Toned arms, perfect glutes and a jawline as sharp as a freshly chiseled statue of a Greek god! Of course, not all of us want or aspire to achieve the type of aesthetic excellence that comes with pumping an endless amount of iron in the gym. Although it’s perfectly fine if you do; some of us just want to be physically stronger as it comes with many mental and physical benefits.
Building physical strength through exercise not only enhances mental health by reducing stress, anxiety, and depression, but it also boosts self-esteem and cognitive function. Additionally, strength training supports longevity by improving overall physical resilience, reducing the risk of chronic diseases, and promoting a longer, healthier life.
We talked to Alyssa Joy-Spence, a Sport and Exercise Science lecturer at Auckland University of Technology (AUT). With her expertise as a powerlifting coach, Alyssa shared with us her views on how you can build muscle this year for those of us at the beginning of our journey. Here are some of the takeaways from our discussion along with a few helpful video clips to get you started.
Progressive Overload
The key to improving your muscular strength is implementing ‘progressive overload’ into your resistance training also known as weight training. Progressive overload is a fundamental principle of weight training that involves gradually increasing the stress placed on your muscles over time. This can be achieved by lifting heavier weights, increasing the number of repetitions or sets, or improving exercise intensity. By consistently challenging your muscles, progressive overload promotes strength, muscle growth, and overall fitness. It’s a key strategy for building strength and avoiding plateaus in your training.
In Practice
You can implement progressive overload into any exercise where weights can be added. For example, you could do a bicep curl and implement progressive overload by slowly increasing the weight of the weights you lift.
However, progressive overload isn’t only limited to free weights. You could also implement progressive overload using a gym machine, such as a leg press machine, where you can gradually increase the weights you lift.
The key is to avoid exercises that rely solely on bodyweight. Instead, focus on incorporating resistance or weights to challenge your muscles effectively. Alyssa said “…bodyweight works for a while. But eventually you would need to add something more to it.”
Resistance Training
Resistance training, also known as strength training, involves using resistance—such as weights, resistance bands, or your own body weight—to build and strengthen muscles. It stimulates muscle growth by creating small tears in the muscle fibers, which then repair and grow stronger. Beyond building muscle, resistance training improves bone density, boosts metabolism, and enhances overall physical performance. It’s a key component of a balanced fitness routine for long-term strength and health. Resistance training can help with:
- Reducing depression and anxiety.
- Reduces the risk of dying from all causes
- Reduces signs and symptoms of chronic diseases
- Builds confidence.
Getting Started
Here is your three step beginner guide to building bigger glutes or just improving your overall body strenght
– Plan an easy exercise schedule
Alyssa suggests that if you are a beginner and you are new to lifting weights, you want to exercise 2-4 days a week on non-consecutive days. The exercises you do should target your major muscle groups. For each day you exercise, you want to do 1-4 sets of 8-12 reps of each exercise where you focus on controlling your movement. Between each set, you would want to have a relatively short rest break of 1-3 minutes.
You might be confused at the terminology used here and wonder what is a set or a rep?
Imagine that you are doing a squat while holding a dumbbell. Each time you squat without resting, that counts as a repetition, or a rep. And when you take a rest, that set of squat repetitions you just did would be called a set.
– Set your goals and choose your exercises
Defining your goals is a great way to start your strength training journey. Do you want to strengthen your upper body or do you just want to define your shape? Whatever your goals may be, this will help shape your exercise routine. For example, if you want to get bigger glutes then you need to do exercises that target the glutes ect.
If you are trying to build your muscular strength, you want to do exercises that target all of the main muscle groups in your body.
These exercises can be divided into four main categories: squat, hinge, (vertical and horizontal) push and (vertical and horizontal) pull. Here are a few of the main muscle-targeting exercises below:
- Squat exercises are, as you can imagine, exercises that involve squatting. These target the front, mainly lower aspect of your lower body. An example of this is a goblet squat
- Hinging exercises are exercises that involve you bending down. An example of this is the Romanian deadlift
- Push exercises are exercises involving your upper body where you push something away from your body. An example of a vertical push exercise would be a dumbbell shoulder press while an example of a horizontal push exercise would be a push up
- Pull exercises are exercises where you move something towards your body. An example of a vertical pull exercise would be a pulldown while an example of a horizontal pull exercise would be a seated row.
- You could also add in a core exercise as well. An example of this is an abdominal crunch
Alyssa added, “You want to try and target…all of your muscle groups at least twice a week. I say at least because again, over time you want to do more, but starting off 2 times a week is wonderful.” Even if you only do these exercises twice a week you would definitely start to see some progress.
– Plan your exercise routine for the day
Now that you know your goal, your schedule, and the type of exercises you want to do, it’s now time to figure out what you’re actually going to do at the gym.
If you were exercising two days a week, you could do two sets of all 7 of your chosen exercises (your squat, hinge, push, pull and core exercises) twice a week.
However, if you decided that you were going to exercise 3 days a week you could split up the exercises you were doing each time. You wouldn’t necessarily need to do all 7 of those exercise categories every single time you went to the gym for that week.
So now you’ve decided on the types of exercises you want to do for the day. When you go to the gym, and you get ready to exercise, you might find yourself looking at the wide variety of weights and thinking to yourself, what should I start with? Should I go with the heavier one? Or the lighter one? What should I do?
Alyssa suggests starting light. You should try and do at least 2-4 sets of 8 reps with the weights you choose.
The easiest way to progress with weights is to make your exercise a bit harder each time by adding “a little bit of weight or to add a rep or two each time you do an exercise.” That is the key to getting stronger and building muscle.
Another important thing to keep in mind is that you should breathe while you exercising. Research has shown that holding your breath while lifting weights can lead to an increase in blood pressure. This can lead to a drop in blood pressure when you’ve finished lifting which can cause people to feel lightheaded or even pass out before your blood pressure goes back to normal. In short, remember to breathe while you’re exercising.
– Be Consistent!
The best training program is one you can be consistent in. Alyssa emphasises that “the most effective program, is one that someone does consistently and for a good length of time.” Additionally, as a beginner, it’s also important to build movement proficiency as well.
Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day. You can’t expect to be able to lift 50 kg as soon as you walk into the gym. Unlike what social media might show you, it takes time and it takes commitment.
So are you up for the challenge? Do you want to become stronger this year?
It starts from today and if you commit from today onwards, you’ll see bigger gains toward your goal by the end of the year.
