Note: Some of my subscribers (and me!) have been having issues playing videos on the Substack app lately. If that’s happening to you, all you need to do is delete the app and then redownload it. Sorry for the inconvenience, but hoping this helps! If all else fails, you can open howtomove.substack.com in a browser and watch that way.
Welcome to your August strength training workout! If you’re new here, a quick overview: You’ll get a new strength training workout the first Sunday of each month (in addition to other workouts on the other Sundays!). You have the option to repeat this workout and use it with a progressive overload approach (AKA adding weight as you get more comfortable with the movements). A few suggestions if you’re interested in this approach:
For your first workout or two, take it a little easy. Don’t immediately jump to the heaviest weight you can stand to move. Ease your way in to hopefully avoid destroying yourself with soreness and feeling the need to take a super-long break before you go back for another workout (or even feeling discouraged entirely). THEN start to push. Nudge just slightly out of your comfort zone each time. Grunting, cursing, and heavy breathing all very welcome.
Record the weights you used, if you’re comfortable (if recording body-related numbers is not good for you, skip this part). You should be trying to use a weight that gets you very fatigued and almost close to failure (i.e. you can’t do another rep) by the end of the minute-long set.
Repeat the workout at least once or twice more within the week if possible.
Do this for four-ish weeks (or more!), adding weight to the extent possible for each exercise that uses weight. Keep recording your weights (again, if this feels like a wise move for you) so you can see your progress! You can also mark progress on things like number of reps, longer working time (if you started off needing to take a break before the end of the set, etc.), or positioning (moving toward a more advanced version of the exercise), if applicable.
You can do the other WOWs that come through over the next couple of weeks as a way to mix things up and supplement your training, if you have time.
Then you’ll get another strength-training–focused workout next month, and the cycle begins anew. (You’re welcome to stick with this one for longer, but because it’s a relatively short workout we aren’t hitting a quite-complete range of movement patterns, so I’d suggest switching things up when the time comes.)
I’m typically a big fan of offering up the option to skip the warmup or cooldown, or one or two rounds of the circuit. However, if you’re doing this in a progressive overload setup, I’d like to encourage you to keep the warmup and cooldown to make sure you’re taking good care of your body. If you can only do one or two circuits the first week, see if you’re able to add a second or third circuit in subsequent weeks.
A note on weights: If you’re going to go for true strength training, you need some heavy weights. This can be hard for home exercisers! I hate sending you out to buy weights — they’re expensive, heavy (heh), and hard to store. But it’s a great investment if you’re up for it. I highly recommend the dumbbells from Power Systems: I use them; they’re good; feel free to use that link ^ as another way to support my work here, because I’ll get a tiny kickback from your purchase. (But truly, no pressure!)
One more thing: I’d love for this to be a barbell-focused program, but I worry that will leave out too many people who simply don’t have access or are hoping to get this done quickly at home. If you’re interested in slamming bars (I love this for you), I’d suggest checking out Casey Johnston’s program LIFTOFF: Couch to Barbell.
If you aren’t interested in progressive overload–focused strength training (or not yet), you are very welcome to just follow this video like a regular one-off workout! And you can do the whole thing, or if you have less time or energy than that, you can trim things down by:
Skipping the warmup
Skipping the cooldown
Skipping one or two of the three rounds of the resistance-training circuit
Make it work for you.
For this workout, you’ll need a heavy (or medium, if you’re just starting) set of weights, and either a very heavy weight or kettlebell OR a suitcase or bag that you can fill with heavy stuff (cans, books, etc.) and hold in one hand, standing, without it dragging on the floor.
This is a really fun one. Let’s go!
