When I started lifting, we went down to the local magazine shop and picked up a copy of Muscle Media, or whatever the main one was called back then. I really don’t remember. We’d find a routine for chest and go do it. If the bench was full, we’d do dumbbell presses instead and move on. Week to week we’d try to go heavier, and as we got more experienced we’d try to optimize things. But content wasn’t everywhere being shouted at you by a million experts.
Was any of it correct? Some of it. Plenty of guys ran garbage magazine splits for years and got nowhere, and nobody was there to tell them. So I’m not going to pretend it was a golden age of information. It wasn’t. But it was simple, hands down, and that simplicity made showing up easier. Sure, when you were starting out there was a bit of anxiety about joining a new gym, or being the skinny guy. It was an easier anxiety than what exists today.
Today I see a different kind of anxiety. It’s the optimizing and the analysis paralysis, and it shows up long before it’s necessary. You’ve got people fretting about the precise number of sets / reps to do before they’ve committed to any program for a reasonable amount of time. Often before they’ve even started. Do deadlifts, don’t do deadlifts, take creatine, don’t take creatine, you can’t get huge without squats, you don’t need squats. It’s an endless mind fuck and it’s exhausting. I genuinely feel bad for a newcomer who has to wade through all these experts and voices. I think it makes getting started harder.
And here’s the thing. Those voices are often right. Once you’re actually going and have some experience, it has never been easier to break a plateau or progress faster. That’s undeniable, and we owe it to the same irritating people I’m complaining about. There’s also more good beginner content out there than ever, which is genuinely fantastic. The problem is beginners don’t stop there. You watch one video on how to bench and the next one is about why your bench is stalling and you take it just as seriously, because there’s nothing telling you it isn’t for you yet. The information isn’t the problem…The sequencing is.
I do Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I’m a blue belt, so I’m past the complete novice phase and still very early in the journey. Jiu Jitsu has thousands of moves. It’s an endless buffet, and to a beginner it’s overwhelming. The same proliferation of content and advice exists there too. I found myself watching YouTube videos trying to learn moves that were way too advanced for where I was. I’d try them in a roll, fail miserably, and get frustrated with my own progress.
One of the instructors at my academy told me to stop worrying about all that. Just show up. Roll. Learn. Focus on the fundamentals and build from there. What he really did was give me permission to step away from the madness. My game got better, and more importantly it got fun again.
That’s what I’d give a beginner if I could give them one thing. Not a better program. Permission.
There’s a cliché in Jiu Jitsu that the hardest belt to earn is the white belt, because it means you showed up. You stepped onto the mats when most people are too afraid to. There’s some truth in that. Most people never do.
So if you’re starting out…just show up. Pick a program and run it. Learn the fundamentals and the basics of progressive overload. The optimizations will still be there in a year, and you’ll actually be able to use them by then. Don’t give yourself another reason to quit.