6 Things We Did Right & Wrong As Beginner Lifters (feat. Brian Alsruhe) 

Thanks so much for having me out Alan! It is always fun hanging out!

Couldn't hear what they were saying I was to focused on Alan's beard majestically blowing in the wind

I always hated the gym until I was exposed to the big four. Didn't learn them until I was 57 after arthritis took my running away. I believe I am stronger now than at any other time in my life and thanks to both of you for your content! #nevertooold

Brian looks like John Cena mixed with Johnny Sins.

I had a staring contest with Alan... I lost

For all of Rippetoe's antics and grumpiness, he was a great place to start, and, frankly, stay. His thorough understanding of the musculature and skeleton of the body is a heck of a selling point. His anti-running thing, I know what he's going for in his over-corrective manner, but being capable of endurance-type stuff is capability in its way and worth something. And this Thrall guy, well, I'm subscribed.

I really wanted to hear Brian say "train untamed."

For me personally, "eat big; get big" was the worst advice I followed as a beginner. I'm the opposite of a hardgainer, so naturally, I got very fat very fast and made no tremendous strength gains getting there. Looking into the mirror I hated how I looked and what followed was my first, and also worst, cut ever where I lost a substantial amount of strength. However, I'm thankful for learning that a cut shouldn't mean a daily caloric deificit of 1000 calories. Nevertheless, I'm never eating big to get big again. Only lean bulking from now on, which for me means eating below my natural appetite; yeah, that should tell you something...

Two of my favorite RU-vidr's together. I couldn't agree more. 😊😎

thank you for making this video. i am a 16 yr old and i started lifting around 3 months ago. i'm still bulking and went from 123 to around 136 and made some great gains

Do I need to weigh my toothpaste, loool.

The Untamed Stairs, the casting couch of strength RU-vid. Everyone in strength RU-vid gets on them steps. Difference is I've actually learned something watching this.

I have never clicked on subscribe quicker than when I saw Brian's content.. It's very informative, funny and motivational.. also sometimes brutally honest.. very similar to Alan's channel.

not all hero’s wear capes some wear caps and or beards

The Famous Duo back again!!! I´m tuned in.

My favourite people together. So pleased to see them. Alan, Brian & Jeff Cavaliere are my guides in this dark world.

Love both of their channels. Wish I found them earlier in my lifting career. I identify with Brian's situation growing up in the 90's and having very little solid info to go off of.

Alan & Brian, this video is fantastic. As a past lifter who started up again 15 years later at age 30, I am learning all over again. Videos like these give great info as someone who is really just doing stuff from memory.

Brian has a lot of unique tips and lifting advice I really love his channel

He’s a beast of a man. The other guy, too!

8:42 I’m practically f*cking crying how much this is true. I started seriously lifting with emphasis on the compound lifts my sophomore year of high school. I packed on muscle faster than all get out. Got excited about the progress - immediately switched to a bodybuilding routine. No growth. Figured out by my junior year the Compound lifts were the way to go. Re emphasized with them, but kept the high volume (40 rep goal) approach throughout my senior year. No growth. ...Aside from slight arm strength increase when I goofed off and did near 1RM weighted chins for low reps. Hmm... Finally, I’m a freshman in college, eventually said, ‘Fuck it,’ and decided to lift in lower rep ranges literally just combinations of 5x5, 3x6, and even 4x3 on really heavy lifts. Fucking gained 15lbs and it’s just been two months. I still haven’t a f*cking clue how to program, so any recommendations for progression of rep schemes are appreciated. But for now I figure so long as I stick to trying to master a weight for 4 sets of 6, that I can then increase the weight by 5-10 lbs (for upper body exercises) or 15+ lbs (for lower body lifts) for as many I can do (often less than 5 per set.) Building that foundation Has proven to be more effective than any of the advanced auxiliary BB work I wasted hours of my time reading about, and hours of my time logging 4 sets of 8. Since it’s for advanced lifters. Hopefully a day will come where I am able to recycle those training methods, tho.

Excellent collaboration! Two of my favourite channels in the fitness community. Both of you guys helped me so much and I’m super grateful to you for that and appreciate you guys quite a lot. Thank you so much for all the help and knowledge and experience that you share with us. 🙏💪👍

Barbell row getting a shout out, love it.

Seriously, 'beginners' don't know how good they've got it these days with the wealth of knowledge available, once you sift out the bullshit. I can remember following Arnold's routine out of _Flex_ magazine and becoming confused as to why I failed developed a Mr Olympia physique..

8:51 I didn't start lifting until I was 25.. That's what I wish I could change, start lifting earlier.

We thought low incline wide grip 90 degree elbows bench press to the face and upside down cat backing sumo roman chair while doing dumbell kickbacks with our pabsts was the way man - good ole 1990's

Really thankful to you guys for sharing your wisdom with us. It’s very valuable and inspiring. Highly informative, comprehensive and insightful video.

Great collaboration! Two favorites together!

why did 21 people dislike this? this is literally the best lifting channel (powelifting/strongman) on RU-vid!!!!

Great video guys. "You should do more of what you suck at." Great way to put it. Can't wait for the next video. ✌

Two of my favorite channels right here. Great topic, and a good reminder our past doesn't need to dictate our future.

I've been so excited for this collaboration. Looking forward to seeing more of the videos that come out of you two working together. Thanks!

came across both of those channels separately, both were favourite channels in strength training. Didn't know they knew each other. GOLD.

My main 2 guys💪🏼 Thank you guys so much for the abundance of advice and information!

All the diet comments are on the money. I've struggled with that for years, losing or gaining both are challenging for anyone who runs a daylight to dark schedule. Great reminders and great info. Thanks Brian and Allan for everything

15:22 Alan doing mental math to figure out Brian's age

Man the specificity bit really got me. I train for aerial straps but I also want to start working towards strongman competitions. Haven't figured out how to marry the two yet, so I bought a sandbag to fuck around with in the meantime.

You guys have such an awesome personality, sharing a ton's of super useful information on your channels. Thumbs up for both of you! Your content really helps changing people's health and life for the better.

Thankful for omar and a bad shoulder for getting me on to Alan Thralls channel, which got me onto Brian Alsruhes channel. I dont get fo watch as many videos these days, but its a great surprise to see this on my feed today.

I'd be more consistent, and more patient. I always pushed the crap out of myself for months at a time, maxing every workout on every lift, get discouraged, and start skipping workouts until I just wasn't working out anymore. Rinse and repeat. I did this for years. I should be looking and lifting like Brian right now; instead, I look the same as I did when I first started lifting 10+ years ago. I seem to be doing quite well this time around. I'm going on seven months of lifting, still going strong, but my biggest fear right now is losing that drive to keep going, and having to start over yet again.

Great vid. What Brian is saying is sooo important, people dig too deep with methods, knowledge, diet etc, but most important thing is to just eat a lot, eat healthy and do basic lifts heavy. If you're pro - than ok, 100% clean eating and specialised excercises are important, but if you just want to get bigger and stronger that's all you have to do.

I am very happpy I found this channel. Thanks for all the good content and smart cool attitude.

"you can't out work a crappy diet" so true.

hey i just wanted to say that your videos have been instrumental! i'm kinda new to all of this but i do have enough experience to where i made some solid gains...for a few months. i plateaued after that but after watching your videos and adapting some of the techniques the past couple weeks, i've made NOTICEABLE progress. thanks a bunch!

the walking lunged statement near the end is so true I did alot of them early 2020 at the start of lockdown hurt my knees and stopped tried again recently with better form and better warm up knees are great and they are working amazingly for my legs.

This was soooo good to listen to. Thank you for taking the time!!! 💪💪💪

Gotta love Brian

I wish I had heard Steve Shaw’s counsel that heavy weight is always going to feel heavy much earlier in my life. That advice got me to punch through my mental ceiling particularly on squats. Grow or die reflex!

It has come full circle.... found Brian from Alan’s 22 squat challenge years ago....this is Awesome

Still my two faves

Discipline equals freedom!

I would like to shoot a fb live with you Alan on this topic.. i am 54 & been grinding hard since 1979. Still learning too

It's so awesome that younger lifters like myself have people like you guys to help us avoid making mistake. A novice lifter can learn to improve exponentially faster and without as many hiccups thanks to people like Alan and Brian. I was 130 lbs and hadn't played high school sports or done any form of training before but with RU-vid I've really been able to improve not only my strength and physique but also the way I approach life in general.

Alan such a great video buddy!! 👍🏻👊🏻💪🏻

Yo man, I'm glad you made this video. I needed to hear some of this.

TRAIN ON TIME!

Awesome, great to see you guys colb again. I know this is going to be a great conversation 👊💪

Great video, it seems like everyone produces a video about "X or Y" and then all the other You Tubers produce a similar video. It is refreshing to see this video didn't follow that same mentality. I'd like to see a video about training when injured... alternatives and refocused. Example broken leg....refocus on upper body while leg is healing. Then what to do to get back on track after leg heals.

News flash: You guys are beginner lifters. How far can you do a walking handstand? What's your 4 1/2 rep seated calve raise max? Do you even know how to do curls in the Smith Machine rack!?

Great to see you guys doing another collab. Appreciate the work that both of you do and I try to keep it in mind whenever I do any of the strongman / powerlifting movements. Brian's videos have been very focused on appropriate cues while lifting and provides several really good training templates. I would highly recommend checking his youtube channel out (I suspect many of you guys already do). I really hope I get a chance at some point in the future to visit your gyms.

The man spreading is strong in this video :)

In reference to that thing Brian said about aspirations and having to specify sometimes. I think its important to note, even if you specify, you might not become the best, and thats okay, you don't have to be the best in the world, keep trying your best of course, but dont beat yourself up competing with world class athletes who dont even know you exist.

What Brian says about there being an absurd amount of noise drowning out the good information is so true. There are far too many people in the internet pushing advice for very advanced lifters to complete novices. Just do a search for 'beginner gym program' and you're gonna get fed an absurd amount of recommendations for unnecessary assistance work and variations that are wholly inferior to the core barbell lifts. But everyone wants to have 'the secret', and no one wants to admit that the secret is just eating and sticking to a simple novice program.

Love that Untamed Shirt man. Great design.

Gents, this stuff is great, thanks for the awesome content!!

It's great to watch beginners recognize their mistakes early on.

Awesome collab 💪✌️

I miss these collabs

Brian I laughed hard when you mentioned TN. There are still a few old boys left on there still grinding away. You should drop a message in your training log. That would make some of us smile.

Thanks guys

great discussion; my beginner thing I wish I changed was seek out an actual strength coach when I was a young and motivated private.

Great video I feel like I relate so much to these guys when they were younger. Love your content Allan even if I’m not a fan of beards! 😜

Solid advice. Keep it simple, work hard, eat, avoid lunges at all cost because they are the worst.

I’m the other guy. I ate A LOT when beginning. Now I’m a easy 305-310. But I’ve considered myself a “powerlifter” for close to a year. I was 280 when I “started” back in febuary or so. When do you guys think “hey you fat bastard you need to lose weight” my lifts are going up. And I’ve been told to say fuck that scale if your getting stronger and your easy 300 run with it. What do you guys think? WOULD LOVE A REPLY! Never really been able to get a answer on this question. Great video dudes 🤙🤙

AWESOME!!!

that last "thanks guys" cracked me up lol

The last advice that Brian gave was my favourite

I may be the only one but my only regret is listening to the "trainer" at my first gym. This was back in the late 90s - 2005. Bro splits. Squat using the Smith machine heels elevated on weight plates. Pouring the jug of water out. Minimal concentration on deads. Uptight rows (regardless of grip). So many more. During my high testosterone years. So many gainzzzzz lost. 😞 But better late than never so sunny side up I guess 😁 Stay blessed Alan 🙏

Gold video! Awesome.

For those worrying about Brians blood pressure- "Brian has excellent blood pressure" (Brian Alsruhe, 2019)

I know someone's said it already, but godamn that beard is majestic just gently blowing in the wind

Very informative thanks.

I like how your beard moves in the wind.

Good video. I wish I had good coaches when I was younger. Spent many years spinning my wheels with no real improvement.

My man Brian. I'm doing his latest free program

"Do I need to weigh my tooth paste" funniest line of 2020 even though said in 2019

It's funny how people often have this story where they're focusing on higher reps and don't see progress then move to heavy weight and blow up. My theory is it's not that the strength training blew you up, you were probably under eating and confused high volume with easy hugh volume and so everything was lighter than it should be, so once you upped the intesity the weights were actually challenging now and caused you to reap the rewards of the previous hypertrophy training.

“You ask people to flex their lats and they do all kinds of crazy things.” What. Lats were the first muscle group that I learned and enjoyed to flex.

No homo ,yet so love brian physique.

I only started getting bigger when I began to chase strength as well

Lunges suck. I pulled in inner thigh muscle the last time I did those. But I do get your point doing things that suck develops character. Makes the other exercises that don't suck better because you're thinking well at least its not lunges. Good stuff.

Great collaboration ...I wished Alan asked Brian about what exercises did he suck at that made home work

I know this video is old so this might not be seen. I'm struggling to know where to go given my size and off and on again training history, as far as how strong should I be before I chase hypertrophy vs strength. I've been consistently lifting for a while now and that's like 80% of it so that's good, just looking for perspective and direction

If you're really overweight and need to lost weight, you CAN turn fat into muscle....ONE TIME! Being obese is like the only time you could lose fat and gain muscle, but if you're in that position now, take MAXIMUM advantage of it. Eat the max amount of protein you would need for your body size, and then cut both other macros equally to reach your calorie goal

Brian Ahlsruhe seems to have high blood pressure

You guys should do a "what you would do different opening a gym" episode!

The only thing I'd really seriously change: I wouldn't have gotten seriously hurt (wasn't even lifting related, tripped on ice getting into my car!). I also would have gotten back into it faster after rehabbing.

I wish i wouldve learned earlier to eat a lot more, There was a time i was 140lbs and benched 215 for a max, (proud of that ratio) but currently 170, and can rep that weight, it was crazy watching my bench fly through the roof while gaining that additional 30lbs over 1 year

If girls are one of the motivations for lifting make sure you do a lot of leg and glutes training... Glutes are the first thing women on average check out

The eating part sounds easy but can be problematic regards to sustaining what seems like an unecessarily high intake. Your taste buds get desensitised and less stimulated and there upon effecting your desire to eat. Good point though. My son won't eat and he is a super muscular guy with a mass ceiling.😐