Beginner’s Build Part VIII: Choosing Exercises As a Beginner
What makes a good exercise for a beginner?
As far as beginner’s are concerned…
In the last post in the Beginner’s Build Series, we discussed some general concepts for selecting exercises to build muscle.
Now, let’s talk about exercise selection through the perspective of building a beginner program specifically. In my view, there are a few factors that are particularly important for beginner’s to consider:
Functionality (What are you training for?)
Variety (Identifying the best exercises FOR YOU)
Time-Efficiency (What type of results are you looking for?)
Personal Preference (What exercises do you enjoy the most?)
What Are You Training For?
Prior to selecting your exercises, it’s important to consider your reason for resistance training in the first place.
(For details on why you should lift weights, check out Parts 1, 2, and 3 of this series)
If you’re looking to build muscle and strength in general, then you have essentially endless options to pick from when it comes to exercises–there are plenty that work well.
However, if you have a more particular goal in mind–maybe you’re training for a sport or to maintain your ability to complete certain activities when you’re older–then you’ll want to gear your exercise selection in that direction.
For example, if you’re in the general training camp, any combination of quadricep exercises that gives you well-rounded development suffices.
But, if you’re a basketball player looking to improve your performance on the court, you’ll want to choose exercises that more directly translate to your strength on the court. Instead of leg extensions or leg press, you probably want to prioritize lunging and squatting movements that mimic the movements you’ll make on the court.
In this instance, the lunges simulate the explosive steps you take when trying to blow by your defender. And, the squats imitate jumping up to grab a rebound.
This idea of training specificity applies to whatever it is you’re training for, whether that be performing in a particular sport or being able to pick your grandchildren up off of the floor.
Identifying best exercises FOR YOU
Though some exercises tend to work better on average, there’s some variation between individuals. Pull-ups may be the secret to back growth for one person, for example, while they seemingly only work to stimulate the biceps of another person.
For this reason, it makes sense to try out a bunch of exercises over time to identify what works best for you. This is particularly true for beginners, as you don’t have any personal data to go off of.
Though dumbbell rows might give you solid results, you may fare even better with seated rows. And, the only way to find out is to give different exercises a try.
Now, you don’t want to switch exercises too often, because doing so prevents you from making progress with a given movement over time. Instead, it’s probably better to stick with a given exercise for several weeks or months before switching it out.
But, once you’ve given the exercise its due, swap it out to test out another variation of that exercise (i.e. switching from barbell to dumbbell) or an entirely different exercise (i.e. switching from lateral raises to upright rows).
After you cycle through a bunch of exercises, you’ll identify the ones that work the best for you based on your progress, as well as how much you feel those exercises stimulate the muscle of interest.
You’ll also identify which exercises you enjoy the most–we’ll cover this later.
Time-Efficiency
As with most aspects of your beginner training plan, with your exercise selection you have a choice between the more time-efficient route and the more maximal route.
If you’re really looking for the minimum effective dose, you can stick with only multi-joint movements and save a lot of time.
For example, by completing super-sets, where you go back and forth between a multi-joint lower-body movement and a multi-joint upper body movement (ex: alternating between a set of lunges and a set of bench press) you can finish a full-body lift in ~30 minutes or less–even when you’re completing several sets per exercise.
On the other hand, as we mentioned above, you’ll want to incorporate isolation exercises on top of compound exercises if you want more maximal results. This will cost you some more time, but that’s the name of the game.
You can always opt for something in between, as well, where you are getting plenty of results without spending over an hour every time you go to the gym.
Personal Preference
Finally, you want to take personal preference into account when choosing your exercises.
As I mentioned in a previous post, beginners are particularly vulnerable to giving up on the gym because they haven’t ingrained lifting into their weekly routine yet.
For this reason–as well as for pure enjoyment’s sake–you want to keep things enjoyable. One way to do so is by completing the movement patterns that feel the best for you and that you are most driven to improve upon.
Not only will this make hitting those sets easier, it’ll ease the load of getting through exercises you don’t like so much (think: uggghhhh I really don’t want to do these face-pulls, but at least I have hack squats next/tomorrow).
Conclusion
So, as with many aspects of resistance training, you have a lot of options as far as exercise selection goes.
As a beginner, you want to pick exercises that fit your goals, as well as try out a bunch of different ones to identify what works best FOR YOU.
You also want to diversify more or less depending on what type of results you’re after–are you looking for the minimum effective dose, maximal gains, or something in between?
And, maybe above all else, you want to include the exercises you find most enjoyable.
At this point in the Beginner’s Build Series, you’ve identified your goals; you know how much volume, frequency, and reps per set to do; and you have a framework for selecting your exercises.
It’s time to learn how to train: let’s talk technique next.
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