Resistance Training

A Quick Primer

Always check with your doctor before starting an exercise program and seek advice from a certified trainer.

Hi! I’m Evy

I stumbled into marketing and grew to love this profession for its potential to inspire change. Marketers tap into our deepest desires and shape societal norms. It's a power that has been misused by the fitness industry–confusing the hell out of everyone trying to look good and feel great. It's my dream that everyone has access to BS-free knowledge, tools, and support to pursue strength as effectively as the world's top athletes. Which is what I write about weekly at The Pleasant Box.

Why lift weights?

• Get stronger
• Boosts your self-esteem
• Increase your metabolic rate
• Appear leaner
• Lower risk of injury
• Improves heart health
• Promotes greater mobility and flexibility
• Strengthen bones
• Boosts your mood (reduces anxiety)
• Improved cognitive function

Look good, feel great, move well, age independently.

Muscle Vocabulary: Key Terms

• Strength: ability of a muscle to produce force
• Hypertrophy: increase in muscular size achieved through exercise
• Power: ability to overcome resistance in the shortest period of time
• Muscle Endurance: ability of a muscle to sustain repeated contractions against a resistance for an extended period of time.

​

This stuff use to confuse the heck out of me!

Training Vocabulary: Key Terms

• Resistance Training: Use of resistance to muscular contraction to build the strength, anaerobic endurance and size of skeletal muscles. Also called strength training or weight training.
• Strength Training: Involves the performance of physical exercises that are designed to improve strength and endurance.
• Bodybuilding: A sport involving strenuous physical exercise in order to strengthen and enlarge the muscles of the body.
• Powerbuilding: A combination of two different training styles: powerlifting and bodybuilding. It uses three compound exercises — the deadlift, bench press and squat — to build strength, while bodybuilding exercises help grow muscle size and definition.
• Powerlifting: A sport involving three tests of strength: the bench press, squat, and deadlift. Ironically, it’s not a “power” sport per definition on last slide.
• Olympic Lifting: A sport in which athletes compete in lifting a barbell loaded with weight plates from the ground to overhead consisting of two lifts: Clean & Jerk and Snatch. This is a demonstration of power!

​

This stuff also use to confuse the heck out of me!

Progressive Overload. You must continuously increase your workload to gain strength and muscle.

This is why it’s important to have a plan and write down what you do. It’s how you get results!

How to implement progressive overload

Increase resistance

• Add weight on the bar, do the same number of sets and reps.
• If you squat with 65 pounds on the barbell today, and your form was good, next time move up to 70.

Increase reps

• Do the same weight, and number of sets, but increase the number of reps per set.
• I use this approach a lot for upper body exercises where it can be tough for me to make even a five pound jump.
• It’s ok if it’s just one more rep!

Increase sets

• Keep the same weight on the bar, do the same number of reps per set, and add an extra set.
• If last week you did 3 x 10 reps, next time do 4 x 10 reps

Slow down reps (tempo)

• Slow down your reps so you have more time under tension.
• Sometimes you will see tempo written like this: 3X31 or 33X1.
• The numbers indicate how long to spend in each phase of the movement: eccentric, pause, concentric, pause.
• Example: 33X1 squat means take 3 seconds to descend, pause at the bottom for 3 seconds, explode up, take 1 second reset pause at top.

Reduce rest time between sets

• Do the same weight, sets and reps, but reduce your rest between sets.

Improve form

• Do the same weight, sets and reps, but clean up your form.
• If I feel I’ve compromised good form to make a lift, I’ll repeat the weight the next time I do the lift with the goal to make the reps beautiful.

People, especially women, do not choose weights that are heavy enough for strength and muscle mass gains.

Repeatedly shown in studies! Here, here and here.

Rep Ranges: General guidelines… it’s a spectrum…

1 to 5 reps

6 - 14 reps

15+ reps

Strength

Hypertrophy

Endurance

10 reps per set is a decent place to start as a beginner as it’s going to get you strength and hypertrophy gains.

Load Ranges: General guidelines as % of 1 Rep Max (RM)

80%+

50-79%

30-49%

Heavy

Moderate

Light

If you don’t know your 1RM, and you’re new to lifting you can start by establishing a 10 Rep Max.

Exercise Selection: The Basic Groups

• Hinges: Deadlifts, hip thrusts, good mornings, and back extensions. They are glute, hamstring and lower back dominant.
• Squats: Bodyweight "air squats", back squat, front squats, single leg squats, and lunges. They recruit your glutes, quads and hamstrings.
• Pushing: Vertical pressing such as a shoulder press or horizontal pressing such as a pushup (also incline and decline). Pushing uses your pectorals (chest), triceps, and delts (shoulders).
• Pulling: Vertical such as pull-ups or horizontal such as bent over row or seated rows. Pulling engages your lats, traps (back), delts and biceps.

Extras!

• Carries: Farmer’s carries
• Antirotation: Pallof press
• Rotation: Landmine mower

You can get a great workout with one exercise from each bucket.

How much and how often to lift?

• Weekly training volume matters most.
• You can split your training over one, two, three or four+ days.
• Four is my personal sweet spot.
• Rest days are a required part of the process.
• For new lifters, a minimum of 4 working sets per muscle group per week can be sufficient to see gains. Here’s a story about that!
• For major muscle groups, that equates to ~24 sets per week.
• Ideal would be ~10 working sets per muscle group per week
• For experienced lifters, more volume is usually needed.

​

A beginner can make a ton of progress with only one lifting session per week. Two or three is ideal.

Programming: Many roads lead to your goal

• There is no magic program–the “magic” is progressive overload.
• Programs that include compound lifts (squats, deadlifts, bench press, shoulder press, etc.) are best for building functional strength and saving you time–more bang for your buck!
• I personally like to plan in 3 month chunks (known as a mesocycle) with adjustments every month, especially on accessory lifts and skill work.
• Balance what works (compound lifts, simplicity, consistency) with having fun (movement variety).
• Be clear about your goal and pick one or two per cycle. Example goals could be:
• Get stronger
• Gain muscle
• Get faster
• Work on a weakness
• Develop a new skill

​

Sample One Month Program

Day 1

• Back Squat: 3 x 8 reps
• Shoulder Press: 3 x 12 reps
• Romanian Deadlift: 3 x 10 reps
• Bench Press: 3 x 10 reps
• Bent Over Row: 3 x 12 per side
• Hip Thrusts: 3 x 20 reps

Day 2

• Pull-ups: 3 x 8 reps*
• Step-ups: 3 x 10 reps per side
• Goblet Squats: 3 x 12 reps
• Upright rows: 3 x 8 reps
• Lying Tricep Extensions: 3 x 12 reps
• Bicep Curls: 3 x 15 reps

*Do eccentrics if you don't have one full pull-up yet

Day 3

• Deadlift: 3 x 6 reps
• Pushups: 3 x 12 reps*
• Lunges: 3 x 8 reps per side
• Lat Pulldown: 3 x 10 reps
• Lateral Raises: 3 x 20 reps**
• Banded Lateral Walk: 3 x 10 steps in each direction

*Do eccentrics, only using knees on the up if needed.

**Short breaks are ok

Record your performance and try to go up in weight or reps each week.

Does cardio interfere with resistance training? Studies are unclear. Recommendations: do them on separate days or lift first and do cardio second.

Admirable Social Media Voices in Fitness

• Bill Campbell, PhD (Physique Science)
• Brad Schoenfeld, PhD (Hypertrophy)
• Bret Contreras, PhD (Sports Science - Glutes)*
• Dr. Stacy T. Sims (Female Physiology)
• Andrew Huberman, PhD (Neuroscience Professor)
• Dr. Aaron Horschig aka Squat University (Physical Therapist & Lifter)**
• Sam Sweeney (Personal Trainer)*
• Marcus Filly (Personal Trainer)*
• Molly Galbraith (Personal Trainer)*

*These people sell programming / have apps that I would use.

**His book and YouTube are amazing for navigating injuries.

• Weekly newsletter on physical, personal, and professional strength.
• Workouts posted on Instagram