icon-account icon-glass

Join the community!

We'll keep you up to date with interesting news, product information and offers so you never miss out.

No boring newsletters and we'll never share your address. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Popular Products

The Lean Protein
Whey protein powder for weight-loss.
The Energy Booster
Pre/intra-workout powder with BCAAs.
The Glow Booster
Collagen supplement for skin.

The Ultimate Beginner's Guide To Weight Lifting

13th June 2023

13th June 2023

By Caitlin Bell

We all know the stereotypes. Usually male, often found injecting chicken and brown rice into their veins and lifting twice their bodyweight in the gym morning and evening.

The popularity of weight lifting is on the rise, surging in popularity over the last few years. While the iron-pumping stereotype once affected a small sector of the fitness community, thanks to the growing popularity of the pursuit those who never dreamed they would come into contact with a barbell are rolling up their sleeves to admire their new muscles. 

Weight lifting is highly beneficial if you’re looking to build muscle mass, but there are also a number of other health benefits, including improving your posture and bone density, increasing you metabolic rate, reducing inflammation and helping to prevent chronic illness. 

An intense training session can deliver a rush of endorphins like nothing else. There’s even an element of mindfulness to weightlifting, as you focus on your mind-body connection and are present in the moment.



Whether you’ve caught the weight lifting bug for the first time or you’re easing your way back into it after taking a break, we’re here to give you our ultimate weight lifting guide to enable you to get the very most out of your training regime.

Establish your goal

Establishing a goal will be your key motivating factor, and will also determine the sorts of exercises you’ll be doing. For example, if you’re looking to build strength and muscle, you’ll be largely targeting a range of four-12 reps, whereas if your goal is to tone up you'll be looking at 12 reps or more.

Your goal could also determine your workout split. Which areas of your body are you looking to work on the most? You should be splitting your workout sessions into upper body days and lower body days to maximise and improve overall strength. Ever heard of 'Push, Pull, Legs'? We’d recommend looking more into this and then deciding which split best aligns with your objectives.

A great place to start is educating yourself on the science behind training for different goals (YouTube is an excellent resource for this) and then applying these learnings in the gym.

Whether it’s boosting strength, building up to a new personal best or altering your body shape, your goal will be the driving force which motivates you to step through those gym doors time and time again.

Don’t be intimidated

The gym can be overwhelming, filled with strange contraptions and bodies contorted in odd positions. But don’t let this put you off. Everyone has to start somewhere.

Once you get past the grunting noises (and sometimes the less-than-pleasant smells), it's time to turn on into your favourite playlist and focus on you. If you’re worried about people judging you, take our word for it: they’re only paying more attention to themselves and couldn't care less how many reps you managed today.



You should aim to enter the gym with a workout planned out, so you don’t find yourself aimlessly roaming around the weights section. Remember that you deserve to be there just as much as anyone else, so grab some dumbbells and take up space. Own it!

Start low and slow

A common mistake with weight lifting beginners is trying to do too much too soon. It’s easy to feel pressured into lifting as much as you can (or in some cases, can’t) in order to compete with other gym goers. This can be hugely detrimental to your progress and in some instances cause serious injury.

To find your feet, start with bodyweight exercises. This will allow your body to get used to new movements and find the perfect form, especially when it comes to compound lifts, which you should be incorporating into every strength training session. Compound lifts are exercises where you’re using more than one muscle group at the same time and include things like squats, deadlifts and pull-ups.


You’ll even find that an intense bodyweight workout can leave you just as sore as a session with heavy weights. Once you’ve got your squat or deadlift nailed with your bodyweight only, start adding small weights and build from there.

How will you know when to start adding more? As a general rule, do eight-12 reps of the same exercise for four sets, with a minute rest between each set, until it starts to feel easy. Then all you need to do is add a few more kilos of resistance to feel that burn again. Newbie gains are a real thing – so you’ll notice your strength skyrocket within a short space of time when you first get going.

Be sure to warm up and cool down to prevent injury and speed up the muscle repair process. Warming up can increase your range of motion and prepare your muscles for the intense workout to come, while cooling down drains the lactic acid build up that can cause agony when you try walk up stairs the next day.

Top tip:

Consider hiring a PT or purchasing a training plan for when you first get into weight training. Investing more into your fitness at the start can pay huge dividends later on. Getting great tips and pointers from experts in the field who can guide you through a workout has long-lasting positive effects. If a PT or training plan is out of budget, you can pick up equally valuable tips from YouTubers and Instagram fitness influencers.

Eat, sleep, rest, repeat

What you do outside of the gym is just as important (if not more so) than what you inside. Some rules we like to abide by are: hydrate, eat well, sleep, and the Innermost favourite, rest.

The essence of weight training is adding enough resistance to your body during a movement to tear your muscle fibres. You then have to rest so your muscles can repair themselves, and adapt and grow back stronger and bigger over time. 

Although often overlooked, this recovery stage is just as vital as the workout itself. What do you need for a full recovery? Enough sleep each night, enough protein in your diet to repair your muscles (proteins are the building blocks of all your cells), enough water to stay hydrated, and plenty of rest until your bod repaired itself. 

Consistency is key

Last but not least, the golden rule to weight lifting is consistency. This will be the key to progressing in your workout regime. 

You should be resistance training three to five times a week to get the most out of yourself. And this doesn’t mean one maximum effort workout followed by two lacklustre sessions, but giving it your all every time. 

Need Expert Advice?

Other Insights

What Is CrossFit And How Do I Get Started?
There’s a plenty of discussion around CrossFit exercise at the moment and for good reason. What once started as a simple workout concept has now grown to engage entire open workout communities; all with one goal – building a supportive and multidisciplinary workout. With more than 15,000 affiliate CrossFit gyms across the world and over 500 in the UK, you’d probably assume everyone knows what the workout involves and how you can get started right?    Well… Despite its popularity CrossFit still remains one of the most misunderstood workouts around. Asking someone to explain its meaning will 9 times out of 10 give you a long ‘uhh’ followed by words like “tough”, “intense” and “athletic”. It’s this preconceived notion that it’s only for those at the peak of their fitness that can make the prospect of starting so intimidating. What if I instead told you that CrossFit offers the optimal full-body workout for everyone – especially those looking to begin their fitness journey? We at Innermost have prepared this all-in-one guide to clear up a few misconceptions about the workout and make the prospect of getting started a breeze.    What Is CrossFit? It’s important to understand exactly what CrossFit actually is, what it involves, and how it can benefit your workout routine. Unlike strength training and cardio exercises that target specific muscles in the body, CrossFit aims to build entire body muscle mass through sequential high-intensity workouts. Established in 2000 by Greg and Lauren Glassman, what also makes CrossFit so unique is that individual routines are entirely flexible and as such no two workouts are the same. While training will be tough, you and your trainer can create perfectly scaled CrossFit workouts to improve your relative fitness. These alterations could be based on the duration, type, speed, load, and frequency of your training. You will thrive in a genuinely varied but personalised training program that is crafted to improve your functional strength and conditioning. It’s also important to remember that CrossFit improvement is based just as much on diet and nutrition as the training itself.  By pairing your workout with supplements like Innermost’s The Fit Protein you will be able to push your workouts comfortably further than most. Benefits Of CrossFit Whether you’re looking to lose weight, keep fit, or build muscle, it’s no surprise to say that CrossFit workouts have plenty of benefits. This is because the variety of functional high-intensity exercises within each session allows for positive physical effects all across the body. CrossFit functional workouts benefit these 10 core fitness areas: Cardiovascular endurance – Your ability to gather oxygen. Stamina – The processing, storing, and utilising of body energy. Strength – Your muscle’s ability to apply force. Flexibility – Maximises the motion of your joints. Power – The speed to which you can apply maximum muscle power in the quickest time. Speed – The efficiency of repeated movements. Coordination – Merging multiple movements into a single motion. Agility – Minimises the transition time between your movements. Balance – Control over your body’s centre of gravity. Accuracy – Your control over movements. While this might sound like a lot, trust me, getting into it is not as complicated as it sounds. Most of these core tenants are built into multiple individual exercises, providing a diverse range of benefits for your body. With a strong sense of community within each gym, taking part in CrossFit can also greatly improve your mood and even mental health.   How To Get Started Now you know why you should give CrossFit a go, you might be anxious about how exactly to start your workout routine. Remember, everyone has to start somewhere, so don’t go pushing too hard at the start before you can walk. With that in mind, here are a few key pointers to get started. Preparation First of all, get some appropriate training gear. Those who try CrossFit training in standard Vans will quickly realise the need for versatile and durable footwear. Your cross shoes should be fully supportive of multiple movement patterns and applied forces. You also want to look for workout tops and bottoms that are fully adept at soaking up a sweat – the last thing you want is to be itching the whole time. Finding The Right Gym The next step is to find the perfect personal trainer and CrossFit gym. This is something unique to everyone. Will you be motivated more by a gym with a supportive or competitive culture? When do you want to attend and what is the standard of coaching like? Most CrossFit facilities provide a trial period which we recommend you use first to get a feel of whether the gym works for you. Tailor Your Workout Before the first workout, it’s a good idea to work out what you want to achieve. As previously mentioned, exercises are completely scalable meaning they can be tailored to you. Are you looking to build strength, endurance, or speed? Do you want to focus on concentric or eccentric exercises? Even if you’re recovering from injury, CrossFit can be altered to speed up rehabilitation rather than force you to push through the pain. Track Your Progress Getting started with CrossFit is all about having a journey-based mindset to develop ability and fitness. No one is reaching the stars on session 1, but by tracking your training ‘firsts’ and personal bests you’ll have added excitement and motivation to keep going from the get-go. Tracking your progress from the start has also been scientifically proven to drive improvement in performance and goal attainment. We’d also recommend monitoring you’re nutrition and protein intake and looking at how it improves your workout. Consider adding one of Innermost’s many supplements such as our Fit Protein Powder to your daily routine. CrossFit Exercises For Beginners For individuals just being introduced to the world of CrossFit, knowing which exercises and training plans to go with can feel intimidating. To make things easier for you, here are just a few workouts to try that are perfect for those at the start of their training. Every Minute On The Minute (EMOM)  EMOM workouts are fairly self-explanatory but perfect for your development plans. These workouts see individuals deviate between start and rest exercise intervals while completing as many reps as possible. By measuring performance across a defined time period, progress and recovery can be closely monitored.   As Many Rounds As Possible (AMRAP) While AMRAP exercises can be tough they make for the perfect introductory CrossFit workout. Essentially, it’s all about quick-time high-intensity aerobic exercise. The focus is pushing yourself to complete as many exercise reps as possible within a given time and monitoring your progress. Ladder  Ladder workouts are also a good choice for CrossFit beginners, as they provide the best of both training plans. Instead of high-intensity or interval workouts, muscle workload is increased or decreased over a given amount of time. This change in muscle demand offers great benefits to speed and agility.     Interested to learn more about Innermost The Fit Protein? Looking for the ultimate gym bag essentials? Maybe you want to share your own experiences of getting into CrossFit? Message us on our Instagram @liveinnermost. Read more
The Exercise Ball Workouts You Didn't Know You Needed