What Type of Training is Best for Me? (Free 7 day Strength Training Plan 2023).

What kind of training is best for you? Strength Training is. This is a very common question that people ask themselves when they get into working out. and trying to change their bodies. Some know right out of the gate what their goals are and the type of training they want to do. Some have a job or sport that they want to be better for. Others just don’t look the way they want to and have made the great decision to make a change for themselves. Whatever position you’re in, the type of training you do will have an effect on your results but can be ever evolving. So, what type of workout is best for you? Strength training, and it is going to help any person to person regardless of each individuals’ goals. Some people might be focused solely on losing weight. In actuality, they probably want to lose fat. Others might want to just get as muscular as the dude they saw in a bodybuilding magazine or as Arnold in Pumping Iron. Another might just want to get as strong as possible and does not really care how they look. Lastly some guys just want to get in better shape overall and increase their stamina, strength and body composition. The good news is that there is a lot of overlap when it comes to working out and the results you will get. IF you stay consistent and disciplined to a training plan. That’s the “bad” news… You MUST be dedicated to your goals and be disciplined enough to stay on track to keep making progress and make real results. You will not create lasting and the best possible results if you half ass it or just wing it here and there. To make a permanent impact on your body, you will have to be prepared for a lifestyle change. Although, it WILL be one of the best decisions or your life! Let us get into it.

What are your goals and will you make the time to meet them?

As already stated, your goals will dictate the focus of your training.

• Do you want to lose fat?
• Do you want to get stronger?
• How about gain lots of muscle?
• Build endurance?
• What about all of the above?

When first starting out you will probably make progress in multiple, if not all, of these areas. Depending on your nutrition and recovery you can make that happen relatively quickly. Pursuing any of these goals will make you a stronger and more capable man. You will be healthier and happier, without a doubt. Not to mention a more capable man.

Goal setting

Firstly, you need to set your primary and secondary goals and write them down. It needs to be pretty specific. Otherwise, it will be so broad that you will most likely not attain the goals you have. When you write it down it helps remind you so it doesn’t get lost and forgotten in your mind with the craziness of life around us. Some examples could be:

• “I want to lose 20 pounds this year”.
• “My goal is to bench press 200 pounds by summer.”
• “I will lose 10 percent body fat before the holidays”
• “I want to run three miles in 25 minutes for my next race.”
• And so on.

Honestly some of you might be ambitious like I was and just want it all ASAP. That’s okay too but you have to be dedicated to it and follow through to achieve it. Still picking one primary goal and focusing solely on that is more likely attainable to someone who is just beginning. Other goals will come more easily once the discipline and habits of being more fit are implemented in your life. Research what you want and how to get there in the best way possible and strictly follow your plan. That’s why you’re reading this and I commend you for doing so.

Patience is a Virtue

So, you decided on your goal and have written it down. Your fired up and want to start right away on your dreams of a better body and better performance. Ill address this now. It is required that you have a lot of patience when starting your fitness journey. This is a full-blown marathon not a sprint. You can make drastic changes relatively quickly but it still takes weeks, months and years to see long term changes. Those changes will only come if you are persistent and consistent. That’s why this is a lifestyle change. Not just a quick fix then you’re done. You will never be “done” when it comes to fitness. If you stop and get into bad habits your body will adapt to it and get fat/skinny and will have horrible performance.

Time Commitment

Furthermore, after you have decided your goal with specificity you need to think about how much time you can spend attaining that goal. I am talking about actual workout time you will dedicate to attaining your goal.

• How many days a week?
• What about how many hours a day?
• More than once a day?

We all have busy lives but everyone can make time to work out for an hour. You just need to prioritize it. Anyone can make excuses and we all do it, but you have to shut the excuses down in your mind before they convince you it’s okay to not workout. Have some discipline and get yourself moving. Planning in advance can be invaluable when coordinating training in your life. You also might need to sacrifice time from something else to workout. I’ll let you be the judge of what is most important to you, but the tv will be there once you’re done if you know what I mean.

Will strength training get the results I want?

You have your goals and you wrote them down and you have already started planning out when you are going to make the time to attain those goals. “But what type of training am I going to do?”

Strength training will get you to where you want to be.

The most beneficial training for you and your body is going to be strength training. The human body is built to move and strength training will make your body so much more efficient in everyday life. On that note, I am not a doctor. If you have medical issues then you should see a doctor before starting any type of training. Otherwise, you should be good to go. Check out our article on why you should get stronger if you want more details. It gives a lot of good information on why becoming stronger will benefit you and your life. Everything from carrying groceries to lifting your kids to walking up the stairs will become much easier. Your body will be able to do all of these daily activities more safely as well. Strength training can be the answer to almost all of your goals. If you want to:

• Build more muscle.
• Lose more fat.
• Get stronger.
• Change your body composition.
• Get healthier and more fit.
• Build your work capacity and performance.
• And so much more.

Strength training alone, when paired with proper nutrition, is going to be the best bang for your buck. It can literally transform your body without any cardio if you get your diet right. Check out this article on nutrition here to learn more about eating for your goals here. If you want to get started on building strength and more muscle check out our Ultimate Guide to Building Strength in 2023 (Proven Strength Training Plans) It has proven strength training plans that will help you become the strongest you have ever been while packing on some serious muscle mass.

Conditioning or Sport/Job Specific Training

If you have more specialized goals, like a sport/job specific one, then adding in conditioning will most likely fill in any gaps for the average person. That is for another article, this one is about strength training to meet your goals. If you are in a specific sport or have a special job and need more training then it is probably more beneficial for you to hire a coach specifically in that area to help you out further.

What Exactly is Strength Training?

To put it simply, strength training is forcing your body and muscles to do something that it is not used to doing. The body then has no choice but to adapt and get stronger to better handle whatever it was that you did. It is that same concept as your skin when it tans from being in the sun. Also like when your hands build callouses from working with them a lot. For example, if you did 20 pushups you may or may not be sore after but your body is not used to the pushups. The muscles in your body become slightly damaged with micro tears and are forced to repair themselves, growing slightly bigger and stronger in the process. Your muscles do this to fix the damage that was caused and to be able to better handle it the next time the body is presented with a similar challenge. People usually think of big guys in the weight room with heavy weights when they hear the term strength training. While that is true, strength training consists of anything that ultimately makes your body stronger after it is done, hence, strength training. Other examples of strength training include:

• Body weight exercises.
• Gymnastics.
• Lifting weights (most obvious).
• Consistent manual labor.
• Hiking
• Almost any sports practice
• Any consistent practice that forces your body to adapt and get stronger

Everyone thinks that strength training is only about lifting heavy weights and is only associated with bodybuilders. That is not the case. Strength training can vary greatly although, it is the most effective way to build strength. Especially if you apply progressive overload to your training. Progressive overload is consistently adding more stimulus to your body over time with the aims to keep it adapting. You should be adding either more reps, sets or weight each and every week to continually get bigger and stronger. Strength training encompasses so much more than just lifting weights and it can do so much for you and your life. The best part is that almost anyone of any age can and should take part in it regularly.

Strength Training Benefits

There are so many positive things that strength training can do for you. This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but some are:

• Build muscle and strength.
• Burn fat more efficiently.
• Help posture.
• Help conditioning and endurance.
• Build strong and pain free joints.
• Build mental fortitude.
• Sleep better.
• Higher sex drive.
• Become more attractive.
• So much more!

I would highly recommend reading our article on why you should become stronger if you are more interested in the benefits of strength training. It goes into a little more detail on how it can benefit your body, your mind and your life. Basically, strength training in a nutshell will make everything about you stronger. Your muscles, bones, joints, mind and whole body will become stronger. The body’s metabolism will skyrocket. Your immune system will be better and your body will be better at fighting decease. It has been the best thing for my life aside from my family.

How to Start Strength Training

If you are just starting out then you probably have a lot of questions when it comes to strength training and working out at all. Our free 7-day training plan can help you get started! Just sign up with your email address to receive it at the bottom of the page. If you are a complete beginner you need to start out slow. Your body will not be accustomed to lifting weights or your bodyweight through whatever various movements/lifts you do. Our guide “The Fundamental Pillars of Building Muscle” can help you get started with EVERYTHING you need know and nothing you don’t to really get your life in check and boost your results to the next level. It contains over 15 years of my own experience and proven strength training programs that are created by professionals and my own development added in.

Workouts of Strength Training

Everyone is different but depending on your natural levels of strength you could start by doing different body weight exercises 3 days a week. One or two exercises per muscle group per day would be good to build up some strength before lifting weights. Pushups, air squats, pull ups, etc. are all examples of exercises you could do. I personally would say that you need to strive for 3 times a week for an hour or so. That is a good amount of training for someone just starting out. You could also move straight into lifting weights by utilizing our free 7-day training plan if you subscribe to our newsletter. The plan is laid out with a higher amount of workout volume and is set at training more than 3 days a week. This is ideal for someone with a little more training experience. However, if you are just starting you can adjust it for a 3-day regimen if you wish. Just be sure to lower the amount of work you do throughout the week. Adjust it to 3 days a week with at least one day’s rest in between workouts. Try to keep the main compounds lifts as your first exercise with the most effort. You can then add a couple of accessory/isolation exercises for your weaker body parts after. Main focus on the main compound lifts with less of the isolation work is going to be your friend in the early months of your training. Use the barbell variations of exercises to get the maximum benefit from your efforts. You could train Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Any days you can fit into your schedule will work. Ideally you should have a day or two of rest in between workout days. That is what I did when I first started strength training and it helped me gain a lot of strength and muscle and lose a fair amount of fat. Leave a comment or Contact Men of Strength if you would like a 3-day training plan to try out and are confused on how to adjust our free 7-day routine.

Strength Training Programs

For this section I am going to link to some resources you can look into. These have been put through the paces over time and have been shown to work with amazing results. Firstly check out my affordable eBook “The Fundamental Pillars of Building Muscle”.  It has it all. Mindset, training templates, nutrition guides, supplementation suggestions, recovery tactics and more! You will gain plenty of muscle. Check out this article for some other programs if you want to seriously start gaining strength, packing on muscle and losing fat. It has some plans that I have personally used and even one that I started with! These programs have been through the ringer and are a great place to start when aiming to build strength and gain muscle.

Nutrition for Strength Training

Proper nutrition is even more important that the actual working out you do. Your body needs fuel to repair the muscles that you are building. Not just any fuel either. High quality, nutrient dense foods are the best for you. Minimally processed foods that are as natural as possible are your go to for fueling your efforts in the gym. Not only that, they are better for you regardless of whether you train or not. The best proteins for you are grass fed beef, cage free chicken eggs, free range chicken, wild caught fish and ground lean beef/turkey. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, white rice and oats are great sources for carbohydrates. As well as cruciferous vegetables like, broccoli, asparagus and Brussel sprouts. Good fats come from your chicken, lean beef, fish and eggs. They can also come from extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil. Be sure to read our article on nutrition It will help you dial in your diet to suit your goals and give you an idea on what to eat. It will take you step by step to finding out your calorie and macronutrient intake numbers based on your goals.

Supplements for Strength

It is worth mentioning that some supplements can help you get stronger, gain more muscle and lose fat faster. Check out our article on proper nutrition. It talks more about supplements and how they can help you toward your goals. Some of the most beneficial supplements that actually do something to help you are listed below:

• Protein powder
• Pre-workout
• Creatine monohydrate
• Fat-burner

Recovery from Strength Training

When you first start out with strength training it is highly likely that you will be sore for one, two and even three or more days. This is normal but should never stop you from training. If it hurts too much then you need to do a little less and slowly build up that amount of work. The body needs time to rebuild itself after all the rigorous exercise you put it through. It needs to recover and grow. Contrary to popular belief, the body does not grow in the gym. It grows while you are out of it. Your body recovers primarily while you sleep. So, sleep is the main factor in recovery. You should aim to get at least 6 to 8 hours of sleep every night for maximum recovery. Less sleep means less recovery, which equals more soreness and more tired. Stress also plays a factor into your body’s recovery. It will hamper it. You are on the right path if you start strength training! Try to lower your stress levels the best you can. Your workouts will help with that. Otherwise, some other things you can do to boost recovery are getting a massage, foam rolling, ice baths/icing and active rest days. These all help greatly as you get more advanced. Stay tuned for our article that focuses on recovery! It will give you some of the tools you need to recover the best you can between workouts so that you can keep crushing it!

Concluding thoughts

You have made it to the end! Thank you for reading. I made this brief article about strength training with you in mind. I know what it is like to first start out and to be so unsure of where to begin. When I started out, I knew essentially nothing about fitness. You can change your life and your body with a simple set of habits. The fitness industry tends to over complicate things to make money off of guys like you and I. Workout regularly, sleep enough, eat well and stay hydrated. That is, it at the very basic level. You just need to figure out the details of each area that work best for you. I will help you get the information and stuff you need to reach your goals. Stick around the site to read more about all the different areas of getting stronger as a man (or woman). We will be covering all areas in much more detail so if you can’t find it yet stay tuned. Sign up with your email below to receive updates on new posts and to receive our Free 7 Day Training Plan! Men of Strength is mainly about building bodily strength as a foundation to being a stronger man. Although, being capable and self-reliant are big qualities to being a strong man and we cover that too. If you have suggestions on topics you would like covered, leave a comment or contact us! Don’t forget to sign up below for a Free 7 Day Training Plan! You can follow it exactly or tweak it to your needs! You will also be the first to know about new helpful articles to help you become a stronger man!

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