Building confidence in the gym for your clients is one of the greatest things you can do for them. Every single client is unique in what building confidence will look like for them, but easily one of my favourite ways to help females build confidence in the gym is to get them comfortable with a barbell and with the idea of lifting heavy weights. You don’t have to start off moving massive weights, but I promise that as you start to lift heavier and heavier your confidence will come and you will feel amazing in the gym.
If your looking to start to build confidence in your fitness routine give this full body workout a try to get you started. As your weights increase and you feel stronger your confidence will climb. Try 8-10 reps of each exercise for a full body workout that will leave you feeling strong and confident. Complete 3-4 sets of each exercise.
Barbell Back Squat
The back squat is a fantastic movement to move into for clients who are looking to build confidence and move heavier weights around. While I don’t recommend jumping into a barbell back squat immediately if you struggle with squat form, once you have the form down moving to a barbell is a great option. As you gain more confidence in the squat movement you will be able to add more and more weight to the barbell building both strength and confidence over time.
Bench Press
The bench press is another compound movement that will bring confidence to clients over time and they build strength. If you are just beginning and a barbell is too much weight you can try a dumbbell chest press, but graduating to the barbell will allow you to build more confidence in your lift and be able to move more weight.
Barbell Romanian Deadlift
The Romanian deadlift is a fantastic posterior chain exercise focusing on the glutes and hamstrings. While you can sub a standard deadlift movement in here as well if you want I’ve use the Romanian option here instead. This is a lift that can be done with dumbbells as well if you are just starting out, but you can quickly graduate to a barbell here. In the Romanian deadlift you will lift the bar from the floor initially but unlike the conventional deadlift you don’t return the bar to the floor every time, which can be beneficial if you don’t have access to bumper plates and aren’t ready to lift the 45 lbs yet.
Barbell Inverted Row
The barbell inverted row is a fantastic exercise to help build back strength. Many clients can’t do right into pullups when they start out, and honestly a lot of people are not able to ever do a pullup. But with some focus and practice you will be able to work towards those pullups and the inverted row is a great place to start. The beautiful thing about an inverted row is that as your strength improves all you need to do is move the J hooks on the rack down to increase your difficulty.
Split Squat
The split squat is a great lunge variation to start with to help build confidence towards reverse, forward, walking lunges or the Bulgarian split squat (or all of the above). Mastering this movement pattern helps build confidence as you start to increase the difficulty of your lunge patterns and allows you to expand those exercises. Although this exercise can be done with a barbell for most people I typically recommend dumbbells.
Incline Pushup
Not able to do a full pushup yet, here’s your alternative. Although we still do use the pushup from the knees in some situations the incline pushup is an even better alternative with work towards your first pushup. As your strength improves you can move the J hooks on the rack to increase the difficulty until eventually you are able to place your hands on the floor. The incline pushup is a great exercise to focus on the full body and help build confidence as you work towards a full pushup.
Hip Thrust
If you’ve never done a hip thrust, I will tell you that for many people there are very few exercises more empowering and confidence building than the hip thrust. This is because it’s an exercise where you can move a lot of weight, and moving a lot of weight can definitely give you a confidence boost.
This workout can be a great way to expose yourself to new experiences and get comfortable with a barbell. You don’t have to start with a ton of weight, but as you become comfortable with these exercises your confidence will grow and you will be able to move more weight so start small and work your way up.
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