When you’re a beginner, it only makes sense to ask the question, “What are the components of an effective weight training program?”. I know I wondered that myself, back in the day. Honestly, if I had understood the answer to that question from day 1, I could have saved myself a ton of hassle.
The six critical traits of an effective weight training program are:
- Progressive overload (to stimulate strength and/or hypertrophy)
- Focus on basic compound exercises
- Focus on technique
- Time to deload
- Well-timed rest days
- Warm up and stretching
Let’s go into each one of these components in more depth, starting with the most important component of them all: progressive overload.
The Six Most Critical Traits of an Effective Weight Training Program
Progressive Overload
By far the most important component of any effective weight training program, the principle of progressive overload says that you must continually increase the stress on your muscles in new ways in order to stimulate strength and growth (hypertrophy). Considering that the goal of any sane weight training program will be to increase strength and/or size, there is good reason to make this the staple of your weight training program.
The truth is the only way to make gains in strength and size is to apply the principle of progressive overload. The most common way to employ it is to increase the weight on the bar. Indeed, this is probably the fastest and most consistent way in the long term to make gains.
However, there are alternative methods to achieve progressive overload as well. These include (but are not limited to):
- Increasing reps
- Increasing sets
- Increasing training frequency
- Increasing TUT (time under tension)
- Decreasing time in between sets
- Utilizing high intensity techniques such as drop sets, supersets, rest pause, etc.
Increasing weight on the bar is generally the quickest path to big time gains. It is also the way with the most long-term potential. All of these other methods are great to use in the short term, but you soon reach diminishing returns with each of them. Not so with adding weight. You do reach a point where it becomes much harder to add weight (after your newbie gains), but it is still possible to slowly add weight over time.
Just ask fitness influencer Sean Nalewanyij about it:
Focus on Basic Compound Exercises
The exercises which provide the quickest way to the largest amount of strength and muscle gains are the big, basic compound exercises. These are the exercises you can lift the most weight on, which also target large amounts of muscle. Because of the high volume of weight, you can make lots of increases in strength over time. Referring to our first principle of progressive overload, this means these exercises are ideal for strength and size gains.
See it starting to come together now?
The basic compound exercises to build strength and size are:
- Squat
- Deadlift
- Row
- Overhead Press
- Pull Up
These exercises should form the core of exercise selection within an effective weight training program. For each exercise, you can do many variations on it, and that’s perfectly fine. However, the basic version of each is performed with a barbell (with the exception of the pull up).
Even though the core of your exercises should be basic compound movements, there is no need to neglect isolation movements. Isolation movements round out a weight training program and often allow you to hit smaller muscle groups more effectively. So, don’t throw the baby out with the bath water!
Focus on Technique
Proper technique is absolutely vital to making serious gains. Let’s say you bring your squat up by 100 pounds, but each time you go up 20 pounds in weight, your technique gets a little sloppier. Maybe you can lift more weight now, but you’re not even targeting the muscle groups intended to be hit by the squat. And you’re setting yourself up for injury down the line.
In fact, just by tweaking your technique you can often increase your strength on many lifts. This is especially true with more technical lifts like the squat and deadlift. There’s a reason why powerlifters (who are trying to max out their squat, bench, and deadlift) focus so much on technique and leverage in order to increase strength.
Building a foundation of good technique is a paramount component to an effective weight training program.
Time to Deload
Deloading is when you reduce the output of your normal routine in order to let your body and mind recover. The way I like to define it is, intentionally and temporarily suspending the principle of progressive overload in order to give your body and mind time to recover.
Notice there is nothing in that definition which says you need to take off all weight training for a week. Everyone has different methods for deloading, and you need to experiment to find what works for you. But, from my experience it usually is not all that helpful to take a full week off from the gym unless you are a seriously competitive strength athlete.
What I like to do is reduce the amount of days I’m in the gym that week (let’s say from 4 to 2) and reduce the intensity and/or volume of my training. So, I would likely do less weight and/or less sets than I normally do. And I would not try to achieve progressive overload. Rather, these weeks are nice to lighten things up and refocus on technique, another component of an effective weight training program!
Well-timed Rest Days
Similar to knowing when and how to deload, properly planning your rest days within a weight training schedule is crucial to success. Consider the following routine:
Sunday – Off
Monday – Chest/Triceps
Tuesday – Shoulders
Wednesday – Off
Thursday – Back/Biceps
Friday – Off
Saturday – Legs
Do you see what’s wrong with this? The issue is you are doing shoulders the day after doing chest/triceps. Both days (should) involve pressing movements like the bench press or overhead press. Doing these consecutively will mean you will be compromised on your shoulder day. You will be weaker and more prone to injury because of this.
A smarter program would be:
Sunday – Off
Monday – Chest/Triceps
Tuesday – Off
Wednesday – Back
Thursday – Shoulders
Friday – Off
Saturday – Legs
This way, you have two full days of recovery in between your chest/triceps and shoulders workout. This will maximize your efficiency with both.
Warm Up and Stretching
Performing a proper warm up and stretching routine is an often neglected part of a weight training regimen. But, it’s important. Warming up properly has been shown to improve exercise performance and reduce your chance of injury.
In general, you want to perform a light general warm up for about 5-10 minutes to get your entire body warmed up. If you have access to a treadmill or elliptical, that would be ideal. Otherwise, you can do jumping jacks. If you can’t do that because you live in an apartment directly above someone (like me), then going straight into the dynamic warm up is fine.
A dynamic warm up will consist of exercises meant to stretch out and warm up your muscles. This will improve range of motion and prepare you for heavy lifting.
Here’s a basic upper body dynamic stretching routine anyone can do with no equipment necessary:
And here’s a more comprehensive total warm up routine from fitness influencer Jeff Nippard:
Putting the Components of an Effective Weight Training Program Together
When you combine all of the six most important components of an effective weight training routine which I outlined, you will be on the road to increased strength and size gains.
Use the principles I outlined as a check to any routine you are considering. See if it incorporates these principles. And, if not, adjust it so that it does. Most sensible routines are getting something right, and there are just some missing (or incorrect) pieces which need to be adjusted.
So adjust them! And get on with your gains!
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