It can be confusing sometime on what to work on first when you are new to lifting weights. Should you be focusing on building strength or building mass? Even before answering this question you may also need to know what condition you are in.
Fix Your Nutrition
If you have body fat percentage of over 25% for male and over 30% for female, you should focus on losing some fat off before even considering building strength and/or muscle mass.
Why?
Most likely, if your body fat is in obese category, your nutritional habit is poor. Whether you want to increase your strength or muscle mass you will need to learn how to eat properly or you will have tough time seeing results.
You can still work on your heavy lifts but add workout routines that will help you burn more fat off along with adjusting your nutritional habits.
Fix Your Posture
Before adding any weights on the bar or start picking up those heavy dumbbells, you need to make sure your body is ready for the exercise.
It is very common for people to be sitting for extended period of time, which is causing for your posture to be rounded and tight. In order to fully engage muscles to improve your strength or add more muscle mass, you will need to work on fixing your posture so that you can maximize your gains.
Common issues are anterior pelvic tilt, rounded thoracic spine, and nerd neck. These issues are needed to be fixed before or as you get stronger. Otherwise not only you cannot get much results from your workout but also have higher risk of injuries in shoulder, lower back, and knees.
Fix Your Skill
Whatever exercise you are planning on doing, make sure to work on your skill of those exercises before adding more weight.
I do understand that you want to get stronger fast and slapping on those 45lb plates on the bar may seems to be an answer for you. But more than a load, you want to make sure that your skills are improving as well as your strength
If you are working on squats, are you able to squat below your knee line without having those "Butt Wink"?
If you are doing pull ups are you able to pull your chest to the bar?
When bench pressing, are your foot on the floor or on the bench because your hip flexors are so tight that it gives you back issue?
As you become stronger these things does start causing you problems if not fixed, such as neck pain, lower back issues, shoulder pains and so on.
Don't rush. Majority of times when you take a step back and assess yourself, can help you improve your gains more faster than just adding more load.
Enjoy!
Kota Shimada
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