AS PROMISED! Free Resources for New and Aspiring Lifters: Squat and Press
Welcome to all of the new signups and subscribers who are here after listening to my appearance on the Tom Woods Show last week. At the end of the podcast, Tom asked me what advice would I give to someone who wants to learn about this strength training stuff, to get started on the right foot. This post will be a cornucopia of free resources for a beginner (or experienced gym goer who hasn’t had proper instruction) to learn how to correctly perform the squat and press, two of the four barbell lifts that comprise the backbone of the strength programming I discussed with Tom on the show. I will make another post in a few days doing the same for the deadlift and bench press. But before we get to that, an obligatory note about hiring a coach.
Should You Just Hire a Coach?
When Tom asked about advice for new lifters, my first answer was that the best time to get a coach is when you’re first starting out, not when you’re more advanced. Learning good technique and good training habits is much easier than unlearning bad ones and re-learning good ones later on.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a variation of either
I want to get in shape first before hiring a coach, or
I’ll start on my own, then hire a coach to get me unstuck after I eventually get stuck
Neither of these makes sense. You’ll get in better shape, and get stronger, much faster if you start out by learning sound technique and having an experienced coach manage your initial foray into this quest, than you will by bumbling about on your own and waiting til you get stuck in proverbial quicksand before hiring someone to bail you out.
If you are going to have a coach for any 3 month continuous period of training, I’d recommend it be the first 3 months over any other. There are other times where having a coach is very handy, for example advanced lifter programming is difficult to do on your own - but at least you’re already strong. A coach is very helpful at that stage to get your bench from 315 to 350 or your deadlift from 500 to 545, but at least you’re already benching 315 and pulling 500! So if I had to choose just one time period, the first 3 months would be it.
So if this is you, and you’re ready to commit, send me a DM here on substack, and we’ll get you started.
That said, some people are unwilling or unable to make the financial investment, and are going to do it on their own regardless. Others are stubbornly inclined and want to try everything on their own and make their own mistakes and learn from them, even if the hard way. And you know what, I respect that. So if you’re any of those people, this post is for you.
I’m going to drop a bunch of embedded videos below, to help you learn proper technique in the 4 primary barbell lifts that make up the Novice Linear Progression (NLP): Squat, Press, Deadlift, and Bench Press. Most of my content here on SubStack and on YouTube to date, has focused on people who’ve already been through the beginner learning process, and now need troubleshooting on some of the finer points that come once you’ve been lifting for a little while, so I’ll use tutorials from other channels and I’ll add my own troubleshooting videos afterwards, for completeness. Since I have taught these lifts to thousands of people, I may make intro/beginner videos for these lifts myself at some point. Working with new lifters is something I love doing and helping people with, and I do it both online and in person to this day. But as of now, most of my videos are more helpful to fix common errors and clarify common cues, so I’ll use videos from Starting Strength and Barbell Logic for the basic tutorials.
What About the Power Clean?
Before you ask, I won’t be including any Power Clean tutorials here, even though the power clean is the 5th main lift on the official Rippetoe/SS NLP program. If you don’t know what the power clean is, don’t worry about it. But if you’re a fan of Starting Strength or otherwise curious, here’s why I’m not including it:
As I mentioned on Tom’s podcast, I am about 90-95% in alignment with Starting Strength, but power cleans are one topic on which I slightly differ. Don’t get me wrong, I love doing and coaching power cleans. The clean is a fun lift that’s just plain old cool to do, and it connects you to the long and storied histories of olympic lifting and athletic development. But after taking many hundreds of people through a full NLP, and coaching or teaching the lifts to thousands of others, my opinion is that the vast majority of regular people who just want to get strong, non-athletes, don’t need to power clean. Some might choose to pick it up later at some point for fun, but as cool as the power clean is, most regular people just don’t need to do it. Most people, especially those who pick up lifting as adults and weren’t especially athletic when younger, don’t ever get to where their power clean is heavy enough to drive any real training adaptations, and for many, it simultaneously becomes a source of frustration as they flail around with light weights.
Just for the record to show I’m not avoiding them because I can’t do them, here’s me power cleaning 315 pounds. Below that is a set of 275x3 that I did a couple months later, with a special guest behind me that some of you may recognize.
OK my power clean opinion now out of the way, let’s get to the first two of the four main lifts that you really need to learn, in order to do the program.
Squat
The first video here is courtesy of Brussels Barbell in Belgium, and shows how we take a brand new lifter learning to squat for the very first time, through the teaching method of the squat. First without the bar: Learning the stance, how to get down, where the bottom position is and what it feels like, where to look, and how to stand back up utilizing hip drive. Then it goes to using the barbell, where the bar goes and how to hold it, then how to do all the same things you did before, but this time with the bar on your back. This is an excellent short presentation of what we do with real clients when coming to us for the first time:
Here is another video from the Starting Strength YouTube channel, which goes over how to get your squat right on Day 1, and it covers some things not mentioned in the video above, such as how to set up your rack height and what attire is best for lifting, from shoes to shirt to pants/shorts.
Finally for basic technique instruction, here is a video from the Barbell Logic channel, once again showing a clear example of first learning the right positions without a bar, then taking the empty bar out and doing your first set with the bar. This one also discusses things like cadence, and shows an example of the lifter working up to a set at over 200 lbs:
And from my own occasionally updated YouTube channel, a video on correcting the common error of eyes/gaze and head moving all over the place during the lift:
Press
Our next lift to learn is the press. For clarification purposes since this article is aimed at beginners: “The Press” refers to the standing, two hands, barbell overhead press. Anything other than that needs a modifier, such as the bench press, or the incline dumbbell bench press, or the one-arm dumbbell press, or whatever. Notice that the modifier is always necessary in everything but the original - The Press. Some people like to call it the overhead press, and while unnecessary, that’s OK I guess. Differentiates it from the bench press, which doesn’t go overhead. But don’t call it the shoulder press. That’s like calling a squat, a “leg squat.”
Alright that nomenclature lesson out of the way, let’s look at some videos. Our main video for the press walks through the necessary fundamentals: How to grip and hold the bar, how to carry it, where it goes at the top, and then how to get it there properly:
Here is a video I did on my own channel specifically focusing on the grip and setup, in which I show a slightly different way - superior in my opinion - to learn how to grip and hold the barbell, compared to the standard Starting Strength model that is taught in the first video:
And finally a video I made specifically to troubleshoot an issue I have seen a lot of people struggle with: how to unrack the barbell in the press correctly:
And there you have all the resources you need to start learning the squat and press on your own, if you can’t or don’t want to start off with coaching. Some of the process can only be learned by doing, but these videos should help you on your way quite a bit.
If watching these videos makes it seem more intimidating instead of less, that’s probably a sign you should shoot me a message and learn how to get started with coaching. If they helped and clarified things for you - let me know in the comments section below, how your first session goes when you try it!
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