Strength training isn’t just for athletes — it’s for everyone.
It’s an art, journey, and a lifestyle: the art of moving and lifting weight; the journey of overcoming your body’s limitations and struggling to succeed; and the lifestyle of always improving your fitness. Strength training boosts your health, empowers people, and completely transforms lives. If done well, it’s a journey that can last a lifetime.
But that’s why we must do it well. If done incorrectly, you’ll never reach your goals, get frustrated, or worse, deal with aches and injuries. Sadly, I see that on a daily basis: people who come to the gym with great intention and enthusiasm, but struggle to change their bodies because they don’t know how to do it.
Why Strength Training Is So Important Now
We’re living in a new era where bad diets and sedentary lifestyles are the norm. Health problems from obesity are also rampant and starting much earlier in life. According the US Center for Disease Control, 35.9% of Americans over the age of 20 are obese as well as 18.4% percent of kids 12-19. That’s appalling — the damage that does to a person’s body is terrible.
Though you might not be overweight or obese, that doesn’t make these facts any less troubling — it’s crucial to acknowledge and understand the issues before moving on. It might not be you, but it could be someone else you know and love.
Who I Am
I’m Anthony J. Yeung, and I’m a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. On it’s own, it doesn’t mean much, but I’ve invested thousands of hours in studying and interning under top strength coaches, learning, training, and creating my own philosophy. I take a movement-based approach to fitness (influenced by Gray Cook’s Functional Movement Screen) to build functional strength and reach a variety of fitness goals.
I’ve worked at one of the “Top Ten Gyms in America” – rated by Men’s Health – and currently work at Equinox Fitness, frequently lauded as one of the best commercial gyms in the America. I also work with numerous clients including medical professionals at Kaiser Permanente, the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, and Cedars-Sinai; a Grammy-award winner; and a C-Suite member of the Federal Reserve.
Why Strength Training?
People often poo-poo strength training (which I differentiate from the all-encompassing term, “resistance training”) because they think it’s dangerous and/or doesn’t get their desired results — I can assure you that’s not true. In fact, strength training has several distinct benefits:
Asthetic
With strength training, you can get friggin’ swole, yo. Results include (and are not limited to):
- Building muscle
- Melting fat
- Changing your body composition
- Burning a lot of calories
- Improving your body’s ability to divide nutrients
- More opened pickle jars
Athletic
Strength training is crucial in improving your game and preventing injuries. We almost take for granted the physical abilities of professional athletes nowadays — we forget that as recent as thirty years ago, athletes didn’t care much about strength.
Imagine staying healthy the entire season so you can play every minute, quarter, period, or half. Imagine having the strength and endurance to finish a game as strong as you started. Or imagine throwing farther, hitting harder, or jumping higher. Smart, effective strength training can get you there.
Health
Too much to list: improved cholesterol numbers, better heart health, improved metabolism, ligament and tendon strength, stronger bones, improved immune system, reduced rates of Type II diabetes, rehabbing from injuries, elevated moods, amazing sex, etc.
What’s not to love?
What You Will Learn From This Guide
I wrote this guide with one goal: to teach people how to strength train safely, correctly, and effectively.
Here are a few of the many things you will learn with this guide:
- How to design a comprehensive strength and conditioning program from scratch
- How to align your workout program with your goals
- How to systematically change your program to constantly get results
- How to improve your strength, flexibility, and mobility at the same time
- How to effectively train for fat-loss regardless of time restraints
- How to program and perform effective “cardio” routines
- How to troubleshoot (believe me, this is important)
Who Will Benefit From This Guide?
Everyone. Every adult can benefit from incorporating strength training into their exercise routine.
How a Busy Accountant Can Use Strength Training
Say it’s tax season and this person is working 60+ hours a week. She can only go to the gym two times per week for only 30 minutes each time. By using strength training, she can efficiently and effectively leverage her limited workout time to get a lot accomplished. With proper programming and a solid plan (which you will learn from this guide), she can still build muscle, lose fat, and burn a lot of calories. Better yet, she’ll reduce their stress levels, sleep better, and know that she’s still exercising and getting closer to her goals.
How an Oft-Injured Athlete Can Use Strength Training
What about an athlete that hit the Triple Crown of injuries: knees, back, and shoulders? Can an effective strength training routine reduce these issues and even fix the problem?
Absolutely.
With a movement-based approach, an athlete can discover the deficits, imbalances, and weaknesses that are causing the injury and prevent it from reoccurring. With strength training, they can fix those underlying problems, strengthen the muscles and connective tissue in a correct way, and stimulate the body to adapt without injury risk or overtraining. This will help the athlete get back on the field, court, pitch, or ice quickly and back to doing what they love.
A Final Note
I want you to reach your fitness goals. (Actually, scratch that — I want you to crush your fitness goals.) With this 30-part guide, I’m going to take you through each step of strength training so you can build a great foundation and get amazing results. The next post in this series will discuss exactly what strength training is and is not and what you should be doing. I post every Monday and Thursday at 7am Pacific Time. I’m excited to get to know you and answer any questions you have about your own fitness goals and strength training routines.
Till next time!
The Updated Articles List:
The Beginner’s Guide to Strength Training (Part 2 of 30): What It Is and Isn’t
- Strength training is a misunderstood art. Let’s breakdown exactly what it is and what it isn’t. This is a great place to start!
The Beginner’s Guide to Strength Training (Part 3 of 30): Key Mistakes
- I wish I could say strength training was easy and mistake-free. Sadly, it’s not — I’ve probably made every mistake imaginable. Here are a few of the big ones.
The Beginner’s Guide to Strength Training (Part 4 of 30): Conditioning
- Proper conditioning is crucial regardless of your sport or fitness goals. It’s more than just going on a jog or run. Learn the key mistakes that hold people back and how you can avoid them.
The Beginner’s Guide to Strength Training (Part 5 of 30): Assessment
- When planning a trip, you need a starting point. When planning a strength program, you need an assessment. Check out this article to learn more about making sure your program is made for you.
The Beginner’s Guide to Strength Training (Part 6 of 30): Movement Patterns
- The body’s movement can be divided into seven patterns, and every workout program must include exercises from them. Let’s break ’em down.
The Beginner’s Guide to Strength Training (Part 7 of 30): Single vs Double
- Strength coaches debate on all types of things — this article compares single-leg training to double-leg training. What is bilateral training? What is unilateral training? And which one should you do more and less of?
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