There was a guy at my uni gym, enormous bloke in his early 50s, plasterer by trade, who had been lifting since his early teens.
He was wise, too.
For example, one time he saw me fart-arsing about doing dumbbell incline presses as my main exercise on push day so asked:
“Why are you doing those?”
“To build my chest” came my response.
He cocked his head and said in a serious yet slightly patronising tone while gesturing to the 28kg dumbbells at my feet:
“Don’t you think you’d be better off doing regular bench presses until you get strong?”
Ego suitably bruised, I took his advice and went back to making the good old-fashioned flat bench press my staple. And, sure enough, I started slapping on weight and, most importantly for me at the time, muscle to fill out my barren man bewbies. (I’d not long lost a lot of weight, so my chest was like that of a seventy year old woman).
The lesson?
If you’re not already strong, your focus should be building confidence and competence in the core barbell lifts (squat, bench press, deadlift, and overhead press).
I know for some people (like those who train at home) this isn’t an option, but it’s long been my opinion that those who can train with a barbell, should and those who can’t ought to overcome whatever medical, mental, or financial impediment that’s stopping them.
There are options in the meantime, and some training is better than no training, but I’d be lying if I said any of these came close to the transformative power of the barbell.
On that note:
August’s issue of “The Phil Tyreman Letter” is all about strength training and, while the programme I share inside is best executed with a barbell, subscribers are welcome to contact me personally for input on how to adapt it to their specific circumstances.
All the details of what you’ll get as a subscriber as well the fees and terms are below:
https://philtyreman.co.uk/information/
Thank you,
Phil Tyreman