Your First Week of Strength Training
As a newly certified personal trainer, the question I hear most is: where do I even start? Here is the honest answer — smaller than you think, and kinder than you think.
The only rules that matter
- Two or three days this week. Not six. Consistency you can repeat beats intensity you cannot.
- Learn five movements: squat, hinge, push, pull, carry. Everything else is a variation.
- Leave two reps in the tank. If you could not do two more, it was too heavy for week one.
- Write it down. Progress you can see is motivation you do not have to manufacture.
A simple day one
Bodyweight squats 3×10 · incline push-ups 3×8 · single-arm dumbbell rows 3×10 each · a farmer carry across the room and back, three times. Ten minutes of walking after. That is a real workout — do not let anyone tell you otherwise.
Be gentle with yourself. Strength is patience with weight on it.