The 12 Best Strength Training Exercises for Beginners

This article reviews 12 of the best strength training exercises for beginners. They cover all major muscle groups of your body and give you the best possible foundation for strength, lean muscle mass, and performance gains.

Key Points:

  • The best strength training exercises for beginners engage several muscle groups, offer a clear progression path, promote balance and stability, and offer enjoyment and build confidence.
  • Your body moves through the four fundamental movement patterns: pushing, pulling, hinging, and squatting.
  • Including at least one exercise from each movement pattern category in your workouts makes for a comprehensive training program for your entire body.

Click here to jump directly to the exercises!

What Makes a Good Strength Training Exercise?

The best strength training exercises for beginners have things in common. Six of the most essential ones are:

  1. Beginner exercises should have straightforward techniques that are easy to learn, minimizing the risk of injury and building confidence. They should be stable so that your muscle power is the limiting factor, not your balance. For example, deadlifts are great: lift something off the ground, then put it back down. But standing on a balance board on one leg while doing complex movements in several planes of motion is off the table.
  2. Exercises that engage multiple muscle groups are beneficial for beginners to promote balanced muscle development and improve functional strength. These types of movements are called compound exercises.
  3. Exercises that are easily scalable allow beginners to progress at their own pace. You can increase the weight or complexity of the movement as you become stronger and more confident. The key to your training results is progressive overload – doing more repetitions of each exercise or adding more weight when possible.
  4. A beginner must find the exercises enjoyable or at least satisfying. If you hate something you do, the likelihood of consistency and long-term commitment to a strength training routine drops like an anchor at sea.
  5. Exercises that promote balance and stability are essential for building a solid foundation. Include exercises that engage your core and improve coordination by using one side of the body at a time.
  6. As a beginner, you should be able to see a clear path for progression in your exercises, whether it’s adding weight, increasing repetitions, or advancing to more complex variations.

The Four Fundamental Movement Patterns

Your body is built to move through four specific movement patterns, no matter what you do or where you are. That includes lifting weights.

A training program with at least one exercise from each movement pattern covers all major muscle groups.

Doing them is also functional, meaning they transfer to everyday life and sports, as they give you balanced development of strength, muscle mass, and performance while reducing the risk of injury.

The four fundamental movement patterns in strength training refer to pushing, pulling, hinging, and squatting exercises.

Push

Movements where you push something away from your body. Either vertical, like a shoulder press, or horizontal, like a bench press or push-up.

Push exercises primarily target your chest, shoulders, and triceps.

Pull

Pulling movements involve pulling something towards your body.

Like push movements, pull exercises can be vertical, like lat pull-downs, or horizontal, like rows.

Pull exercises mainly work your lats, traps, and biceps.

Hip Hinge

Movements where you bend at the hips with minimal bending at the knees, usually while keeping your back straight. Deadlifts are a prime example of a hinge movement.

Hinge exercises focus on the posterior chain at the backside of your body, including the lower back, glutes, and hamstrings.

Squat

Lastly, the squat is a fundamental lower body movement pattern where you bend at the hips and knees, lower your body towards the ground, and then extend back up. Examples include the back squat, front squat, and goblet squat.

Squat exercises work your quadsglutes, and adductors.

In short:

You can also freely mix and match equipment. For example, you could do push-ups, barbell rows, kettlebell swings, and barbell squats.

The Best Strength Training Exercises for Beginners

Now, let’s dive further into the best strength training exercises for beginners in each fundamental movement pattern category.

They are just examples of exercises you could do, but when put together in a workout routine, train all your major muscle groups thoroughly. However, they are some of the tippy top options, and you can never go wrong with one of them in your strength training workout.

For a comprehensive list of strength training exercises, with detailed descriptions and videos explaining how to perform then safely and effectively, check out our exercise directory:

>> Exercise Directory: List of Strength Training Exercises

The Best Strength Training Exercises for Beginners: Push Exercises

Push exercises involve moving weight away from your body.

They primarily target your chest, shoulders, and triceps.

The pushing itself can be performed in various planes of motion, mostly vertically overhead or horizontally away from the chest.

Push-Up

The push-up is the bread and butter of upper body bodyweight exercises, a timeless classic that’s as beneficial for fitness newbies as for advanced athletes.

Push-ups are fantastic for building upper body strength and muscle, mainly targeting your chest, shoulders, and triceps but also engaging your core.

So, is it great for strength training beginners? You bet your last protein shake it is!

  • Research shows that push-ups are just as good as the regular bench press for muscular strength and muscle mass in beginners.1
  • No gym? No problem. Push-ups don’t care if you’re at home, in a hotel room, or at the park. You don’t need any equipment except for your body weight and gravity.
  • You can easily adjust the difficulty level. Starting out, you might be kissing the ground more than pushing away from it, but there are modifications to help you progress.

A push-up variant for every fitness level makes them ideal for beginners and beyond. From wall push-ups for the absolute beginner to the one-armed version for the push-up elite, it grows with you.

Here is a tier list of push-ups, going from least challenging to most:

  1. Wall Push-Ups: Start facing a wall, arms outstretched. Push away from the wall—the easiest variant of the push-up.
  2. Kneeling Incline Push-Up: The knee push-up is less challenging than the regular push-up, and doing them against an incline lightens the load even further.
  3. Incline Push-Ups: Find a sturdy surface like a bench or a step. The higher the surface, the easier the push-up. It’s push-ups with training wheels.
  4. Kneeling Push-Up: Drop to your knees and perform a push-up. It reduces the weight your arms have to lift, making it a perfect starting point.
  5. Regular Push-Up: You made it! From here, you can explore further variations like wide-grip, diamond, or even clap push-ups to keep challenging yourself.

As you get stronger, you can do more reps, more sets, or move on to more challenging variations. You can also use resistance bands to increase the load.

All this makes the push-up one of the best strength training exercises for beginners and essential for any bodyweight workout.

How to Perform Push-Ups

  1. Begin by lying face down on the floor. Place your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, with fingers pointing forward. For regular push-ups, extend your legs back, balancing on the balls of your feet. Keep your knees on the ground for kneeling push-ups instead of extending your legs.
  2. Ensure your body forms a straight line from your head to your heels (regular) or knees (kneeling). Engage your core muscles to prevent your hips from sagging or sticking up in the air.
  3. Inhale as you slowly bend your elbows to lower your body towards the floor. Aim to lower until your chest or chin nearly touches the floor. Your body should remain straight throughout the movement, with your lower back in a natural curve. Avoid any sagging or arching.
  4. Exhale as you push through your hands to straighten your elbows, lifting your body back to the starting position. Maintain that straight body line as you push up.
  5. Repeat the movement for your desired number of repetitions.

Bench Press

The bench press is a classic for building upper body strength, and likely the most popular strength training exercise of all. It’s adaptable for all fitness levels, and you can vary it to keep your workouts fresh and challenging. It’s a staple in all forms of strength training and a key exercise in powerlifting.

It primarily works the pectoralis major (your chest), triceps brachii (the back of your arms), and anterior deltoids (the front of your shoulders).

The bench press is a compound movement, which means it requires multiple joints and muscles to work together. That makes it fantastic for building overall strength as well as for hypertrophy (the fancy word for muscle growth), especially in the chest, shoulders, and triceps.

You can do the dumbell chest presses with a pair of dumbbells. Both the dumbbell chest press and the standard barbell bench press are superb pushing exercises. You can also target your upper or lower chest more using an incline or decline bench, but the best way to get started is with the flat bench press.

How to Bench Press

  1. Lie on the bench, pull your shoulder blades together and down, and slightly arch your back.
  2. Grip the bar slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
  3. Inhale, hold your breath, and unrack the bar.
  4. Lower the bar with control, until it touches your chest somewhere close to your sternum.
  5. Push the bar up to the starting position while exhaling.
  6. Take another breath while in the top position, and repeat the movement for your desired number of repetitions.

How to Perform Dumbbell Chest Presses

  1. Sit on the bench and ensure your feet are flat on the floor for stability.
  2. Lie back on the bench with your feet firmly on the floor and your back pressed against the backrest. Hold a pair of dumbbells with an overhand grip and lift them to the start position.
  3. Take a breath, brace your core, and press the dumbbells upwards until your arms are extended, your palms facing forward. Keep your shoulder blades squeezed together throughout the movement.
  4. Inhale and lower the dumbbells with control back to your shoulders.
  5. Repeat the movement for your desired number of repetitions.

Overhead Press

Like the bench press, the overhead press is a pressing exercise that belongs to the fundamental push movement pattern. The main difference is that you perform the overhead press seated or standing while pushing the weight toward the ceiling, making it a more shoulder-focused exercise.

The simplicity of the overhead press makes it perfect for beginners to learn good form and technique. You just press the weight up and bring it down – nothing fancy about it.

If you only do one shoulder exercise, including the overhead press in your strength workouts is a great idea.

It strengthens your shoulders, upper chest, and triceps. If you do it standing up, you also involve your core for balance and stability. You could call the overhead press the cornerstone of your upper body strength, and you wouldn’t be wrong.

How to Perform Overhead Barbell Presses

  1. Place a barbell in a rack at about chest height.
  2. Grip the bar slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and step close to it.
  3. Tighten your abs, unrack the bar and let it rest against your front delts while you step back from the rack. This is your starting position.
  4. Push the barbell up, extending your arms fully, while exhaling.
  5. Bring the weights back down to your shoulders, slow and controlled, while inhaling.
  6. Repeat the movement for the desired number of repetitions.

How to Perform Dumbbell Presses

  1. Grab a pair of dumbbells, and lift them up to the starting position at your shoulders.
  2. Inhale and lightly brace your core.
  3. Press the dumbbells up to straight arms, while exhaling.
  4. Inhale at the top, or while lowering the dumbbells with control back to your shoulders.
  5. Repeat for reps.

The Best Strength Training Exercises for Beginners: Pull Exercises

Pull exercises involve moving a weight toward your body or moving your body toward a fixed object.

They primarily target your latstraps, and biceps.

Like push exercises, you can do pull exercises in several planes of motion, like vertically down or horizontally towards your torso.

Lat Pulldown

The lat pulldown is an exercise that primarily targets the latissimus dorsi muscles, or “lats” for short. Those muscles give your back that sought-after V-shape. In addition, it’s also an excellent exercise for your biceps, as good as biceps curls, according to some studies.2

It’s one of the best strength training exercises for beginners because it’s accessible, easily adjustable, and allows you to feel your back muscles working, something that isn’t always a guarantee when it comes to training back.

Keep these three pointers in mind to make the movement more effective:

  • Start with a lighter weight. Your muscles will thank you as focusing on the correct muscles working is easier.
  • Don’t use momentum to swing the bar down. Keep your core engaged and your body still, and resist the weight on the way up.
  • Keep your chest up and back straight to activate your lats fully.

A medium-width grip with your palms facing forward is a good way to start. Once you’re comfortable, try different grip widths and handles to challenge your muscles in new ways.

How to Perform Lat Pulldowns

  1. Sit on the lat pulldown machine and adjust the thigh pad to fit snugly against your thighs.
  2. Reach up and grasp the wide bar attachment with an overhand grip (palms facing away from you), slightly wider than shoulder-width. Ensure your grip is secure and comfortable.
  3. Keep your feet flat on the floor and sit with your back straight and chest up.
  4. Take a deep breath and engage your core strength to maintain a stable torso throughout the exercise.
  5. Begin the movement by pulling the bar down towards your upper chest while keeping your elbows pointed to the sides. Imagine bringing your shoulder blades together as you pull down.
  6. Continue pulling until the bar is below your chin or touches your upper chest. Resist the urge to lean back and turn it into a full-body heave-ho.
  7. Squeeze your lats in the contracted position, slowly release the tension, and allow the bar to rise until your arms are fully extended. Maintain control and proper form throughout the entire range of motion.
  8. Repeat the movement for your desired number of repetitions.

Cable Seated Row

The cable row is a great back exercise for beginners. You can focus on form and technique without the balance and coordination required by free weights.

At the same time, it encourages proper posture, teaches you the art of pulling (a fundamental movement in life and in the gym), and serves as jumping-off point for more complex exercises.

Seated rows mainly works your back: the latissimus dorsi (the broadest muscle of the back), rhomboids, and trapezius. But it also hits your biceps, forearms, and your lower back muscles.

In short, the cable row is safe, effective, and with enough versatility to keep your workouts fresh and challenging, making it one of the best strength training exercises for beginners and one to keep in mind for your back workout routine.

How to Perform the Seated Cable Row

  1. Sit on the seated row bench, facing the cable machine. Your feet should be flat on the footrest, knees slightly bent, and your torso upright with your chest out, shoulders back, and core engaged.
  2. Grab the handle with a neutral grip (palms facing together) and ensure your arms are fully extended and your back straight in the starting position.
  3. Pull the handle towards your abdomen by retracting your shoulder blades (squeezing them together). Focus on driving your elbows backward and keeping them close to your body.
  4. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and contract your lats before extending your arms and leaning forward again. Maintain a controlled motion throughout the movement and avoid using excessive momentum.
  5. Stretch your lats out without letting your shoulders slump forward, then repeat the movement for your desired number of repetitions.

Barbell Row

With the barbell row, you get one of the best compound exercises for your upper body, involving many major muscle groups and a great way to build back strength, width, and thickness.

It works your entire back, including your lats, traps, rhomboids, and spinal erectors. In addition, it hits your biceps and rear deltoids.

Many beginners focus on their “mirror muscles,” the muscles they can see in the mirror, like the chest, biceps, and shoulders. Balancing pushing exercises with movements like the barbell row allows for complete strength and muscular development.

  • Using a barbell allows you to use heavy weights, but don’t sacrifice correct form for load.
  • Push those hips back as if you’re trying to close a car door with your butt because your hands are full of groceries. Keep that back straight!
  • Imagine pulling with your elbows, not your hands. Doing so makes it easier to focus on your back instead of on your arms.

Overall, the barbell row is a superb functional exercise that allows for remarkable strength gains and muscular development for beginners and advanced lifters alike.

Alternatively, you can do dumbbell rows, supporting one side of your body against a bench and rowing with the other. Using one arm at a time can make focusing on your back muscles easier. You can’t go wrong with either option.

How to Perform Barbell Rows

  1. Grasp the barbell with an overhand grip, slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
  2. Stand with your feet slightly wider than feet hip-width apart, bend your knees slightly, and hinge forward at your hips, maintaining a straight line from your head to your hips.
  3. Brace your core and keep your back straight. Pull the barbell towards your lower chest or upper abdomen, keeping your elbows close to your body. Squeeze your shoulder blades together at the top of the movement.
  4. Lower the barbell back to the starting position in a controlled manner.
  5. Breathe out as you lift, in as you lower, like blowing out candles on a birthday cake, then inhaling the sweet smell of victory.
  6. Repeat the movement for the desired number of repetitions.

The Best Strength Training Exercises for Beginners: Hip Hinge Exercises

Hinge exercises focus on bending and extending your hips, engaging your posterior chain muscles, which include the lower back, glutes, and hamstrings.

Hip hinge movements are crucial for developing power, strength, and stability in your lower body and back.

Kettlebell Swing

The kettlebell swing is an excellent hip hinge exercise suitable for both beginners and experienced trainees.

It works your glutes, lower back, and hamstrings the most, but research shows that it is almost a full-body workout in itself.3

Also, if you shorten your rest interval, kettlebell swings get your heart rate up and give you a “vigorous cardiovascular response,” making it a great option for cardio as well as resistance training.4

How to Perform Kettlebell Swings

  1. Place a kettlebell on the ground, about one or two feet in front of you.
  2. Take a wide stance, lean forward and grip the kettlebell.
  3. Brace your core slightly, and swing the kettlebell back between your legs, while inhaling.
  4. Swing the kettlebell forward by extending your hip, while exhaling.
  5. Try to swing the kettlebell to about chest height.
  6. Repeat the movement for the desired number of repetitions and put the kettlebell back on the ground when you’re finished.

Deadlift

No other exercise strengthens your entire body from head to toe as the deadlift does.

Deadlifts primarily work the muscles in your posterior chain (the muscles on the back of your body): your hamstrings, glutes, and entire back, from your lower back up to your traps. In addition, it’s also an effective exercise for your quadriceps, the muscles at the front of your thigh, helping you extend your knees as you stand up.

The deadlift is one of the greatest strength training exercises for beginners and offers many benefits.

  • It develops the kind of strength that is useful in real-life situations, like lifting heavy objects or moving a couch safely.
  • Deadlifting engages so many muscles that it turns your metabolic rate to 11 and transforms your body into a calorie-burning furnace.
  • Last but not least, deadlifts make you better at almost anything athletic. Whether you’re into soccer, basketball, or competitive pillow fighting, deadlifts improve your explosive power, speed, and muscular endurance.

As a beginner, you want to start with light weights to focus on form and gradually increase as you become more comfortable and stronger.

To focus more on your hamstrings and less on your quads, the Romanian Deadlift is a superb variation of the traditional deadlift.

How to Deadlift

  1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart, with your toes pointing slightly outward. The barbell should be over the middle of your feet, close to your shins.
  2. Bend at the hips and knees to reach the bar. Grip the barbell slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. You can use an overhand grip (both palms facing you) or a mixed grip (one palm facing you and the other facing away).
  3. Keep your back straight and chest up. Engage your core and ensure your shoulders are slightly in front of the bar. Your hips should be higher than your knees but lower than your shoulders.
  4. Pull the bar close to your body, with a straight back, until you are standing straight. Keep the bar close to your body, and your arms straight throughout the lift. The bar should travel in a straight line vertically.
  5. Reverse the motion by hinging at the hips and bending the knees. Lower the bar to the starting position in a controlled manner, maintaining a straight back.
  6. Reset your position if necessary.
  7. Repeat the movement for your desired number of repetitions.

Good Morning

The next exercise in the hip hinge category is the good morning, a classic posterior chain exercise you can do with a barbell or nothing but your own body weight.

The good morning sounds like a polite way to greet the day, but in reality, it’s a fantastic way to kickstart your muscles into action. It’s a tremendous exercise for your glutes, hamstrings, and lower back.

Good mornings work wonders for hamstring flexibility and hip mobility, and many lifters use it as an assistance exercise for compound movements like the squat and the deadlift. It’s also excellent for teaching proper hip hinge mechanics, setting the stage for heavier weights in more complex moves.

How to Perform Good Mornings

  1. Place the bar on your upper back. Inhale and brace your core slightly, and unrack the bar.
  2. Take two steps back, and place your feet slightly wider than hip-width.
  3. Inhale and hold your breath, and lean forward by hinging your hips. Imagine that you are trying to push your butt back as far as possible.
  4. Lean forward as far as you can with a straight back, and without the bar rolling forward.
  5. Your knees will bend slightly, but most of the movement takes place in the hips.
  6. With control, stop and reverse the movement, extending your hips again while exhaling.
  7. At the top, inhale and repeat the movement for your desired number of repetitions.

The Best Strength Training Exercises for Beginners: Squat Exercises

Squat exercises involve bending at the knees and hips to lower your body towards the ground, then standing back up. You can also do it in a machine like a leg press, in which you lower the weight (the “ground”) towards you.

Squats work your quadriceps, glutes, and adductors.

This movement pattern is a must for building lower body strength and functionality.

Leg Press

The leg press is one of the best strength training exercises for beginners who want to train their lower body without free weights.

It offers a comfy introduction to strength training without compromising on effectiveness: sit or lie back and push against a platform. No balancing acts are required, so you can focus on the push without worrying about anything but your muscles working.

Speaking of working muscles, the leg press hits your quadriceps, glutes, and adductors, with your hamstrings chipping in depending on your foot position.

Research suggests that weight machines like the leg press are as effective for building muscle as free weight exercises, for example the squat.5 For beginners, the leg press can be a friendlier option if you are still getting comfortable around gym equipment, primarily because the machine has safety stops and adjustable settings.

How to Perform Leg Presses

  1. Adjust the machine so that you only need to extend your legs slightly to be able to release the weights. Adjust the safety pins so that they catch the weight if you are unable to lift it.
  2. Place your feet on the sled, about shoulder width apart.
  3. Inhale and lower the weight towards you by bending your legs.
  4. Lower the weight as deep as possible without rounding your back, and while keeping your glutes on the seat.
  5. Press the weight back up again as you exhale.
  6. Repeat the movement for your desired number of repetitions.

Squat

It you were to only do one leg exercise, the squat would be a great choice. It you were to only do one exercise, the squat would still top the list of options.

The squat is the exercise for building a strong and muscular lower body, effectively working your quads, glutes, and adductors. It also activates many of your core muscles and even involves your traps, lats, rhomboids, and rear delts to stabilize your upper body, pull your shoulder blades back and down, and keeping your arms close to your midline.

In short: squatting strengthens your entire body.

However, the benefits of the squat doesn’t end there. It’s a great exercise for improving athletic performance, and the muscle strength you gain from squatting translates into many parts of everyday life.

Best of all, the squat offers fantastic opportunities of progression. You can start with the bodyweight squat, progress to the goblet squat or the dumbbell squat before you advance to the standard barbell back squat or the front squat.

How to Squat

  1. Place the bar on your upper back with your shoulders blades squeezed together. Inhale and brace your core slightly, and unrack the bar.
  2. Take two steps back, and adjust your foot position.
  3. Squat as deep as possible with proper form.
  4. With control, stop and reverse the movement, extending your hips and legs again.
  5. Exhale on the way up or exchange air in the top position.
  6. Repeat the movement for the desired number of repetitions.

Lunge

The lunge is a fantastic exercise for your lower body: your quadriceps, glutes, and hamstrings in particular. In addition, because they require balance and coordination, they force your abs and the rest of your core muscles to step up.

You can do lunges with or without equipment, from bodyweight lunges to dumbbell lunges and barbell lunges. It is a great exercise for everything from bodyweight workouts at home to hardcore gym sessions.

Other lunge variations include:

  • Reverse Lunge: The reverse lunge can be kinder on the knees compared to the forward-moving variant and focuses more on the glutes and hamstrings.
  • Side Lunge: all about lateral movement, the side lunge targets your inner thighs, glutes, and quadriceps. It’s fantastic for improving your side-to-side mobility.
  • Jumping Lunge: The jumping lunge adds a cardiovascular challenge, making it a high-intensity exercise. It’s perfect for improving power, agility, and endurance.

One of the top benefits of the lunge is that it’s a unilateral exercise, meaning you train one side at a time. With unilateral exercises, you can better focus on one side of the body at a time. They can also help you discover muscle imbalances, boost coordination, and increase the intensity of the workout for that side.

In addition, lunges are an effective way to improve balance and functional movement, which is extra important for beginners.

Life and sports are full of asymmetrical movements (like climbing stairs, running, or jumping over a puddle). Unilateral training mimics such movements, enhancing your performance in and out of the gym.

How to Perform Lunges

  1. Stand up straight with your feet hip-width apart, holding a pair of dumbbells at your sides with your palms facing inwards or with a barbell on your shoulders.
  2. Lower your body towards the ground by bending your front knee and lowering your back knee until it almost touches the floor.
  3. Return to a standing position by pushing yourself up with your front leg.
  4. Repeat the movement for the desired number of repetitions, switch legs, and perform the exercise on the other side.

The Best Strength Training Exercises for Beginners: Creating a Workout Routine

With those exercises for each of the four fundamental movements, you can easily design an effective strength training program.

Let’s recap:

Take at least one exercise from each category, train it at least once weekly, and you’re golden.

Here’s a great example.

Beginner Barbell Program

A great example of a strength training workout routine using the fundamental movements and the best strength training exercises for beginners from the list above is the Beginner Barbell Program.

Barbell Training Program for the Beginner

You train three times per week, alternating between workout A and workout B, like this:

Week 1:

  1. Monday: Workout A
  2. Tuesday: Rest
  3. Wednesday: Workout B
  4. Thursday: Rest
  5. Friday: Workout A
  6. Saturday: Rest
  7. Sunday: Rest

Week 2:

  1. Monday: Workout B
  2. Tuesday: Rest
  3. Wednesday: Workout A
  4. Thursday: Rest
  5. Friday: Workout B
  6. Saturday: Rest
  7. Sunday: Rest

This is what each workout looks like:

Workout A

ExerciseSetsReps
Squat38–10
Bench Press38–10
Barbell Row38–10

Workout B

ExerciseSetsReps
Deadlift36–8
Lat Pulldown38–10
Overhead Press38–10

Short, sweet and effective training sessions that work your entire body.

You can read more about this program here:

>> Beginner Barbell Workout Plan & Training Program

If you want to give the Beginner Barbell Program a go, it’s free in StrengthLog, our workout tracker app.

StrengthLog is 100% free to download and use (and entirely ad-free to boot!) as a workout tracker and general strength training app. Track your workouts and your training to streamline your progress and results.

You’ll find over 80 strength training workouts and programs, including the Beginner Barbell Program (which you can follow directly in the app for free).

The free version of StrengthLog has everything you need as a beginner (and it’s 100% ad-free!). It’s like a personal trainer in your pocket! However, we offer all new users a free 14-day premium trial, which you can activate in the app if you want to check out the added benefits of the paid version.

Read more:

>> How to Effectively Use a Workout Log App

Final Words

You have reached the end of this guide to the best strength training exercises for beginners. Thank you so much for reading!

If you’d like to read more articles of this kind on anything related to strength training, be sure to sign up for our free newsletter below, to be notified of new posts!

Further reading:

References

  1. Journal of Exercise Science & Fitness. Volume 15, Issue 1, June 2017, Pages 37-42. Low-load bench press and push-up induce similar muscle hypertrophy and strength gain.
  2. Asian J Sports Med. 2015 Jun; 6(2): e24057. Single vs. Multi-Joint Resistance Exercises: Effects on Muscle Strength and Hypertrophy.
  3. J Strength Cond Res. 2012 Jan;26(1):16-27. Kettlebell swing, snatch, and bottoms-up carry: back and hip muscle activation, motion, and low back loads.
  4. Int J Exerc Sci. 2014; 7(3): 179–185. Cardiovascular and Metabolic Demads of the Kettlebell Swing using Tabata Interval versus a Traditional Resistance Protocol.
  5. BMC Sports Sci Med Rehabil. 2023; 15: 103. Effect of free-weight vs. machine-based strength training on maximal strength, hypertrophy and jump performance – a systematic review and meta-analysis.
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Andreas Abelsson

Andreas is a certified nutrition coach and bodybuilding specialist with over three decades of training experience. He has followed and reported on the research fields of exercise, nutrition, and health for almost as long and is a specialist in metabolic health and nutrition coaching for athletes. Read more about Andreas and StrengthLog by clicking here.