After you answer the question of why to train, you have to ask: How? Like almost all questions in fitness, the answer is: It depends.

Most people train for aesthetic reasons, and that’s cool, but even if your main goal is to lose weight and look great, it’s best to start by getting strong. Muscle is more efficient than fat, better at keeping your metabolism humming, and looks better, too. It’s also easily manipulated. Fat is not.

Strength transfers into everyday life almost universally. Pursuing it and having it can lead to a multitude of positive benefits for your body. What you learn from strength training are natural movements that your body loves to perform and are easy to improve and maintain. The movement patterns transfer seamlessly into daily life tasks, from getting a bowl off of a lower shelf to putting your carry-on luggage in the overhead compartment. So, you may ask, what’s the best way to get strong? Well, it depends…

There are several schools of strength. The most well known, in no particular order, are Olympic lifting, power lifting, and bodybuilding. Somewhere in the middle of that is the rage that is CrossFit. The last decade has seen kettlebell lifting become popular, and there is a small, dedicated cadre of bodyweight enthusiasts. It behooves the beginner to investigate all of them and find one that intrigues then enough to want to train that way.

 

All training protocols have a learning curve, but the Olympic lifts (yes, he ones seen every four years on T.V.) have the longest. There are only two competitive lifts, but each one has an explosive and an isometric element that must be correctly developed to get the biggest benefit with the least chance for injury. It’s a great way to develop total body strength, and there’s lot’s of opportunities to compete, should those juices start to flow.

Power lifting offers competitive opportunities, too, and might be easier to learn and improve than the Olympic lifts. There are three competitive lifts, the bench press, the squat, and the deadlift. Even if you never competed, and did only those three lifts, you’d be as strong, mobile, and conditioned as you need to live a healthy life. Add the overhead press, and you’re own the road to beast mode.

Everyone has a pretty good idea of bodybuilding, and most of the generalities have a kernel of truth. Bodybuilders use more exercises than anyone. The sole purpose is to build muscles. If you don’t mind the uniforms and the required moves, there are also plenty of opportunities to compete. Mainstream fitness, both media and personal trainers, espouse a philosophy combining power lifting and body building.

The people competing in CrossFit look amazing, they do amazing things, and help market CrossFit as something you can do, too. You can, too, eventually. Gaining expertise in CrossFit may be harder than the Olympic lifts. CrossFitters do the O-lifts, some of the power lifts, and other exercise, like pull-ups, rope climbs, and medicine ball throws, but they do it for time, usually. Each Cross fit box posts a Workout of the Day, or WOD, with two to six exercises in a circuit. You perform all the reps of each exercise through the circuit order as fast as you can. Then, you write your time on the board, and se how you compare to everyone else. Of all the ways to train, CrossFit is the hardest to learn to be safe and effective. If you decide to become a CrossFitter, it makes sense to spend as much as time as possible being a beginner, learning all the lifts.

Pavel Tsatsouline, a former Spetznas operator for the Evil Empire (the former Soviet Union, not the New York Yankees), is largely responsible for the popularity of kettlebells in the United States. Kettlebells are cannonballs with handles, and the lifts are hybrids of of Olympic lifting and power lifting. The lifts are divided into two groups; grinds, like the get-up, and ballistics, like the swing. Of all the methods using weights, kettlebell lifting is the most versatile, because you can do so many things using just one bell, including traveling with it, if you’re really dedicated. Most kettlebell enthusiasts combine the kettlebell lifts with bodyweight exercises.

It seems pedantic to describe bodyweight exercises. Lately, a serious army dedicated to using solely themselves as implements of physical change has started marching, and growing almost daily. If you want to see how you can strengthen and shape your body with just it’s own weight, and do some really cool moves, Google Al Kavadlo and/or the Barstarzz. Calisthenics (from the Greek, Kalos Sthenos, beautiful strength) can be performed anywhere, and there’s more to it than simply push-ups, pull-ups, and squats. Some moves, such as handstands, levers, and hangs, like the human flag, are better learned by practicing than by counting reps and sets, creating a relaxed atmosphere of steady accomplishment that nourishes enthusiasm.

So, given that you want to train, and now know of severals ways to do so, how do you begin? All of the aforementioned protocols, properly employed, will produce positive results. Any one of them will build strength and shape. Now, you simply have to find a style that excites you. I firmly believe that you have to find a training model that, to you, looks like fun.

Do some research. If you do a Google or YouTube search for any of the people or protocols mentioned above, you’ll see some excellent examples of every form, and discover other fine practitioners, too. Then, seek out a trainer and/or gym that focuses on that training style. Good trainers in every system will start by building a foundation of strength. You’ll progress naturally, because you’ve discovered that the key to compliance is enthusiasm.

That’s the way to begin.