15 Tips to Start Lifting Weights (Guide for Complete Beginners)

Beginners can expect to see faster results when they start lifting weights the right way!

This guide on how to start lifting weights for beginners shares the ins and outs of a novice’s bodybuilding journey.

Well, first of all, your fitness program should never be a quagmire of perplexity. Whether it’s your workout or diet, you should have proper clarity. 

If you plan to lift the weight, you need to know how to start lifting. Of course, adequate information makes it easier to achieve goals while minimizing the risk.

Lifting weights can power up your muscles. It provides a muscular, toned, stronger, and fitter body. 

Moreover, there’s an intense boost in muscle growth and repair. In other words, you can become muscular in a short duration.

Whatever your goal is, to begin weight lifting, your approach matters. You need to know the basics and important factors to make it effective. Some tips can help complete beginners start lifting weights and get results.

This blog offers a complete guide on how to start lifting weights for beginners. Let’s begin with some key tips.

 

How to Start Lifting Weights for Beginners – 15 Tips

How to start lifting weights for beginners

Knowing certain key factors can offer you an edge. It will help you throughout your weight lifting routine as well. 

Fitness trainers and health experts have an interesting take on the bodybuilding approach. In this section, we’ve summed up the key things discussed by them.

Here are a few tips for a beginner strength training routine at home.

 

#1: Make Up Your Mind

Weight lifting is a mind game as well. Before you include weight training in your routine, you need to prepare yourself mentally. 

Take a deep breath and ease up as you step into the strength training session.

You don’t have to think about others around. Either they are busy with their thing or they aren’t courageous to take on a new challenge.

Chill out!

Keep your focus on your aim to strengthen your body with a weight training workout.

 

#2: Begin With Light Weights

Don’t focus on how heavy others are lifting. Your goal should emphasize your current ability and your future possibility.

It should never depend on your peers’ progress. Don’t let such thoughts take over you.

How to lift weights properly to build muscle?

The key is to lift the light weights in the beginning. You should pick a weight you are comfortable with. Train with it until you think it’s become easier. Afterward, you can go for heavy weights. 

 

#3: Light Weights, But More Reps

Light weights are easier to lift. It doesn’t put huge pressure on your body. So to challenge your limits, you can increase reps.

In the beginning, lift only light weights with fewer reps. As you get comfortable, increase your reps.

High reps add challenge for your muscles. Thus, it benefits your current fitness profile too. It exerts more pressure on your muscle mass. This helps build more muscle.

 

#4: Warm Up First

Whether weight training or bodyweight exercise, you need to warm up. In general, your muscle and joints clog with daily activity. 

Whether muscle sore or body ache, if you directly jump into workouts, it can be troublesome. It can even lead to minor or major injuries.

If you warm up before performing a workout, it releases muscle strain.

Also, it increases blood circulation, which is necessary for the proper flow of nutrients during a workout. You can stretch, do mild cardio, or use a foam roller to warm up.

 

#5: Check Your Posture

The right posture is important for a successful workout. In terms of weight lifting, it becomes highly important.

A little mishap can exert intense pressure on your spine and other major bones and muscle tissues. 

In other words, a wrong form can cause major injury.

From the beginning, when you lift the light load, particularly focus on your form. You can either check yourself in the mirror or record yourself.

You can even take the help of your gym mates. The best would be to have a fitness trainer with you when you train.

 

#6: Rest between Sets

The key is to gain muscle, not exhaust them completely. Some tend to train until they are drained off. This is the wrong approach. 

So, how to lift weights? You should load light with high reps, but in-between sets, take rests.

Rest periods are necessary. It provides your muscle tissues a window to recover quickly. It even prepares your body for the next sets. 

For beginners, you can take 1 minute of rest between sets. Moreover, don’t overexercise or exercise until you are completely out of energy.

 

#7: Add Weights Gradually

Everything has its right time. This theory is also applicable to beginner strength training routine for weight loss.

As you get comfortable with weights, it provides less resistance to your muscle. In other words, your muscles are stronger, and you have reached a plateau.

To accelerate your growth, you need to increase your load. Add some more load to your previous weight. 

While this doesn’t mean you should directly double your weight, increase your load by 5 to 10% to reach the next level.

 

#8: Follow a Workout Duration

You should have a proper workout duration. In general, some tend to work beyond their specified period. 

At first, it seems working, but it leads to intense exhaustion, muscle sores, and irritability. It even increases the risk of injury.

Instead, limit your training duration to 45 minutes. It will prevent overtraining and its consequences.

Moreover, in between sessions, you should take proper rest to provide your body with recovery timing.

 

#9: Workout Schedule

A workout plan goes a long way. It helps achieve your fitness goals while habituating you to gym hours. 

On top of that, following a schedule increases consistency. You can even plan your daily activities and outings according to your workout schedule.

When planning a workout, keep sufficient time for rest and recovery hours as well. Also, you should have an adequate night’s sleep. For help, you can ask your fitness trainer and gym mates.

 

#10: Cool Down Post Workout

Done with your workout?

Don’t jump into another thing right away. Instead, a quick stretch session post-workout is highly effective. It releases muscle strain while lessening tightness and muscle tension. 

On top of that, it elevates your range of motion as well as flexibility.

You must have seen weightlifters stretching their muscles. So, when you’re a beginner or pro, have a cool-down session. 

Instead of stretching, massage, cardio, or foam rollers are also great ways to cool down. Moreover, refuel and hydrate yourself after an active post-workout session.

 

#11: Never Skip Rest Days

When it comes to weight lifting for beginners at home, experts emphasize rest days.

More than your workdays, your rest days are crucial. It provides a window for your body to recover from intense workouts and prepare for the next.

Moreover, consistent workout increases the risk of injury. Most importantly, rest days promote muscle recovery and the repair process. It is the foundation of a successful workout session. 

Rest days activate as well as refresh your exhausted mind and body after a workout. So, never skip rest days.

 

#12: Be Consistent

Working out a day and not working out a whole week? It isn’t a great idea! 

Physical performance depends on your consistency. Even dropping a few days from your workout program can be a huge setback.

So, everyone who has been wondering how to start lifting weights for beginners should have consistency on the top of their list.

Whether you lift light or heavy, it doesn’t matter. The most important thing is consistency. 

Without sufficient effort, you won’t achieve great results. When forming a rule book for weight lifting for beginners male or female, consistency matters most.

 

#13: Maintain A Gym Log

Whether you train with weights or have any other resistance workout in your routine, a gym log is important. 

It helps analyze your progress. So, keep track of your workouts, your reps, sets, equipment, and weights you use to perform each workout.

Keep a special check on major changes such as elevating weights. You can use numerous fitness apps online. Or you can take a diary and pen to the gym to measure your progress.

 

#14: Keep Your Workouts Simple

People take weight lifting seriously. Sometimes, this can lead to complexity. 

Lifters perform multiple workouts with equipment without getting sufficient results. This does nothing but wastes your time and effort. So, how to lift weights for beginners?

Beginners should prioritize simplicity over anything. First, upskill yourself with simple moves. Then, you can perform compound exercises and other complicated workouts.

 

#15: Pre and Post-Workout Nutrition

Whether you hit the gym or perform at-home exercises, your nutrition determines your fitness. You need to pay attention to what you are feeding yourself. 

Workouts can also cause huge water loss. So, you should hydrate yourself before and after to replenish the water lost through sweat.

You can even use a pre-workout drink to increase your performance. Moreover, you can use post-workout drinks or snacks to refuel the lost energy after you wrap up.

Hopefully, these tips on how to start weight training will be enlightening for you. Although they discuss minor factors, they can make a huge impact.

For instance, your form determines the outcome of your lifts. A little mishap can cause injury.

Nutrition is also a crucial factor whether weight lifting for beginners female or male. 

Remember these tips on how to start lifting weights for beginners, and you are all set. 

Apart from knowing how to start strength training at home, you need to know how to get maximum results. According to various reports, a dynamic training program is more effective in delivering results than following one fitness plan.

This just helps balance things out and helps you reap different physical benefits. 

Let’s check out other factors to focus on when weight training at home for ladies and men.

 

Exercises to Do with Weightlifting for Maximum Results

Don’t rely on one thing to improve your fitness level.

Instead, diversify your workout program to reap benefits from your efforts. Thus, fitness trainers recommend all-around fitness programs rather than focusing on one kind of workout.

Here’s what to do along with strength training when you’ve just started lifting weights as a beginner.

#1. Cardio

The very first option is cardio. The workout program improves cardiac health, circulation, and blood pressure. 

You don’t even have to make complicated moves. In contrast, you have to perform simple activities.

This includes swimming, walking, strolling, hiking, cycling, and more. You can even play a sport. 

Indeed, cardio is something fun. You must already be doing it. From now on, try to have proper cardio sessions for maximum benefits.

 

#2. Active Recovery

In general, the perception of recovery is doubtful. Passive recovery means being idle and not doing anything.

This shifts your body to still mode, resulting in different downsides. Passive recovery is a thing of the past.

Now, fitness trainers recommend active recovery because they are aware of its importance. It isn’t something complex.

It involves maintaining a minimum activity to induce blood flow and to keep your muscles active. 

You can walk, perform gentle yoga, massage, or use foam rollers. These are great for active recovery sessions.

 

#3. NEAT Exercise

NEAT is most effective to achieve your weight loss target. Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) involves multiple daily activities, which we don’t count, but they burn major calories throughout the day.

Sometimes, they end up eliminating more calories than your 45-minutes workout session.

Some common NEAT activities include using stairs instead of the lift, using public transport, walking, or standing instead of sitting.

RELATED: How to Increase NEAT Activity

All in all, you should perform cardio, NEAT, and active recovery to boost your physical performance. Our guide on how to start lifting weights for beginners ends here. It’s time to sum up important points.

 

How to Begin Weight Training for Beginners: Final Words

When it comes to lifting weights, many doubts can enter your mind. 

How to start strength training? How much weight should you lift? What time it can take to offer results? And so on…

Knowing the actual facts can keep you many steps ahead. The motive of this blog was to guide you with the basics of weight lifting before you actually jump into it.

Misinformation can be fatal for a beginner. It can also subject you to weight lifting injuries.

Meanwhile, with the right information, your progress will stay on the right path. Eventually, you will reap the benefits of weightlifting quickly.

This blog on starting weightlifting for beginners will be helpful for you if you are set in your mind. A strong mind and consistency can definitely help you reach your fitness goals.

If you found this useful, do not forget to rate the blog and leave your comments down below. 

 

Rate this post

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *