Overview

The Starter Program is a 52 week program for novices and folks who haven’t run a structured, intentional resistance training program before.

There are 5 phases, progressively introducing more work and training concepts.

Each phase can be thought of as a modular component which can be shortened or extended depending on your training experience.

This is designed as a once off program; you should not be repeating this program upon completion. More details in the what’s next section.

Why does this program exist?

There are some common roadblocks that novices face with many typical ‘starting out’ programs.

Immediately jumping into the deep end

Many popular programs being recommended here are not designed for true novices. Rather, they are typically suitable for folks new to the gym but with a healthy dose of an athletic background.

Let’s backtrack for a second. Say we classify trainees across five ranks: novices → beginners → intermediates → advanced → elite. In essence, these programs are beginner programs masquerading as novice programs.

When you’ve been in the gym for years it’s easy to forget how daunting it is simply with Googling, selecting, signing up, and figuring out how to travel to a commercial gym. Not to mention feeling intimidated with not knowing how to use all the equipment, and worrying about being judged inside the gym.

The Starter Program addresses this by having the first 4 weeks to get us mentally ready to enter a gym. We’re also not sitting idly on our hands, by practising what we can at home we’ll have some idea of where to start once we’re in a gym. Finally, different equipment and exercises are gradually introduced across the program, allowing you to familiarise with one before moving on to the next.

Keeping it permanently too easy

Conversely, too many follow along home programs and workouts have the opposite issue. It’s simply not building you up to progress beyond a novice.

The tricky thing here is you may indeed see some modest results – at first. It’s very likely though that fairly soon you’ll find yourself stuck in a plateau and be left wondering why. The way to stop spinning your wheels also leads to the next point…

These programs and methodologies are doing a disservice by (either explicitly or implicitly) pushing the false narrative that a commercial gym is for ‘serious’ lifters only. It is exactly the opposite – it’s precisely when you’re starting out that you need the most equipment to allow appropriate regressions. The appropriate loading and regressions ensure efficient progress to allow you to break past plateaus.

The Starter Program addresses this by emphasising the need for a commercial gym sooner rather than later. After we step foot into a gym, we will still need a gradual but steady increase in load and repetitions of exercises. This is necessary for progress, and specific parameters and guidelines are suggested below.

Program Outline

Phases Breakdown

Phase 1

We’ll start small and simple.

For the first 4 weeks, just start with walking daily – intentional power walking. Starting from week 3, continue the walking and add in a bodyweight circuit that can be done at home. This should take 10 minutes or less.

Phase 2

Access to a commercial gym at this stage will be required from this point.

For 8 weeks, gym twice a week. We’ll use pin loaded machines to start learning the fundamental compound movement patterns. This replaces the daily home bodyweight circuits, which is now moved to the beginning of the gym workouts as a warm-up.

Phase 3

For beginners, you may want to skip phase 1 and 2 and start here.

For 8 weeks, continue to gym now at three times a week. We’ll replace the pin loaded machines with a mixture of dumbbells, cables, and kettlebells to go through the same movement patterns with different, slightly more complex, exercises. Isolation movements are introduced here.

Phase 4

For 16 weeks, maintain the frequency at three times a week. Barbell exercises (or the specialty bars mentioned) for the lower body are introduced here. We’ll continue going through a variety of compound and isolation movements.

Phase 5

For 16 weeks maintain the frequency at three times a week. Bodyweight exercises are introduced here. We’ll bring everything together, training balanced full body sessions that include compound and isolation movements, using a variety of barbells, dumbbells, machines, cables and bodyweight exercises.

Numbers Breakdown

For those who prefer tables and numbers, the above summary looks like this:

Movement to exercise conversion

Considerations

Starting the program

If you’re diving right into this on the first day that’s free for you, go right ahead to the next section. That’s a great approach.

If you’re planning this program during November or December with an eye towards a 1 January new year’s gym resolution, I strongly recommend seeing if you can start on the first or second week of December. Then if you need to pause for a week or two while the holidays come around, do so and resume on January 1st or 2nd or some such. This way you have an extra week or two in your back pocket.

Skipped a day/week/fortnight, what to do?

Given this is a 52 week program, you’re going to expect that life isn’t going to go exactly according to plan.

Whether it’s illness, holiday, or just getting a little slack, life happens.

Generally speaking the best approach is to pick up as soon you can, and continue on where you left off.

If you find you’re skipping upwards of 2 months worth of training, you’ll probably want to back fill this time and re-assess if your goals, priorities, and expectations are aligned.

Phase 1

Quick Stats

• Build a habit of intentional physical activity
• Be more awareness of your exercise, diet, and sleep routines
• Find and select a commercial gym for the next phase

Details

This phase is designed to ease a totally sedentary novice into getting used to the idea of going to a gym. Before you spend your hard earned money on a gym membership, it makes sense to build up the habits required to get the most of it.

Week 1

The first thing we’re going to want to do is increase your overall physical activity levels throughout the day. In other words, you’re going to focus on walking more and counting your steps.

Each day, put away a small chunk of time to intentionally power walk. To make things slightly less monotone, you can alternate between 5 or 10 minutes each day, with one day a week going for 15 minutes.

At some point during the week, take a couple of minutes to think about your step count throughout the week, and how you could gradually increase this. Some ideas include:

• making a habit of getting up for a 2 minute walk every hour (a smartwatch might help as a reminder here)
• taking a lunchtime walk round the block or park
• taking an evening walk
• using the stairs instead of lifts
• parking your car one further block away
• walking to the shops or supermarkets

The goal here is to start building awareness of your current levels of exercise, and what is realistically attainable in the near future.

Week 2

Continue with the daily intentional walks, increasing the duration by 5 minutes each day.

At some point during the week, take a couple of minutes to think about your diet throughout a typical week, and how you may be able to improve this. I’m confident in stating everybody out there, even those not interested in fitness culture, has a basic understanding of what constitutes a good diet. (In contrast to exercise, where misinformation abounds in popular culture). So what you imagine works, probably works:

• eat a large quantity and variety of vegetables
• get a reasonable variety of white meats, seafood, low fat dairy, nuts, seeds, whole grains, legumes, fruits
• think a roughly 8 out of 10 ratio of clean foods versus processed and junk foods
• don’t fall for fads and trends. If you specifically want a ‘named’ diet to follow, follow the Mediterranean diet or DASH eating plan

The goal here is to start building awareness of your current diet, and what is realistically attainable in the near future.

Week 3

Continue with the daily intentional walks. A reminder that it doesn’t strictly need to be done in one go for those of you with busy schedules. Instead start paying more attention to your step count with your favourite phone and/or smart watch. If you’re under 6000 steps, the goal is to increase your daily average by 5-10% each week.

We’re also going to add in a simple bodyweight circuit (see below) to be done daily. Find a time that you can maintain as consistently as possible.

At some point during the week, take a couple of minutes to think about how many hours a sleep you’re getting on average, and how you may be able to increase this. We’ll keep the suggestions simple:

• have a sleep ritual – this could be anything from reading a book, drinking caffeine-free tea, face masks
• turn on night lights on your screens
• generally lower the brightness of screens and turn off some lights an hour before bed
• keep the temperature a few degrees cooler in your bedroom
• have some airflow such as a fan in your bedroom
• black out your bedroom – the darkest curtains possible, duct tape on any electronic stuff with a flashing light (power cords, phone chargers, etc)

The goal here is to start building awareness of your sleep, and what is realistically attainable in the near future.

There’s one more thing you will want to do and that is to Google around and decide on a gym that is nearby and within budget. You may want to budget a bit of time to research, visit a few places, and make a decision.

Week 4

Continue with the daily intentional walks. Again if you’re under 6000 steps, the goal is to increase your daily average by 5-10% each week.

Continue with the bodyweight circuit.

At some point during the week, take a couple of minutes to think about current stressors in your life, and how you may be able to reduce this. We’ll keep the suggestions simple:

• Physical contact. Hug your partner, family, friends. If not, get a massage
• Zone out with a passive activity. Watching your favourite comedy or reality TV, music, podcast. Not something where you are mentally active and creative
• Fresh air. Ensure you are getting a walk under sunlight or at least moonlight every day (not just indoors)

The goal here is to start building awareness of your current levels of stress, and how much we can realistically reduce this in the near future.

Take the time to mentally lock in the gym you picked out last week and figure out an exact day to start the membership.

Hopefully, 4 weeks have passed and you feel like you’re in a better place to start gymming!

The bodyweight circuit

This routine might look a bit different to other home exercise workouts you’ve seen. This is not a full body workout with a push, pull, squat and hinge movement patterns. As a novice you can’t have an effective resistance training session without equipment anyway (in fact the newer you are the more difficult it becomes), so there’s no point in pretending this is something it’s not.

What we can do though is work on mobility, positioning, and breathing drills that not only are useful now, but more importantly will have long-term utility even after we transition to a commercial gym.

• Breathing
  • Lying on the floor – breath in and out
  • 4 breaths focusing on intra-thoracic pressure
  • 4 breaths focusing on intra-abdominal pressure
  • 4 breaths focusing on pelvic floor control
• Dead bug
  • Press the lower back onto the ground and brace
  • Hold for 10-15 seconds
• Glute bridge
  • Do 10 slow reps, squeezing the glutes with each rep
• Cat cow
  • Do 5 slow reps, driving the butt up and then rounding your upper back by pushing your shoulders through
• Reverse lunge
  • Do 5 slow reps on each side, taking your time to feel a stretch and keeping your lower back neutral
• Squat
  • Do anywhere between 5 to 30 reps, and stop before you feel any change in your form
  • Keep your weight evenly across your feet, on both the balls and heels of your feet across the entire motion
  • Squat down as low as you comfortably can while keeping even pressure on your feet
  • It’s ok to end with your hips above your knees or simply at parallel

Sample

Monthly View

What can I add?

• You can start the bodyweight circuit on day 1 instead of day 15

What can I modify?

• Any or all of the walking could be replaced by cycling

What can I remove?

• Not much, this is as bare bones as can be

Why is this phase here?

• Think the tortoise and the hare. The key point is to build up sustainable habits, and awareness of your physical activity, diet, sleep, and stress levels. All of these have a deeply entwined relationship with your short-term and long-term progress, so it pays to start thinking about it early.

Phase 2

Quick Stats

• 8 week phase for a total of 16 sessions
• Minimum time commitment of 2x a week, 30-45 mins per session
• 5 movements of squat, horizontal push, horizontal pull, vertical push, and vertical pull
• A commercial gym is required, the focus here will be pin loaded machines

in order to…

• Building basic movement patterns with assistance

Details

For some of you this may be the first time you set foot in a commercial gym. For others it may be a new attempt at following a structured program to progress you onto bigger and better things.

The first thing you’ll want to do is do a simple warm-up. Now I don’t want to overemphasis its importance, as ‘correct’ warm-ups have probably been given too much focus in popular culture culture. But certainly it’s not a bad idea to do for a few minutes. There’s also the added bonus of getting familiar with the cardio equipment.

Warm-up

• 2-3 mins on a cardio machine (treadmill, stair climber, bike, row-erg, ski-erg)
• The bodyweight circuit

Here’s our basic warm-up prescription. It’s very straightforward, intentionally so, and the whole thing should take 5 minutes or less. If you belong to a higher risk group (e.g. significantly overweight, above 40 years of age without any physical activity), you can double the duration.

As you can see, the bodyweight circuit we’ve been practising for the past couple of weeks neatly segues in.

Main work

We’re now ready to do the main workout.

You’re going to want to head to the machines area of the gym and find these machines:

• Seated Leg Press
• Seated Machine Row
• Seated Chest Press
• Assisted Dip/Pull-up

Specifically, we’re looking for the pin loaded machines as opposed to the plate loaded machines if available.

Honestly, the order in which we run through these couple of exercises is not a big deal at this stage. But let’s start with the Seated Leg Press, because in Phase 3 the exercise order does matter a little more, so we might as well get used to it now.

Seated Leg Press

The leg press works your quads, and to a lesser extent your glutes.

The key points to note on setup:

• Drive your feet evenly into the pad through
• Keep your knees and toes aligned throughout the movement

Seated Row and Assisted Pull-up

The seated row works your back, and to a lesser extent your biceps.

The key points to note on setup:

• Drive back with your elbows

Seated Chest Press and Assisted Dip

The chest press works your chest, shoulders, and triceps.

The key points to note on setup:

• Keep your chest up
• Keep shoulders down and back, with elbows around midway down

How to Progress

The key thing to note here is the load on the machines and the repetition range.

Starting out, you’re going to select a weight that feels nice and easy, something you can do for 15 reps or so comfortably. You might need to experiment a bit to figure this out!

For guys, it’s likely going to be around the 2nd to 4th lightest pins on the machine. For girls, it’s likely going to be around the 1st to 3rd lightest pins on the machine. There’s nothing wrong at all if you’re below or above this either.

As a reminder, we have 16 sessions (the standard approach to ease us in) or 24 sessions (preferred, if you can make the time) with this phase. After session 1, we will slowly progress the load and the reps. Here’s an example.

• Session 1: 15 reps at x weight
• Session 2: 8 reps at x + 2-2.5kg
• Session 3: 10 reps at x + 2-2.5kg
• Session 4: 12 reps at x + 2-2.5kg
• Session 5: 15 reps at x + 2-2.5kg
• Session 6: 8 reps at x + 4-5kg
• and so on to Session 16 or 24

Get the idea?

The magic numbers (at this stage) are 8, 10, 12, and 15.

Weight increases are done modestly, 1 pin at a time. This will be dependent on your exact machine but it’s likely between 2-2.5kg per jump.

Now, if you’re feeling comfortable and the weights feel light, you can jump ahead a bit. This is where you’re going to have to use your own judgement and discretion.

I strongly suggest at least touching each weight jump once. Here’s an example if the weights feel way too easy. For the sake of simplicity we’re just going to assume 2.5kg increments.

• Session 1: 15 reps at 5kg
• Session 2: 15 reps at 7.5kg
• Session 3: 15 reps at 10kg
• Session 4: 15 reps at 12.5kg
• Session 5: 15 reps at 15kg
• Session 6: 15 reps at 17.5kg
• and so on to Session 16 or 24

Sample

Session view

Weekly view

What can I add?

If you’re already raring to go – that’s great! Some simple additions include:

• Go with 3x a week training – this will have a significant effect on progress
• Add 1 extra set to each exercise – this will add around ~10 mins and have a moderate effect on progress

What can I modify?

• Plate loaded machines can be used as a replacement for pin loaded machines with minimal difference, just requiring a bit more time to set up the weights
• At a pinch, if the equipment is taken dumbbell or bodyweight equivalent exercises can be substituted in. Ideally though, we avoid this for now
• The duration of the phase can be increased by a week or two (if you feel you need more practice) or decreased by a week or two (if you’re finding it consistently too easy).

What can I remove?

• Not much, this phase is already extremely bare bones

Why is this phase here?

There’s a couple of big benefits starting with machines. The key point is the movement plane is locked in, thus reducing the possibility of moving ‘wrong’ (more on that later). At this stage, basically anything will allow us to make progress, and so it makes sense to choose exercises that have a lower probability that we have to re-learn down the line, due to less complexity.

I don’t want to make this out to be a huge deal, the human body is very resilient and certainly some respected coaches have also advocated diving straight into the deep end. Ultimately though, I advocate for this slow and steady approach.

In addition to a commercial gym being statistically very safe compared to almost any other sport for instance, there’s even lower risk of injury with machines than free weight exercises.

Finally, despite what you may hear from some vocal minorities, there’s nothing wrong with machines and if you’re worried it’s too easy – just add a couple of kilos to the loads on the machine until it starts feeling difficult.

Phase 3

Quick Stats

• 8 week phase for a total of 24 sessions
• Minimum time commitment of 3x a week, 30-45 mins per session
• 6 compound movements of squat, hinge, horizontal push, horizontal pull, vertical push, and vertical pull + isolation exercises
• A commercial gym is required, the equipment used will be
  • dumbbells on a bench for upper body pushing exercises
  • lat pulldown and seated cable row for upper body pulling exercises
  • kettlebells and aerobic steps / jump boxes for lower body squatting and hinging

in order to…

• Build on basic compound movement patterns without assistance from the fixed bar path of machines
• Add isolation movements
• Introduce supersets (doing two exercises back to back with minimal rest) for time efficiency

Details

You should now be comfortable with the routine of going to the gym and finding at least the machines you’ve worked with in Phase 2.

The warm-ups remain the same as in Phase 2.

You’ll notice that the 5 movements from phase 2 now becomes 6 movements.

• The Seated Machine Press becomes a DB Bench
• The Assisted Dip becomes a Seated DB Shoulder Press
• The Seated Machine Row becomes a Seated Cable Row
• The Assisted Pull-up becomes a Lat Pulldown
• The Leg Press becomes an Elevated KB squat
• A new addition – a Deficit KB Deadlift
• Isolation exercises will also be introduced here.

Much of the form cues remain the same as in phase 2, so we’re not going to repeat all that here. In sum:

• For pushing exercises, keep the chest up and don’t flare the elbows – keep them around a 45 degree angle from shoulder to hips.
• For pulling exercises, keep the chest up and drive with your elbows.
• For squatting and hinging exercises, keep a neutral spine and your weight centred mid foot.

Elevated KB Squat

This is new to us and bears a mention.

You’re going to try to find two step up boxes or an equivalent stable platform, to put one feet on each. A 20 or 30cm height would be ideal here. The key point being there’s space in between for the kettlebell to rest on the ground.

If you can’t find the equipment, a normal KB Squat from the ground is fine as well.

Deficit KB Deadlift

You’re going to try to find one step up box or an equivalent stable platform, to rest the kettlebell on. A 20 or 30cm height would be ideal here.

If you can’t find the equipment, a normal DB deadlift from the ground is fine as well.

How to Progress

Same as Phase 2, the reps would be ramped up from 8, to 10, to 12, to 15. Then the load of the exercise will be bumped up by 2-2.5kg. If you do get stuck, don’t fret. Just stick to the same load and rep and try again next time.

Isolation movements are also introduced gradually. It will look like this:

Week	Session A	Session B	Session C
Week 1	Compound movements	Compound movements	Compound movements
Week 2	Compound movements Abs	Compound movements Side delts	Compound movements Calves
Week 3	Compound movements Abs Glutes	Compound movements Side delts Biceps	Compound movements Calves Hamstrings
Week 4	Compound movements Abs Glutes Erectors	Compound movements Side delts Biceps Triceps	Compound movements Calves Hamstrings Quadriceps

Weeks 5-8 will stabilise and look the same as week 4, again simply focus on methodically increasing reps and load.

Sample

Session A view (starting on week 4)

Session B view (starting on week 4)

Session C view (starting on week 4)

Weekly view

What can I add?

• This will be referenced in other sections of the guide but if weight loss is your primary goal this is a good time to add intentional cardio to the mix. This can be done immediately after the strength work in the gym, or on separate days – base this off your life schedule and what is more convenient for you.

What can I modify?

• The kettlebell squat and deadlift is just one variation – dumbbells are reasonable substitutes.
• If equipment is unavailable, plate loaded machines and bodyweight exercises can be substituted. Bodyweight exercises will probably make more sense for folks who are lighter in bodyweight.
• If jump boxes or benches are unavailable, a free-standing kettlebell or dumbbell squat and deadlift is of course fine.
• If your gym is very busy, the supersets may need to be removed in favour of straight sets (completing one exercise at a time).
• The duration of the phase can be increased by a week or two (if you feel you need more practice) or decreased by a week or two (if you’re finding it consistently too easy).

What can I remove?

• If you’re short on time, the isolation work (everything except the push, pull, squat, hinge) can be combo’d together as giant sets. This is inadvisable for repeated sessions and should only be done sparingly.
• If you’re very short on time, the lower body work can also be combined with the upper body superset to create a 3 exercise giant set sequence. It’d look like this:
  • Squat, rest 30 secs, DB Bench, rest 30 secs, seated cable row, rest 1.5 min. Repeat.
• The frequency can be bumped down from 3x a week to 2x a week. This is a last resort option.

Why is this phase here?

• The hinge is intentionally introduced a little later, as out of the common movement patterns it’s the easiest to do poorly for many people.
• Isolation exercises are introduced early so that you can start to familiarise with different movements, such as elbow flexion / extension and knee flexion / extension. There’s a school of thought that isolation exercises are for advanced individuals only, which in my humble opinion – is simply baloney. The effort and time investment of 1 or 2 sets of bicep curls is near non-existent, and when you’re starting out regularly being exposed to greater movement variety is a good (some would say necessary) thing.
• In particular, we are specifically working on a few movements to target some common issues with general population, untrained folks, such as a variety of low back pain. Just to repeat – if you have sharp, persistent pain, please see a physiotherapist. However, if it’s a mild ache or twinge here and there, it’s very likely stemming from weak musculature. We will take this logical approach:
  • Learn to engage your abs (that’s what the ab exercise is for)
  • Learn to engage your glutes (that’s what the glute exercise is for)
  • Directly strengthen your lower back (that’s what the lower back exercise is for)

Phase 4

Quick Stats

• 16 week phase for a total of 48 sessions
• Minimum time commitment of 3x a week, 30-45 mins per session
• 18 movements, including both compound and isolation
• A commercial gym is required, the equipment used will be
  • dumbbells on a bench for upper body pushing exercises
  • lat pulldown and seated cable row for upper body pulling exercises
  • barbell or safety squat bar and trap bar respectively for lower body squatting and hinging

in order to…

• Get stronger on the lower body compound movements with a lower rep range
• Decrease number of exercises to increase the number of sets per exercise

Details

This is the point where things start getting heavier.

The warm-ups remain the same as in Phase 2 and 3.

The session structure will see some change from Phase 3. Most notably, we will cease having all 6 compound movements in a single session. As we grow in experience and strength, it’s going to be come apparent you can’t cram in every single movement in every single session.

Instead, we will have 3 compound movements per session instead.

The introduction of barbells (or barbell equivalents) will allow us to work our lower body more effectively. Indeed I actually recommend the specialty bars, safety squat bar for squats and trap bar for Romanian deadlifts, as a marginally better option than the standard barbell for where we are right now. Of course if your gym doesn’t have those, have no fear and a barbell is a time tested and worthy option.

The rep range will also see a change. Now for the squats and the hinges we are going to change the rep range from 8-15 down to 5-10.

Barbell Squat / Safety Bar Squat

The cues remain very similar to squatting with a kettlebell. Take a deep abdominal breath, keep the weight centred across your entire foot, and squat down.

Barbell Romanian Deadlift / Trap Bar Romanian Deadlift

The cues remain very similar to hinging with a kettlebell. Push the hips back and feel the stretch on the hamstrings.

How to Progress

Same as Phase 3.

You’ll notice now that all exercises are touched on once a week, with three exceptions. The Squat, the DB Bench, and the Seated Cable Row.

These will be repeated twice a week, but the progression model remains unchanged. Continue doing what you’re doing by slowly increasing reps and loads, never rushing the process.

The squats and deadlifts require a special mention. You’ll see the suggested rep range is now 5-10.

Similar to how the ‘magic numbers’ before were 8, 10, 12, and 15, the numbers to shoot for here are 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. Yes, that’s potentially all of them.

Again if the weights feel light, feel free to jump up a few at a time. If it’s a challenge, simply go up steadily one at a time.

If you’re a guy, you might want to consider 2.5kg or 5kg increases when you increase weight on the bar.

If you’re a girl, you’ll likely want to stick to 2.5kg increases when you increase weight on the bar.

Sample

Session A View

Session B View

Session C View

Weekly View

What can I add?

• Again, if you haven’t already some modest cardio either on an off day or after your resistance training is an excellent option.
• Take your time with the warm-ups (a few extra minutes), take your time with resting between sets (an extra 30 seconds than listed), and then put all your effort and energy into pushing your hardest on each set for each exercise. This would go along nicely with adding 1 set to each exercise as well.

What can I modify?

• In general, at this stage you can freely swap exercises between dumbbells, plate loaded machines, pin loaded machines, and cables, dependent on what your gym has and what’s actually available to use.
• Specifically, the barbells vs the specialty bars can be freely substituted with each other.
• The supersets should always be considered optional, especially if your gym is busy.
• The duration of the phase can be increased by a week or two (if you feel you need more practice) or decreased by a week or two (if you’re finding it consistently too easy).

What can I remove?

• If you’re short on time, the isolation work (everything except the push, pull, squat, hinge) can be combo’d together as giant sets. This is inadvisable for repeated sessions and should only be done sparingly.
• If you’re very short on time, the lower body work can also be combined with the upper body superset to create a 3 exercise giant set sequence.

Why is this phase here?

• Barbells or specialty bars are introduced for their many benefits. Chiefly, it allows you to increase weight and really push the larger muscles of the lower body, and introduce more instability compared to machines. As great as it is though we specifically staggered its introduction till this point in order to build a baseline level of strength and control first.
• We are also reinforcing the concept that as you advance in training experience, certain variables have to change. For example, the number of exercises per session now reduces to allow us to focus on less, but for more weight and higher quality. You’ll also notice the rest times in between sets begin to creep up. This is an inevitable point as we slowly gain experience – you cannot rest 1 minute between every set on every exercise forever!

Phase 5

Quick Stats

• 16 week phase for a total of 48 sessions
• Minimum time commitment of 3x a week, 45-60 mins per session
• 18 movements
• A commercial gym is required, the equipment used will be
  • dumbbells on a bench for upper body pushing exercises
  • lat pulldown and seated cable row for upper body pulling exercises
  • barbell or safety squat bar and trap bar respectively for lower body squatting and hinging
  • bodyweight on a pull-up bar and on the ground

in order to…

• Be familiar and comfortable with using barbells, dumbbells, machines, cables, and bodyweight exercises
• Understand how to train your entire body now and keep working on slow steady progress on load and reps

Details

Same drill as before, not much will have changed from Phase 4.

The big difference is the introduction of a bodyweight exercise as the first exercise of the session.

Push-up

Pull-up

Shrimp squat

How to Progress

You’ll notice the bodyweight movements have a distinct rep range of only 1-5 and a shorter rest time. What we’re really saying here is

The rest will remain the same as Phase 4.

Sample

Session A View

Session B View

Session C View

Weekly View

What can I add?

• Again, if you haven’t already some modest cardio either on an off day or after your resistance training is an excellent option.
• Take your time with the warm-ups (a few extra minutes), take your time with resting between sets (an extra 30 seconds than listed), and then put all your effort and energy into pushing your hardest on each set for each exercise. This would go along nicely with adding 1 set to each exercise as well.

What can I modify?

• In general, at this stage you can freely swap exercises between dumbbells, plate loaded machines, pin loaded machines, and cables, dependent on what your gym has and what’s actually available to use.
• The supersets should always be considered optional, especially if your gym is busy.
• The duration of the phase can be increased by a week or two (if you feel you need more practice) or decreased by a week or two (if you’re finding it consistently too easy).

What can I remove?

• If you’re short on time, the isolation work (everything except the push, pull, squat, hinge) can be combo’d together as giant sets. This is inadvisable for repeated sessions and should only be done sparingly.
• If you’re very short on time, the lower body work can also be combined with the upper body superset to create a 3 exercise giant set sequence.

Why is this phase here?

• Bodyweight exercises are actually introduced last. There’s a couple of reasons for this. A big one is this program is designed to suit a wide demographic. If you’re young, male, and relatively low in bodyweight, there’s a good chance you could have jumped straight into bodyweight exercises sooner. The further away you are from this, the more potential difficulty you might face. Further, just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Our methodical approach of starting with higher stability movements with fixed bar paths into less stable movements like barbells and bodyweight will still serve to build a better base of strength and control. This way, you can jump straight into aiming to get great reps with high quality, not just straining to do the exercise.
• Tying it all together. It’s important to realise there should be no dogma about equipment (or exercise, or rep range, or set range, and so on). Doing a barbell only program isn’t inherently better. Sticking to bodyweight only isn’t magically superior. (That is of course you have logistical limitations of say wanting to do a workout in a home gym with less equipment, but that’s a different story.) We want to get used to training with barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, pin loaded machines, plate loaded machines, cables, and bodyweight, using a variety and tailoring it to our goals.

What’s Next

You’ve now spent roughly a year (or perhaps a tad more) on your fitness and gym journey. What comes next?

You should be looking at migrating to another program – most likely a program that’s designed to be repeatable to a certain extent that can be run sustainably in the short to medium term.

For recommendations on my programs see the Standard Programs (recommended), Minimalist Programs, or Enthusiast Programs.

For recommendations on other programs see the Resources section.