DoubleYourGains 3-5 Beginner’s Strength Training Program

The DoubleYourGains 3-5 Beginner Program is for anyone who wants to get strong, build muscle or lose fat. You could easily gain 5-10 pounds (if you’re skinny), or lose 5-10 pounds (if you’re overweight) using this program within a couple of weeks.

With this program you can achieve whatever your goals are:

• You can get strong without getting big — achieve high relative strength
• You can build muscle and get big and achieve high absolute strength
• You can get stronger for your favorite sport and perform better

But this is not just a beginner’s program. If you’ve just done standard split routines (like you’ve read in muscle magazines) or other bodybuilding programs up until now and you haven’t done exercises like the squat, deadlift or overhead press then you’re going to see some great results with this program as well.

What You’ll Get With The DoubleYourGains 2-5 Beginners Program

This weight lifting program takes 30 minutes, and you’ll do it 3 times per week. You don’t need to be at the gym every day in order to get the results that you want. In less than 4 weeks you’ll become…

• Stronger — You’ll start light (probably just the bar) and add weight every workout, the more weight you add the stronger you’ll get…
• Muscular — The heavier weights you lift the more muscle you’ll put on. More strength = more muscle…
• Leaner — You’ll burn body fat as your body starts to reshape itself. Your body is put under stress with strength training and its response is to make you leaner to make things easier…
• Healthier — You’ll increase testosterone, growth hormone, and decrease estrogen. Your joints will get stronger, you’ll have better cardio, your bones will get stronger, etc…
• Confident – Hitting new Personal Records (PR’s) almost every time you’re in the gym… and… knowing you’re strong (instead of just looking that way) will make you feel more self confident. And no one can take that away from you…

Why This Program Works So Well

What makes this program work is the focus on compound exercises and movement “patterns” which work your whole body.

You won’t get bored because the workout exercises change almost every workout. You won’t get bored in the gym because the reps and overall sets stay low. You can focus on correct technique because the reps and sets stay low.

This is a motivating plan because you’ll be adding weight constantly and you’ll see and feel your body become more strong… more muscular… and more lean.

What Equipment Do You Need?

The beauty of this program is it works with you, even if you’re working with less equipment. At its very basic level, you would need just an Olympic Barbell.

But to get the full benefits of this program (and to be able to enjoy a greater workout variety) you should find a gym or build a home gym, with the following equipment:

• Olympic Barbell – 6 foot long, 45lbs and can hold serious weight…
• Olympic Plates — Weight plates that fit the barbell with increments as low as 2.5lbs (because some exercises will require smaller increments in weight)…
• Power Rack — Also called a “Squat Rack” and Squat Stands will work too. Definitely no smith machines or weights.
• Standard Bench – Basic bench or one you can put in the power rack. No machine counts.

The Exercises

The DoubleYourGains 3-5 Beginner Program includes 8 exercises. You’ll do 3-5 of these every workout to hit all your muscles and build full body strength. (Click on the name of the exercise to learn how to do the exercise with correct technique).

• Deadlift – (squat and pull) A total body strength builder with an emphasis on the legs and pulling muscles.
• Squat – (Squat, duh) Squats work the whole body as well, with an emphasis on your legs.
• Overhead Press – (Push) A pressing movement (shoulders, upper chest, triceps) that works your whole body as well (abs, back, stabilizers)…
• Bench Press — (Push) Unfortunately, the most popular exercise in the gym — works your chest, triceps and front of your shoulders.
• Barbell Bent Over Row – (Pull) Works your pulling muscles (back and biceps)…
• Pull-ups & Chin-ups — (Pull) Pullups (palms facing away) and Chinups (palms facing you) work the pulling muscles and have crossover to real life…
• Dips – (press) Dips also work pressing muscles (chest, triceps) and force your body to stabilize itself

How To Do The Program:

Here are the simple rules (and why I call this the 3-5 method):

• 3-5 exercises (total for whole body)
• 3-5 Sets
• 3-5 Reps
• 3-5 minutes of rest

Here’s what you do:

• Select 3-5 exercises. 1 Push move, 1 pull move, 1 squat move. (NOTE: Each practice MUST include a  deadlift or squat).
• Do 3-5 sets
• With 3-5 Minutes of Rest (you may alternate (not superset) your exercises, ex: Deadlift rest 1 min — Overhead Press rest 1 min — back to deadlift, etc)

The DoubleYourGains 3-5 Beginner Program takes 30mins and is performed 3 times per week. Which days you train are up to you:

• Most people do Monday/Wednesday/Friday.
• You could also do Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday
• or Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday.

It doesn’t matter as long as you practice 3 times a week and keep at least 1 day of rest between each practice

How To Choose Your Weight To Start With

If these exercises are new to you and you’ve never done them before then you need to first focus on good technique before you even think about using heavy weights.

• Pull Ups/Chin-ups and Dips — Use your body weight to start
• Barbell Rows — Use 65lbs (including the barbell) to start
• Squat, Bench Press and Overhead Press — Use just the barbell to start
  
• Deadlift — Use 95lbs (including the barbell) to start. Use small plates under the plates on the bar to get the correct starting height.
  

If you’ve done these exercises before and you have good technique then your first day in the gym you should do a warm up set or two (use the weights above as guidelines) and work up to a heavy single. This is called testing your “1 Rep Max” (1RM).

Then for each exercise you’ll use 80-85% of your 1RM for the load.

How To Progress On This Program:

You will add weight every workout no matter how small, even if it’s only 2.5lbs each session. Here’s a quick guide to help you with adding weight by exercise.

• Squats and Deadlifts — Add 10lbs each practice until it gets hard and you don’t think you can do at least 3 reps, then switch to adding 5lbs each practice.
• Pull Ups, Chin Ups and Dips — Use your body weight until you can do more than 10 on your first set, then add 5lbs per practice till it gets hard — then 2.5lbs after that.
• Bench Press and Barbell Rows — Increase by 5lbs each practice. If it’s easy at first increase by 10lbs till it gets hard then back to 5lbs.
• Overhead Press — Increase by 5lbs each practice…

What To Do When You Can’t Add Anymore Weight.

Eventually you’ll hit a point where you can’t keep adding weight. Most people stall on the overhead press first, then the bench press, then the squat and lastly the deadlift.

First, retry the weight for 2 more practices (total of 3 tries) because it might just be a bad day, lots of stress, etc…

If you really can’t lift your target weight on your next two practices then you need to cut your volume for a week then continue on.

You basically will stay at the weight you’re “stuck” at and reduce your volume for one week. Then come back to training with full volume and keep going from there.

Example: You are doing 3 sets of 5 for all your exercises and you are stalling. You with then do 3 sets of 2 with the same weight for a week. Then resume your training the next week doing 3 sets of 5 with the same weight and increase as usual for each workout from that point on.

Other Important Guidelines

Read my article: Strength Training 101.

If your goal is to build muscle then read my guide: How To Build Muscle and keep the volume high, strive for 5×5 on your lifts.

If your goal is to get strong without gaining weight, then keep the overall sets and reps low. 3×3, 3×5, 5×3, are all set/rep schemes that work well