Meg Squats gets beginners under a barbell without the fear. Here's how to turn her structure into a template for a whole female roster.
A lot of coaches have a roster that's mostly women, and a lot of those clients arrive nervous about the barbell. Meg Gallagher built a following on solving exactly that - a clear beginner on-ramp and a repeatable strength structure of main lift, variation and accessories. This breakdown covers her method in our own words, adds our honest take for a coaching business, and shows how to template that structure once and reuse it across every client.
By Markus Evers · September 2026 · a Coachway video breakdown
the short version
Meg Squats' beginner guide is about lowering the barrier to lifting: learn the core barbell movements first, then run a simple, repeatable session shape - a main compound lift, a secondary variation of it, and heavier accessory volume. The one thing a coach should take from it: don't reinvent a philosophy for female clients - build one solid beginner on-ramp and one reusable strength template, then individualise per client, not per gender.
Meg Squats - BEGINNER GYM GUIDE | Learn how to lift + Free Program Inside!
Source: Meg Squats on YouTube - "BEGINNER GYM GUIDE | Learn how to lift + Free Program Inside!". Watch on YouTube. We embed the public video and summarise it in our own words; the video, title and channel belong to Meg Gallagher (megsquats), and nothing here implies her endorsement of Coachway.
Who is Meg Squats, and why coaches watch
Meg Squats is Meg Gallagher, a women's strength-training coach and content creator whose whole mission is captured in her tagline of putting "a barbell in every woman's hands." She's built her programming around getting beginners confident under the bar and progressing them through structured strength training, with documented frameworks including her Stronger by the Day programming, a beginner on-ramp (Before the Barbell), and pre- and postnatal-aware training (Plus+1). For coaches, she's one of the clearest reference points for a mostly-female roster - the kind of creator clients cite when they say they want to "get strong" rather than just "tone up." That's the lens this page is written for: not "should I copy Meg's program," but "what does her beginner-first strength structure mean for how I onboard and program a whole roster of women."
What Meg's method actually is (our summary)
This is our summary of the ideas behind her beginner guide and documented programming, in our own words - not a transcript. Watch the original for her exact demonstrations, cues and the free program she links.
- 1
Learn the movements before the load. The beginner on-ramp is about getting comfortable and confident with the core barbell patterns first, so a new lifter's early weeks are skill-building, not max-out attempts.
- 2
Anchor each session on a main compound lift. The session has a clear priority - a squat, hinge, press or pull done first, when the client is freshest and can give it real focus.
- 3
Reinforce it with a variation. A secondary variation of that same movement adds practice and volume from a slightly different angle - more reps on the pattern without simply repeating the exact main lift.
- 4
Fill the rest with heavier accessory volume. Accessories aren't an afterthought - they carry a real share of the working sets and the muscle-building volume that supports the main lifts.
- 5
The structure flexes to the client's life phase. The same shape can be adapted for pre- and postnatal training and different experience levels - the responsibility is to modify load and selection deliberately, not to hand everyone the identical program.
Coachway's take
We think the most useful thing here isn't a special "women's training" secret - it's the opposite. The main lift + variation + accessory shape is just good strength programming, and the real lesson for a coach is that female clients don't need a different philosophy, they need a confident on-ramp and an honest progression. Meg's whole approach removes the intimidation from the barbell first, then trusts the same structure everyone else uses. That reframe matters, because a lot of coaches over-complicate programming for women when the actual gap is onboarding and confidence.
Where we'd add nuance for a coaching business: a single creator's program is built for a motivated, self-selecting audience who chose to follow her. Your roster is broader - different experience levels, schedules, injury histories and life phases in the same week. So we'd treat her structure as the template, not the deliverable. The main + variation + accessory shape is what you reuse; the specific lifts, loads and volume are what you individualise per client.
The pre- and postnatal point deserves a coach's caution too. It's genuinely valuable that her programming accounts for pregnancy and postpartum rather than pretending lifting stops - but "accounts for it" means deliberate modification, ideally alongside the client's medical team, not running the standard block unchanged. If you coach women, having a clear way to flex the structure for a client's phase of life is part of the job, and it's exactly the kind of thing you don't want to improvise fresh every time.
So our version of her advice is: build one strong beginner on-ramp that teaches the core lifts, build one reusable strength template on the main + variation + accessory shape, and then adapt both per client. Do that once as a template - and this is the part that saves your evenings - instead of hand-writing a new program for every woman who joins your roster from scratch.
Build the on-ramp and the template once, reuse them per client
A beginner-first strength method only scales if you can deliver it without rebuilding a program for every new client. That's what Coachway's workout builder is for: build your main-lift + variation + accessory session as a reusable template - pull the specific lifts from a large exercise library, set per-set rep ranges, and save it as your standard strength block - then assign it to a client and swap the exact exercises or loads instead of starting blank. New clients move through your beginner on-ramp in the client app with the movement demos and logging in one place, and their progress is visible so you can see whether the lifts and the confidence are actually building.
If you want the workflow around it, our guide to onboarding online coaching clients covers the beginner on-ramp side, and how to create a client workout program walks through turning a structure like this into a program you assign - with progressive overload as the engine that moves a beginner off the starting weights.
Strength session template (main + variation + accessory)
A fill-in template you can copy for any strength client. The shape follows Meg's main lift + variation + accessory structure; the example lifts below are just placeholders - swap them per client. The set and rep ranges are our coaching defaults for a beginner-to-intermediate lifter, not figures from the video.
Lower-body session (example)
The session shape
| Slot | Role | Example lift | Sets x reps (default) | Your notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Main compound | Back squat | 3-5 x 3-6 | — |
| 2 | Variation of the main | Tempo / paused squat or RDL | 3-4 x 6-10 | — |
| 3 | Accessory A | Split squat / leg press | 3 x 8-12 | — |
| 4 | Accessory B | Hamstring curl / hip thrust | 3 x 8-12 | — |
| 5 | Accessory C (optional) | Calves / core | 2-3 x 10-15 | — |
Beginner on-ramp checklist
| Before you load the bar | Coach check |
|---|---|
| Can perform the main pattern with control | ☐ |
| Understands the target reps and effort, not just the weight | ☐ |
| Knows how to log the session and flag anything painful | ☐ |
| Life-phase modifications set (e.g. pre/postnatal, injury) | ☐ |
| Progression rule agreed for the next few weeks | ☐ |
How to use it: keep the four-slot shape fixed and swap the specific lifts per client and per day (build an upper-body version with the same structure). Start a beginner at the low end of the ranges, progress load only once the reps are clean, and set the life-phase modifications before assigning it - don't retrofit them later.
STRENGTH SESSION TEMPLATE (via Coachway) - structure: main lift + variation + accessory Example lifts are placeholders. Set/rep ranges are our coaching defaults for a beginner-to-intermediate lifter, not from the video. LOWER-BODY SESSION (EXAMPLE) Slot Role Example lift Sets x reps Your notes 1 Main compound Back squat 3-5 x 3-6 2 Variation of the main Tempo/paused squat or RDL 3-4 x 6-10 3 Accessory A Split squat / leg press 3 x 8-12 4 Accessory B Hamstring curl / hip thrust 3 x 8-12 5 Accessory C (optional) Calves / core 2-3 x 10-15 BEGINNER ON-RAMP CHECKLIST [ ] Can perform the main pattern with control [ ] Understands target reps and effort, not just the weight [ ] Knows how to log the session and flag anything painful [ ] Life-phase modifications set (e.g. pre/postnatal, injury) [ ] Progression rule agreed for the next few weeks HOW TO USE: Keep the four-slot shape fixed and swap the specific lifts per client and per day (build a matching upper-body version). Start a beginner at the low end of the ranges, progress load only once reps are clean, and set life-phase modifications before assigning - don't retrofit them later.
Women's strength programming for clients - FAQ
How should a beginner woman start with barbell strength training?
The through-line in Meg Gallagher's beginner guidance is to start with the movements, not the numbers: learn to squat, hinge, press and pull with a manageable load before chasing weight on the bar. Her structure anchors each session with a main compound lift, so a beginner's whole early progress is really about repeating those patterns often enough to get comfortable and confident. For a coach onboarding a new female client, that means the first block is a skills block - teach the lifts, keep the load honest, and let the intensity come once the movement is reliable.
What is the main lift + variation + accessory structure?
It is a simple way to build one strength session: open with a main compound lift (like a squat, bench, deadlift or press), follow it with a secondary variation of that same pattern to add practice and volume from a slightly different angle, then finish with heavier accessory work for the muscles that support the lift. Meg Squats' programming is built on that shape, and it travels well - it gives a session a clear priority (the main lift), a reason for the second exercise (reinforce the pattern), and a home for the volume that actually drives physique change (the accessories). As a coach you can reuse the shape across clients and just swap the specific lifts.
Is barbell strength training suitable for women who are pregnant or postpartum?
Meg Gallagher's programming is explicitly pre- and postnatal-aware - she runs a dedicated track for it rather than treating pregnancy as a reason to stop lifting. That does not make it a free-for-all: the honest coaching position is that a client who is pregnant or recently postpartum should train under guidance that adjusts load, movement selection and intensity to where she is, ideally with her medical team in the loop. The useful takeaway for coaches is that the main + variation + accessory structure can flex to a client's phase of life; the responsibility is to modify it deliberately, not to run the standard program unchanged.
How do you program strength training for a mostly-female client roster?
You do not need a separate philosophy for women - you need a structure that starts them safely and progresses them honestly, and Meg Squats' main + variation + accessory template does exactly that. Build one beginner on-ramp that teaches the core lifts, then a repeatable strength template that anchors each session on a compound, reinforces it with a variation and fills volume with accessories. From there, the individualisation is per client, not per gender: adjust load, exercise choice and frequency to schedule, experience and life phase. Programming once as a template and adapting it per client is what keeps a full female roster manageable.
More training-science breakdowns
- · Bret Contreras on glute training - accessory work that fits neatly into this main + variation + accessory shape.
- · Jeremy Ethier on designing a training program - the fundamentals that decide whether a program works.
- · The full roundup: fitness YouTubers coaches should study.
Keep dialing in programming
all guidesHow to Create a Workout Program for a Client (2026)
Creating a workout program for a client is a top-down method, not a blank page: fix the goal and training age first, let those set frequency and split, then select exercises by movement pattern and prescribe sets and reps from the goal before building progression in. The exercise-selection and set-and-rep methodology, run for clients you coach remotely.
Read the guideHow to onboard online coaching clients so they stick (2026)
Most clients who quit early do not quit because the program was wrong - they quit because the first two weeks felt impersonal, disorganized, or quiet. This playbook covers the exact first-14-days flow: a video welcome over a wall of text, a single intake form for goals, health, schedule, food, and starting photos, expectations and boundaries set early, a drip onboarding flow triggered off form completion, and a personal first check-in around day 7.
Read the guideProgressive Overload: What It Is & How to Apply It
Progressive overload is gradually increasing the demands on a muscle over time so it keeps adapting. The six methods, how coaches apply them across a program, and how to break plateaus.
Read the guideFree tools for this: Strength Standards Calculator · Squat Calculator · Warm-Up Set Calculator
Build the strength template once, reuse it across every client
A beginner-first method only pays off if you can deliver it without rebuilding a program per client. Coachway's workout builder lets you template your main-lift + variation + accessory block, assign it in seconds, and swap the exact lifts or loads per client - while they learn the movements and log every session in the client app so you can see the strength actually building. Start your 14-day free trial and program your first roster from one screen.
