Common Muscular Weaknesses

The site recommends crunches and leg extensions... crunches are not a great exercise for functional ab muscles, and leg extensions are generally verboten due to stress on the knees from the open chain loading.

It's good to be thinking of this stuff though. I highly recommend Athlean-X(his free youtube videos, can't say anything about his programs) and Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength program. Between these two, I've gotten into a little weightlifting and I'm loving it. My posture is better than it's been in 40 years.

Just do yourself a favor and go slow. Muscles adapt quickly but joints take time. Lay off the creatine until you have some experience. The 2 best supplements you can take are protein and sleep. Don't forget to hydrate and don't overtrain.

If you get a trainer, get a good one. I got a bro who encouraged me to go too far too fast and now I've got a messed up shoulder. Done properly, weightlifting is one of the safest sports.

If you're a keyboard jockey like me, chances are you have weak external rotator cuff muscles, weak serratus anterior muscles, and tight pec minors. Look into correcting all of that first, before you start shredding your shoulder joint with bench presses and bicep curls.

Physiotherapists are not doctors, and doctors are not physiotherapists. So I'm not sure why you're replying to the GP.

In response to some of the endorsements of Starting Strength/Stronglifts on this post, I'd like to advocate for an alternative source of strength training information, Barbell Medicine, https://www.barbellmedicine.com/. SSLP/SL are both solid options for a complete beginner, but Mark Rippetoe's overall approach is somewhat outdated and less evidence based than BBM. They're quite similar (they were actually formerly associated, but have since split), but I find BBM's approach somewhat more sensible and nuanced; Rippetoe tends towards dogmatism in some of his beliefs about biomechanics.

No association other than being a happy customer (of all three mentioned actually, you can't really go wrong, I just think BBM is the best of the three).

"Ass to grass" squats will develop the posterior chain and the abdominals very well. The quads also grow, but in proportion (because the deeper the squat, the more the power shifts from quads to hamstrings/glutes). The abs are active the whole time stabilizing the weight. That one exercise is more effective than a dozen other isolated exercises.

It also develops neuromuscular control which most people lack. Being able to drive steady, strong, coordinated impulses from the brain to the muscles is critical for being strong, balanced, and capable of doing "anything". The only way to get that is by doing it - using many different muscle groups in a coordinated effort.

An added bonus of doing exercises like that with relatively high weight is that you even out the weak areas. With squats, most people will find abs to be the weakest link at first (if they're paying attention).

> Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength

I like this gist of his program, but as someone who did it years ago, there's a few things I'd change.

First, remove cleans, and add barbell rows. Lots of people make this adjustment. I don't find the exercise to be beginner friendly. Second, deadlifts will be there own focused day almost immediately. Outside of one's probably first month, doing squats + bench + deadlift is nearly impossible to do in one workout.

On a personal note, I don't like his squat technique. In particular, bar placement. New people should do high-bar, exclusively. Mark's hybrid squat, and low bar squats, put a huge amount of pressure on your elbows and shoulders.