Is Strength and Conditioning Good for Beginners: How METHOD Starts You Off
Have you had the intention of starting weight lifting for a while to maintain your fitness? Well, strength and conditioning is one of the best places to start your fitness journey. It’s built off a number of basic movements and slowly progresses onwards, and you never have to do more or lift more than you’re ready for.
And the hard part for most isn’t the actual training, it’s stepping foot in a room full of barbells for the first time.
Here’s how METHOD, our new strength and conditioning class, takes care of that.
Start with the basics
As mentioned, strength and conditioning comes down to a number of movements: a squat, a hinge, a press and a pull. And on the conditioning side, it’s rowers and bikes, all while doing intervals that build onto that fitness and VO2 max.
Our coaches are here to teach you all of this, so there is no need to worry about knowing it before.
The average adult needs to do muscle-strengthening exercises at least two days a week, along with regular cardio exercises. Most will end up focusing on the one and skipping the other. Our METHOD strength and conditioning classes cover both in the same session.
Find your starting point
Every one of our METHOD blocks runs for eight weeks. Week one certainly isn’t a test, it’s about knowing your tolerance on the main lifts, setting your baseline fitness on the conditioning side and setting your baseline numbers. So starting off, strength would be Zone 2-3 for your heart rate and conditioning would be Zone 4-5: general strength work in Zone 3 (70%-80% max HR) and explosive or high-power work in Zone 4 to Zone 5 (80%-100% max HR).
And from there you build slowly. Each week you increase the weight progressively, in turn increasing your strength, and try to beat last week’s numbers on the conditioning, maybe aiming for a lower heart rate zone or getting a quicker time. And at the end of the block, you retest yourself, and the next eight-week block starts from your new numbers.
The only person you’re measuring against is yourself, to try and get your personal best.
Scale every movement
Every movement in METHOD has the easier version and the harder version. On day one you might squat holding a kettlebell while the person beside you is under a barbell. Same session, different motion.
Our coaches monitor your technique, keeping the standard high, and adjust the load to suit you. And this is the baseline of Perpetua’s community - a complete beginner and someone with years of training can share the same room. As one of our members put it: “I’m 54 and I’ve never felt out of place.”
Our recommendations
- Go lighter than you think: the most common beginner mistake is doing too much too soon, which can cause injury and leave you too sore to come back to the next class. The block is specifically designed to build gradually, so all we can recommend is to trust it.
- Two sessions a week is plenty: we’ll say it countless times, consistency will always beat intensity. Two sessions a week will get you much further than four in one week and none the following week. Make it a habit.
- Anyone can do it: including those returning after an injury, an illness, a baby or just a busy year. Just inform us of any injuries or illness, and consult your physio before beginning.
Start strength and conditioning at Perpetua
If you’ve been waiting until you feel “ready”, METHOD is built for you. It’s our new strength and conditioning class at Wilton Park, Dublin 2, and every session is coached and scaled to you, from your very first week.
Speak to our membership team or see the METHOD membership options.
