How to Start Strength Training If You Don’t Want To

Have you ever thought about beginning the process of working out only to stop because you really didn’t know how to start or what to even do?

If you have, it’s ok, you’re in pretty good company. 

I was lost, and I defaulted to what my doctor usually recommended or what I read in articles and magazines which was: to start running. 

Since I hated running, and still don’t find it to be an enjoyable activity, that made me dread the thought of trying to get a workout routine started.

• I hate running
• Is there no other way to lose weight effectively?
• I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing

Do any of these thoughts or questions pop into your head?

They popped into mine all the time. I know I listed “I hate running” twice in that list, but honestly, I hated running so much, that thought popped into my head multiple times. 

The anxiety that I felt over the prospect of running or riding an exercise bike or elliptical machine for endless hours always played into my hesitation or outright avoidance of trying to start working out again. 

I had defaulted to doing these activities in the past, and honestly, I was miserable the whole time and I never actually saw the benefits of losing weight or having any kind of tone or definition in my muscles.

When I restarted my health journey 7 years ago, I made a lot of mistakes. 

Whether it was charging ahead half-cocked with incomplete or completely wrong nutrition information or deciding it was a brilliant idea to work out 1-2 hours a day with a massive calorie deficit 5 days a week, I made quite a few detrimental health decisions. 

However, the one thing that I did get correct was my focus when I worked out.

Instead of focusing completely on cardio activities, I decided to try something new and vastly different for me. 

I read a little information on the benefits of lifting weights and how building muscle through that process aided in overall weight loss. 

I didn’t know much about the process, and truthfully, I had never really done weight training because I found it intimidating. 

I decided to try it anyway because for me, it wasn’t cardio, and it might be an activity that I could actually stick with for a longer time period.

Everyone’s got to start somewhere, and for me, it was two cans of soup.

When I first started on this path, I didn’t own any weights. 

No dumbbells, kettlebells, weight plates. Literally, I had nothing. 

I found this very simple 12-week weightlifting program online and got it.

It was very straightforward and easy to follow, and I was so determined to start that I began by using two cans of soup, which weighed less than a single pound each, as my weights. 

I was so weak and out of shape that those two cans really kicked me in the butt.

My husband bought me my first real weight set and they only went up to five pounds.

So, after about a week of using less than 1-pound soup cans, I moved up to the 1-pound pair of dumbbells. 

They were tiny and pink, but I remember thinking to myself,

“These are so much heavier than the soup cans. I can’t do this, it’s too hard.” 

I kept going though, and after 2 weeks, I moved from my little pink weights to the 3-pound dumbbells.

When that happened, I remember feeling this huge sense of pride in what I had been able to accomplish. 

I know it doesn’t sound like a lot, going from 1 to 3 pounds in each hand, but it’s those small movements and wins that are the key to motivating you to keep going forward.

What does all this have to do with strength training and actual fitness?

I stuck with that simple weightlifting program for a long time, well over the 12 weeks it laid out.

Every time I finished; I would just start over again. 

One day, I was watching a documentary on Netflix with my husband, and it was about the 2015 CrossFit Games while I was watching it, I realized, there’s a lot more to strength training than just the bicep curls, tricep extensions, and weighted squats I had been doing. 

Now, having that realization and doing something about it took a long time, about 2 years, but that’s the great part about health journeys, they just keep helping you learn and grow.

What is functional fitness?

So, the name itself can come across as intimidating, but functional fitness is just practicing those movements that the human body was created to do by God. 

They are natural movements that the body is hardwired to perform, and no one must teach you to do them. 

For example, every time you go to sit down on the toilet or get out of a chair, you are performing a squat movement. 

Functional movements always involve the use of multiple joints versus a single-joint movement like a leg extension on a machine. 

You’re using your entire body in some way to either balance or lower into the squat. 

The cool part about functional fitness is that it involves practicing movements that you need to do on an everyday basis:

• Lifting groceries
• Getting on/off a toilet
• Getting off the floor

Through functional fitness, you create a situation where you are improving your capacity for independence throughout your entire life.

Said another way:

It helps keep you independent and free from potentially having to ask for help to go to the bathroom or get off the floor for the rest of your life.

Women need to focus on increasing strength and building muscle.

Women tend to focus on cardio and, in general, they tend to eat less animal protein.

I genuinely can’t tell you the number of times I’ve recommended functional strength training movements like push-presses or deadlifts to women only to be told:

“I don’t want to get bulky” or “I’m not trying to be a powerlifter.”

Here’s the thing about strength training, it builds muscle and improves bone density, which are both critically important to overall longevity.

The fact is, the older we get, the harder it is to maintain muscle, let alone try to build it. 

This process is even harder when we don’t eat the amount of protein we should to keep the lean muscle mass we even have as we age.

Strength training also helps your mood as it causes the brain to release endorphins which improve your mood and decrease anxiety.

Tips to Start Strength Training

I know how hard it is to start a new lifestyle, especially one that involves working out and changing your nutrition. Here are some simple tips that you can use to get started on your own new journey.

• Plan out your work out ahead of time. It doesn’t have to be long,try 20-30 minutes a day, 3-4 times a week. Even if you start with 2 days, that’s better than not doing it at all.
  
• Don’t worry about using weights or equipment when you are first starting out. Focus on using your body weight first.
• Focus on the basics:
  • Squats, even if just to a chair
  • Push-ups, even if elevated or on your knees
  • Deadlifts – lifting bags of groceries from your sides off the ground.
  • Strict presses – moving a weight from your shoulders over your head.

These are the fundamentals of functional movement and are variations of the movements that you do every day whether you realize it or not.       

• Focus on your form first.
  
• Ask for help when you aren’t sure. Community is an amazing thing, something that I undervalued for a long time. Having people to reach out to for help and support is so critical to being able to stick to a change in lifestyle, whether it is nutrition, working out, or even praying.
• Get a coach. Coaches provide instruction, encouragement, and accountability which are all key components of success when it comes to changes in life.
  

Your health and wellness matter to God. He created all of us to move and work.

God created all of us for a purpose and to fulfill that purpose, we must be able to move and work for as long as possible.

Genesis 2:15, states:

“The Lord God put the man in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” 

Our bodies were designed with work in mind. Functional fitness allows us to build strength but also allows us to build physical independence across our entire lives. 

This physical independence is critical to all of us fulfilling our God-given purposes in life.

For a long time, much of my adult life really, I was truly living a life from the sidelines.

I was a bystander in my own life. 

I couldn’t participate with my family because I just wasn’t physically able to do it. 

I’m still on my journey 7 years later but now, thanks to my relationship with God and practicing strength training through functional fitness, I’m the strongest and healthiest I’ve ever been in my adult life. 

It’s still tough, but it’s so worthwhile.

It is never too late for you to start your journey; it just takes that first step in faith for you to begin to fulfill your purpose.