Easy Strength - a little lifting each day

For the TLDR crowd:

1) For the next 40 workouts, do the exact same training program every day. (For the record, I find that most of my goals are reached by day 20 or 22, so you can also opt for a shorter period.)

2) Pick five exercises. I suggest you do a squatting movement like the goblet squat or overhead squat as part of the warm-up, as you don't want to ignore the movement, but it might be fun to focus on other aspects of your body.

3) Focus on these five movements:

A large posterior chain movement (the deadlift is the right answer)

Upper body push (bench press, incline bench press, military press)

Upper body pull (pull-ups, rows, or, if you've ignored them like me, heavy bicep curls)

A simple full-body explosive move (kettlebell swings or snatches)

And something for what I call an "anterior chain" move (an abdominal exercise). I think the ab wheel is king here, but you can also do some movements best suited for lower reps.

4) Only do two sets of five reps per workout for the deadlift and push/pull exercises, and one set of 20 to 50 for the explosive move. Do a solid single set of five reps for the abs.

5) Never plan or worry about the weight or the load. Always stay within yourself and go heavy "naturally."

6) Don't eat chalk, scream, or pound on walls. Simply do each lift without any emotion or excitement and strive for perfect technique.

Dan John is my favorite strength coach. To paraphrase him any program works for 6 weeks. I doubt he would recommend you do that plan indefinitely

I quit reading after he wrote, "if you can throw the shot 75 feet but cannot stand up from a chair..."

How silly one must use the whole body to throw the shot put 75 feet!!!

Okay Dan, yeah, I dig it--carry heavy stuff sometimes, and yeah, frequency is good, and yeah, don't drink a mountain of coffee and shriek at the barbell before every lift... but come on Dan, wear pants that fit.

I've run this program a few times. It is quite good for a couple months. Especially if you're upping the miles a lot and don't have time for more or are in season and don't want to get close to maxing out.

The easy strength theories were also great carry over for me as a new lifter. Same basic theories as running. Spend more time practicing the movement, don't go all out, sometimes lift more and sometimes lift less. Sounds a lot like how we talk about getting faster.