How to Start Strength Training (as an Adult) Without Getting Hurt

6 hours ago
6 min read

Woman with ponytail squats a Rogue barbell in a gym, focused beside a blue rack with numbered holes.

Learn the four principles of proper lifting technique that help beginners build strength safely, move better, and reduce the risk of injury.

At our gym, Hungry Hearts Fitness in New London, New Hampshire, many of the adults we work with are either complete beginners to strength training or they’re coming back to training after years away from the gym. We love this. This lets us get started with a blank slate- no bad habits!

When we’re working with beginners (or anyone), we’re a big fan of using systems. High quality systems create high quality results, consistently.

In this article we’re going to teach you one of our most essential training systems- one that may help you minimize your risks of injury, achieve more consistent progress, and most importantly- avoid ending up in a YouTube gym fail video.

Gym scene with a person falling upside down from exercise machine while another rushes over; text reads Gym membership canceled 😭

In teaching beginners, our coaches use a simple four-step process to evaluate safe, effective movement. We first look at someone’s Posture, then their Range Of Motion, the Tempo they’re performing the movement at, and finally the Load or intensity of what they’re doing. We call this our PROMTL system.

Whether you’re lifting with us, at a commercial gym, or in your garage, look at these elements of your movement (in that order!) to get the best results from your strength training and minimize your risk of injury.

Posture

Napoleon Bonaparte sits sternly in a chair, wearing a white uniform, gray coat and black boots, against a deep red backdrop. — *Probably not ideal posture.*

The most important element! We evaluate posture with the question- ‘Is everything where you want it to be?’ This differs from movement to movement and body to body, but it often means maintaining a neutral spine, keeping your balance centered, and keeping your arms and legs aligned at intentional angles.

To make this easier to assess- learn where a movement should start, what it should look like in the middle, and what it should look like at the end (usually exactly the same as the starting position). Then it’s just a matter of connecting the pieces.

For example, in the starting position of a goblet squat, we want you:

-Standing with a neutral spine

-Holding your dumbbell in the correct position

-Keeping your weight centered and in the middle of your feet.

Tattooed man in a gym stands barefoot in front and side views inside a blue Rogue rack, holding a dumbbell at chest level.

In the bottom of the movement, we want:

-A (still) neutral spine

-Knees to be tracking in line with your toes

-Weight to remain centered in your feet

Man doing a weighted squat in a gym, shown front and side, holding a dumbbell between blue squat racks and resistance bands.

Stand back up and your posture should match the start.

Do you break down somewhere in this process? Compromises in your posture while lifting are one of the biggest things that can lead to minor tweaks and sprains, or sometimes more significant injuries. Remember- your rep will only ever be as good as your starting position!

Range of Motion

Man in a gym doing a deep side lunge while holding a dumbbell, with blue racks and dumbbells in the background. — *Good mobility training and good strength training can look remarkably similar.*

Once someone’s posture is in order, we look at their range of motion. By range of motion we mean going as ‘deep’ into a movement as you can. This is necessary to build strength and resiliency that effectively translates over to everyday life. As a bonus, this can help you increase and maintain mobility. Getting ‘musclebound’ from strength training isn’t a concern as long as you train correctly!

The key question here is- ‘Are you utilizing the fullest range of motion you have access to?’.

*Utilizing a box to ensure consistent squat depth. Adjust to an appropriate height for you!*

We work with a lot of adults with different movement restrictions- joint replacements, ACL tears, shoulder impingements, etc. Because of this, we don’t think of range of motion as a ‘one size fits all’ criteria. Our general guideline is to have enough mobility to do all the activities you want to participate in- then just a little extra to help protect from random injuries. This should be pain free range of motion and accessed without compromising posture. Hold yourself accountable to that standard, even as you fatigue or progress to more challenging weights/exercise variations.

To assess this, first we need to see what range of motion you have access to under the most favorable conditions. This could mean using just your bodyweight, and possibly using external support for balance.

In the example of our squat, we typically want you going as deep as you can (again- pain free, maintaining posture). We’ll use external cues- squatting to a box or stacked pads, to keep you honest. If you can’t maintain that range of motion, it typically means you’re going too heavy or need to take a rest!

Tempo

Man in pink shirt and red bandana jumps to grab a yellow training rig in a gym; woman watches nearby, with Rogue equipment visible. — *Sometimes the correct tempo is fast!*

After posture and range of motion are in order, we look at tempo. The key question here is, “Are you moving at the intended speed?”. The preceding question of course should be, “Do you know what speed you should be moving at?”

The general tempo we recommend is, ‘Down with control, up with confidence.’ There’s nuance to that though! There are many ways you might want to manipulate tempo to get different results. Sometimes we might have people use pauses, go down slower than they go up, or other strategies.

The issues people will typically run into are racing through movements too quickly/at an inconsistent pace (which often means we need to adjust load), approaching movements too cautiously (likely because a lack of confidence/familiarity), or not adhering to a prescribed tempo, as in a pause squat.

Count all those I-P-P-I’s in your ‘Three Mississippi’!

Load

Woman smiles while squatting a barbell with Rogue plates in a wooden gym, with a spotter nearby. — *Lifting heavy weights can be fun. We promise!*

The final piece of the puzzle! Achieving consistent results means gradually increasing the intensity or load of an exercise over time, as appropriate to the individual. If you’re not experiencing pain and all the other pieces are in order- your posture, ROM, and tempo- the load you’re using is possibly appropriate, or could even be too easy.

Oftentimes, we’ll find the beginners who are thoughtful about using good technique aren’t using ENOUGH load on an exercise. There needs to be adequate stress to actually create an adaptation.

If you only have good technique at very light loads, you don’t actually have good technique. You need to be able to maintain that form while you’re being challenged or are fatigued. One sign of progressing to an advanced-beginner level in strength training is being able to work close to your limit while still maintaining your best technique.

The key question to ask here, “Does the difficulty feel like it’s challenging your technique, without compromising it?”

In the context of our squat- we’d typically begin by adding load to a point where a client could maintain their posture, ROM, and tempo, and have two reps left in the tank at the end of a set. That’s a great place to start!

Bringing it All Together

Slide titled Hungry Hearts PROMTL System lists Posture, Range of Motion, Tempo, and Load on a white background with red headings. — *The Hungry Hearts PROMTL framework- the order is important!*

How do you implement this in your own strength training?

Try it yourself, right now, with a squat. Stand up wherever you are and do your best rep. No excuses or saving it for later, even if you’re waiting in line at a grocery store. You’ve read this far in the article, now or never!

Evaluate your squat with this checklist:

-Is everything where you want it to be (start, middle, end)?

-Are you utilizing the fullest range of motion you have access to?

-Are you moving at the intended speed?

-Does the difficulty feel like it’s challenging your technique, without compromising it?

Hopefully your grocery-store-check-out-line squat was a yes for the first three questions, and maybe a no on the third (unless you had a really large basket).

You can adapt that same checklist to any other exercise you may do.

If you exercise on your own, it’s crucial to develop your self-evaluation skills to keep you from stalling out or becoming ‘fail of the week’ on that previously mentioned YouTube series.

Of course, some of the subtler details in evaluating and refining movement can be difficult to assess and address on your own. In future articles we may explore some of the ways you can correct and improve your movement while exercising solo, but one of the best ways to do that is to ask an expert- go find a coach!

If you do go the coaching route, make sure you find a quality one, and not someone who’s just a fannypack wearing, Instagram scrolling, mouth breathing, rep-counter.

Man in sunglasses and floral vest crouches in a gym, holding a shaker bottle and phone beside blue weight racks. — *'Yeah I guess that squat looked OK. Or something.'*

How do you tell the difference? Ask them, ‘What do you look for in evaluating good technique?’. You now have a way to answer that question yourself!

Their answer may be different than ours, but if they have a system that they’re capable of explaining to you and aren’t just winging it, that’s typically a good sign.

And if you’re having a hard finding a quality coach, well- we might know a few…

Want to learn if we pronounce it Prahm-tee-el or Prom-tul ?

Talk to a QUALITY Coach!