heavier weight or do 1 more rep) consistently. Your muscles will have constantly have to adapt and rebuild themselves stronger.

That’s it.

This means if you drop down and do ONE knee push-up right now, technically you’ve done a strength training workout.

It also means if you then do TWO knew push-ups tomorrow, then you are officially following a strength training routine.

In other words, YOU CAN DO THIS.

Now, there are many different “strength training” and “resistance training” paths.

Like a “skill tree” in a video game (with branching paths and progressions), you can progress up one path, and mix and match movements from others depending on the situation.

These paths depend on your goals and what equipment you have available to you.

Here are the types of strength training:

BODYWEIGHT TRAINING

Bodyweight training is simply doing an exercise in which your own body is the “weight” you are “lifting.”

Duh.

This is the BEST place for anybody – regardless of weight or age – to start their strength training journey.

Why is this the best place to start? Two big reasons:

#1) You always have your body with you (unless you are a ghost, in which case, this is awkward). This means you can work out ANYWHERE with bodyweight training:

Our Beginner Bodyweight Workout Routine in your living room.

Our Hotel Workout in a hotel (obvi).

Our Park Workout in a…well, you get the point.

#2) Using your body for resistance training is the most “human” thing ever! By learning to push and pull and hang and squat and lunge, you are doing what your body is literally designed to do.

By getting strong with bodyweight movements, you’re making yourself antifragile and less injury prone.

Bodyweight training isn’t as easy to ‘scale’ the difficulty as some of the other strength training methods (“put more weight on barbell”), but you can get REALLY strong with just bodyweight training.

For example, you can start with knee pushups, then go to regular push-ups, then elevated push-ups, then even up to things like handstands and handstand push-ups.

You just have to know HOW and WHEN to scale up (we can help there too).

Let us create a bodyweight training program for you!

DUMBBELL TRAINING

Dumbbells are a great first step into the world of weight training and strength training:

Most gyms will have dumbbells, even if it’s a basic gym in your apartment complex.

A set of dumbbells doesn’t take up a lot of room, which means you can have a pair at home without a large footprint.

Dumbbells make it easy to add difficulty to a bodyweight movement: holding dumbbells while doing lunges, for example.

Dumbbell exercises can be less intimidating than barbell training for some, and are a step towards barbell training.

Dumbbells have an added stabilization challenge, and will point out muscle imbalances pretty easily (“oh my right arm is stronger than my left arm.”).

You can scale easily. Once the 10 pound weights become too easy, pick up the 15 pound ones!

KETTLEBELL TRAINING

A kettlebell is essentially a cannonball with a handle on it. They come in any weight imaginable, they don’t take up a lot of room, and can be used in dozens of ways for a great compact workout.

Our 20-minute kettlebell workout has 8 simple exercises you can do with just one weight.

Although there are “adjustable kettlebells,” you’ll most likely be working with a single kettlebell, and then adjusting your movements for “progressive overload” (making the workout slightly more difficult each time).

If you are a member at a gym, they’ll probably have multiple kettlebells that you can use to level up.  

BARBELL TRAINING

Male or female, young or old, if your goal is to get strong quickly, use 20 seconds of courage and get comfortable training with a barbell (I’ll help you, I promise):

“Progressive overload” is easy – you simply add weights to either side of the bar, allowing you to progressively lift more and more weight each week.

It’s much easier to go heavy safely – especially for lower body movements like the squat and the deadlift.

The biggest downside to barbell training is that in order to train at home, you need to have purchased a squat rack, a barbell, a bench, and enough weights for your house or garage (which can be an expensive investment, especially when starting out!).

If not, you definitely will need to join a gym.

WHICH RESISTANCE TRAINING PATH IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

Not sure which path to pick? You’re not alone – this stuff can be overwhelming. Check out our 1-on-1 Coaching Program. We get to know you and your goals, will check your form via video, and make adjustments based on your progress!

Let us build a strength training workout for you that fits your busy life! Learn more:

Which Strength Training Program is Right for Me?

So, what’s the best workout program to start as a beginner?

Realistically, it’s the one that you will actually do.

Barbell training might be optimal in terms of building pure strength quickly, but if you don’t see yourself actually getting to the gym regularly – or you’re too self conscious to enter the free weight section (for now) –  no problem!

Start with bodyweight training.

Conversely, bodyweight training might seem convenient and easy to start now, but if you can’t motivate yourself to work out at home, you might be better off joining a gym.

So let’s get you a workout program!

As we cover in our “How to Find the Perfect Workout Plan (for you)”: MOST beginners will be best served by following a “full body” or “total body” routine, 2 to 3 times per week, with a day of rest in between each workout.

This full body workout will have 4-5 big compound movements.

A compound movement is an exercise that recruits LOTS of muscles simultaneously and forces your body to work in unison.

An example would be the barbell squat, which recruits every muscle in your core, butt, and legs to work together to lift the weight.

This is WAY more efficient – and effective at building pure strength – than doing 5 different isolated leg exercises.

Why do 5 exercises when 1 exercise will get you better results in 20% of the time?

To answer your next question, let me tell you about how many sets and reps you should do as a beginner! As we explain in our “how many sets and reps” guide:

Reps in the 1-5 range build super dense muscle and strength.

Reps in the 6-12 range build equal amounts of muscular power, strength, and size.

Reps in the 12+ range primarily build muscular endurance and size and also cardiovascular health.

Many beginner strength programs will encourage you to keep things simple and just do 5 sets of 5 reps for each exercise in an effort to optimize progress as a beginner interested in strength gains.

I personally encourage people to aim for a weight that they can lift for 8-10 reps. This gives you a chance to really work on your form and lift safely!

The max lifts will come later, my friend. You gotta learn to walk before you can run!

“Staci, which workout plan is best for me?” 

It depends on your goals!

If your main goal is general fitness and fat loss, doing a circuit training workout will likely help you reach your goals (make sure you see our section below for “strength training for weight loss”).

If your main goal is to get stronger and/or put on muscle, following a more traditional, pure-strength style gym workout is going to get you there faster.

TRUTH BOMB: ANY strength training workout will help you reach nearly any goal provided you do two things:

Eat correctly for your goals too. How you eat will account for 80-90% of your success or failure when it comes to weight loss or bulking up.

Increase the difficulty of your workouts. This is that “progressive overload” stuff we were talking about earlier. Doing 1 more bodyweight squat, lifting 5 more pounds, or completing your circuit 10 seconds faster than last workout. By forcing your body to constantly adapt, your muscles will never get complacent and have to keep burning extra calories and rebuilding themselves stronger.

Depending on your current situation, and how quickly you’re looking to cut through the “trial and error” and get expert guidance, I might have an interesting solution for you.

We have a pretty killer 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program here at Nerd Fitness. You’ll work with a coach that will build a workout program for your body type and goals, check your form to make sure you’re doing them safety, and even help plan out your nutrition too.

We help busy people transform from newbies to strong badasses! Learn more:

The 5 Best Beginner Strength Training Programs

“Alright Staci, are there any ‘out of the box’ beginner workout programs I can start following now?”

Yup! Let me share with you some of our suggestions:

Here are 5 resistance training workouts you can follow TODAY. Pick the level that you feel most comfortable with, and then level up when you feel ready:

#1) BEGINNER BODYWEIGHT WORKOUT:

Our Beginner Bodyweight Workout has a variety of rep ranges to promote endurance, strength, and cardiovascular health.

Complete one set of each exercise and then moving directly onto the next exercise:

20 body weight squats

10 push ups

20 walking lunges

10 dumbbell rows (using a gallon milk jug)

15 second plank

30 jumping Jacks

Repeat for 3 rounds

Want to stick with bodyweight training? When you’re ready to level up, check out our advanced bodyweight training circuit.

Otherwise, you can move onto weight training when you feel comfortable!

#2A) BEGINNER NERD FITNESS DUMBBELL WORKOUT

If you are just getting started with dumbbells and you’re looking for a beginner workout program to follow, this is our Level 3 Gym Workout, “Dumbbell Division”:

10 goblet squats

10 push-ups

10 dumbbell rows per side

I knew you’d ask, so here is Goblet Squat video explanation (from the Nerd Fitness Academy):

And here is our video on how to do dumbbell rows:

#2B) BEGINNER NERD FITNESS KETTLEBELL WORKOUT

Our Beginner Kettlebell Routine is a workout you do anywhere you have room to swing a kettlebell.

So, probably not in a phone booth or a closet or a bathroom stall. But other than that, pretty much anywhere else.

Complete 3 Kettlebell Workout Circuits:

8 Halos (each side)

10 Goblet Squats

8 Overhead Presses (each side)

15 Kettlebell Swings

8 Bent Over Rows (each side)

6 Front Rack Reverse Lunge (per side)

#3) BARBELL TRAINING: 2 DAY WORKOUT SPLIT

As we cover in our “how to train in a gym” guide (where we take you from “lost sheep” to “barbell badass”), this routine is a much more focused weight training, strength building workout that gets your feet wet with barbell training. Click on ANY exercise to learn how to do it properly.

NF BEGINNER BARBELL STRENGTH WORKOUT: DAY A

Do 3 rounds of:

10 barbell squats

10 push-ups

10 bodyweight rows

NF BEGINNER BARBELL STRENGTH WORKOUT: DAY B

Do 3 rounds of:

5 barbell Romanian deadlifts

10 push-ups

10 dumbbell rows per arm

WHAT ARE SOME OTHER POPULAR STRENGTH TRAINING PROGRAMS?

#1) “Starting Strength” is considered the gold standard beginner barbell weight training program by many. We highly recommend you pick up the actual book if you are serious about barbell training – it’s one of the most important training books you can ever read.

#2) Strong Lifts 5X5: A solid workout program that starts you out very slow, with just the barbell, and helps you master form before you get too heavy. It also keeps things VERY easy with “do 5×5.” Strong Lifts has been around for a long time and is a solid program.

#3) Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1: This program allows you a little more freedom to do exercises that you enjoy, or work on personal weaknesses, because you choose some of the assistance work.

Note: You can modify any of the barbell training programs to be done with dumbbells, if that’s what you have at home!

Lastly, you can always write your own workout plan! I wrote my own workouts for a decade and it taught me a LOT about training and health.

We do have our own 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program where you’ll work with a coach that will build a strength training workout program for your body type and goals, check your form on each exercise via video, and even help you plan out your nutrition too.

If you want to learn more about our coaching program, you can click in the box below: Want step-by-step guidance and form checks? Learn more:

How Much Weight Should I lift?

We have a FULL resource on how to determine your starting weight for lifting, but I’ll give you the gist here.

The simple to learn but tough to implement answer: lift enough so that you can get through the set, but not too much that you have NO fuel left in the tank at the end.

And then, try to lift sliiiightly more than last time.

How much weight should I start with?

If you are using dumbbells or a kettlebell, always err on the side of “too light” versus “too heavy.” You want to learn the movement correctly and build correct form.

If you are training with a barbell, ALWAYS start with JUST the bar, no matter the exercise (By the way, a standard barbell weighs 45 pounds).

“How fast should I add weight to the bar?”

Here’s what we teach all of our coaching clients: add the minimum amount of weight each week you can, even if you THINK you can lift more. It’s better to finish a workout full of momentum and say “I can do more!” than defeated and saying “that was too much, crapola.”

Think of it this way, even if you are adding just 5 pounds per week to the bar, within a year you would be lifting 300+ pounds!

So go SLOW. Team NF’s Steve even bought little half pound weights and increases many of his lifts by just 1 pound per week. It’s a big part of how he transformed (jokingly) from Steve Rogers to Captain America.

And if you are looking for this content in easily digestible form, make sure you download our free Strength 101 Guide when you join the rebellion below:

Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!

Everything you need to know about getting strong.

Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.

How to find the right gym and train properly in one.

I identify as a:

Woman

Man

The 9 Best Strength Training Exercises to Learn

If you’re new to all this “strength training” stuff, hopping into a program and going from zero to sixty might be a recipe for failure.

Instead, be patient, and take the time to learn these movements first.

I’m going to share with you the 9 best strength training exercises for beginners.

Click on any of these exercises to get a FULL explanation of the movement, step-by-step:

1) The Push-Up: The best exercise you could ever do for yourself when it comes to using your bodyweight for push muscles (your chest, shoulders, and triceps):

2) The Bodyweight Squat: This exercise serves a dual purpose: it is the foundation for building strength AND helps build proper mobility. If you are going to ever do barbell squats, you need to work on hitting proper depth with a bodyweight squat first!

3) The Inverted Bodyweight Row: Until you can get your first pull-up or chin-up, these exercises are GREAT to start building your pull-muscle strength: your back, biceps, and forearms.

4) The Pull-Up and Chin-Up: Once you can support your bodyweight above the bar, the world becomes your playground. No strength training routine should be without pull-up or chin-up work! (Click here if you can’t do a pull-up or chin-up yet?)

5) The Bodyweight Dip: As you start to get stronger with push-ups and need to find a way to increase the challenge, consider doing dips – warning: these are very advanced, but incredible strength building exercises.

And now we’re into the best weight training exercises:

6) The Barbell Squat: Probably the best exercise when it comes to building strength and muscle throughout your whole body. It also burns crazy calories and makes life better. This is a MUST:

7) The Barbell Deadlift: Maybe the best exercise of all time. Actually no, it IS the best exercise of all time. It’s certainly the most primal: “pick the weight up off the ground. Done.”

This is a very technical lift, so make sure you read our article on how to do it with proper form:

8) The Barbell Press: Press a barbell above your head. This recruits all of the muscles in your chest, shoulders, and arms in order for you to lift the weight over your head.

As a bonus, you need to really flex and brace your core, which gets those muscles working too.

9) The Barbell Bench Press. Lie on a bench, and lower a barbell until it almost touches your chest. Pause, and the press it back up towards the sky. Repeat! And get strong.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: commit to trying ONE of these movements in the next week. Use 20 seconds of courage, recruit a friend who has lifted or trained before, and try your best.

And if you want somebody to help you put these into a workout program, teach you HOW to do these movements properly, and have the confidence to know you’re training correctly for your goals…

Let us create a workout program that fits your busy life!

How to KNow you’re doing a strength training movement Properly (Form Checks)

Always start out with just your bodyweight and make sure your movement is correct!

If it’s a barbell movement, use a broomstick (or PVC Pipe).

If it’s a dumbbell movement, use two sections of PVC or something else that is light and small to simulate a dumbbell.

When it comes to movements like squats, deadlifts, pull ups, bench press, your form is crucial. Develop good habits with lightweight and you will save yourself months of frustration later and will protect you from injury.

If you’re struggling with certain elements of a movement, don’t get frustrated! Just understand that you’ll have areas in which you can improve.

How do you know if your movement is correct?

Do regular video form checks! Record yourself and watch the video.

Alternatively, an expert reviewing your specific movement can be invaluable. 

If you’re looking for someone who can do video form checks, provide feedback, and adjust your workouts based on your progress, you can check out our 1-on-1 Online Personal Training!

I’ve had an online coach for 4 years and it’s changed my life.

Never wonder if you’re doing a movement properly! Get form checks from our coaches:

You could also get expert guidance in person: Look around at your local strength and conditioning gyms and see if you could hire a coach (here’s how to find a good personal trainer) for one or two sessions just to go over the basic movements.

If you can’t do either of those two options, no big deal! Videotape yourself and compare it to the videos here in the articles. You can also post your video to the form check section of the Nerd Fitness Forums.

When I started, I really liked practicing all of the movements at home because I could watch a video online at the same time as I was watching myself do it in a mirror.

Strength Training For Weight Loss

So you’re looking to lose weight, and tired of hours of cardio (me too).

And you’re wondering if strength training for weight loss – by following one of the workouts in this guide is a viable solution.

Or, gasp – will strength training make you too bulky? (SPOILER: it won’t)

Yes, Strength training will help you lose weight IF you do two key things for effective weight loss:

Calorie restriction: eating fewer calories than you burn every day

Strength training with progressive overload (picking up heavier stuff)

As we point out in our “Cardio vs Intervals vs Weight Training” article, strength training is the MOST efficient method for weight loss.

Not only that, but you can find study after study after study that shows you the benefits of strength training for weight management when combined with “calorie restriction.”[1]

As I cover in our “Why can’t I lose weight?” article, here’s why eating a caloric deficit and strength training is SO magical when combined:

When you strength train – by picking up something heavy – your muscles are “broken down” during the exercise itself, and then they rebuild themselves stronger over the next 24-48 hours.

Guess what happens during those 24-48 hours?

Your body will divert as many calories consumed as necessary to “Rebuild Muscle!”

It also diverts additional calories to “Burn as Fuel” to handle this increased “muscle rebuilding” activity.

Which means two amazing things:

Your metabolism is revved up for this time period, burning more calories than normal.

Rebuilding muscle is a calorie taxing activity!

Not only that, but when you eat a caloric deficit, your body doesn’t have enough calories to fuel all the day’s activities. In these instances, your body will pull from your stored fat to make sure all the work still gets done.

This is the trifecta of physical transformation victory:

You get stronger and keep the muscle you have.

You burn through the fat you’re trying to get rid of.

You’re decreasing your body fat percent and keeping your muscle = look good naked.

In other words, strength training + eating right is the BEST path for weight loss out there! And yes, in certain situations, you can actually lose weight AND build muscle at the same time.

So how do you put this into practice? Pick one of the strength workouts in this article. Calculate your daily caloric needs. Learn about healthy eating. And start.

In other words…

Pick up something heavy, and eat a vegetable.

These are the types of things we work on with our 1-on-1 Coaching Clients: helping them lift weights confidently and eat correctly for their goals! Let us help you:

Let our coaches create a custom strength training and weight loss plan for you!

“Just Tell Me What Strength Training Program to Follow!”

Okay! Unless you are collecting underpants, you should now have a workout program you want to try out!

“Staci, this is a lot, can you just TELL me what to do?”

Okay fine.

Here are the steps again for you:

STEP ONE: PICK YOUR WORKOUT PATH:

A) If YOU ARE TRAINING AT HOME. Pick one of these 3 based on what equipment you have:

Beginner Bodyweight Workout (no equipment)

Kettlebell Beginner Workout

Dumbbell Division Workout (Level 3 of Gym Guide)

B) IF YOU ARE TRAINING IN A GYM: Amazing! I love gyms. Read our “How to train in a gym” guide and go from Level 1 to Level 5 over the next month.

This will help you go from scared newbie to barbell-badass.

STEP #2: TRY A NEW EXERCISE: In addition to following a workout program, I’m gonna push outside of your comfort zone – that’s where real growth happens. Learn ONE new movement this week. Pick one of the exercises below and try it out!

How to squat

How to deadlift

How to bench press

How to do the overhead press

How to do a pull-up

How to do a push-up

How to do an inverted row

STEP #3) GET A YODA: If you are somebody that just wants to be told exactly what to, how to train for your goals, and are good at following direction, consider hiring a coach.

I’ve been working with an online coach since 2014 and it has changed my life – and I do this stuff for a living!

Read our guide on “Is a personal trainer worth it?”

Consider the NF Online Coaching Program!

Let us help you get strong, every step of the way! Learn more:

STEP #4) JOIN THE REBELLION! If you like how we do things around here at Nerd Fitness, we’d love to have you in our community of misfits, mutants, and rebels! Sign up in the box below and I’ll send you our free Strength 101 guide:

Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!

Everything you need to know about getting strong.

Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.

How to find the right gym and train properly in one.

I identify as a:

Woman

Man

No matter what you do today:

Don’t be afraid of doing anything wrong – truth be told, the majority of the people in the gym don’t have any idea what they are doing, and are just as nervous as you are!

Muster up your 20 seconds of courage if you need to, and let me know in the comments how it goes!

What questions do you have about getting started?

So, what’s the biggest thing holding you back from starting strength training?

-Staci

PS – Check out the rest of the articles in our Strength Training 101 series:

Strength Training 101

Strength Training 101: Finding the Right Gym

Strength Training 101: How Much Weight Should I Be Lifting?

Strength Training 101: How to Build Muscle Quickly

Strength Training 101: How to Squat Properly

Strength Training 101: How to Deadlift

Strength Training 101: How to Bench Press

Strength Training 101: How to Do a Pull-Up

Strength Training 101: How to Do a Bodyweight Row

Strength Training 101: How to Do a Dip

Strength Training 101: How to Overhead Press

photo source:[2]

Footnotes    ( returns to text)

Like this study and this study and this one.

 Gregor Winter: Dimitry Klokov, Ken: Cat Dumbbells, William Marlow: Assorted Weights, Kaleb Fulgham: Dumbbells, W_Minshull: Stormtroopers in Gym, Lego Lifting, Rainstorm, Kristina Alexanderson: Teddy Love, Jason Ternus: Stormtrooper Pushups

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Strength Training 101: Where to Start (Exercises & Routines)

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Strength Training 101: Where to Start (Exercises & Routines)

So you want to get strong, and you have no idea how to start( like this cat ).

In this Beginner Strength Training Guide( portion 2 of our Strength 101 series) – you’ll have both the confidence to start getting strong AND a plan to follow.

We’ll be encompassing the following table :P TAGEND

How do I start strength develop ? Which strength training program is right for me ? Best strength training workouts for beginners . How much weight should I lift ? The 9 best strength training exercises . Strength training for weight loss . “Just TELL ME What Strength Program I should do.”

These are the exact strategies we use with our 1-on-1 Coaching Clients to help them build confidence and start strength educate, and I’m aroused to cover all of this in this massive guide.

This is also quite a lot to assimilate, so we’ve combined this article along with the rest of our strength articles into a “Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know” guide. Grab it free when you join the Rebellion by putting your email in the box below.

Download our comprehensive guidebook STRENGTH TRAINING 101!

Everything you need to know about getting strong.

Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight develop.

How to find the right gym and develop properly in one.

I identify as a:

Woman

Man

How Do I Start Strength Training?

Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life.

You’ll look back years from now and thank “Past You” for starting strength training today. And I promise, you WILL strength train today.

After all, strength training doesn’t need to be scary or overcomplicated!

Strength training truly comes down to two things :P TAGEND

“Movement of any weight( including your body weight)- Doing ANY exercise that moves your muscles outside of their comfort zone, forcing them to rebuild stronger to prepare the next challenge. Progressive overload: doing slightly more than last hour( lift heavier weight or do 1 more rep) consistently. Your muscles will have constantly have to adapt and will constantly be rebuilding themselves stronger.

That’s it.

This entails if you drop down and do ONE knee push-up right now, technically you’ve done a strength training workout.

It also means if you then do TWO knew push-ups tomorrow, then you are officially following a strength training routine.

In other words, YOU CAN DO THIS.

Now, there are many different “strength training” paths. Like a “skill tree” in a video game( with branching routes and progressions ), you can progress up one path, and mixture and match motions from others depending on the situation.

These tracks depend on your goals and what equipment you have available to you.

Here are the types of strength educate :P TAGEND

BODYWEIGHT TRAINING

Bodyweight training is simply do an exercise in which your own body is the “weight” you are “lifting.”

Duh.

This is the BEST place for anybody- regardless of weight or age- to start their strength training journey.

Why is this the best place to start? Two big reasons:

# 1) You always have your body with you( unless you are a ghost, in which case, this is awkward ). This means you can work out ANYWHERE with bodyweight educate :P TAGEND

Our Beginner Bodyweight Routine in your living room. Our Hotel Workout in a hotel( obvi ). Our Park Workout in a…well, you get the point. In a house with a mouse, in a box with a fox. Wait.

# 2) Moving your body is the most “human” thing ever! By learning to push and pull and hang and squat and lunge, you are doing what your body is literally designed to do. By getting strong with bodyweight motions, you’re stimulating yourself antifragile and less injury prone.

Bodyweight training isn’t as easy to’ scale’ as some of the other strength training techniques, but you can get REALLY strong with merely bodyweight training( working up to advanced movements like handstands, 1-legged squats, and gymnastic ring work ).

DUMBBELL TRAINING

Dumbbells are a great first step into the world of weight training and strength educate :P TAGEND

Most gyms will have dumbbells, even if it’s a basic gym in your apartment complex. A set of dumbbells doesn’t take up a lot of room, which means you can have a pair at home without a large footprint. Dumbbells make it easy to add difficulty to a bodyweight motion: holding dumbbells while doing lunges, for example. Dumbbell exercisings can be less intimidating than barbell training for some, and are a step towards barbell training. Dumbbells have an added stabilization challenge, and will point out muscle imbalances pretty easily( “oh my right arm is stronger than my left arm.” ). You can scale easily. Once the 10 pound weights become too easy, pick up the 15 pound ones!

KETTLEBELL TRAINING

A kettlebell is essentially a cannonball with a handle on it. They come in any weight imaginable, they don’t take up a lot of room, and can be used in dozens of ways for a great compact workout. Our 20-minute kettlebell workout has 8 simple exercises you can do with just one weight.

Although there are “adjustable kettlebells, ” you’ll most likely be working with a single kettlebell, and then adjusting your motions for “progressive overload”( inducing the workout slightly more difficult each time ). If you are a partner at a gym, they’ll most likely have multiple kettlebells that you can use to level up.

BARBELL TRAINING

Male or female, young or old, if your goal is to get strong quickly, use 20 seconds of heroism and get comfy train with a barbell( I’ll help you, I promise ):

“Progressive overload” is easy – you simply add weights to either side of the bar, allowing you to progressively lift more and more weight each week. It’s much easier to go heavy safely- especially for lower body movements like the squat and the deadlift.

The biggest downside to barbell educate is that in order to train at home, you need to have purchased a squat rack, a barbell, a bench, and enough weights for your house or garage( which can be an expensive investment, especially when starting out !).

If not, you definitely will need to join a gym membership.

Not sure which route to pick? You’re not alone- this stuff can be overwhelming.

If you want a custom build workout program that is catered to your experience and situation- and grows along with you- check out our 1-on-1 Coaching Program. We get to know you and your goals, checks to see your form via video, and make adjustments based on your progress!

You can learn more by clicking on the image below :P TAGEND

Which Strength Training Program is Right for Me?

So, what’s the best workout program to start as a beginner?

Realistically, it’s the one that you will actually do.

Barbell training might be optimal in terms of building pure strength quickly, but if you don’t see yourself actually getting to the gym regularly- or you’re too self conscious to enter the free weight section( for now)- no problem! Start with bodyweight training.

Conversely, bodyweight train might seem convenient and easy to start now, but if you can’t motivate yourself to work out at home, you might be better off joining a gym.

So let’s get you a workout program!

As we cover in our “How to Find the Perfect Workout Plan( for you )”: MOST beginners will be best served by following a” full body” or” total body” routine- a workout that targets every muscle in your body- 2 to 3 times per week,( with a day of rest in between each workout ).

This full body workout will have 4-5 big compound movements.

A compound movement is an exercise that recruits Lots of muscles simultaneously and forces-out your body to work in unison. An example would be the barbell squat, which recruits every muscle in your core, butt, and legs to work together to lift the weight. This is WAY more efficient- and effective at building pure strength- than doing 5 different isolated leg workouts.

Why do 5 workouts when 1 exercising will get you better outcomes in 20% of the time?

To answer your next question, let me tell you about how many decides and reps you should do as a novice! As we explain in our “how many decides and reps” guide :P TAGEND

Reps in the 1-5 range construct super dense muscle and strength. Reps in the 6-12 scope build equal amounts of muscular power, strength, and size. Reps in the 12+ range primarily construct muscular endurance and sizing, and improving form.

Many beginner strength programs will encourage you to keep things simple and simply do 5 defines of 5 reps for each exert, in an effort to optimize progress as a beginner interested in strength gains.

I personally encourage people to aim for a weight that they can lift for 8-10 reps. This gives you a chance to really work on your sort and lift safely!

The max lifts will come later, my friend. You gotta learn to walk before you can run!

” Steve, which workout scheme is better ?”

It depends on your goals!

If your main goal is general fitness and fat loss, doing a circuit style workout will likely help you reach your goals( make sure you watch our section below for “strength training for weight loss” ).

If your main goal is to get stronger and/ or put on muscle, following a more traditional, pure-strength style routine like the above gym workout is going to get you there faster.

TRUTH BOMB: EITHER workout will help you reach nearly any goal provided you do two things :P TAGEND

Eat correctly for your goals too. How you eat will account for 80 -9 0% of your success or failing when it comes to weight loss or bulking up. Increase the difficulty of your workouts. This is that “progressive overload” stuff we were talking about earlier. Doing 1 more bodyweight squat, lifting 5 more pounds, or completing your circuit 10 seconds faster than last workout. By forcing your body to constantly adapt, your muscles will never get complacent and have to keep burning extra calories and rebuilding themselves stronger.

Depending on your current situation, and how quickly you’re looking to cut through the “trial and error” and get expert guidance, I might have an interesting solution for you.

We have a pretty killer 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program here at Nerd Fitness, where you’ll work with a coach that will build a workout program for your body type and aims, check your kind to make sure you’re doing them security, and even help scheme out your nutrition too.

If you want to learn more about our coaching program, you can click in the box below :P TAGEND

The Best Beginner Strength Training Programs

“Alright Staci, are there any’ out of the box’ beginner workout programs I can start following now ?”

Yup! Let me share with you some of our suggestions :P TAGEND

Here are 5 workouts you can follow TODAY. Pick the level that you feel most comfortable with, and then level up when you feel ready :P TAGEND

# 1) BEGINNER BODYWEIGHT WORKOUT :P TAGEND

Our Beginner Bodyweight Workout has a variety of rep ranges to promote endurance, strength, and cardiovascular health. Complete one set of each exercise and then moving directly onto the following exercise :P TAGEND

20 body weight squats 10 push up 20 walking lunges 10 dumbbell rows( employing a gallon milk jug) 15 second timber 30 jumping Jacks Repeat for 3 rounds

#2A) BEGINNER NERD FITNESS DUMBBELL WORKOUT

If you are just getting started with dumbbells and you’re looking for a novice workout program to follow, this is our Level 3 Gym Workout, “Join the Dumbbell Division” :P TAGEND

10 goblet squattings 10 push-ups 10 dumbbell rows per side

I knew you’d ask, so here is Goblet Squat video explanation( from the Nerd Fitness Academy ):

And here is our video on how to do dumbbell rows :P TAGEND

#2B) BEGINNER NERD FITNESS KETTLEBELL WORKOUT

Our Beginner Kettlebell Routine is a workout you do anywhere you have room to swing a kettlebell. So, probably not in a phone booth or a closet or a bathroom stalling. But other than that, pretty much anywhere else.

Complete 3 circuits :P TAGEND

8 Halos( each side) 10 Goblet Squats 8 Overhead Presses( each side) 15 Kettlebell Swings 8 Bent Over Rows( each side) 6 Front Rack Reverse Lunge( per side)

# 3) BARBELL TRAINING: 2 DAY WORKOUT SPLIT

As we cover in our “how to train in a gym” guide( where we take you from “lost sheep” to “barbell badass” ), this routine is a much more focused weight train, strength build workout that get your foot wet with barbell develop. Click on ANY exercise to learn how to do it properly.

NF BEGINNER BARBELL STRENGTH WORKOUT: DAY A

Do 3 rounds of :P TAGEND

10 barbell squattings 10 push-ups 10 bodyweight rows

NF BEGINNER BARBELL STRENGTH WORKOUT: DAY B

Do 3 rounds of :P TAGEND

5 barbell Romanian deadlifts 10 push-ups 10 dumbbell rows per limb

WHAT ARE SOME OTHER POPULAR STRENGTH TRAINING PROGRAMS?

# 1) The original” Starting Strength” is considered the gold standard novice barbell weight develop program by many. We highly recommend you pick up the actual book if you are serious about barbell educate – it’s one of the most important training volumes you can ever read.

# 2) Strong Lifts 5X5: A solid workout program that starts you out very slow, with just the barbell, and helps you master form before you get too heavy. It also keeps things VERY easy with “do 5×5. ” Stronglifts has been around for a long time and is a solid program.

# 3) Jim Wendler’s 5/3/ 1: This program allows you a little more freedom to do workouts that you enjoy, or work on personal weaknesses, because you choose some of the assistance work.

Note: You can modify any of the barbell training programs to be done with dumbbells, if that’s what you have at home!

Lastly, you can always write your own workout plan!

However, depending on your current situation, and how quickly you’re looking to cut through the “trial and error” and get expert guidance, I might have an interesting solution for you .!

We have a pretty killer 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program where you’ll work with a coach-and-four that will build a workout program for your body type and aims, check your form on each exert via video, and even help you plan out your nutrition too.

If you want to learn more about our coaching program, you can click in the box below :P TAGEND

How Much Weight Should I lift?

We have a FULL resource on how to determine your starting weight for lifting, but I’ll give you the gist here.

The simple to learn but tough to implement answer: lift enough so that you can get through the define, but not too much that you have NO fuel left in the tank at the end.

And then, try to lift sliiiightly more than last time.

How much weight should I start with?

If you are using dumbbells or a kettlebell, always stray on the side of “too light” versus “too heavy.” You want to learn the movement correctly and construct correct form. If you are training with a barbell, ALWAYS start with JUST the bar , no matter the exercising( By the way, a standard barbell weighs 45 pounds ).

“How fast should I add weight to the bar? ”

Here’s my opinion: add the minimum sum of weight each week you can, even though they are you THINK you can lift more. It’s better to finish a workout full of momentum and say “I can do more! ” than defeated and saying “that was too much, crapola.”

Think of it this route, even if you are adding only 5 pounds per week to the bar, within a year you would be lifting 300+ pounds!

So go SLOW. Team NF’s Steve even bought little half pound weights and increases many of his lifts by simply 1 pound per week. It’s a big part of how he transformed from Steve Rogers to Captain America.

And if you are looking for this content in easily digestible form, make sure you download our free Strength 101 Guide when you join the rebels below :P TAGEND Download our comprehensive guidebook STRENGTH TRAINING 101!

Everything you need to know about getting strong.

Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight develop.

How to find the right gym and develop properly in one.

I identify as a:

Woman

Man

The 9 Best Strength Training Exercises to Learn

If you’re new to all this” strength educate” stuff, hopping into a programme designed and going from zero to sixty might be a recipe for failure.

Instead, be patient, and take the time to learn these movements first.

I’m going to share with you the 9 best strength training exercises for novices. Click on any of these exercises to get a FULL explanation of the movement, step-by-step :P TAGEND

1) The Push-Up: The best exercising you could ever do for yourself when it comes to using your bodyweight for push muscles( your chest, shoulders, and triceps ):

2) The Bodyweight Squat: This exercising serves a dual purpose: it is the foundation for house strength AND assists construct proper mobility. If you are going to ever do barbell squats, you need to work on hitting proper depth with a bodyweight squat first!

3) The Inverted Bodyweight Row: Until you can get your first pull-up or chin-up, these exercisings are GREAT to start building your pull-muscle strength: your back, biceps, and forearms.

4) The Pull-Up and Chin-Up: Once you can support your bodyweight above the bar, the world becomes your playground. No strength educate routine should be without pull-up or chin-up work!( if you can’t do a pull-up or chin-up yet)

5) The Bodyweight Dip: As you start to get stronger with push-ups and need to find a way to increase the challenge, consider doing dips- advising: these are very advanced, but incredible strength build exercises.

6) The Barbell Squat: Probably the best exert when it comes to building strength and muscle throughout your whole body. Show me somebody who squattings heavy and I’ll show you a great physique. This is a MUST :P TAGEND

7) The Barbell Deadlift: Maybe the best exercise of all time, and certainly “the worlds largest” primal: “pick the weight up off the ground. Done.”

8) The Barbell Press: Press a barbell above your head. This recruits all of the muscles in your chest, shoulders, and limbs in order for you to lift the weight over your head. As a bonus, you need to really flex and bracing your core, which gets those muscles working too.

9) The Barbell Bench Press. Lie on a bench, and lower a barbell until it nearly touches your chest. Pause, and the press it back up towards the sky. Repeat! And get strong.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: commit to trying ONE of these movements in the coming week. Use 20 seconds of heroism, recruit a friend who has lifted or trained before, and try the very best.

We all start somewhere!

Speaking of starting out…

Never done many of the movements in the scheme you’re doing before?

Always start out with just your bodyweight and make sure your movement is correct!

If it’s a barbell movement, use a broomstick( or PVC Pipe ). If it’s a dumbbell motion, use two sections of PVC or something else that is light and small to simulate a dumbbell.

When it comes to movements like squattings, deadlifts, pull out, bench press, your form is crucial. Develop good habits with lightweight and you will save yourself months of annoyance later and will protect you from injury.

If you’re struggling with certain elements of a motion, don’t get frustrated! Just understand that you’ll have areas in which you can improve.

When I started, I really liked practicing all of the free movement of persons at home because I could watch a video online at the same time as I was watching myself do it in a mirror.

Videotape yourself and compare it to videos, or post it to the form check section of the Nerd Fitness Forums.

Still uncomfortable with the movements after that? Look around at local strength and conditioning gyms and see if you could hire a coach( here’s how to find a good trainer) for one or two sessions only to go over the basic movements.

If you want a coach in your pocket, who can do video form checks, offer feedback, and adjust your workouts based on your progress, you can check out our 1-on-1 Coaching program! I’ve had an online coach for 4 years and it’s changed my life. You can learn more by clicking on the box below :P TAGEND

Strength Training For Weight Loss

So you’re looking to lose weight, and tired of hours of cardio( me too ).

And you’re wondering if strength training for weight loss- by following one of the workouts in this guide is a viable solution.

Or, gasp- will strength train attain you too bulky?( SPOILER: it won’t)

Yes, Strength training will help you lose weight IF you do two key things for effective weight loss :P TAGEND

Calorie regulation: eating fewer calories than you burn every day Strength develop with progressive overload( picking up heavier stuff)

As we point out in our “Cardio vs Interval vs Weight Training” article, strength train is the MOST efficient technique for weight loss.

Not only that, but you can find study after study after study that shows you the benefits of strength training for weight management when combined with “calorie restriction.”[ 1 ]

As I encompas in our “Why can’t I lose weight ?” article, here’s why feeing a caloric deficit and strength training is SO magical when blended :P TAGEND

When you strength train- by picking up something heavy – your muscles are “broken down” during the exercise itself, and then they rebuild themselves stronger over the next 24 -4 8 hours.

Guess what happens during those 24 -4 8 hours?

Your body will divert as many calories eaten as necessary to “Rebuild Muscle! ”

It also diverts additional calories to “Burn as Fuel” to handle this increased “muscle rebuilding” activity.

Which entails two amazing things :P TAGEND

Your metabolism is revved up for this time period, burning more calories than normal. Rebuilding muscle is a calorie levy activity!

Not only that, but when you feed a caloric deficit, your body doesn’t have enough calories to fuel all the day’s activities. In these instances, your body will pull from your stored fat to make sure all the work still gets done.

This is the trifecta of physical transformation victory :P TAGEND

You get stronger and keep the muscle you have. You burn through the fat you’re trying to get rid of. You’re lessening your body fat percentage and maintaining your muscle= look good naked.

In other words, strength educate+ eating right is the BEST path for weight loss out there! And yes, in certain situations, you can actually lose weight AND build muscle at the same time.

So how do you put this into practice? Pick one of the strength workouts in this article. Calculate your daily caloric needs. Learn about healthy eating. And start.

In other words…

Pick up something heavy, and eat a vegetable.

Oh what’s that? You simply want somebody to tell you exactly what to do? Fine!

“Just Tell Me What Strength Training Program to Follow! ”

Okay! Unless you are collecting underpants, you should now have a workout program you want to try out!

“Staci, this is a lot, can you simply TELL me what to do? ” Okay fine. Here are the steps again for you :P TAGEND

STEP ONE: PICK YOUR WORKOUT PATH :P TAGEND

A) If YOU ARE TRAINING AT HOME. Pick one of these 3 based on what equipment you have :P TAGEND

Beginner Bodyweight Workout( no equipment ) Kettlebell Beginner Workout Dumbbell Division Workout( Level 3 of Gym Guide )

B) IF YOU ARE TRAINING IN A GYM: Amazing! I love gyms. Read our “How to train in a gym” guide and run from Level 1 to Level 5 over the next month.

This will help you go from scared newbie to barbell-badass.

STEP# 2: TRY A NEW EXERCISE: In addition to following a workout program, I’m gonna push outside of your comfort zone- that’s where real growth happens. Learn ONE new motion this week. Pick one of the exercises below and try it out!

How to squat How to deadlift How to bench press How to do the overhead press How to do a pull-up How to do a push-up How to do an inverted row

STEP# 3) GET A YODA! If you are somebody that just wants to be told exactly what to, how to train for your goals, and are good at following direction, consider hiring a coach-and-four. I’ve been working with an online coach since 2014 and it has changed my life- and I do this stuff for a living!

Read our guide on “Is a personal trainer worth it ?” Consider the NF Online Coaching Program!

No matter what you do today: don’t be afraid of doing everything wrong- truth be told, the majority of members of the people in the gym don’t have any notion what they are doing, and are just as nervous as “youre ever”!

Muster up your 20 seconds of fortitude if you need to, and let me know in the comments how it goes!

What questions do you have about getting started?

So, what’s the biggest thing holding you back from starting strength develop?

-Staci

PS- Check out the rest of the articles in our Strength Training 101 series :P TAGEND

Strength Training 101 Strength Training 101: Finding the Right Gym Strength Training 101:How Much Weight Should I Be Lifting ? Strength Training 101: How to Build Muscle and Strength Quickly Strength Training 101: How to Squat Properly Strength Training 101: How to Deadlift Strength Training 101: How to Bench Press Strength Training 101: How to Do a Pull-Up Strength Training 101: How to Do a Bodyweight Row Strength Training 101: How to Do a Dip Strength Training 101: How to Overhead Press

photo source: [ 2 ]

Footnotes( returns to text)

Like this study and this study and this one.

Gregor Winter: Dimitry Klokov, Ken: Cat Dumbbells, William Marlow: Assorted Weights, Kaleb Fulgham: Dumbbells, W_Minshull: Stormtroopers in Gym, Lego Lifting, Kristina Alexanderson: Teddy Love, Jason Ternus: Stormtrooper Pushups

Read more: nerdfitness.com

[cryptswahili]

Is It Time to Take an Initiative to Decrease Bitcoin’s Block Size Seriously?

Whilst debate raged throughout the Bitcoin community over whether the block size limit should be increased and how, Luke-jr for years stood out for arguing the exact opposite position. One megabyte blocks weren’t too small, he maintained even as SegWit’s block size increase gained broad support, they were too big. No increase, but a decrease was needed.

Now, the Bitcoin Knots and Bitcoin Core developer is spearheading an attempt to make such a decrease happen, as a temporary measure. And if social media is any indication, the initiative is attracting more interest than many might have expected it would.

“I don't know if the proposal will be adopted or not, but support has been growing due to the block size becoming more and more apparently a problem,” Luke-jr told Bitcoin Magazine.

Block Size Decrease

Of course, the arguments for decreasing the block size limit are similar to the by now oft-repeated arguments against increasing the block size limit. In short, bigger blocks add to the cost of running a node (making it more expensive for users to enforce the protocol rules), could increase mining centralization (risking censorship resistance), and reduces fee pressure (translating into less hash power security).

The most pressing problem of these, for Luke-jr, is the cost of running a full node. This is perhaps best exemplified by the time it takes to initially sync such a node. Getting up to speed with the rest of the network can take days even on modern laptops with a good internet connection.

“Users acting on that cost by simply choosing not to run a full node is a problem,” Luke-jr said. “When someone does finally attack Bitcoin, it will split the network — full node users on one chain, and light wallet users on the other.”

In case of such a broad scale attack on light wallet users, “a New York Agreement-in-secret,” Luke-jr envisions a worst-case scenario where these users would rather continue to use the invalid chain they’d been defaulting to since the attack, instead of switching back to the original chain.

“Which side prevails inevitably depends on the economic pressure of users of each chain. If most people are using light wallets, then full node users will lose out, and the invalid chain effectively becomes simply a hard fork to Bitcoin,” he argued, leaving little room for nuance. “That means all protocol rules are open to change, including the ones that forbid inflation, theft, etcetera.”

Following Luke-jr’s reasoning, Bitcoin is well into the danger zone already, as relatively few users rely on full nodes to accept payments. And it may be getting worse. Bitcoin’s blockchain grows each day, and while Moore’s Law and similar trends of computational improvements negate the associated problems with this growth to an extent, the Bitcoin Knots lead maintainer thinks technological progress is not yet keeping up. (It’s no exact science, but the drop in reachable node count over the past year could suggest that the blockchain size is indeed becoming a problem for more users — then again this node count is up over the past two years.)

On the flip side, the main argument against smaller blocks is that it would limit the number of transactions the Bitcoin network would be able process, which increases fee pressure, and could out-price certain use cases. (Instead of running full nodes, users may opt to rely on custodial services to save on fees, arguably making matters worse — not better.)

But with the development of the Lightning Network making noticeable progress, proponents of a block size limit decrease believe this downside is largely mitigated. Users would be incentivized to migrate to the overlay network for fast and cheap transactions, furthering its growth and taking the load off Bitcoin’s blockchain at the same time.

The Plan

As the initiative is still in its early stages, it’s not yet set in stone what the potential block size decrease would look like, exactly. Even the desired limit isn’t settled on, though it would most likely be brought down from the current theoretical maximum of almost four megabytes to a theoretical maximum of two or less. (This would, in reality, result in even smaller blocks; closer to one megabyte.) However, if this were to be achieved, the measure would be designed not to be permanent, so that an increase back to the current limit wouldn’t be too difficult later on.

There are at least three rough ideas of how a block size decrease could be achieved.

The most notable proposal is a user-activated soft fork (UASF), similar to BIP148, the initiative to trigger SegWit activation in 2017. On the same date as two years ago, August 1, users would enforce the stricter rules for five months, incentivizing miners to comply. If a majority of miners (by hash power) go along, even non-upgraded users would remain compatible with the new rules; they’d just see smaller blocks than previously allowed. A UASF is a risky strategy, however. If less than half of all miners go along, the blockchain could “split” between upgraded and non-upgraded users.

Alternatively, miners could impose a smaller block size limit themselves as a soft cap. Soft caps are non-binding limits that miners put on the blocks they mine and were used particularly throughout the first years of Bitcoin’s existence. (Past soft caps were consecutively 250, 500 and 750 kilobytes, as recommended by Bitcoin developers.) This would be a much safer solution but would require that miners reject transactions and, thus, leave transaction fees on the table for each block they mine.

As a third option, proposed by Luke-jr, Bitcoin users could limit the size of blocks by making their transactions artificially “heavy.” Under Bitcoin’s protocol rules, these transactions would be counted as if they were larger than they actually are, which means blocks would fill up faster with less actual transaction data. This change wouldn’t require any protocol changes; wallets could offer it today. These transactions do, however, require individual users to choose to “overpay” on fees relative to regular transactions. (That’s assuming miners act economically rationally and charge extra to include these transactions.)

Block Size Debate Fatigue

Some notable proponents of Luke-jr’s initiative include Bitrefill CCO John Carvalho, Block Digest cohost Shinobi and JoinMarket developer Chris Belcher. Yet all of them would only want to go through with the effort if it gains broad backing. That also goes for Luke-jr himself: “Soft forks like this need a lot of community support,” he said.

But so far, support within the Bitcoin community appears to range from lukewarm (no pun intended) to skeptical to outright dismissive. Other than Luke-jr, no regular Bitcoin Core contributors have thrown their weight behind the proposal and no Bitcoin company of note has stated support; and while the proposal is generating a bit of buzz on social media and in chat rooms, a majority of commenters still seems to reject the idea.

Even many of those who agree that a decrease would be a technical improvement in and of itself don’t believe it would make too much of a difference. If blocks are smaller for several months or even several years, Bitcoin’s blockchain size will still be large. Whether tomorrow’s new users need to sync two days or three days may not be the deciding factor in whether to use a full node or not. Besides, there are other solutions that could make running a full node more attractive, some of which may well have much more effect. (Though, as Luke-jr points out, none of these solutions exclude also decreasing the block size limit.)

What’s more, years of in-fighting has made the Bitcoin community wary of commencing another block size battle and dealing with all the controversy that comes with it. After a long-fought “civil war,” there appears to be little appetite to invest more time and energy in reviving the struggle on the same parameter — thereby, quite possibly, draining any momentum from the initiative even before it gets well underway.

Indeed, even Luke-jr himself doubts he’ll be the one carrying the initiative to the finish line this time.

“Although I may be the only one popularly pushing it — I don't have time to champion another BIP148, I fear,” he said, noting how exhausting the previous UASF attempt was. “I think the only way it will happen is if the community takes the lead on it.”

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

[Telegram Channel | Original Article ]

[bobbynolanios88]

Is It Time to Take an Initiative to Decrease Bitcoin’s Block Size Seriously?

Is It Time to Take an Initiative to Decrease Bitcoin’s Block Size Seriously?

Whilst debate raged throughout the Bitcoin community over whether the block size limit should be increased and how, Luke-jr for years stood out for arguing the exact opposite position. One megabyte blocks weren’t too small, he maintained even as SegWit’s block size increase gained broad support, they were too big. No increase, but a decrease was needed.

Now, the Bitcoin Knots and Bitcoin Core developer is spearheading an attempt to make such a decrease happen, as a temporary measure. And if social media is any indication, the initiative is attracting more interest than many might have expected it would.

“I don’t know if the proposal will be adopted or not, but support has been growing due to the block size becoming more and more apparently a problem,” Luke-jr told Bitcoin Magazine.

Block Size Decrease

Of course, the arguments for decreasing the block size limit are similar to the by now oft-repeated arguments against increasing the block size limit. In short, bigger blocks add to the cost of running a node (making it more expensive for users to enforce the protocol rules), could increase mining centralization (risking censorship resistance), and reduces fee pressure (translating into less hash power security).

The most pressing problem of these, for Luke-jr, is the cost of running a full node. This is perhaps best exemplified by the time it takes to initially sync such a node. Getting up to speed with the rest of the network can take days even on modern laptops with a good internet connection.

“Users acting on that cost by simply choosing not to run a full node is a problem,” Luke-jr said. “When someone does finally attack Bitcoin, it will split the network — full node users on one chain, and light wallet users on the other.”

In case of such a broad scale attack on light wallet users, “a New York Agreement-in-secret,” Luke-jr envisions a worst-case scenario where these users would rather continue to use the invalid chain they’d been defaulting to since the attack, instead of switching back to the original chain.

“Which side prevails inevitably depends on the economic pressure of users of each chain. If most people are using light wallets, then full node users will lose out, and the invalid chain effectively becomes simply a hard fork to Bitcoin,” he argued, leaving little room for nuance. “That means all protocol rules are open to change, including the ones that forbid inflation, theft, etcetera.”

Following Luke-jr’s reasoning, Bitcoin is well into the danger zone already, as relatively few users rely on full nodes to accept payments. And it may be getting worse. Bitcoin’s blockchain grows each day, and while Moore’s Law and similar trends of computational improvements negate the associated problems with this growth to an extent, the Bitcoin Knots lead maintainer thinks technological progress is not yet keeping up. (It’s no exact science, but the drop in reachable node count over the past year could suggest that the blockchain size is indeed becoming a problem for more users — then again this node count is up over the past two years.)

On the flip side, the main argument against smaller blocks is that it would limit the number of transactions the Bitcoin network would be able process, which increases fee pressure, and could out-price certain use cases. (Instead of running full nodes, users may opt to rely on custodial services to save on fees, arguably making matters worse — not better.)

But with the development of the Lightning Network making noticeable progress, proponents of a block size limit decrease believe this downside is largely mitigated. Users would be incentivized to migrate to the overlay network for fast and cheap transactions, furthering its growth and taking the load off Bitcoin’s blockchain at the same time.

The Plan

As the initiative is still in its early stages, it’s not yet set in stone what the potential block size decrease would look like, exactly. Even the desired limit isn’t settled on, though it would most likely be brought down from the current theoretical maximum of almost four megabytes to a theoretical maximum of two or less. (This would, in reality, result in even smaller blocks; closer to one megabyte.) However, if this were to be achieved, the measure would be designed not to be permanent, so that an increase back to the current limit wouldn’t be too difficult later on.

There are at least three rough ideas of how a block size decrease could be achieved.

The most notable proposal is a user-activated soft fork (UASF), similar to BIP148, the initiative to trigger SegWit activation in 2017. On the same date as two years ago, August 1, users would enforce the stricter rules for five months, incentivizing miners to comply. If a majority of miners (by hash power) go along, even non-upgraded users would remain compatible with the new rules; they’d just see smaller blocks than previously allowed. A UASF is a risky strategy, however. If less than half of all miners go along, the blockchain could “split” between upgraded and non-upgraded users.

Alternatively, miners could impose a smaller block size limit themselves as a soft cap. Soft caps are non-binding limits that miners put on the blocks they mine and were used particularly throughout the first years of Bitcoin’s existence. (Past soft caps were consecutively 250, 500 and 750 kilobytes, as recommended by Bitcoin developers.) This would be a much safer solution but would require that miners reject transactions and, thus, leave transaction fees on the table for each block they mine.

As a third option, proposed by Luke-jr, Bitcoin users could limit the size of blocks by making their transactions artificially “heavy.” Under Bitcoin’s protocol rules, these transactions would be counted as if they were larger than they actually are, which means blocks would fill up faster with less actual transaction data. This change wouldn’t require any protocol changes; wallets could offer it today. These transactions do, however, require individual users to choose to “overpay” on fees relative to regular transactions. (That’s assuming miners act economically rationally and charge extra to include the heavy transactions.)

Block Size Debate Fatigue

Some notable proponents of Luke-jr’s initiative include Bitrefill CCO John Carvalho, Block Digest cohost Shinobi and JoinMarket developer Chris Belcher. Yet all of them would only want to go through with the effort if it gains broad backing. That also goes for Luke-jr himself: “Soft forks like this need a lot of community support,” he said.

But so far, support within the Bitcoin community appears to range from lukewarm (no pun intended) to skeptical to outright dismissive. Other than Luke-jr, no regular Bitcoin Core contributors have thrown their weight behind the proposal and no Bitcoin company of note has stated support; and while the proposal is generating a bit of buzz on social media and in chat rooms, a majority of commenters still seems to reject the idea.

Even many of those who agree that a decrease would be a technical improvement in and of itself don’t believe it would make too much of a difference. If blocks are smaller for several months or even several years, Bitcoin’s blockchain size will still be large. Whether tomorrow’s new users need to sync two days or three days may not be the deciding factor in whether to use a full node or not. Besides, there are other solutions that could make running a full node more attractive, some of which may well have much more effect. (Though, as Luke-jr points out, none of these solutions exclude also decreasing the block size limit.)

What’s more, years of in-fighting has made the Bitcoin community wary of commencing another block size battle and dealing with all the controversy that comes with it. After a long-fought “civil war,” there appears to be little appetite to invest more time and energy in reviving the struggle on the same parameter — thereby, quite possibly, draining any momentum from the initiative even before it gets well underway.

Indeed, even Luke-jr himself doubts he’ll be the one carrying the initiative to the finish line this time.

“Although I may be the only one popularly pushing it — I don’t have time to champion another BIP148, I fear,” he said, noting how exhausting the previous UASF attempt was. “I think the only way it will happen is if the community takes the lead on it.”

Original Source http://bit.ly/2TQTFaY

[adrianjenkins952wblr]

Is It Time to Take an Initiative to Decrease Bitcoin’s Block Size Seriously?

Is It Time to Take an Initiative to Decrease Bitcoin’s Block Size Seriously?

Whilst debate raged throughout the Bitcoin community over whether the block size limit should be increased and how, Luke-jr for years stood out for arguing the exact opposite position. One megabyte blocks weren’t too small, he maintained even as SegWit’s block size increase gained broad support, they were too big. No increase, but a decrease was needed.

Now, the Bitcoin Knots and Bitcoin Core developer is spearheading an attempt to make such a decrease happen, as a temporary measure. And if social media is any indication, the initiative is attracting more interest than many might have expected it would.

“I don’t know if the proposal will be adopted or not, but support has been growing due to the block size becoming more and more apparently a problem,” Luke-jr told Bitcoin Magazine.

Block Size Decrease

Of course, the arguments for decreasing the block size limit are similar to the by now oft-repeated arguments against increasing the block size limit. In short, bigger blocks add to the cost of running a node (making it more expensive for users to enforce the protocol rules), could increase mining centralization (risking censorship resistance), and reduces fee pressure (translating into less hash power security).

The most pressing problem of these, for Luke-jr, is the cost of running a full node. This is perhaps best exemplified by the time it takes to initially sync such a node. Getting up to speed with the rest of the network can take days even on modern laptops with a good internet connection.

“Users acting on that cost by simply choosing not to run a full node is a problem,” Luke-jr said. “When someone does finally attack Bitcoin, it will split the network — full node users on one chain, and light wallet users on the other.”

In case of such a broad scale attack on light wallet users, “a New York Agreement-in-secret,” Luke-jr envisions a worst-case scenario where these users would rather continue to use the invalid chain they’d been defaulting to since the attack, instead of switching back to the original chain.

“Which side prevails inevitably depends on the economic pressure of users of each chain. If most people are using light wallets, then full node users will lose out, and the invalid chain effectively becomes simply a hard fork to Bitcoin,” he argued, leaving little room for nuance. “That means all protocol rules are open to change, including the ones that forbid inflation, theft, etcetera.”

Following Luke-jr’s reasoning, Bitcoin is well into the danger zone already, as relatively few users rely on full nodes to accept payments. And it may be getting worse. Bitcoin’s blockchain grows each day, and while Moore’s Law and similar trends of computational improvements negate the associated problems with this growth to an extent, the Bitcoin Knots lead maintainer thinks technological progress is not yet keeping up. (It’s no exact science, but the drop in reachable node count over the past year could suggest that the blockchain size is indeed becoming a problem for more users — then again this node count is up over the past two years.)

On the flip side, the main argument against smaller blocks is that it would limit the number of transactions the Bitcoin network would be able process, which increases fee pressure, and could out-price certain use cases. (Instead of running full nodes, users may opt to rely on custodial services to save on fees, arguably making matters worse — not better.)

But with the development of the Lightning Network making noticeable progress, proponents of a block size limit decrease believe this downside is largely mitigated. Users would be incentivized to migrate to the overlay network for fast and cheap transactions, furthering its growth and taking the load off Bitcoin’s blockchain at the same time.

The Plan

As the initiative is still in its early stages, it’s not yet set in stone what the potential block size decrease would look like, exactly. Even the desired limit isn’t settled on, though it would most likely be brought down from the current theoretical maximum of almost four megabytes to a theoretical maximum of two or less. (This would, in reality, result in even smaller blocks; closer to one megabyte.) However, if this were to be achieved, the measure would be designed not to be permanent, so that an increase back to the current limit wouldn’t be too difficult later on.

There are at least three rough ideas of how a block size decrease could be achieved.

The most notable proposal is a user-activated soft fork (UASF), similar to BIP148, the initiative to trigger SegWit activation in 2017. On the same date as two years ago, August 1, users would enforce the stricter rules for five months, incentivizing miners to comply. If a majority of miners (by hash power) go along, even non-upgraded users would remain compatible with the new rules; they’d just see smaller blocks than previously allowed. A UASF is a risky strategy, however. If less than half of all miners go along, the blockchain could “split” between upgraded and non-upgraded users.

Alternatively, miners could impose a smaller block size limit themselves as a soft cap. Soft caps are non-binding limits that miners put on the blocks they mine and were used particularly throughout the first years of Bitcoin’s existence. (Past soft caps were consecutively 250, 500 and 750 kilobytes, as recommended by Bitcoin developers.) This would be a much safer solution but would require that miners reject transactions and, thus, leave transaction fees on the table for each block they mine.

As a third option, proposed by Luke-jr, Bitcoin users could limit the size of blocks by making their transactions artificially “heavy.” Under Bitcoin’s protocol rules, these transactions would be counted as if they were larger than they actually are, which means blocks would fill up faster with less actual transaction data. This change wouldn’t require any protocol changes; wallets could offer it today. These transactions do, however, require individual users to choose to “overpay” on fees relative to regular transactions. (That’s assuming miners act economically rationally and charge extra to include the heavy transactions.)

Block Size Debate Fatigue

Some notable proponents of Luke-jr’s initiative include Bitrefill CCO John Carvalho, Block Digest cohost Shinobi and JoinMarket developer Chris Belcher. Yet all of them would only want to go through with the effort if it gains broad backing. That also goes for Luke-jr himself: “Soft forks like this need a lot of community support,” he said.

But so far, support within the Bitcoin community appears to range from lukewarm (no pun intended) to skeptical to outright dismissive. Other than Luke-jr, no regular Bitcoin Core contributors have thrown their weight behind the proposal and no Bitcoin company of note has stated support; and while the proposal is generating a bit of buzz on social media and in chat rooms, a majority of commenters still seems to reject the idea.

Even many of those who agree that a decrease would be a technical improvement in and of itself don’t believe it would make too much of a difference. If blocks are smaller for several months or even several years, Bitcoin’s blockchain size will still be large. Whether tomorrow’s new users need to sync two days or three days may not be the deciding factor in whether to use a full node or not. Besides, there are other solutions that could make running a full node more attractive, some of which may well have much more effect. (Though, as Luke-jr points out, none of these solutions exclude also decreasing the block size limit.)

What’s more, years of in-fighting has made the Bitcoin community wary of commencing another block size battle and dealing with all the controversy that comes with it. After a long-fought “civil war,” there appears to be little appetite to invest more time and energy in reviving the struggle on the same parameter — thereby, quite possibly, draining any momentum from the initiative even before it gets well underway.

Indeed, even Luke-jr himself doubts he’ll be the one carrying the initiative to the finish line this time.

“Although I may be the only one popularly pushing it — I don’t have time to champion another BIP148, I fear,” he said, noting how exhausting the previous UASF attempt was. “I think the only way it will happen is if the community takes the lead on it.”

Original Source http://bit.ly/2TQTFaY

[courtneyvbrooks87]

Is It Time to Take an Initiative to Decrease Bitcoin’s Block Size Seriously?

Is It Time to Take an Initiative to Decrease Bitcoin’s Block Size Seriously?

Whilst debate raged throughout the Bitcoin community over whether the block size limit should be increased and how, Luke-jr for years stood out for arguing the exact opposite position. One megabyte blocks weren’t too small, he maintained even as SegWit’s block size increase gained broad support, they were too big. No increase, but a decrease was needed.

Now, the Bitcoin Knots and Bitcoin Core developer is spearheading an attempt to make such a decrease happen, as a temporary measure. And if social media is any indication, the initiative is attracting more interest than many might have expected it would.

“I don’t know if the proposal will be adopted or not, but support has been growing due to the block size becoming more and more apparently a problem,” Luke-jr told Bitcoin Magazine.

Block Size Decrease

Of course, the arguments for decreasing the block size limit are similar to the by now oft-repeated arguments against increasing the block size limit. In short, bigger blocks add to the cost of running a node (making it more expensive for users to enforce the protocol rules), could increase mining centralization (risking censorship resistance), and reduces fee pressure (translating into less hash power security).

The most pressing problem of these, for Luke-jr, is the cost of running a full node. This is perhaps best exemplified by the time it takes to initially sync such a node. Getting up to speed with the rest of the network can take days even on modern laptops with a good internet connection.

“Users acting on that cost by simply choosing not to run a full node is a problem,” Luke-jr said. “When someone does finally attack Bitcoin, it will split the network — full node users on one chain, and light wallet users on the other.”

In case of such a broad scale attack on light wallet users, “a New York Agreement-in-secret,” Luke-jr envisions a worst-case scenario where these users would rather continue to use the invalid chain they’d been defaulting to since the attack, instead of switching back to the original chain.

“Which side prevails inevitably depends on the economic pressure of users of each chain. If most people are using light wallets, then full node users will lose out, and the invalid chain effectively becomes simply a hard fork to Bitcoin,” he argued, leaving little room for nuance. “That means all protocol rules are open to change, including the ones that forbid inflation, theft, etcetera.”

Following Luke-jr’s reasoning, Bitcoin is well into the danger zone already, as relatively few users rely on full nodes to accept payments. And it may be getting worse. Bitcoin’s blockchain grows each day, and while Moore’s Law and similar trends of computational improvements negate the associated problems with this growth to an extent, the Bitcoin Knots lead maintainer thinks technological progress is not yet keeping up. (It’s no exact science, but the drop in reachable node count over the past year could suggest that the blockchain size is indeed becoming a problem for more users — then again this node count is up over the past two years.)

On the flip side, the main argument against smaller blocks is that it would limit the number of transactions the Bitcoin network would be able process, which increases fee pressure, and could out-price certain use cases. (Instead of running full nodes, users may opt to rely on custodial services to save on fees, arguably making matters worse — not better.)

But with the development of the Lightning Network making noticeable progress, proponents of a block size limit decrease believe this downside is largely mitigated. Users would be incentivized to migrate to the overlay network for fast and cheap transactions, furthering its growth and taking the load off Bitcoin’s blockchain at the same time.

The Plan

As the initiative is still in its early stages, it’s not yet set in stone what the potential block size decrease would look like, exactly. Even the desired limit isn’t settled on, though it would most likely be brought down from the current theoretical maximum of almost four megabytes to a theoretical maximum of two or less. (This would, in reality, result in even smaller blocks; closer to one megabyte.) However, if this were to be achieved, the measure would be designed not to be permanent, so that an increase back to the current limit wouldn’t be too difficult later on.

There are at least three rough ideas of how a block size decrease could be achieved.

The most notable proposal is a user-activated soft fork (UASF), similar to BIP148, the initiative to trigger SegWit activation in 2017. On the same date as two years ago, August 1, users would enforce the stricter rules for five months, incentivizing miners to comply. If a majority of miners (by hash power) go along, even non-upgraded users would remain compatible with the new rules; they’d just see smaller blocks than previously allowed. A UASF is a risky strategy, however. If less than half of all miners go along, the blockchain could “split” between upgraded and non-upgraded users.

Alternatively, miners could impose a smaller block size limit themselves as a soft cap. Soft caps are non-binding limits that miners put on the blocks they mine and were used particularly throughout the first years of Bitcoin’s existence. (Past soft caps were consecutively 250, 500 and 750 kilobytes, as recommended by Bitcoin developers.) This would be a much safer solution but would require that miners reject transactions and, thus, leave transaction fees on the table for each block they mine.

As a third option, proposed by Luke-jr, Bitcoin users could limit the size of blocks by making their transactions artificially “heavy.” Under Bitcoin’s protocol rules, these transactions would be counted as if they were larger than they actually are, which means blocks would fill up faster with less actual transaction data. This change wouldn’t require any protocol changes; wallets could offer it today. These transactions do, however, require individual users to choose to “overpay” on fees relative to regular transactions. (That’s assuming miners act economically rationally and charge extra to include the heavy transactions.)

Block Size Debate Fatigue

Some notable proponents of Luke-jr’s initiative include Bitrefill CCO John Carvalho, Block Digest cohost Shinobi and JoinMarket developer Chris Belcher. Yet all of them would only want to go through with the effort if it gains broad backing. That also goes for Luke-jr himself: “Soft forks like this need a lot of community support,” he said.

But so far, support within the Bitcoin community appears to range from lukewarm (no pun intended) to skeptical to outright dismissive. Other than Luke-jr, no regular Bitcoin Core contributors have thrown their weight behind the proposal and no Bitcoin company of note has stated support; and while the proposal is generating a bit of buzz on social media and in chat rooms, a majority of commenters still seems to reject the idea.

Even many of those who agree that a decrease would be a technical improvement in and of itself don’t believe it would make too much of a difference. If blocks are smaller for several months or even several years, Bitcoin’s blockchain size will still be large. Whether tomorrow’s new users need to sync two days or three days may not be the deciding factor in whether to use a full node or not. Besides, there are other solutions that could make running a full node more attractive, some of which may well have much more effect. (Though, as Luke-jr points out, none of these solutions exclude also decreasing the block size limit.)

What’s more, years of in-fighting has made the Bitcoin community wary of commencing another block size battle and dealing with all the controversy that comes with it. After a long-fought “civil war,” there appears to be little appetite to invest more time and energy in reviving the struggle on the same parameter — thereby, quite possibly, draining any momentum from the initiative even before it gets well underway.

Indeed, even Luke-jr himself doubts he’ll be the one carrying the initiative to the finish line this time.

“Although I may be the only one popularly pushing it — I don’t have time to champion another BIP148, I fear,” he said, noting how exhausting the previous UASF attempt was. “I think the only way it will happen is if the community takes the lead on it.”

Original Source http://bit.ly/2TQTFaY

[teiraymondmccoy78]

Is It Time to Take an Initiative to Decrease Bitcoin’s Block Size Seriously?

Is It Time to Take an Initiative to Decrease Bitcoin’s Block Size Seriously?

Whilst debate raged throughout the Bitcoin community over whether the block size limit should be increased and how, Luke-jr for years stood out for arguing the exact opposite position. One megabyte blocks weren’t too small, he maintained even as SegWit’s block size increase gained broad support, they were too big. No increase, but a decrease was needed.

Now, the Bitcoin Knots and Bitcoin Core developer is spearheading an attempt to make such a decrease happen, as a temporary measure. And if social media is any indication, the initiative is attracting more interest than many might have expected it would.

“I don’t know if the proposal will be adopted or not, but support has been growing due to the block size becoming more and more apparently a problem,” Luke-jr told Bitcoin Magazine.

Block Size Decrease

Of course, the arguments for decreasing the block size limit are similar to the by now oft-repeated arguments against increasing the block size limit. In short, bigger blocks add to the cost of running a node (making it more expensive for users to enforce the protocol rules), could increase mining centralization (risking censorship resistance), and reduces fee pressure (translating into less hash power security).

The most pressing problem of these, for Luke-jr, is the cost of running a full node. This is perhaps best exemplified by the time it takes to initially sync such a node. Getting up to speed with the rest of the network can take days even on modern laptops with a good internet connection.

“Users acting on that cost by simply choosing not to run a full node is a problem,” Luke-jr said. “When someone does finally attack Bitcoin, it will split the network — full node users on one chain, and light wallet users on the other.”

In case of such a broad scale attack on light wallet users, “a New York Agreement-in-secret,” Luke-jr envisions a worst-case scenario where these users would rather continue to use the invalid chain they’d been defaulting to since the attack, instead of switching back to the original chain.

“Which side prevails inevitably depends on the economic pressure of users of each chain. If most people are using light wallets, then full node users will lose out, and the invalid chain effectively becomes simply a hard fork to Bitcoin,” he argued, leaving little room for nuance. “That means all protocol rules are open to change, including the ones that forbid inflation, theft, etcetera.”

Following Luke-jr’s reasoning, Bitcoin is well into the danger zone already, as relatively few users rely on full nodes to accept payments. And it may be getting worse. Bitcoin’s blockchain grows each day, and while Moore’s Law and similar trends of computational improvements negate the associated problems with this growth to an extent, the Bitcoin Knots lead maintainer thinks technological progress is not yet keeping up. (It’s no exact science, but the drop in reachable node count over the past year could suggest that the blockchain size is indeed becoming a problem for more users — then again this node count is up over the past two years.)

On the flip side, the main argument against smaller blocks is that it would limit the number of transactions the Bitcoin network would be able process, which increases fee pressure, and could out-price certain use cases. (Instead of running full nodes, users may opt to rely on custodial services to save on fees, arguably making matters worse — not better.)

But with the development of the Lightning Network making noticeable progress, proponents of a block size limit decrease believe this downside is largely mitigated. Users would be incentivized to migrate to the overlay network for fast and cheap transactions, furthering its growth and taking the load off Bitcoin’s blockchain at the same time.

The Plan

As the initiative is still in its early stages, it’s not yet set in stone what the potential block size decrease would look like, exactly. Even the desired limit isn’t settled on, though it would most likely be brought down from the current theoretical maximum of almost four megabytes to a theoretical maximum of two or less. (This would, in reality, result in even smaller blocks; closer to one megabyte.) However, if this were to be achieved, the measure would be designed not to be permanent, so that an increase back to the current limit wouldn’t be too difficult later on.

There are at least three rough ideas of how a block size decrease could be achieved.

The most notable proposal is a user-activated soft fork (UASF), similar to BIP148, the initiative to trigger SegWit activation in 2017. On the same date as two years ago, August 1, users would enforce the stricter rules for five months, incentivizing miners to comply. If a majority of miners (by hash power) go along, even non-upgraded users would remain compatible with the new rules; they’d just see smaller blocks than previously allowed. A UASF is a risky strategy, however. If less than half of all miners go along, the blockchain could “split” between upgraded and non-upgraded users.

Alternatively, miners could impose a smaller block size limit themselves as a soft cap. Soft caps are non-binding limits that miners put on the blocks they mine and were used particularly throughout the first years of Bitcoin’s existence. (Past soft caps were consecutively 250, 500 and 750 kilobytes, as recommended by Bitcoin developers.) This would be a much safer solution but would require that miners reject transactions and, thus, leave transaction fees on the table for each block they mine.

As a third option, proposed by Luke-jr, Bitcoin users could limit the size of blocks by making their transactions artificially “heavy.” Under Bitcoin’s protocol rules, these transactions would be counted as if they were larger than they actually are, which means blocks would fill up faster with less actual transaction data. This change wouldn’t require any protocol changes; wallets could offer it today. These transactions do, however, require individual users to choose to “overpay” on fees relative to regular transactions. (That’s assuming miners act economically rationally and charge extra to include the heavy transactions.)

Block Size Debate Fatigue

Some notable proponents of Luke-jr’s initiative include Bitrefill CCO John Carvalho, Block Digest cohost Shinobi and JoinMarket developer Chris Belcher. Yet all of them would only want to go through with the effort if it gains broad backing. That also goes for Luke-jr himself: “Soft forks like this need a lot of community support,” he said.

But so far, support within the Bitcoin community appears to range from lukewarm (no pun intended) to skeptical to outright dismissive. Other than Luke-jr, no regular Bitcoin Core contributors have thrown their weight behind the proposal and no Bitcoin company of note has stated support; and while the proposal is generating a bit of buzz on social media and in chat rooms, a majority of commenters still seems to reject the idea.

Even many of those who agree that a decrease would be a technical improvement in and of itself don’t believe it would make too much of a difference. If blocks are smaller for several months or even several years, Bitcoin’s blockchain size will still be large. Whether tomorrow’s new users need to sync two days or three days may not be the deciding factor in whether to use a full node or not. Besides, there are other solutions that could make running a full node more attractive, some of which may well have much more effect. (Though, as Luke-jr points out, none of these solutions exclude also decreasing the block size limit.)

What’s more, years of in-fighting has made the Bitcoin community wary of commencing another block size battle and dealing with all the controversy that comes with it. After a long-fought “civil war,” there appears to be little appetite to invest more time and energy in reviving the struggle on the same parameter — thereby, quite possibly, draining any momentum from the initiative even before it gets well underway.

Indeed, even Luke-jr himself doubts he’ll be the one carrying the initiative to the finish line this time.

“Although I may be the only one popularly pushing it — I don’t have time to champion another BIP148, I fear,” he said, noting how exhausting the previous UASF attempt was. “I think the only way it will happen is if the community takes the lead on it.”

Original Source http://bit.ly/2TQTFaY

[vanessawestwcrtr5]

Is It Time to Take an Initiative to Decrease Bitcoin’s Block Size Seriously?

Is It Time to Take an Initiative to Decrease Bitcoin’s Block Size Seriously?

Whilst debate raged throughout the Bitcoin community over whether the block size limit should be increased and how, Luke-jr for years stood out for arguing the exact opposite position. One megabyte blocks weren’t too small, he maintained even as SegWit’s block size increase gained broad support, they were too big. No increase, but a decrease was needed.

Now, the Bitcoin Knots and Bitcoin Core developer is spearheading an attempt to make such a decrease happen, as a temporary measure. And if social media is any indication, the initiative is attracting more interest than many might have expected it would.

“I don’t know if the proposal will be adopted or not, but support has been growing due to the block size becoming more and more apparently a problem,” Luke-jr told Bitcoin Magazine.

Block Size Decrease

Of course, the arguments for decreasing the block size limit are similar to the by now oft-repeated arguments against increasing the block size limit. In short, bigger blocks add to the cost of running a node (making it more expensive for users to enforce the protocol rules), could increase mining centralization (risking censorship resistance), and reduces fee pressure (translating into less hash power security).

The most pressing problem of these, for Luke-jr, is the cost of running a full node. This is perhaps best exemplified by the time it takes to initially sync such a node. Getting up to speed with the rest of the network can take days even on modern laptops with a good internet connection.

“Users acting on that cost by simply choosing not to run a full node is a problem,” Luke-jr said. “When someone does finally attack Bitcoin, it will split the network — full node users on one chain, and light wallet users on the other.”

In case of such a broad scale attack on light wallet users, “a New York Agreement-in-secret,” Luke-jr envisions a worst-case scenario where these users would rather continue to use the invalid chain they’d been defaulting to since the attack, instead of switching back to the original chain.

“Which side prevails inevitably depends on the economic pressure of users of each chain. If most people are using light wallets, then full node users will lose out, and the invalid chain effectively becomes simply a hard fork to Bitcoin,” he argued, leaving little room for nuance. “That means all protocol rules are open to change, including the ones that forbid inflation, theft, etcetera.”

Following Luke-jr’s reasoning, Bitcoin is well into the danger zone already, as relatively few users rely on full nodes to accept payments. And it may be getting worse. Bitcoin’s blockchain grows each day, and while Moore’s Law and similar trends of computational improvements negate the associated problems with this growth to an extent, the Bitcoin Knots lead maintainer thinks technological progress is not yet keeping up. (It’s no exact science, but the drop in reachable node count over the past year could suggest that the blockchain size is indeed becoming a problem for more users — then again this node count is up over the past two years.)

On the flip side, the main argument against smaller blocks is that it would limit the number of transactions the Bitcoin network would be able process, which increases fee pressure, and could out-price certain use cases. (Instead of running full nodes, users may opt to rely on custodial services to save on fees, arguably making matters worse — not better.)

But with the development of the Lightning Network making noticeable progress, proponents of a block size limit decrease believe this downside is largely mitigated. Users would be incentivized to migrate to the overlay network for fast and cheap transactions, furthering its growth and taking the load off Bitcoin’s blockchain at the same time.

The Plan

As the initiative is still in its early stages, it’s not yet set in stone what the potential block size decrease would look like, exactly. Even the desired limit isn’t settled on, though it would most likely be brought down from the current theoretical maximum of almost four megabytes to a theoretical maximum of two or less. (This would, in reality, result in even smaller blocks; closer to one megabyte.) However, if this were to be achieved, the measure would be designed not to be permanent, so that an increase back to the current limit wouldn’t be too difficult later on.

There are at least three rough ideas of how a block size decrease could be achieved.

The most notable proposal is a user-activated soft fork (UASF), similar to BIP148, the initiative to trigger SegWit activation in 2017. On the same date as two years ago, August 1, users would enforce the stricter rules for five months, incentivizing miners to comply. If a majority of miners (by hash power) go along, even non-upgraded users would remain compatible with the new rules; they’d just see smaller blocks than previously allowed. A UASF is a risky strategy, however. If less than half of all miners go along, the blockchain could “split” between upgraded and non-upgraded users.

Alternatively, miners could impose a smaller block size limit themselves as a soft cap. Soft caps are non-binding limits that miners put on the blocks they mine and were used particularly throughout the first years of Bitcoin’s existence. (Past soft caps were consecutively 250, 500 and 750 kilobytes, as recommended by Bitcoin developers.) This would be a much safer solution but would require that miners reject transactions and, thus, leave transaction fees on the table for each block they mine.

As a third option, proposed by Luke-jr, Bitcoin users could limit the size of blocks by making their transactions artificially “heavy.” Under Bitcoin’s protocol rules, these transactions would be counted as if they were larger than they actually are, which means blocks would fill up faster with less actual transaction data. This change wouldn’t require any protocol changes; wallets could offer it today. These transactions do, however, require individual users to choose to “overpay” on fees relative to regular transactions. (That’s assuming miners act economically rationally and charge extra to include the heavy transactions.)

Block Size Debate Fatigue

Some notable proponents of Luke-jr’s initiative include Bitrefill CCO John Carvalho, Block Digest cohost Shinobi and JoinMarket developer Chris Belcher. Yet all of them would only want to go through with the effort if it gains broad backing. That also goes for Luke-jr himself: “Soft forks like this need a lot of community support,” he said.

But so far, support within the Bitcoin community appears to range from lukewarm (no pun intended) to skeptical to outright dismissive. Other than Luke-jr, no regular Bitcoin Core contributors have thrown their weight behind the proposal and no Bitcoin company of note has stated support; and while the proposal is generating a bit of buzz on social media and in chat rooms, a majority of commenters still seems to reject the idea.

Even many of those who agree that a decrease would be a technical improvement in and of itself don’t believe it would make too much of a difference. If blocks are smaller for several months or even several years, Bitcoin’s blockchain size will still be large. Whether tomorrow’s new users need to sync two days or three days may not be the deciding factor in whether to use a full node or not. Besides, there are other solutions that could make running a full node more attractive, some of which may well have much more effect. (Though, as Luke-jr points out, none of these solutions exclude also decreasing the block size limit.)

What’s more, years of in-fighting has made the Bitcoin community wary of commencing another block size battle and dealing with all the controversy that comes with it. After a long-fought “civil war,” there appears to be little appetite to invest more time and energy in reviving the struggle on the same parameter — thereby, quite possibly, draining any momentum from the initiative even before it gets well underway.

Indeed, even Luke-jr himself doubts he’ll be the one carrying the initiative to the finish line this time.

“Although I may be the only one popularly pushing it — I don’t have time to champion another BIP148, I fear,” he said, noting how exhausting the previous UASF attempt was. “I think the only way it will happen is if the community takes the lead on it.”

Original Source http://bit.ly/2TQTFaY

[mccartneynathxzw83]

Is It Time to Take an Initiative to Decrease Bitcoin’s Block Size Seriously?

Is It Time to Take an Initiative to Decrease Bitcoin’s Block Size Seriously?

Whilst debate raged throughout the Bitcoin community over whether the block size limit should be increased and how, Luke-jr for years stood out for arguing the exact opposite position. One megabyte blocks weren’t too small, he maintained even as SegWit’s block size increase gained broad support, they were too big. No increase, but a decrease was needed.

Now, the Bitcoin Knots and Bitcoin Core developer is spearheading an attempt to make such a decrease happen, as a temporary measure. And if social media is any indication, the initiative is attracting more interest than many might have expected it would.

“I don’t know if the proposal will be adopted or not, but support has been growing due to the block size becoming more and more apparently a problem,” Luke-jr told Bitcoin Magazine.

Block Size Decrease

Of course, the arguments for decreasing the block size limit are similar to the by now oft-repeated arguments against increasing the block size limit. In short, bigger blocks add to the cost of running a node (making it more expensive for users to enforce the protocol rules), could increase mining centralization (risking censorship resistance), and reduces fee pressure (translating into less hash power security).

The most pressing problem of these, for Luke-jr, is the cost of running a full node. This is perhaps best exemplified by the time it takes to initially sync such a node. Getting up to speed with the rest of the network can take days even on modern laptops with a good internet connection.

“Users acting on that cost by simply choosing not to run a full node is a problem,” Luke-jr said. “When someone does finally attack Bitcoin, it will split the network — full node users on one chain, and light wallet users on the other.”

In case of such a broad scale attack on light wallet users, “a New York Agreement-in-secret,” Luke-jr envisions a worst-case scenario where these users would rather continue to use the invalid chain they’d been defaulting to since the attack, instead of switching back to the original chain.

“Which side prevails inevitably depends on the economic pressure of users of each chain. If most people are using light wallets, then full node users will lose out, and the invalid chain effectively becomes simply a hard fork to Bitcoin,” he argued, leaving little room for nuance. “That means all protocol rules are open to change, including the ones that forbid inflation, theft, etcetera.”

Following Luke-jr’s reasoning, Bitcoin is well into the danger zone already, as relatively few users rely on full nodes to accept payments. And it may be getting worse. Bitcoin’s blockchain grows each day, and while Moore’s Law and similar trends of computational improvements negate the associated problems with this growth to an extent, the Bitcoin Knots lead maintainer thinks technological progress is not yet keeping up. (It’s no exact science, but the drop in reachable node count over the past year could suggest that the blockchain size is indeed becoming a problem for more users — then again this node count is up over the past two years.)

On the flip side, the main argument against smaller blocks is that it would limit the number of transactions the Bitcoin network would be able process, which increases fee pressure, and could out-price certain use cases. (Instead of running full nodes, users may opt to rely on custodial services to save on fees, arguably making matters worse — not better.)

But with the development of the Lightning Network making noticeable progress, proponents of a block size limit decrease believe this downside is largely mitigated. Users would be incentivized to migrate to the overlay network for fast and cheap transactions, furthering its growth and taking the load off Bitcoin’s blockchain at the same time.

The Plan

As the initiative is still in its early stages, it’s not yet set in stone what the potential block size decrease would look like, exactly. Even the desired limit isn’t settled on, though it would most likely be brought down from the current theoretical maximum of almost four megabytes to a theoretical maximum of two or less. (This would, in reality, result in even smaller blocks; closer to one megabyte.) However, if this were to be achieved, the measure would be designed not to be permanent, so that an increase back to the current limit wouldn’t be too difficult later on.

There are at least three rough ideas of how a block size decrease could be achieved.

The most notable proposal is a user-activated soft fork (UASF), similar to BIP148, the initiative to trigger SegWit activation in 2017. On the same date as two years ago, August 1, users would enforce the stricter rules for five months, incentivizing miners to comply. If a majority of miners (by hash power) go along, even non-upgraded users would remain compatible with the new rules; they’d just see smaller blocks than previously allowed. A UASF is a risky strategy, however. If less than half of all miners go along, the blockchain could “split” between upgraded and non-upgraded users.

Alternatively, miners could impose a smaller block size limit themselves as a soft cap. Soft caps are non-binding limits that miners put on the blocks they mine and were used particularly throughout the first years of Bitcoin’s existence. (Past soft caps were consecutively 250, 500 and 750 kilobytes, as recommended by Bitcoin developers.) This would be a much safer solution but would require that miners reject transactions and, thus, leave transaction fees on the table for each block they mine.

As a third option, proposed by Luke-jr, Bitcoin users could limit the size of blocks by making their transactions artificially “heavy.” Under Bitcoin’s protocol rules, these transactions would be counted as if they were larger than they actually are, which means blocks would fill up faster with less actual transaction data. This change wouldn’t require any protocol changes; wallets could offer it today. These transactions do, however, require individual users to choose to “overpay” on fees relative to regular transactions. (That’s assuming miners act economically rationally and charge extra to include the heavy transactions.)

Block Size Debate Fatigue

Some notable proponents of Luke-jr’s initiative include Bitrefill CCO John Carvalho, Block Digest cohost Shinobi and JoinMarket developer Chris Belcher. Yet all of them would only want to go through with the effort if it gains broad backing. That also goes for Luke-jr himself: “Soft forks like this need a lot of community support,” he said.

But so far, support within the Bitcoin community appears to range from lukewarm (no pun intended) to skeptical to outright dismissive. Other than Luke-jr, no regular Bitcoin Core contributors have thrown their weight behind the proposal and no Bitcoin company of note has stated support; and while the proposal is generating a bit of buzz on social media and in chat rooms, a majority of commenters still seems to reject the idea.

Even many of those who agree that a decrease would be a technical improvement in and of itself don’t believe it would make too much of a difference. If blocks are smaller for several months or even several years, Bitcoin’s blockchain size will still be large. Whether tomorrow’s new users need to sync two days or three days may not be the deciding factor in whether to use a full node or not. Besides, there are other solutions that could make running a full node more attractive, some of which may well have much more effect. (Though, as Luke-jr points out, none of these solutions exclude also decreasing the block size limit.)

What’s more, years of in-fighting has made the Bitcoin community wary of commencing another block size battle and dealing with all the controversy that comes with it. After a long-fought “civil war,” there appears to be little appetite to invest more time and energy in reviving the struggle on the same parameter — thereby, quite possibly, draining any momentum from the initiative even before it gets well underway.

Indeed, even Luke-jr himself doubts he’ll be the one carrying the initiative to the finish line this time.

“Although I may be the only one popularly pushing it — I don’t have time to champion another BIP148, I fear,” he said, noting how exhausting the previous UASF attempt was. “I think the only way it will happen is if the community takes the lead on it.”

Original Source http://bit.ly/2TQTFaY

[anamorales]

Strength Training for Beginners: The Best Routines, Workouts, & Exercises!

So you want to get strong, and you have no idea how to start (like this cat).

In this Beginner Strength Training Guide (part 2 of our Strength 101 series) – you’ll have both the confidence to start getting strong with resistance training AND a plan to follow.

We’ll be covering the following:

How do I start strength training or resistance training?

Which strength training program is right for me?

Best strength training workouts for beginners.

How much weight should I lift?

The 9 best strength training exercises.

How to know you’re doing an exercise properly (form checks)

Strength training for weight loss.

“Just TELL ME What Strength Program I should do.”

These are the exact strategies we use with our 1-on-1 Coaching Clients to help them build confidence and start strength training, and I’m excited to cover all of this in this massive guide.

Let us help you start strength training! Learn more:

This is also quite a lot to absorb, so we’ve combined this article along with the rest of our strength articles into a “Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know” guide.

Grab it free when you join the Rebellion by putting your email in the box below.

Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!

Everything you need to know about getting strong.

Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.

How to find the right gym and train properly in one.

I identify as a:

Woman

Man

How Do I Start Strength Training?

Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life.

You’ll look back years from now and thank “Past You” for starting strength training today.

And I promise, you WILL strength train today.

After all, strength training or resistance training doesn’t need to be scary or overcomplicated!

Strength training really comes down to two things:

“Movement of any weight against “resistance”(including your body weight) – Doing ANY exercise  that pushes your muscles outside of their comfort zone, forcing them to rebuild stronger to prepare the next challenge.

Progressive overload: doing slightly more than last time (lift heavier weight or do 1 more rep) consistently. Your muscles will have constantly have to adapt and rebuild themselves stronger.

That’s it.

This means if you drop down and do ONE knee push-up right now, technically you’ve done a strength training workout.

It also means if you then do TWO knew push-ups tomorrow, then you are officially following a strength training routine.

In other words, YOU CAN DO THIS.

Now, there are many different “strength training” and “resistance training” paths.

Like a “skill tree” in a video game (with branching paths and progressions), you can progress up one path, and mix and match movements from others depending on the situation.

These paths depend on your goals and what equipment you have available to you.

Here are the types of strength training:

BODYWEIGHT TRAINING

Bodyweight training is simply doing an exercise in which your own body is the “weight” you are “lifting.”

Duh.

This is the BEST place for anybody – regardless of weight or age – to start their strength training journey.

Why is this the best place to start? Two big reasons:

#1) You always have your body with you (unless you are a ghost, in which case, this is awkward). This means you can work out ANYWHERE with bodyweight training:

Our Beginner Bodyweight Workout Routine in your living room.

Our Hotel Workout in a hotel (obvi).

Our Park Workout in a…well, you get the point.

#2) Using your body for resistance training is the most “human” thing ever! By learning to push and pull and hang and squat and lunge, you are doing what your body is literally designed to do.

By getting strong with bodyweight movements, you’re making yourself antifragile and less injury prone.

Bodyweight training isn’t as easy to ‘scale’ the difficulty as some of the other strength training methods (“put more weight on barbell”), but you can get REALLY strong with just bodyweight training.

For example, you can start with knee pushups, then go to regular push-ups, then elevated push-ups, then even up to things like handstands and handstand push-ups.

You just have to know HOW and WHEN to scale up (we can help there too).

Let us create a bodyweight training program for you!

DUMBBELL TRAINING

Dumbbells are a great first step into the world of weight training and strength training:

Most gyms will have dumbbells, even if it’s a basic gym in your apartment complex.

A set of dumbbells doesn’t take up a lot of room, which means you can have a pair at home without a large footprint.

Dumbbells make it easy to add difficulty to a bodyweight movement: holding dumbbells while doing lunges, for example.

Dumbbell exercises can be less intimidating than barbell training for some, and are a step towards barbell training.

Dumbbells have an added stabilization challenge, and will point out muscle imbalances pretty easily (“oh my right arm is stronger than my left arm.”).

You can scale easily. Once the 10 pound weights become too easy, pick up the 15 pound ones!

KETTLEBELL TRAINING

A kettlebell is essentially a cannonball with a handle on it. They come in any weight imaginable, they don’t take up a lot of room, and can be used in dozens of ways for a great compact workout.

Our 20-minute kettlebell workout has 8 simple exercises you can do with just one weight.

Although there are “adjustable kettlebells,” you’ll most likely be working with a single kettlebell, and then adjusting your movements for “progressive overload” (making the workout slightly more difficult each time).

If you are a member at a gym, they’ll probably have multiple kettlebells that you can use to level up.  

BARBELL TRAINING

Male or female, young or old, if your goal is to get strong quickly, use 20 seconds of courage and get comfortable training with a barbell (I’ll help you, I promise):

“Progressive overload” is easy – you simply add weights to either side of the bar, allowing you to progressively lift more and more weight each week.

It’s much easier to go heavy safely – especially for lower body movements like the squat and the deadlift.

The biggest downside to barbell training is that in order to train at home, you need to have purchased a squat rack, a barbell, a bench, and enough weights for your house or garage (which can be an expensive investment, especially when starting out!).

If not, you definitely will need to join a gym.

WHICH RESISTANCE TRAINING PATH IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

Not sure which path to pick? You’re not alone – this stuff can be overwhelming. Check out our 1-on-1 Coaching Program. We get to know you and your goals, will check your form via video, and make adjustments based on your progress!

Let us build a strength training workout for you that fits your busy life! Learn more:

Which Strength Training Program is Right for Me?

So, what’s the best workout program to start as a beginner?

Realistically, it’s the one that you will actually do.

Barbell training might be optimal in terms of building pure strength quickly, but if you don’t see yourself actually getting to the gym regularly – or you’re too self conscious to enter the free weight section (for now) –  no problem!

Start with bodyweight training.

Conversely, bodyweight training might seem convenient and easy to start now, but if you can’t motivate yourself to work out at home, you might be better off joining a gym.

So let’s get you a workout program!

As we cover in our “How to Find the Perfect Workout Plan (for you)”: MOST beginners will be best served by following a “full body” or “total body” routine, 2 to 3 times per week, with a day of rest in between each workout.

This full body workout will have 4-5 big compound movements.

A compound movement is an exercise that recruits LOTS of muscles simultaneously and forces your body to work in unison.

An example would be the barbell squat, which recruits every muscle in your core, butt, and legs to work together to lift the weight.

This is WAY more efficient – and effective at building pure strength – than doing 5 different isolated leg exercises.

Why do 5 exercises when 1 exercise will get you better results in 20% of the time?

To answer your next question, let me tell you about how many sets and reps you should do as a beginner! As we explain in our “how many sets and reps” guide:

Reps in the 1-5 range build super dense muscle and strength.

Reps in the 6-12 range build equal amounts of muscular power, strength, and size.

Reps in the 12+ range primarily build muscular endurance and size and also cardiovascular health.

Many beginner strength programs will encourage you to keep things simple and just do 5 sets of 5 reps for each exercise in an effort to optimize progress as a beginner interested in strength gains.

I personally encourage people to aim for a weight that they can lift for 8-10 reps. This gives you a chance to really work on your form and lift safely!

The max lifts will come later, my friend. You gotta learn to walk before you can run!

“Staci, which workout plan is best for me?” 

It depends on your goals!

If your main goal is general fitness and fat loss, doing a circuit training workout will likely help you reach your goals (make sure you see our section below for “strength training for weight loss”).

If your main goal is to get stronger and/or put on muscle, following a more traditional, pure-strength style gym workout is going to get you there faster.

TRUTH BOMB: ANY strength training workout will help you reach nearly any goal provided you do two things:

Eat correctly for your goals too. How you eat will account for 80-90% of your success or failure when it comes to weight loss or bulking up.

Increase the difficulty of your workouts. This is that “progressive overload” stuff we were talking about earlier. Doing 1 more bodyweight squat, lifting 5 more pounds, or completing your circuit 10 seconds faster than last workout. By forcing your body to constantly adapt, your muscles will never get complacent and have to keep burning extra calories and rebuilding themselves stronger.

Depending on your current situation, and how quickly you’re looking to cut through the “trial and error” and get expert guidance, I might have an interesting solution for you.

We have a pretty killer 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program here at Nerd Fitness. You’ll work with a coach that will build a workout program for your body type and goals, check your form to make sure you’re doing them safety, and even help plan out your nutrition too.

We help busy people transform from newbies to strong badasses! Learn more:

The 5 Best Beginner Strength Training Programs

“Alright Staci, are there any ‘out of the box’ beginner workout programs I can start following now?”

Yup! Let me share with you some of our suggestions:

Here are 5 resistance training workouts you can follow TODAY. Pick the level that you feel most comfortable with, and then level up when you feel ready:

#1) BEGINNER BODYWEIGHT WORKOUT:

Our Beginner Bodyweight Workout has a variety of rep ranges to promote endurance, strength, and cardiovascular health.

Complete one set of each exercise and then moving directly onto the next exercise:

20 body weight squats

10 push ups

20 walking lunges

10 dumbbell rows (using a gallon milk jug)

15 second plank

30 jumping Jacks

Repeat for 3 rounds

Want to stick with bodyweight training? When you’re ready to level up, check out our advanced bodyweight training circuit.

Otherwise, you can move onto weight training when you feel comfortable!

#2A) BEGINNER NERD FITNESS DUMBBELL WORKOUT

If you are just getting started with dumbbells and you’re looking for a beginner workout program to follow, this is our Level 3 Gym Workout, “Dumbbell Division”:

10 goblet squats

10 push-ups

10 dumbbell rows per side

I knew you’d ask, so here is Goblet Squat video explanation (from the Nerd Fitness Academy):

And here is our video on how to do dumbbell rows:

#2B) BEGINNER NERD FITNESS KETTLEBELL WORKOUT

Our Beginner Kettlebell Routine is a workout you do anywhere you have room to swing a kettlebell.

So, probably not in a phone booth or a closet or a bathroom stall. But other than that, pretty much anywhere else.

Complete 3 Kettlebell Workout Circuits:

8 Halos (each side)

10 Goblet Squats

8 Overhead Presses (each side)

15 Kettlebell Swings

8 Bent Over Rows (each side)

6 Front Rack Reverse Lunge (per side)

#3) BARBELL TRAINING: 2 DAY WORKOUT SPLIT

As we cover in our “how to train in a gym” guide (where we take you from “lost sheep” to “barbell badass”), this routine is a much more focused weight training, strength building workout that gets your feet wet with barbell training. Click on ANY exercise to learn how to do it properly.

NF BEGINNER BARBELL STRENGTH WORKOUT: DAY A

Do 3 rounds of:

10 barbell squats

10 push-ups

10 bodyweight rows

NF BEGINNER BARBELL STRENGTH WORKOUT: DAY B

Do 3 rounds of:

5 barbell Romanian deadlifts

10 push-ups

10 dumbbell rows per arm

WHAT ARE SOME OTHER POPULAR STRENGTH TRAINING PROGRAMS?

#1) “Starting Strength” is considered the gold standard beginner barbell weight training program by many. We highly recommend you pick up the actual book if you are serious about barbell training – it’s one of the most important training books you can ever read.

#2) Strong Lifts 5X5: A solid workout program that starts you out very slow, with just the barbell, and helps you master form before you get too heavy. It also keeps things VERY easy with “do 5×5.” Strong Lifts has been around for a long time and is a solid program.

#3) Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1: This program allows you a little more freedom to do exercises that you enjoy, or work on personal weaknesses, because you choose some of the assistance work.

Note: You can modify any of the barbell training programs to be done with dumbbells, if that’s what you have at home!

Lastly, you can always write your own workout plan! I wrote my own workouts for a decade and it taught me a LOT about training and health.

We do have our own 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program where you’ll work with a coach that will build a strength training workout program for your body type and goals, check your form on each exercise via video, and even help you plan out your nutrition too.

If you want to learn more about our coaching program, you can click in the box below: Want step-by-step guidance and form checks? Learn more:

How Much Weight Should I lift?

We have a FULL resource on how to determine your starting weight for lifting, but I’ll give you the gist here.

The simple to learn but tough to implement answer: lift enough so that you can get through the set, but not too much that you have NO fuel left in the tank at the end.

And then, try to lift sliiiightly more than last time.

How much weight should I start with?

If you are using dumbbells or a kettlebell, always err on the side of “too light” versus “too heavy.” You want to learn the movement correctly and build correct form.

If you are training with a barbell, ALWAYS start with JUST the bar, no matter the exercise (By the way, a standard barbell weighs 45 pounds).

“How fast should I add weight to the bar?”

Here’s what we teach all of our coaching clients: add the minimum amount of weight each week you can, even if you THINK you can lift more. It’s better to finish a workout full of momentum and say “I can do more!” than defeated and saying “that was too much, crapola.”

Think of it this way, even if you are adding just 5 pounds per week to the bar, within a year you would be lifting 300+ pounds!

So go SLOW. Team NF’s Steve even bought little half pound weights and increases many of his lifts by just 1 pound per week. It’s a big part of how he transformed (jokingly) from Steve Rogers to Captain America.

And if you are looking for this content in easily digestible form, make sure you download our free Strength 101 Guide when you join the rebellion below:

Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!

Everything you need to know about getting strong.

Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.

How to find the right gym and train properly in one.

I identify as a:

Woman

Man

The 9 Best Strength Training Exercises to Learn

If you’re new to all this “strength training” stuff, hopping into a program and going from zero to sixty might be a recipe for failure.

Instead, be patient, and take the time to learn these movements first.

I’m going to share with you the 9 best strength training exercises for beginners.

Click on any of these exercises to get a FULL explanation of the movement, step-by-step:

1) The Push-Up: The best exercise you could ever do for yourself when it comes to using your bodyweight for push muscles (your chest, shoulders, and triceps):

2) The Bodyweight Squat: This exercise serves a dual purpose: it is the foundation for building strength AND helps build proper mobility. If you are going to ever do barbell squats, you need to work on hitting proper depth with a bodyweight squat first!

3) The Inverted Bodyweight Row: Until you can get your first pull-up or chin-up, these exercises are GREAT to start building your pull-muscle strength: your back, biceps, and forearms.

4) The Pull-Up and Chin-Up: Once you can support your bodyweight above the bar, the world becomes your playground. No strength training routine should be without pull-up or chin-up work! (Click here if you can’t do a pull-up or chin-up yet?)

5) The Bodyweight Dip: As you start to get stronger with push-ups and need to find a way to increase the challenge, consider doing dips – warning: these are very advanced, but incredible strength building exercises.

And now we’re into the best weight training exercises:

6) The Barbell Squat: Probably the best exercise when it comes to building strength and muscle throughout your whole body. It also burns crazy calories and makes life better. This is a MUST:

7) The Barbell Deadlift: Maybe the best exercise of all time. Actually no, it IS the best exercise of all time. It’s certainly the most primal: “pick the weight up off the ground. Done.”

This is a very technical lift, so make sure you read our article on how to do it with proper form:

8) The Barbell Press: Press a barbell above your head. This recruits all of the muscles in your chest, shoulders, and arms in order for you to lift the weight over your head.

As a bonus, you need to really flex and brace your core, which gets those muscles working too.

9) The Barbell Bench Press. Lie on a bench, and lower a barbell until it almost touches your chest. Pause, and the press it back up towards the sky. Repeat! And get strong.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: commit to trying ONE of these movements in the next week. Use 20 seconds of courage, recruit a friend who has lifted or trained before, and try your best.

And if you want somebody to help you put these into a workout program, teach you HOW to do these movements properly, and have the confidence to know you’re training correctly for your goals…

Let us create a workout program that fits your busy life!

How to KNow you’re doing a strength training movement Properly (Form Checks)

Always start out with just your bodyweight and make sure your movement is correct!

If it’s a barbell movement, use a broomstick (or PVC Pipe).

If it’s a dumbbell movement, use two sections of PVC or something else that is light and small to simulate a dumbbell.

When it comes to movements like squats, deadlifts, pull ups, bench press, your form is crucial. Develop good habits with lightweight and you will save yourself months of frustration later and will protect you from injury.

If you’re struggling with certain elements of a movement, don’t get frustrated! Just understand that you’ll have areas in which you can improve.

How do you know if your movement is correct?

Do regular video form checks! Record yourself and watch the video.

Alternatively, an expert reviewing your specific movement can be invaluable. 

If you’re looking for someone who can do video form checks, provide feedback, and adjust your workouts based on your progress, you can check out our 1-on-1 Online Personal Training!

I’ve had an online coach for 4 years and it’s changed my life.

Never wonder if you’re doing a movement properly! Get form checks from our coaches:

You could also get expert guidance in person: Look around at your local strength and conditioning gyms and see if you could hire a coach (here’s how to find a good personal trainer) for one or two sessions just to go over the basic movements.

If you can’t do either of those two options, no big deal! Videotape yourself and compare it to the videos here in the articles. You can also post your video to the form check section of the Nerd Fitness Forums.

When I started, I really liked practicing all of the movements at home because I could watch a video online at the same time as I was watching myself do it in a mirror.

Strength Training For Weight Loss

So you’re looking to lose weight, and tired of hours of cardio (me too).

And you’re wondering if strength training for weight loss – by following one of the workouts in this guide is a viable solution.

Or, gasp – will strength training make you too bulky? (SPOILER: it won’t)

Yes, Strength training will help you lose weight IF you do two key things for effective weight loss:

Calorie restriction: eating fewer calories than you burn every day

Strength training with progressive overload (picking up heavier stuff)

As we point out in our “Cardio vs Intervals vs Weight Training” article, strength training is the MOST efficient method for weight loss.

Not only that, but you can find study after study after study that shows you the benefits of strength training for weight management when combined with “calorie restriction.”[1]

As I cover in our “Why can’t I lose weight?” article, here’s why eating a caloric deficit and strength training is SO magical when combined:

When you strength train – by picking up something heavy – your muscles are “broken down” during the exercise itself, and then they rebuild themselves stronger over the next 24-48 hours.

Guess what happens during those 24-48 hours?

Your body will divert as many calories consumed as necessary to “Rebuild Muscle!”

It also diverts additional calories to “Burn as Fuel” to handle this increased “muscle rebuilding” activity.

Which means two amazing things:

Your metabolism is revved up for this time period, burning more calories than normal.

Rebuilding muscle is a calorie taxing activity!

Not only that, but when you eat a caloric deficit, your body doesn’t have enough calories to fuel all the day’s activities. In these instances, your body will pull from your stored fat to make sure all the work still gets done.

This is the trifecta of physical transformation victory:

You get stronger and keep the muscle you have.

You burn through the fat you’re trying to get rid of.

You’re decreasing your body fat percent and keeping your muscle = look good naked.

In other words, strength training + eating right is the BEST path for weight loss out there! And yes, in certain situations, you can actually lose weight AND build muscle at the same time.

So how do you put this into practice? Pick one of the strength workouts in this article. Calculate your daily caloric needs. Learn about healthy eating. And start.

In other words…

Pick up something heavy, and eat a vegetable.

These are the types of things we work on with our 1-on-1 Coaching Clients: helping them lift weights confidently and eat correctly for their goals! Let us help you:

Let our coaches create a custom strength training and weight loss plan for you!

“Just Tell Me What Strength Training Program to Follow!”

Okay! Unless you are collecting underpants, you should now have a workout program you want to try out!

“Staci, this is a lot, can you just TELL me what to do?”

Okay fine.

Here are the steps again for you:

STEP ONE: PICK YOUR WORKOUT PATH:

A) If YOU ARE TRAINING AT HOME. Pick one of these 3 based on what equipment you have:

Beginner Bodyweight Workout (no equipment)

Kettlebell Beginner Workout

Dumbbell Division Workout (Level 3 of Gym Guide)

B) IF YOU ARE TRAINING IN A GYM: Amazing! I love gyms. Read our “How to train in a gym” guide and go from Level 1 to Level 5 over the next month.

This will help you go from scared newbie to barbell-badass.

STEP #2: TRY A NEW EXERCISE: In addition to following a workout program, I’m gonna push outside of your comfort zone – that’s where real growth happens. Learn ONE new movement this week. Pick one of the exercises below and try it out!

How to squat

How to deadlift

How to bench press

How to do the overhead press

How to do a pull-up

How to do a push-up

How to do an inverted row

STEP #3) GET A YODA: If you are somebody that just wants to be told exactly what to, how to train for your goals, and are good at following direction, consider hiring a coach.

I’ve been working with an online coach since 2014 and it has changed my life – and I do this stuff for a living!

Read our guide on “Is a personal trainer worth it?”

Consider the NF Online Coaching Program!

Let us help you get strong, every step of the way! Learn more:

STEP #4) JOIN THE REBELLION! If you like how we do things around here at Nerd Fitness, we’d love to have you in our community of misfits, mutants, and rebels! Sign up in the box below and I’ll send you our free Strength 101 guide:

Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!

Everything you need to know about getting strong.

Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.

How to find the right gym and train properly in one.

I identify as a:

Woman

Man

No matter what you do today:

Don’t be afraid of doing anything wrong – truth be told, the majority of the people in the gym don’t have any idea what they are doing, and are just as nervous as you are!

Muster up your 20 seconds of courage if you need to, and let me know in the comments how it goes!

What questions do you have about getting started?

So, what’s the biggest thing holding you back from starting strength training?

-Staci

PS – Check out the rest of the articles in our Strength Training 101 series:

Strength Training 101

Strength Training 101: Finding the Right Gym

Strength Training 101: How Much Weight Should I Be Lifting?

Strength Training 101: How to Build Muscle Quickly

Strength Training 101: How to Squat Properly

Strength Training 101: How to Deadlift

Strength Training 101: How to Bench Press

Strength Training 101: How to Do a Pull-Up

Strength Training 101: How to Do a Bodyweight Row

Strength Training 101: How to Do a Dip

Strength Training 101: How to Overhead Press

photo source:[2]

Footnotes    ( returns to text)

Like this study and this study and this one.

 Gregor Winter: Dimitry Klokov, Ken: Cat Dumbbells, William Marlow: Assorted Weights, Kaleb Fulgham: Dumbbells, W_Minshull: Stormtroopers in Gym, Lego Lifting, Rainstorm, Kristina Alexanderson: Teddy Love, Jason Ternus: Stormtrooper Pushups

Strength Training for Beginners: The Best Routines, Workouts, & Exercises! published first on https://immigrationways.tumblr.com/

[ellahmacdermott]

Is It Time to Take an Initiative to Decrease Bitcoin’s Block Size Seriously?

Whilst debate raged throughout the Bitcoin community over whether the block size limit should be increased and how, Luke-jr for years stood out for arguing the exact opposite position. One megabyte blocks weren’t too small, he maintained even as SegWit’s block size increase gained broad support, they were too big. No increase, but a decrease was needed.

Now, the Bitcoin Knots and Bitcoin Core developer is spearheading an attempt to make such a decrease happen, as a temporary measure. And if social media is any indication, the initiative is attracting more interest than many might have expected it would.

“I don't know if the proposal will be adopted or not, but support has been growing due to the block size becoming more and more apparently a problem,” Luke-jr told Bitcoin Magazine.

Block Size Decrease

Of course, the arguments for decreasing the block size limit are similar to the by now oft-repeated arguments against increasing the block size limit. In short, bigger blocks add to the cost of running a node (making it more expensive for users to enforce the protocol rules), could increase mining centralization (risking censorship resistance), and reduces fee pressure (translating into less hash power security).

The most pressing problem of these, for Luke-jr, is the cost of running a full node. This is perhaps best exemplified by the time it takes to initially sync such a node. Getting up to speed with the rest of the network can take days even on modern laptops with a good internet connection.

“Users acting on that cost by simply choosing not to run a full node is a problem,” Luke-jr said. “When someone does finally attack Bitcoin, it will split the network — full node users on one chain, and light wallet users on the other.”

In case of such a broad scale attack on light wallet users, “a New York Agreement-in-secret,” Luke-jr envisions a worst-case scenario where these users would rather continue to use the invalid chain they’d been defaulting to since the attack, instead of switching back to the original chain.

“Which side prevails inevitably depends on the economic pressure of users of each chain. If most people are using light wallets, then full node users will lose out, and the invalid chain effectively becomes simply a hard fork to Bitcoin,” he argued, leaving little room for nuance. “That means all protocol rules are open to change, including the ones that forbid inflation, theft, etcetera.”

Following Luke-jr’s reasoning, Bitcoin is well into the danger zone already, as relatively few users rely on full nodes to accept payments. And it may be getting worse. Bitcoin’s blockchain grows each day, and while Moore’s Law and similar trends of computational improvements negate the associated problems with this growth to an extent, the Bitcoin Knots lead maintainer thinks technological progress is not yet keeping up. (It’s no exact science, but the drop in reachable node count over the past year could suggest that the blockchain size is indeed becoming a problem for more users — then again this node count is up over the past two years.)

On the flip side, the main argument against smaller blocks is that it would limit the number of transactions the Bitcoin network would be able process, which increases fee pressure, and could out-price certain use cases. (Instead of running full nodes, users may opt to rely on custodial services to save on fees, arguably making matters worse — not better.)

But with the development of the Lightning Network making noticeable progress, proponents of a block size limit decrease believe this downside is largely mitigated. Users would be incentivized to migrate to the overlay network for fast and cheap transactions, furthering its growth and taking the load off Bitcoin’s blockchain at the same time.

The Plan

As the initiative is still in its early stages, it’s not yet set in stone what the potential block size decrease would look like, exactly. Even the desired limit isn’t settled on, though it would most likely be brought down from the current theoretical maximum of almost four megabytes to a theoretical maximum of two or less. (This would, in reality, result in even smaller blocks; closer to one megabyte.) However, if this were to be achieved, the measure would be designed not to be permanent, so that an increase back to the current limit wouldn’t be too difficult later on.

There are at least three rough ideas of how a block size decrease could be achieved.

The most notable proposal is a user-activated soft fork (UASF), similar to BIP148, the initiative to trigger SegWit activation in 2017. On the same date as two years ago, August 1, users would enforce the stricter rules for five months, incentivizing miners to comply. If a majority of miners (by hash power) go along, even non-upgraded users would remain compatible with the new rules; they’d just see smaller blocks than previously allowed. A UASF is a risky strategy, however. If less than half of all miners go along, the blockchain could “split” between upgraded and non-upgraded users.

Alternatively, miners could impose a smaller block size limit themselves as a soft cap. Soft caps are non-binding limits that miners put on the blocks they mine and were used particularly throughout the first years of Bitcoin’s existence. (Past soft caps were consecutively 250, 500 and 750 kilobytes, as recommended by Bitcoin developers.) This would be a much safer solution but would require that miners reject transactions and, thus, leave transaction fees on the table for each block they mine.

As a third option, proposed by Luke-jr, Bitcoin users could limit the size of blocks by making their transactions artificially “heavy.” Under Bitcoin’s protocol rules, these transactions would be counted as if they were larger than they actually are, which means blocks would fill up faster with less actual transaction data. This change wouldn’t require any protocol changes; wallets could offer it today. These transactions do, however, require individual users to choose to “overpay” on fees relative to regular transactions. (That’s assuming miners act economically rationally and charge extra to include these transactions.)

Block Size Debate Fatigue

Some notable proponents of Luke-jr’s initiative include Bitrefill CCO John Carvalho, Block Digest cohost Shinobi and JoinMarket developer Chris Belcher. Yet all of them would only want to go through with the effort if it gains broad backing. That also goes for Luke-jr himself: “Soft forks like this need a lot of community support,” he said.

But so far, support within the Bitcoin community appears to range from lukewarm (no pun intended) to skeptical to outright dismissive. Other than Luke-jr, no regular Bitcoin Core contributors have thrown their weight behind the proposal and no Bitcoin company of note has stated support; and while the proposal is generating a bit of buzz on social media and in chat rooms, a majority of commenters still seems to reject the idea.

Even many of those who agree that a decrease would be a technical improvement in and of itself don’t believe it would make too much of a difference. If blocks are smaller for several months or even several years, Bitcoin’s blockchain size will still be large. Whether tomorrow’s new users need to sync two days or three days may not be the deciding factor in whether to use a full node or not. Besides, there are other solutions that could make running a full node more attractive, some of which may well have much more effect. (Though, as Luke-jr points out, none of these solutions exclude also decreasing the block size limit.)

What’s more, years of in-fighting has made the Bitcoin community wary of commencing another block size battle and dealing with all the controversy that comes with it. After a long-fought “civil war,” there appears to be little appetite to invest more time and energy in reviving the struggle on the same parameter — thereby, quite possibly, draining any momentum from the initiative even before it gets well underway.

Indeed, even Luke-jr himself doubts he’ll be the one carrying the initiative to the finish line this time.

“Although I may be the only one popularly pushing it — I don't have time to champion another BIP148, I fear,” he said, noting how exhausting the previous UASF attempt was. “I think the only way it will happen is if the community takes the lead on it.”

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

from InvestmentOpportunityInCryptocurrencies via Ella Macdermott on Inoreader https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/is-it-time-to-take-an-initiative-to-decrease-bitcoins-block-size-seriously/

[lindafrancois]

Strength Training for Beginners: The Best Routines, Workouts, & Exercises!

So you want to get strong, and you have no idea how to start (like this cat).

In this Beginner Strength Training Guide (part 2 of our Strength 101 series) – you’ll have both the confidence to start getting strong with resistance training AND a plan to follow.

We’ll be covering the following:

How do I start strength training or resistance training?

Which strength training program is right for me?

Best strength training workouts for beginners.

How much weight should I lift?

The 9 best strength training exercises.

How to know you’re doing an exercise properly (form checks)

Strength training for weight loss.

“Just TELL ME What Strength Program I should do.”

These are the exact strategies we use with our 1-on-1 Coaching Clients to help them build confidence and start strength training, and I’m excited to cover all of this in this massive guide.

Let us help you start strength training! Learn more:

This is also quite a lot to absorb, so we’ve combined this article along with the rest of our strength articles into a “Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know” guide.

Grab it free when you join the Rebellion by putting your email in the box below.

Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!

Everything you need to know about getting strong.

Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.

How to find the right gym and train properly in one.

I identify as a:

Woman

Man

How Do I Start Strength Training?

Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life.

You’ll look back years from now and thank “Past You” for starting strength training today.

And I promise, you WILL strength train today.

After all, strength training or resistance training doesn’t need to be scary or overcomplicated!

Strength training really comes down to two things:

“Movement of any weight against “resistance”(including your body weight) – Doing ANY exercise  that pushes your muscles outside of their comfort zone, forcing them to rebuild stronger to prepare the next challenge.

Progressive overload: doing slightly more than last time (lift heavier weight or do 1 more rep) consistently. Your muscles will have constantly have to adapt and rebuild themselves stronger.

That’s it.

This means if you drop down and do ONE knee push-up right now, technically you’ve done a strength training workout.

It also means if you then do TWO knew push-ups tomorrow, then you are officially following a strength training routine.

In other words, YOU CAN DO THIS.

Now, there are many different “strength training” and “resistance training” paths.

Like a “skill tree” in a video game (with branching paths and progressions), you can progress up one path, and mix and match movements from others depending on the situation.

These paths depend on your goals and what equipment you have available to you.

Here are the types of strength training:

BODYWEIGHT TRAINING

Bodyweight training is simply doing an exercise in which your own body is the “weight” you are “lifting.”

Duh.

This is the BEST place for anybody – regardless of weight or age – to start their strength training journey.

Why is this the best place to start? Two big reasons:

#1) You always have your body with you (unless you are a ghost, in which case, this is awkward). This means you can work out ANYWHERE with bodyweight training:

Our Beginner Bodyweight Workout Routine in your living room.

Our Hotel Workout in a hotel (obvi).

Our Park Workout in a…well, you get the point.

#2) Using your body for resistance training is the most “human” thing ever! By learning to push and pull and hang and squat and lunge, you are doing what your body is literally designed to do.

By getting strong with bodyweight movements, you’re making yourself antifragile and less injury prone.

Bodyweight training isn’t as easy to ‘scale’ the difficulty as some of the other strength training methods (“put more weight on barbell”), but you can get REALLY strong with just bodyweight training.

For example, you can start with knee pushups, then go to regular push-ups, then elevated push-ups, then even up to things like handstands and handstand push-ups.

You just have to know HOW and WHEN to scale up (we can help there too).

Let us create a bodyweight training program for you!

DUMBBELL TRAINING

Dumbbells are a great first step into the world of weight training and strength training:

Most gyms will have dumbbells, even if it’s a basic gym in your apartment complex.

A set of dumbbells doesn’t take up a lot of room, which means you can have a pair at home without a large footprint.

Dumbbells make it easy to add difficulty to a bodyweight movement: holding dumbbells while doing lunges, for example.

Dumbbell exercises can be less intimidating than barbell training for some, and are a step towards barbell training.

Dumbbells have an added stabilization challenge, and will point out muscle imbalances pretty easily (“oh my right arm is stronger than my left arm.”).

You can scale easily. Once the 10 pound weights become too easy, pick up the 15 pound ones!

KETTLEBELL TRAINING

A kettlebell is essentially a cannonball with a handle on it. They come in any weight imaginable, they don’t take up a lot of room, and can be used in dozens of ways for a great compact workout.

Our 20-minute kettlebell workout has 8 simple exercises you can do with just one weight.

Although there are “adjustable kettlebells,” you’ll most likely be working with a single kettlebell, and then adjusting your movements for “progressive overload” (making the workout slightly more difficult each time).

If you are a member at a gym, they’ll probably have multiple kettlebells that you can use to level up.  

BARBELL TRAINING

Male or female, young or old, if your goal is to get strong quickly, use 20 seconds of courage and get comfortable training with a barbell (I’ll help you, I promise):

“Progressive overload” is easy – you simply add weights to either side of the bar, allowing you to progressively lift more and more weight each week.

It’s much easier to go heavy safely – especially for lower body movements like the squat and the deadlift.

The biggest downside to barbell training is that in order to train at home, you need to have purchased a squat rack, a barbell, a bench, and enough weights for your house or garage (which can be an expensive investment, especially when starting out!).

If not, you definitely will need to join a gym.

WHICH RESISTANCE TRAINING PATH IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

Not sure which path to pick? You’re not alone – this stuff can be overwhelming. Check out our 1-on-1 Coaching Program. We get to know you and your goals, will check your form via video, and make adjustments based on your progress!

Let us build a strength training workout for you that fits your busy life! Learn more:

Which Strength Training Program is Right for Me?

So, what’s the best workout program to start as a beginner?

Realistically, it’s the one that you will actually do.

Barbell training might be optimal in terms of building pure strength quickly, but if you don’t see yourself actually getting to the gym regularly – or you’re too self conscious to enter the free weight section (for now) –  no problem!

Start with bodyweight training.

Conversely, bodyweight training might seem convenient and easy to start now, but if you can’t motivate yourself to work out at home, you might be better off joining a gym.

So let’s get you a workout program!

As we cover in our “How to Find the Perfect Workout Plan (for you)”: MOST beginners will be best served by following a “full body” or “total body” routine, 2 to 3 times per week, with a day of rest in between each workout.

This full body workout will have 4-5 big compound movements.

A compound movement is an exercise that recruits LOTS of muscles simultaneously and forces your body to work in unison.

An example would be the barbell squat, which recruits every muscle in your core, butt, and legs to work together to lift the weight.

This is WAY more efficient – and effective at building pure strength – than doing 5 different isolated leg exercises.

Why do 5 exercises when 1 exercise will get you better results in 20% of the time?

To answer your next question, let me tell you about how many sets and reps you should do as a beginner! As we explain in our “how many sets and reps” guide:

Reps in the 1-5 range build super dense muscle and strength.

Reps in the 6-12 range build equal amounts of muscular power, strength, and size.

Reps in the 12+ range primarily build muscular endurance and size and also cardiovascular health.

Many beginner strength programs will encourage you to keep things simple and just do 5 sets of 5 reps for each exercise in an effort to optimize progress as a beginner interested in strength gains.

I personally encourage people to aim for a weight that they can lift for 8-10 reps. This gives you a chance to really work on your form and lift safely!

The max lifts will come later, my friend. You gotta learn to walk before you can run!

“Staci, which workout plan is best for me?” 

It depends on your goals!

If your main goal is general fitness and fat loss, doing a circuit training workout will likely help you reach your goals (make sure you see our section below for “strength training for weight loss”).

If your main goal is to get stronger and/or put on muscle, following a more traditional, pure-strength style gym workout is going to get you there faster.

TRUTH BOMB: ANY strength training workout will help you reach nearly any goal provided you do two things:

Eat correctly for your goals too. How you eat will account for 80-90% of your success or failure when it comes to weight loss or bulking up.

Increase the difficulty of your workouts. This is that “progressive overload” stuff we were talking about earlier. Doing 1 more bodyweight squat, lifting 5 more pounds, or completing your circuit 10 seconds faster than last workout. By forcing your body to constantly adapt, your muscles will never get complacent and have to keep burning extra calories and rebuilding themselves stronger.

Depending on your current situation, and how quickly you’re looking to cut through the “trial and error” and get expert guidance, I might have an interesting solution for you.

We have a pretty killer 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program here at Nerd Fitness. You’ll work with a coach that will build a workout program for your body type and goals, check your form to make sure you’re doing them safety, and even help plan out your nutrition too.

We help busy people transform from newbies to strong badasses! Learn more:

The 5 Best Beginner Strength Training Programs

“Alright Staci, are there any ‘out of the box’ beginner workout programs I can start following now?”

Yup! Let me share with you some of our suggestions:

Here are 5 resistance training workouts you can follow TODAY. Pick the level that you feel most comfortable with, and then level up when you feel ready:

#1) BEGINNER BODYWEIGHT WORKOUT:

Our Beginner Bodyweight Workout has a variety of rep ranges to promote endurance, strength, and cardiovascular health.

Complete one set of each exercise and then moving directly onto the next exercise:

20 body weight squats

10 push ups

20 walking lunges

10 dumbbell rows (using a gallon milk jug)

15 second plank

30 jumping Jacks

Repeat for 3 rounds

Want to stick with bodyweight training? When you’re ready to level up, check out our advanced bodyweight training circuit.

Otherwise, you can move onto weight training when you feel comfortable!

#2A) BEGINNER NERD FITNESS DUMBBELL WORKOUT

If you are just getting started with dumbbells and you’re looking for a beginner workout program to follow, this is our Level 3 Gym Workout, “Dumbbell Division”:

10 goblet squats

10 push-ups

10 dumbbell rows per side

I knew you’d ask, so here is Goblet Squat video explanation (from the Nerd Fitness Academy):

And here is our video on how to do dumbbell rows:

#2B) BEGINNER NERD FITNESS KETTLEBELL WORKOUT

Our Beginner Kettlebell Routine is a workout you do anywhere you have room to swing a kettlebell.

So, probably not in a phone booth or a closet or a bathroom stall. But other than that, pretty much anywhere else.

Complete 3 Kettlebell Workout Circuits:

8 Halos (each side)

10 Goblet Squats

8 Overhead Presses (each side)

15 Kettlebell Swings

8 Bent Over Rows (each side)

6 Front Rack Reverse Lunge (per side)

#3) BARBELL TRAINING: 2 DAY WORKOUT SPLIT

As we cover in our “how to train in a gym” guide (where we take you from “lost sheep” to “barbell badass”), this routine is a much more focused weight training, strength building workout that gets your feet wet with barbell training. Click on ANY exercise to learn how to do it properly.

NF BEGINNER BARBELL STRENGTH WORKOUT: DAY A

Do 3 rounds of:

10 barbell squats

10 push-ups

10 bodyweight rows

NF BEGINNER BARBELL STRENGTH WORKOUT: DAY B

Do 3 rounds of:

5 barbell Romanian deadlifts

10 push-ups

10 dumbbell rows per arm

WHAT ARE SOME OTHER POPULAR STRENGTH TRAINING PROGRAMS?

#1) “Starting Strength” is considered the gold standard beginner barbell weight training program by many. We highly recommend you pick up the actual book if you are serious about barbell training – it’s one of the most important training books you can ever read.

#2) Strong Lifts 5X5: A solid workout program that starts you out very slow, with just the barbell, and helps you master form before you get too heavy. It also keeps things VERY easy with “do 5×5.” Strong Lifts has been around for a long time and is a solid program.

#3) Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1: This program allows you a little more freedom to do exercises that you enjoy, or work on personal weaknesses, because you choose some of the assistance work.

Note: You can modify any of the barbell training programs to be done with dumbbells, if that’s what you have at home!

Lastly, you can always write your own workout plan! I wrote my own workouts for a decade and it taught me a LOT about training and health.

We do have our own 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program where you’ll work with a coach that will build a strength training workout program for your body type and goals, check your form on each exercise via video, and even help you plan out your nutrition too.

If you want to learn more about our coaching program, you can click in the box below: Want step-by-step guidance and form checks? Learn more:

How Much Weight Should I lift?

We have a FULL resource on how to determine your starting weight for lifting, but I’ll give you the gist here.

The simple to learn but tough to implement answer: lift enough so that you can get through the set, but not too much that you have NO fuel left in the tank at the end.

And then, try to lift sliiiightly more than last time.

How much weight should I start with?

If you are using dumbbells or a kettlebell, always err on the side of “too light” versus “too heavy.” You want to learn the movement correctly and build correct form.

If you are training with a barbell, ALWAYS start with JUST the bar, no matter the exercise (By the way, a standard barbell weighs 45 pounds).

“How fast should I add weight to the bar?”

Here’s what we teach all of our coaching clients: add the minimum amount of weight each week you can, even if you THINK you can lift more. It’s better to finish a workout full of momentum and say “I can do more!” than defeated and saying “that was too much, crapola.”

Think of it this way, even if you are adding just 5 pounds per week to the bar, within a year you would be lifting 300+ pounds!

So go SLOW. Team NF’s Steve even bought little half pound weights and increases many of his lifts by just 1 pound per week. It’s a big part of how he transformed (jokingly) from Steve Rogers to Captain America.

And if you are looking for this content in easily digestible form, make sure you download our free Strength 101 Guide when you join the rebellion below:

Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!

Everything you need to know about getting strong.

Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.

How to find the right gym and train properly in one.

I identify as a:

Woman

Man

The 9 Best Strength Training Exercises to Learn

If you’re new to all this “strength training” stuff, hopping into a program and going from zero to sixty might be a recipe for failure.

Instead, be patient, and take the time to learn these movements first.

I’m going to share with you the 9 best strength training exercises for beginners.

Click on any of these exercises to get a FULL explanation of the movement, step-by-step:

1) The Push-Up: The best exercise you could ever do for yourself when it comes to using your bodyweight for push muscles (your chest, shoulders, and triceps):

2) The Bodyweight Squat: This exercise serves a dual purpose: it is the foundation for building strength AND helps build proper mobility. If you are going to ever do barbell squats, you need to work on hitting proper depth with a bodyweight squat first!

3) The Inverted Bodyweight Row: Until you can get your first pull-up or chin-up, these exercises are GREAT to start building your pull-muscle strength: your back, biceps, and forearms.

4) The Pull-Up and Chin-Up: Once you can support your bodyweight above the bar, the world becomes your playground. No strength training routine should be without pull-up or chin-up work! (Click here if you can’t do a pull-up or chin-up yet?)

5) The Bodyweight Dip: As you start to get stronger with push-ups and need to find a way to increase the challenge, consider doing dips – warning: these are very advanced, but incredible strength building exercises.

And now we’re into the best weight training exercises:

6) The Barbell Squat: Probably the best exercise when it comes to building strength and muscle throughout your whole body. It also burns crazy calories and makes life better. This is a MUST:

7) The Barbell Deadlift: Maybe the best exercise of all time. Actually no, it IS the best exercise of all time. It’s certainly the most primal: “pick the weight up off the ground. Done.”

This is a very technical lift, so make sure you read our article on how to do it with proper form:

8) The Barbell Press: Press a barbell above your head. This recruits all of the muscles in your chest, shoulders, and arms in order for you to lift the weight over your head.

As a bonus, you need to really flex and brace your core, which gets those muscles working too.

9) The Barbell Bench Press. Lie on a bench, and lower a barbell until it almost touches your chest. Pause, and the press it back up towards the sky. Repeat! And get strong.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: commit to trying ONE of these movements in the next week. Use 20 seconds of courage, recruit a friend who has lifted or trained before, and try your best.

And if you want somebody to help you put these into a workout program, teach you HOW to do these movements properly, and have the confidence to know you’re training correctly for your goals…

Let us create a workout program that fits your busy life!

How to KNow you’re doing a strength training movement Properly (Form Checks)

Always start out with just your bodyweight and make sure your movement is correct!

If it’s a barbell movement, use a broomstick (or PVC Pipe).

If it’s a dumbbell movement, use two sections of PVC or something else that is light and small to simulate a dumbbell.

When it comes to movements like squats, deadlifts, pull ups, bench press, your form is crucial. Develop good habits with lightweight and you will save yourself months of frustration later and will protect you from injury.

If you’re struggling with certain elements of a movement, don’t get frustrated! Just understand that you’ll have areas in which you can improve.

How do you know if your movement is correct?

Do regular video form checks! Record yourself and watch the video.

Alternatively, an expert reviewing your specific movement can be invaluable. 

If you’re looking for someone who can do video form checks, provide feedback, and adjust your workouts based on your progress, you can check out our 1-on-1 Online Personal Training!

I’ve had an online coach for 4 years and it’s changed my life.

Never wonder if you’re doing a movement properly! Get form checks from our coaches:

You could also get expert guidance in person: Look around at your local strength and conditioning gyms and see if you could hire a coach (here’s how to find a good personal trainer) for one or two sessions just to go over the basic movements.

If you can’t do either of those two options, no big deal! Videotape yourself and compare it to the videos here in the articles. You can also post your video to the form check section of the Nerd Fitness Forums.

When I started, I really liked practicing all of the movements at home because I could watch a video online at the same time as I was watching myself do it in a mirror.

Strength Training For Weight Loss

So you’re looking to lose weight, and tired of hours of cardio (me too).

And you’re wondering if strength training for weight loss – by following one of the workouts in this guide is a viable solution.

Or, gasp – will strength training make you too bulky? (SPOILER: it won’t)

Yes, Strength training will help you lose weight IF you do two key things for effective weight loss:

Calorie restriction: eating fewer calories than you burn every day

Strength training with progressive overload (picking up heavier stuff)

As we point out in our “Cardio vs Intervals vs Weight Training” article, strength training is the MOST efficient method for weight loss.

Not only that, but you can find study after study after study that shows you the benefits of strength training for weight management when combined with “calorie restriction.”[1]

As I cover in our “Why can’t I lose weight?” article, here’s why eating a caloric deficit and strength training is SO magical when combined:

When you strength train – by picking up something heavy – your muscles are “broken down” during the exercise itself, and then they rebuild themselves stronger over the next 24-48 hours.

Guess what happens during those 24-48 hours?

Your body will divert as many calories consumed as necessary to “Rebuild Muscle!”

It also diverts additional calories to “Burn as Fuel” to handle this increased “muscle rebuilding” activity.

Which means two amazing things:

Your metabolism is revved up for this time period, burning more calories than normal.

Rebuilding muscle is a calorie taxing activity!

Not only that, but when you eat a caloric deficit, your body doesn’t have enough calories to fuel all the day’s activities. In these instances, your body will pull from your stored fat to make sure all the work still gets done.

This is the trifecta of physical transformation victory:

You get stronger and keep the muscle you have.

You burn through the fat you’re trying to get rid of.

You’re decreasing your body fat percent and keeping your muscle = look good naked.

In other words, strength training + eating right is the BEST path for weight loss out there! And yes, in certain situations, you can actually lose weight AND build muscle at the same time.

So how do you put this into practice? Pick one of the strength workouts in this article. Calculate your daily caloric needs. Learn about healthy eating. And start.

In other words…

Pick up something heavy, and eat a vegetable.

These are the types of things we work on with our 1-on-1 Coaching Clients: helping them lift weights confidently and eat correctly for their goals! Let us help you:

Let our coaches create a custom strength training and weight loss plan for you!

“Just Tell Me What Strength Training Program to Follow!”

Okay! Unless you are collecting underpants, you should now have a workout program you want to try out!

“Staci, this is a lot, can you just TELL me what to do?”

Okay fine.

Here are the steps again for you:

STEP ONE: PICK YOUR WORKOUT PATH:

A) If YOU ARE TRAINING AT HOME. Pick one of these 3 based on what equipment you have:

Beginner Bodyweight Workout (no equipment)

Kettlebell Beginner Workout

Dumbbell Division Workout (Level 3 of Gym Guide)

B) IF YOU ARE TRAINING IN A GYM: Amazing! I love gyms. Read our “How to train in a gym” guide and go from Level 1 to Level 5 over the next month.

This will help you go from scared newbie to barbell-badass.

STEP #2: TRY A NEW EXERCISE: In addition to following a workout program, I’m gonna push outside of your comfort zone – that’s where real growth happens. Learn ONE new movement this week. Pick one of the exercises below and try it out!

How to squat

How to deadlift

How to bench press

How to do the overhead press

How to do a pull-up

How to do a push-up

How to do an inverted row

STEP #3) GET A YODA: If you are somebody that just wants to be told exactly what to, how to train for your goals, and are good at following direction, consider hiring a coach.

I’ve been working with an online coach since 2014 and it has changed my life – and I do this stuff for a living!

Read our guide on “Is a personal trainer worth it?”

Consider the NF Online Coaching Program!

Let us help you get strong, every step of the way! Learn more:

STEP #4) JOIN THE REBELLION! If you like how we do things around here at Nerd Fitness, we’d love to have you in our community of misfits, mutants, and rebels! Sign up in the box below and I’ll send you our free Strength 101 guide:

Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!

Everything you need to know about getting strong.

Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.

How to find the right gym and train properly in one.

I identify as a:

Woman

Man

No matter what you do today:

Don’t be afraid of doing anything wrong – truth be told, the majority of the people in the gym don’t have any idea what they are doing, and are just as nervous as you are!

Muster up your 20 seconds of courage if you need to, and let me know in the comments how it goes!

What questions do you have about getting started?

So, what’s the biggest thing holding you back from starting strength training?

-Staci

PS – Check out the rest of the articles in our Strength Training 101 series:

Strength Training 101

Strength Training 101: Finding the Right Gym

Strength Training 101: How Much Weight Should I Be Lifting?

Strength Training 101: How to Build Muscle Quickly

Strength Training 101: How to Squat Properly

Strength Training 101: How to Deadlift

Strength Training 101: How to Bench Press

Strength Training 101: How to Do a Pull-Up

Strength Training 101: How to Do a Bodyweight Row

Strength Training 101: How to Do a Dip

Strength Training 101: How to Overhead Press

photo source:[2]

Footnotes    ( returns to text)

Like this study and this study and this one.

 Gregor Winter: Dimitry Klokov, Ken: Cat Dumbbells, William Marlow: Assorted Weights, Kaleb Fulgham: Dumbbells, W_Minshull: Stormtroopers in Gym, Lego Lifting, Rainstorm, Kristina Alexanderson: Teddy Love, Jason Ternus: Stormtrooper Pushups

Strength Training for Beginners: The Best Routines, Workouts, & Exercises! published first on https://dietariouspage.tumblr.com/

[freshdotdaily]

March 23rd 2012 Interview with FootAction

REAL TALK WITH FRESH DAILY @ SXSW

Star Club: First and foremost, explain your SXSW experience. Ups, downs, everything in between.

Fresh Daily: This was my 3rd (non-consecutive) year at SXSW and it was awesome. It just seems to have gotten way more hip-hop oriented than I recall in the past. I had a great time rocking shows and meeting fans and fellow artists that I knew online but never had the chance to make personal acquaintance with. That was dope. The main trick about SXSW to me is to meet artists you have mutual respect for, meet booking agents/promoters and make new fans. That and maintaining your cell phone life and sanity while carefully alternating between copius amounts of alcohol and water while navigating the pressing throngs of people crowding under the Texas sun.

SC: Explain your musical approach to hip-hop given that you are staying fresh, all day?  How is your rap different from the other up and coming MC’s out there?

FD: I don’t think the goal was to put the fresh wardrobe aesthetic out as a “persona” to market my music. The goal for me was always to remain consistently innovative with my craft and show progression while expressing myself artistically. I think that approach was the defining factor to making my music signature and creating the distinction from the rest of other artists. The freshness in my physical aesthetic came secondary and I suppose there’s also a difference in the technical sense that  I’m a wordplay/thought process emcee and not a punch line/metaphor rapper.

SC: What are some major differences you’ve seen in your music from your mixtape “Tomorrow is Today” to your debut album “Fresh Daily is the Gorgeous Killer in Crimes of Passion” to your current album you’re working on?

FD: Honestly,  just life’s progression. As a Brooklyn, NYC kid, I had the fortune to grow up in a melting pot of cultures and experiences that change as often as the neighborhoods do. Being artistically expressive played a huge role as well. When working on “Tomorrow is Today”, I worked with a synth-y, space-y sound that worked well for how I felt. I wanted to take people into the future with the sound of that project. My debut album however was way more traditional boom-bap rap. Soul and Jazz samples being flipped by some of indie hip-hops most elite producers like Skibeatz, Dj Spinna, Exile, Oh No, 88-Keys and !llmind helped curate a very NYC centric sound. I’ve always Made sure to be cohesively thematic and give each project their own flavor, so with my last 3 projects “Mothership/L A N D”, “The Quiet Life” and my current project, “The Brooklyn Good Guy”, each of them are unique and distinct in sound direction, subject matter and feel.

SC: There are not many people that are skilled in graphic design and can rap, but which passion came first?  When and how did you start both graphic designing and rap?

FD: I’ve been drawing since a toddler so I suppose visual art came before wanting to make music. The processes are both really different. Both of them are visceral, cathartic experiences for me but with rap I can see the end result quicker. The same effect I can have on people with my music I can with my design work, hip-hop just has an expedited process in the sense I can take an idea which doesn’t exist and speak on it and have a song and a large quantity of people can hear/enjoy/critique it, whereas the process to making an non-existing idea into visual art is more laborious with less room for error. It’s a more painstaking way to create and convey your expression. Rapping came natural for me as a writer and Bonafide hip-hop head. It’s a fair assessment that no other music genre has meant more to me and effected my life as much as hip-hop has. So it’s only right that it be the medium used to tell my story. However, they DO say a picture is worth a thousand words and I’m a fan of classic minimalism so there’s that.

SC: Given the graphic design experience you have, how has that worked as an advantage towards your music?

FD: Being a stickler for quality control, it’s made my  brand management and visibility really easy to navigate and keep things relatively in-house for the majority of the work I do. To be able to control and convey how I think things should sound AND look is definitely advantageous to the craft. Not having to depend on a graphics person to correctly convey my words is priceless. Being able to collaborate with other artists outside of rapping is also pretty awesome too. To re-interpret what I feel they said in a completely different medium is mad ill.

SC: How have you been able to balance out graphic design projects, putting out fan apparel, maintaining the webstore, and making music?

FD: I have a fantastic team of individuals working with me that handle a fair share of my merchandise as well as update my site and keep things running smoothly. For that, I’m grateful because it allows me some buffer space to actually just CREATE. To be completely honest though, it did get overwhelming. For the project “The Quiet Life” I had to go away and go back to nature and kind of revisit some of the things that made me appreciate this beautiful human existence. You have to pause and smell the flowers at time, yo. Straight up. For this current project though, I quit my wack-ass, dead end day job and put myself 100% into my career as both an emcee and visual artist/designer for the first time. It was scary because there’s no parachute for me, but you don’t bungee-jump off a milk crate do you? Sure, it’s safer, but that ain’t bungee jumping, fam. The thrill of that experience is the rush, the risk and the thrill of making an indelible action memory. You can really hear the urgency in the new record because of that.

SC: Who are some of your inspirations in music and art?

FD: Inspirations in music for me are artists like Hawthorne Headhunters, Sade, P.U.D.G.E, MF DOOM, Drake (yep, Drizzy), Iman Omari, Earl Sweatshirt, etc. Yo, I mean, just heads making good music to me that put me in a zone. The taste in music is constantly evolving in this digital age but the constant that remains is dope beats and dope lyrics executed artfully with quality will always rule my audio waves. As far as art goes, I’m a big graphic novel dude and I like alot of European graphic artists like Frezzata, Christophe Blaine, and Johann Sfar. I feel like it’s cliche for rappers to like NYC street artists like Haring and Basquiat so having said that, I’m reluctant to include them as influences for that reason solely, but truth be told I was born in 1980 and that’s what I saw and I’d be remiss to not mention those artists impact on me. Locally, there are some amazing artists in NYC like Nelson Caban, Lichiban & Stephanie Matthews that really have made visual impacts on how I view artwork recently.

SC: Describe your taste in fashion and how it reflects you as “Fresh Daily.”  What are some of your favorite brands and sneakers?

FD: Well, ultimately I’m more of a subscriber to style than fashion, as style is forever and fashion is fickle and fleeting. I’m a fan of clean, solid color blocking juxtaposed against patterned accessories and outerwear. My boy Suede (of The Brooklyn Good Guys) coined the term “Afro-Americana” for this look. I mean basically there’s all these influences mixed up from growing up in NYC. There’s alot of obligatory Polo Ralph Lauren because of the timeless factor, I mean, you can count on ‘Lo from 10 years ago to work 10 years from now. Within that there are alot of preppy nods being mixed in with strong ethnic aesthetics from my own closet collection to create a really signature look. I’d like to go as far as saying that 70% of my wardrobe is also sourced from Thrift/secondhand/vintage stores around the US and Canada so almost everything has a history and story to it. I’m almost utilitarian with my style to the point it borders on uniform if the weather is appropriate. 9 out of 10 ten times I have on an oxford or chambray buttoned all the way to the top with dark indigo raw/selvedge denim and a cap on.  As a firm believer in quality, consistency and heritage, most brands I rock with have been around for 15-30 years. Levis, Polo Ralph Lauren, Nike, Converse, Vans and Supreme. In a more contemporary sense, I also love Uniqlo and I almost exclusively wear RetroSuperFuture eyewear because I love the way they frame my face. My take on it is, your look should tell your story at a glance before you get a chance to speak.

SC: What can we expect from you in 2012?

FD: More music. More art. More collaborations. More live shows. More media content online. The launch of my collective “The Brooklyn Good Guys”. Only the freshness & only the real. Brooklyn, whattup!

Check out more Fresh Daily here!

[anamorales]

Strength Training 101: Where to Start (Exercises & Routines)

So you want to get strong, and you have no idea how to start (like this cat).

In this Beginner Strength Training Guide (part 2 of our Strength 101 series) – you’ll have both the confidence to start getting strong AND a plan to follow.

We’ll be covering the following:

How do I start strength training?

Which strength training program is right for me?

Best strength training workouts for beginners.

How much weight should I lift?

The 9 best strength training exercises.

Strength training for weight loss.

“Just TELL ME What Strength Program I should do.”

These are the exact strategies we use with our 1-on-1 Coaching Clients to help them build confidence and start strength training, and I’m excited to cover all of this in this massive guide.

This is also quite a lot to absorb, so we’ve combined this article along with the rest of our strength articles into a “Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know” guide. Grab it free when you join the Rebellion by putting your email in the box below.

Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!

Everything you need to know about getting strong.

Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.

How to find the right gym and train properly in one.

I identify as a:

Woman

Man

How Do I Start Strength Training?

Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life.

You’ll look back years from now and thank “Past You” for starting strength training today. And I promise, you WILL strength train today.

After all, strength training doesn’t need to be scary or overcomplicated!

Strength training really comes down to two things:

“Movement of any weight (including your body weight) – Doing ANY exercise that pushes your muscles outside of their comfort zone, forcing them to rebuild stronger to prepare the next challenge.

Progressive overload: doing slightly more than last time (lift heavier weight or do 1 more rep) consistently. Your muscles will have constantly have to adapt and will constantly be rebuilding themselves stronger.

That’s it.

This means if you drop down and do ONE knee push-up right now, technically you’ve done a strength training workout.

It also means if you then do TWO knew push-ups tomorrow, then you are officially following a strength training routine.

In other words, YOU CAN DO THIS.

Now, there are many different “strength training” paths. Like a “skill tree” in a video game (with branching paths and progressions), you can progress up one path, and mix and match movements from others depending on the situation.

These paths depend on your goals and what equipment you have available to you.

Here are the types of strength training:

BODYWEIGHT TRAINING

Bodyweight training is simply doing an exercise in which your own body is the “weight” you are “lifting.”

Duh.

This is the BEST place for anybody – regardless of weight or age – to start their strength training journey.

Why is this the best place to start? Two big reasons:

#1) You always have your body with you (unless you are a ghost, in which case, this is awkward). This means you can work out ANYWHERE with bodyweight training:

Our Beginner Bodyweight Routine in your living room.

Our Hotel Workout in a hotel (obvi).

Our Park Workout in a…well, you get the point.

In a house with a mouse, in a box with a fox. Wait.

#2) Moving your body is the most “human” thing ever! By learning to push and pull and hang and squat and lunge, you are doing what your body is literally designed to do. By getting strong with bodyweight movements, you’re making yourself antifragile and less injury prone.

Bodyweight training isn’t as easy to ‘scale’ as some of the other strength training methods, but you can get REALLY strong with just bodyweight training (working up to advanced movements like handstands, 1-legged squats, and gymnastic ring work).  

DUMBBELL TRAINING

Dumbbells are a great first step into the world of weight training and strength training:

Most gyms will have dumbbells, even if it’s a basic gym in your apartment complex.

A set of dumbbells doesn’t take up a lot of room, which means you can have a pair at home without a large footprint.

Dumbbells make it easy to add difficulty to a bodyweight movement: holding dumbbells while doing lunges, for example.

Dumbbell exercises can be less intimidating than barbell training for some, and are a step towards barbell training.

Dumbbells have an added stabilization challenge, and will point out muscle imbalances pretty easily (“oh my right arm is stronger than my left arm.”).

You can scale easily. Once the 10 pound weights become too easy, pick up the 15 pound ones!

KETTLEBELL TRAINING

A kettlebell is essentially a cannonball with a handle on it. They come in any weight imaginable, they don’t take up a lot of room, and can be used in dozens of ways for a great compact workout. Our 20-minute kettlebell workout has 8 simple exercises you can do with just one weight.

Although there are “adjustable kettlebells,” you’ll most likely be working with a single kettlebell, and then adjusting your movements for “progressive overload” (making the workout slightly more difficult each time). If you are a member at a gym, they’ll most likely have multiple kettlebells that you can use to level up.  

BARBELL TRAINING

Male or female, young or old, if your goal is to get strong quickly, use 20 seconds of courage and get comfortable training with a barbell (I’ll help you, I promise):

“Progressive overload” is easy – you simply add weights to either side of the bar, allowing you to progressively lift more and more weight each week.

It’s much easier to go heavy safely – especially for lower body movements like the squat and the deadlift.

The biggest downside to barbell training is that in order to train at home, you need to have purchased a squat rack, a barbell, a bench, and enough weight in your house or garage (which can be an expensive investment, especially when starting out!).

If not, you definitely will need to join a gym membership.

Not sure which path to pick? You’re not alone – this stuff can be overwhelming.

If you want a custom build workout program that is catered to your experience and situation – and grows along with you – check out our 1-on-1 Coaching Program. We get to know you and your goals, will check your form via video, and make adjustments based on your progress!

You can learn more by clicking on the image below:

Which Strength Training Program is Right for Me?

So, what’s the best workout program to start as a beginner?

Realistically, it’s the one that you will actually do.

Barbell training might be optimal in terms of building pure strength quickly, but if you don’t see yourself actually getting to the gym regularly – or you’re too self conscious to enter the free weight section (for now) –  no problem! Start with bodyweight training.

Conversely, bodyweight training might seem convenient and easy to start now, but if you can’t motivate yourself to work out at home, you might be better off joining a gym.

So let’s get you a workout program!

As we cover in our “How to Find the Perfect Workout Plan (for you)”: MOST beginners will be best served by following a “full body” or “total body” routine – a workout that targets every muscle in your body – 2 to 3 times per week, (with a day of rest in between each workout).

This full body workout will have 4-5 big compound movements.

A compound movement is an exercise that recruits LOTS of muscles simultaneously and forces your body to work in unison. An example would be the barbell squat, which recruits every muscle in your core, butt, and legs to work together to lift the weight. This is WAY more efficient – and effective at building pure strength – than doing 5 different isolated leg exercises.

Why do 5 exercises when 1 exercise will get you better results in 20% of the time?

To answer your next question, let me tell you about how many sets and reps you should do as a beginner! As we explain in our “how many sets and reps” guide:

Reps in the 1-5 range build super dense muscle and strength.

Reps in the 6-12 range build equal amounts of muscular power, strength, and size.

Reps in the 12+ range primarily build muscular endurance and size, and improving form.

Many beginner strength programs will encourage you to keep things simple and just do 5 sets of 5 reps for each exercise, in an effort to optimize progress as a beginner interested in strength gains.

I personally encourage people to aim for a weight that they can lift for 8-10 reps. This gives you a chance to really work on your form and lift safely!

The max lifts will come later, my friend. You gotta learn to walk before you can run!

“Steve, which workout plan is better?” 

It depends on your goals!

If your main goal is general fitness and fat loss, doing a circuit style workout will likely help you reach your goals (make sure you see our section below for “strength training for weight loss”).

If your main goal is to get stronger and/or put on muscle, following a more traditional, pure-strength style routine like the above gym workout is going to get you there faster.

TRUTH BOMB: EITHER workout will help you reach nearly any goal provided you do two things:

Eat correctly for your goals too. How you eat will account for 80-90% of your success or failure when it comes to weight loss or bulking up.

Increase the difficulty of your workouts. This is that “progressive overload” stuff we were talking about earlier. Doing 1 more bodyweight squat, lifting 5 more pounds, or completing your circuit 10 seconds faster than last workout. By forcing your body to constantly adapt, your muscles will never get complacent and have to keep burning extra calories and rebuilding themselves stronger.

Depending on your current situation, and how quickly you’re looking to cut through the “trial and error” and get expert guidance, I might have an interesting solution for you.

We have a pretty killer 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program here at Nerd Fitness, where you’ll work with a coach that will build a workout program for your body type and goals, check your form to make sure you’re doing them safety, and even help plan out your nutrition too.

If you want to learn more about our coaching program, you can click in the box below:

The Best Beginner Strength Training Programs

“Alright Staci, are there any ‘out of the box’ beginner workout programs I can start following now?”

Yup! Let me share with you some of our suggestions:

Here are 5 workouts you can follow TODAY. Pick the level that you feel most comfortable with, and then level up when you feel ready:

#1) BEGINNER BODYWEIGHT WORKOUT:

Our Beginner Bodyweight Workout has a variety of rep ranges to promote endurance, strength, and cardiovascular health. Complete one set of each exercise and then moving directly onto the next exercise:

20 body weight squats

10 push ups

20 walking lunges

10 dumbbell rows (using a gallon milk jug)

15 second plank

30 jumping Jacks

Repeat for 3 rounds

#2A) BEGINNER NERD FITNESS DUMBBELL WORKOUT

If you are just getting started with dumbbells and you’re looking for a beginner workout program to follow, this is our Level 3 Gym Workout, “Join the Dumbbell Division”:

10 goblet squats

10 push-ups

10 dumbbell rows per side

I knew you’d ask, so here is Goblet Squat video explanation (from the Nerd Fitness Academy):

  And here is our video on how to do dumbbell rows:

#2B) BEGINNER NERD FITNESS KETTLEBELL WORKOUT

Our Beginner Kettlebell Routine is a workout you do anywhere you have room to swing a kettlebell. So, probably not in a phone booth or a closet or a bathroom stall. But other than that, pretty much anywhere else.

Complete 3 circuits:

8 Halos (each side)

10 Goblet Squats

8 Overhead Presses (each side)

15 Kettlebell Swings

8 Bent Over Rows (each side)

6 Front Rack Reverse Lunge (per side)

#3) BARBELL TRAINING: 2 DAY WORKOUT SPLIT

As we cover in our “how to train in a gym” guide (where we take you from “lost sheep” to “barbell badass”), this routine is a much more focused weight training, strength building workout that gets your feet wet with barbell training. Click on ANY exercise to learn how to do it properly.

NF BEGINNER BARBELL STRENGTH WORKOUT: DAY A

Do 3 rounds of:

10 barbell squats

10 push-ups

10 bodyweight rows

NF BEGINNER BARBELL STRENGTH WORKOUT: DAY B

Do 3 rounds of:

5 barbell Romanian deadlifts

10 push-ups

10 dumbbell rows per arm

WHAT ARE SOME OTHER POPULAR STRENGTH TRAINING PROGRAMS?

#1) The original “Starting Strength” is considered the gold standard beginner barbell weight training program by many. We highly recommend you pick up the actual book if you are serious about barbell training – it’s one of the most important training books you can ever read.

#2) Strong Lifts 5X5: A solid workout program that starts you out very slow, with just the barbell, and helps you master form before you get too heavy. It also keeps things VERY easy with “do 5×5.” Stronglifts has been around for a long time and is a solid program.

#3) Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1: This program allows you a little more freedom to do exercises that you enjoy, or work on personal weaknesses, because you choose some of the assistance work.

Note: You can modify any of the barbell training programs to be done with dumbbells, if that’s what you have at home!

Lastly, you can always write your own workout plan!

However, depending on your current situation, and how quickly you’re looking to cut through the “trial and error” and get expert guidance, I might have an interesting solution for you.!

We have a pretty killer 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program where you’ll work with a coach that will build a workout program for your body type and goals, check your form on each exercise via video, and even help you plan out your nutrition too.

If you want to learn more about our coaching program, you can click in the box below:

How Much Weight Should I lift?

We have a FULL resource on how to determine your starting weight for lifting, but I’ll give you the gist here.

The simple to learn but tough to implement answer: lift enough so that you can get through the set, but not too much that you have NO fuel left in the tank at the end.

And then, try to lift sliiiightly more than last time.

How much weight should I start with?

If you are using dumbbells or a kettlebell, always err on the side of “too light” versus “too heavy.” You want to learn the movement correctly and build correct form.

If you are training with a barbell, ALWAYS start with JUST the bar, no matter the exercise (By the way, a standard barbell weighs 45 pounds).

“How fast should I add weight to the bar?”

Here’s my opinion: add the minimum amount of weight each week you can, even if you THINK you can lift more. It’s better to finish a workout full of momentum and say “I can do more!” than defeated and saying “that was too much, crapola.”

Think of it this way, even if you are adding just 5 pounds per week to the bar, within a year you would be lifting 300+ pounds!

So go SLOW. Team NF’s Steve even bought little half pound weights and increases many of his lifts by just 1 pound per week. It’s a big part of how he transformed from Steve Rogers to Captain America.

And if you are looking for this content in easily digestible form, make sure you download our free Strength 101 Guide when you join the rebellion below:

Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!

Everything you need to know about getting strong.

Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.

How to find the right gym and train properly in one.

I identify as a:

Woman

Man

The 9 Best Strength Training Exercises to Learn

If you’re new to all this “strength training” stuff, hopping into a program and going from zero to sixty might be a recipe for failure.

Instead, be patient, and take the time to learn these movements first.

I’m going to share with you the 9 best strength training exercises for beginners. Click on any of these exercises to get a FULL explanation of the movement, step-by-step:

1) The Push-Up: The best exercise you could ever do for yourself when it comes to using your bodyweight for push muscles (your chest, shoulders, and triceps):

2) The Bodyweight Squat: This exercise serves a dual purpose: it is the foundation for building strength AND helps build proper mobility. If you are going to ever do barbell squats, you need to work on hitting proper depth with a bodyweight squat first!

3) The Inverted Bodyweight Row: Until you can get your first pull-up or chin-up, these exercises are GREAT to start building your pull-muscle strength: your back, biceps, and forearms.

4) The Pull-Up and Chin-Up: Once you can support your bodyweight above the bar, the world becomes your playground. No strength training routine should be without pull-up or chin-up work! (if you can’t do a pull-up or chin-up yet)

5) The Bodyweight Dip: As you start to get stronger with push-ups and need to find a way to increase the challenge, consider doing dips – warning: these are very advanced, but incredible strength building exercises.

6) The Barbell Squat: Probably the best exercise when it comes to building strength and muscle throughout your whole body. Show me somebody who squats heavy and I’ll show you a great physique. This is a MUST:

7) The Barbell Deadlift: Maybe the best exercise of all time, and certainly the most primal: “pick the weight up off the ground. Done.”

8) The Barbell Press: Press a barbell above your head. This recruits all of the muscles in your chest, shoulders, and arms in order for you to lift the weight over your head. As a bonus, you need to really flex and brace your core, which gets those muscles working too.

9) The Barbell Bench Press. Lie on a bench, and lower a barbell until it almost touches your chest. Pause, and the press it back up towards the sky. Repeat! And get strong.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: commit to trying ONE of these movements in the next week. Use 20 seconds of courage, recruit a friend who has lifted or trained before, and try your best.

We all start somewhere!

Speaking of starting out…

Never done many of the movements in the plan you’re doing before?

Always start out with just your bodyweight and make sure your movement is correct!

If it’s a barbell movement, use a broomstick (or PVC Pipe). If it’s a dumbbell movement, use two sections of PVC or something else that is light and small to simulate a dumbbell.

When it comes to movements like squats, deadlifts, pull ups, bench press, your form is crucial. Develop good habits with lightweight and you will save yourself months of frustration later and will protect you from injury.

If you’re struggling with certain elements of a movement, don’t get frustrated! Just understand that you’ll have areas in which you can improve.

When I started, I really liked practicing all of the movements at home because I could watch a video online at the same time as I was watching myself do it in a mirror.

Videotape yourself and compare it to videos, or post it to the form check section of the Nerd Fitness Forums.

Still uncomfortable with the movements after that? Look around at local strength and conditioning gyms and see if you could hire a coach (here’s how to find a good trainer) for one or two sessions just to go over the basic movements.

If you want a coach in your pocket, who can do video form checks, provide feedback, and adjust your workouts based on your progress, you can check out our 1-on-1 Coaching program! I’ve had an online coach for 4 years and it’s changed my life. You can learn more by clicking on the box below:

Strength Training For Weight Loss

So you’re looking to lose weight, and tired of hours of cardio (me too).

And you’re wondering if strength training for weight loss – by following one of the workouts in this guide is a viable solution.

Or, gasp – will strength training make you too bulky? (SPOILER: it won’t)

Yes, Strength training will help you lose weight IF you do two key things for effective weight loss:

Calorie restriction: eating fewer calories than you burn every day

Strength training with progressive overload (picking up heavier stuff)

As we point out in our “Cardio vs Intervals vs Weight Training” article, strength training is the MOST efficient method for weight loss.

Not only that, but you can find study after study after study that shows you the benefits of strength training for weight management when combined with “calorie restriction.”[1]

As I cover in our “Why can’t I lose weight?” article, here’s why eating a caloric deficit and strength training is SO magical when combined:

When you strength train – by picking up something heavy – your muscles are “broken down” during the exercise itself, and then they rebuild themselves stronger over the next 24-48 hours.

Guess what happens during those 24-48 hours?

Your body will divert as many calories consumed as necessary to “Rebuild Muscle!”

It also diverts additional calories to “Burn as Fuel” to handle this increased “muscle rebuilding” activity.

Which means two amazing things:

Your metabolism is revved up for this time period, burning more calories than normal.

Rebuilding muscle is a calorie taxing activity!

Not only that, but when you eat a caloric deficit, your body doesn’t have enough calories to fuel all the day’s activities. In these instances, your body will pull from your stored fat to make sure all the work still gets done.

This is the trifecta of physical transformation victory:

You get stronger and keep the muscle you have.

You burn through the fat you’re trying to get rid of.

You’re decreasing your body fat percent and keeping your muscle = look good naked.

In other words, strength training + eating right is the BEST path for weight loss out there! And yes, in certain situations, you can actually lose weight AND build muscle at the same time.

So how do you put this into practice? Pick one of the strength workouts in this article. Calculate your daily caloric needs. Learn about healthy eating. And start.

In other words…

Pick up something heavy, and eat a vegetable.

Oh what’s that? You just want somebody to tell you exactly what to do? Fine!

“Just Tell Me What Strength Training Program to Follow!”

Okay! Unless you are collecting underpants, you should now have a workout program you want to try out!

“Staci, this is a lot, can you just TELL me what to do?” Okay fine. Here are the

STEP ONE: PICK YOUR WORKOUT PATH:

A) If YOU ARE TRAINING AT HOME. Pick one of these 3 based on what equipment you have:

Beginner Bodyweight Workout (no equipment)

Kettlebell Beginner Workout

Dumbbell Division Workout (Level 3 of Gym Guide)

B) IF YOU ARE TRAINING IN A GYM: Amazing! I love gyms. Read our “How to train in a gym” guide and go from Level 1 to Level 5 over the next month.

This will help you go from scared newbie to barbell-badass.

STEP #2: TRY A NEW EXERCISE: In addition to following a workout program, I’m gonna push outside of your comfort zone – that’s where real growth happens. Learn ONE new movement this week. Pick one of the exercises below and try it out!

How to squat

How to deadlift

How to bench press

How to do the overhead press

How to do a pull-up

How to do a push-up

How to do an inverted row

STEP #3) GET A YODA! If you are somebody that just wants to be told exactly what to, how to train for your goals, and are good at following direction, consider hiring a coach. I’ve been working with an online coach since 2014 and it has changed my life – and I do this stuff for a living!

Read our guide on “Is a personal trainer worth it?”

Consider the NF Online Coaching Program!

No matter what you do today: don’t be afraid of doing everything wrong – truth be told, the majority of the people in the gym don’t have any idea what they are doing, and are just as nervous as you are!

Muster up your 20 seconds of courage if you need to, and let me know in the comments how it goes!

What questions do you have about getting started?

So, what’s the biggest thing holding you back from starting strength training?

-Staci

PS – Check out the rest of the articles in our Strength Training 101 series:

Strength Training 101

Strength Training 101: Finding the Right Gym

Strength Training 101: How Much Weight Should I Be Lifting?

Strength Training 101: How to Build Muscle and Strength Quickly

Strength Training 101: How to Squat Properly

Strength Training 101: How to Deadlift

Strength Training 101: How to Bench Press

Strength Training 101: How to Do a Pull-Up

Strength Training 101: How to Do a Bodyweight Row

Strength Training 101: How to Do a Dip

Strength Training 101: How to Overhead Press

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Footnotes    ( returns to text)

Like this study and this study and this one.

 Gregor Winter: Dimitry Klokov, Ken: Cat Dumbbells, William Marlow: Assorted Weights, Kaleb Fulgham: Dumbbells, W_Minshull: Stormtroopers in Gym, Lego Lifting, Kristina Alexanderson: Teddy Love, Jason Ternus: Stormtrooper Pushups

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