5 Essential Strength Training Exercises for Beginners
Are you new to the world of Strength Training and wondering where to start? You've come to the right place! Today, we're diving into five essential strength training exercises that every beginner should get to know.
The Importance of Strength Training
Before we jump into the exercises, let's talk about why strength training is so crucial. Not only does it help you build muscle and burn fat, but it also improves your overall health and well-being. From boosting your metabolism to improving bone density, the benefits are incredibly useful especially as we age..
The 5 Essential Exercises
1. Squats
A staple in any strength training or functional fitness routine. Squats are fantastic for working your quads, hamstrings, and glutes.
How to Do It:
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
Lower your body as if you're sitting in a chair.
Keep your back straight and chest up.
Push through your heels to return to the starting position.
2. Deadlifts
Deadlifts are another compound exercise that targets multiple muscle groups, including your back, glutes, and hamstrings.
How to Do It:
Stand with your feet hip-width apart.
Bend at the hips and knees to grab the barbell.
Keep your back straight as you lift the barbell off the ground.
Return to the starting position.
3. Overhead Press
The overhead press is an excellent exercise for building upper body pushing strength, specifically targeting your shoulders, triceps, and upper chest and is a key element in higher skill movements such as the clean and press and other Olympic Lifts such as the Jerk.
How to Do It:
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
Hold the barbell at shoulder height with your palms facing forward in a hybrid front rack with your elbows slightly in front of your shoulders.
Press the barbell overhead until your arms are fully extended driving your chest through your shoulders.
Lower the barbell back to the starting position.
4. Pull-Ups
Pull-ups are excellent for developing your back and biceps and are the pinnacle of upper body pulling strength. There are a no. of variations such as strict, kipping and butterfly, not to mention different hand variations such as chin ups. Let’s focus on the strict pull-up, the mechanics below highlight how to perform but remember when learning you can use assistance methods such as incorporating resistance bands to help or using a low set of rings.
How to Do It:
Grab the pull-up bar with your palms facing away from you and hands outside shoulder height.
Hang with your arms fully extended, bracing your core (for and added challenge hold a hollow position)
Pull yourself up until your chin is above the bar.
Lower yourself back down to the dead hang position.
5. Planks
Last but not least, planks are a fantastic core exercise for strengthening up that midline whilst also engaging your shoulders and back. Midline stability transfers into every other strength lift, so are vital for improving the weights you lift in your workout routines.
How to Do It:
Start in a push-up position.
Lower onto your forearms while keeping your body in a straight line.
Squeeze your abs and glutes whilst maintaining regular breathing, imagine trying to push the floor away from you with your forearms.
Hold the position for a specified amount of time and aim to increase that each time you perform them.
These 5 essential strength exercises appear regularly in our weekly CrossFit classes, so if you are looking to get into strength training contact us to Get Started
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