<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to lift weights, walking into the gym (or moseying over to your dumbbells at home) is a good start. But if you want to get stronger over time, you need to give it a bit more thought than that. And that\u2019s why you need a weightlifting program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A program is a prescription for exactly what to do and when to do it, and most lifting programs last weeks to months. (I\u2019d say a four-week program is about the shortest I\u2019ve seen, and 12 weeks is on the longer side.) During that time, you\u2019ll lift a certain number of days each week, you\u2019ll do specific exercises that the program calls for, and you\u2019ll follow the program\u2019s directions to add weight as you get stronger. This is all good stuff, especially if you are a beginner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While some intermediate and advanced lifters can program for themselves, many still use tried-and-true programs, or they ask a coach to write a program for them. Where can you find a program? Well, for starters there are tons of free programs you can download online<\/a>. If you do, read reviews\u2014concentrating on ones from people who have run them and can comment on whether they\u2019re effective. Likewise, there are programs that you can pay to download, programs that you can find in a book, and coaches and clubs that provide programming for a monthly fee, whether online or through an in-person gym.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re new to exercise, writing your own program isn\u2019t likely to be the best option. Here\u2019s more on what a good program will do for you, and why you should consider using one that\u2019s been designed by somebody more experienced than you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We often have more than one goal for our lifting, but you can\u2019t work on everything at once. Maybe you want to get stronger and build more muscle, but also lose some fat, and you want to prevent injuries when you play pickup soccer<\/a>, and you\u2019re thinking about maybe competing in powerlifting<\/a> once you feel strong enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s totally reasonable to have<\/em> all those goals, but you can\u2019t work full-bore on all of them at the same time. You have to pick something to emphasize first. In this case, you\u2019d probably want a program that\u2019s high enough in volume to start building some muscle, which (if it\u2019s well-rounded enough) will also help with the injury prevention and get you started toward being stronger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later, when you change your diet to try to lose some fat, you might want a program that is easier to complete when you\u2019re running on fewer calories (or that lets you adjust based on how you\u2019re feeling that day). And when your first powerlifting meet is coming up, you\u2019ll want to do a block of training that prepares you to be at your best on competition day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you just wander into the gym each day and do what you feel like, you won\u2019t necessarily be focusing on the right things at the right time. Choosing a specific program for each phase of your training will keep you on track. Walk into the gym … ready to set a PR.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019ve started lifting on your own, you probably know one of two recovery strategies<\/a>. Either you work out a different body part each day (chest on monday, legs on tuesday, and so on, the classic \u201cbro split\u201d) or you schedule a rest day after every day that you do hard work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These are fine, but you don\u2019t need to schedule your rest that way<\/a> if you have another way of managing your total workload. For example, a 5-day lifting program might mix easy, medium, and hard days so that you only need a full rest day twice a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, a program will often change the amount of work you do each week. This can mean giving you deloads<\/a> or easy weeks every now and then, and setting you up to walk into the gym on certain days ready to set a PR<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Different goals call for different exercise selections, and your program will account for this. When you\u2019re getting ready for that powerlifting meet, your program will have a lot of squat, bench, and deadlift done to competition standard. But in your base-building phases, you may not be so laser-focused on those three specific lifts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beginners often look at exercise selection in terms of hitting all the muscle groups they can think of, but that\u2019s not always a good strategy. You may forget about something that you really should be working (see: all those memes about bros who skip leg day<\/a>); you may also just not be choosing the right exercises for your goals. A program helps you make sure you\u2019re doing what you need to do….achieve progressive overload, which is essential to improving your strength.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A good program won\u2019t just tell you which exercises to do; it will also tell you how heavy to do them. Some programs prescribe that the weight you lift should be a certain percentage of your max in that lift; others use RPE<\/a>, an effort-based scale where you choose the weight that matches how hard the lift is supposed to feel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are also approaches that blend these ideas or tweak them slightly, like programs that give you a percentage of a \u201ctraining max\u201d that is adjusted separately from your real max, or programs that prescribe a certain range of weights for the day while allowing you to choose the exact number within that range based on how you feel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of these foster progress, because they call on you to notice how much weight you are lifting over time. For an RPE-based program, the weight that was \u201can 8\u201d last year will be heavier than the weight that is \u201can 8\u201d this year. For a percentage-based program, you\u2019re expected to hit a new PR every now and then, which will bump up all your working weights for the next training block.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then there are programs that give you instructions to add a certain amount of weight in a certain timeframe: 5 pounds each workout for a beginner program, perhaps, or 10 pounds to your training max every three weeks, or in other cases you\u2019ll test how many reps you can do at a certain weight to determine whether you go up in weight the following week. All of these give you a way to achieve progressive overload<\/a>, which is essential to improving your strength.Our brains respond really well to crappy rewards, and our bodies respond really well to consistency over time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you\u2019re winging it, there\u2019s no specific reason to go to the gym on a Friday. Maybe you will, maybe you won\u2019t. But if you\u2019re following a program, and Friday is deadlift day, and you really have your heart set on improving your deadlift (or getting a bigger butt, or whatever your goals might be), you won\u2019t skip Friday, because you know how important that is to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having a program means you have a checklist of things to do. It means you have a process goal<\/a> (do all my workouts) in addition to your long-term goal (get a bigger deadlift\/butt). Our brains respond really well to crappy rewards like checkmarks on a schedule<\/a>, and our bodies respond really well to consistency over time<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You can just walk into the gym and wing it, but you won’t make progress for very long. ByBeth Skwarecki If you want to lift weights, walking into the gym (or moseying over to your dumbbells at home) is a good start. But if you want to get stronger over time, you need to give<\/p>\n![\"How](\"https:\/\/img.connatix.com\/22631298-dd91-40d8-9fa9-670b2feeef90\/a296033f-8a99-4586-8773-4d219e97e152.jpg?crop=590:404,smart&width=590&height=404&format=jpeg&quality=60&fit=crop\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a>Do one thing at a time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Do the right amount of work<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Do the right exercises<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Make progress<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Cultivate consistency<\/h2>\n\n\n\n