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Training Bodybuilding
101

Just an idea but you could do EDT which would: 1 ensure intensity 2 give you a goal to break everytime you step in the gym 3 help you lose fat while gaining muscle 4 unlike more cardio won’t rob you of your hard earned muscle 5 breaking goals or having the opportunity to break goals ever time you train will be extremely motivating

I happen to think that EDT might be perfect for beginners. If you don’t like squats do step ups, bulgarian split squats, lunges. If you lack leg development it will really slow you down. They have to be a priority! Just my 2 cents. Take it or leave it I don’t care.

[quote]nanobyte wrote:
jsbrook wrote:
Glad that you are doing more than reading [now]. Late is better than never. What is your plan of attack for training and diet from this point forth?
Thank you :slight_smile:

Basically I will, based on these pictures, try to burn off that fat. Those bioflavonoids, flax seeds, stinging nettle, and quercetin and shit are an attempt to block estrogen, hopefully making it easier to lose that stubborn fat.

I think I’ll add more cardio even if I hate it and continue with my exercise program. Monday’s program was like this:

  1. Warm-up (stretches)
  2. 5x5x308lb rack pull (started with that cause I love it and it motivates me)
  3. 4x10x77lb bradford press
  4. 5x5x100lb bent over rows
  5. 3x8x77lb X-rows
  6. 4x10x110lb overhead halfpress
  7. 3x15x100lb crouching tricep extensions (I really don’t know what this exercise is called)
  8. Did some work on pullups since I can only complete 1 at the moment
  9. Sauna/stretching

This was quite the hard workout for me. I was trying to push the envelope to see if I would hurt myself.

But I think I’ll generally try to push myself more and try more exercises.

As for diet, I really think I need to take a better look at that. Note what I am eating (I find it hard to recall after the fact), and compare it to some diets out there.[/quote]

102

[quote]LoneLobo wrote:
I’ve never really gained anything from X’s posts except a growing distaste for the animosity with which he treats other people… honestly, hero worship is one thing, but to blindly praise someone that makes a point of harassing and belittling every beginner?[/quote]

While I don’t agree with everything Prof X does or says he knows what hard work is. Most who post here DO NOT and never will. That is the major problem. This society is weak: weak minded, weak bodied, and weak in spirit! If someone can not take a beating over the internet withoout crying then they have bigger issues in life than being fat and lazy!

103

[quote]nanobyte wrote:
moneyman7 wrote:
make everyday gym day

Oh? Anyone else concur? Cause in the first 2 weeks I was hitting the gym daily, and someone told me 3-4 times per week would be better as the body needs time to heal.[/quote]

3 to 4 times a week is fine. Dude I’d say before you start squating see if you can do a step up without using your trail leg for about 10 or 15 reps. Your thigh should be at least parallel. If you can do this then start overhead squating and you’ll be going ass to the grass soon! If you can’t do single legged squats or step ups for a decent amount of reps no reason to squat little weight.

If you can not do step ups without using trail leg then start on a lower bench or box. Then move to a higer box as soon as possible. You can always find something to use for step ups. Use your imagination. Most people can’t squat low because of a lack of hip and calf mobility and overhead squats will remedy this. Most people lack strong hammies and glutes and full rang of motion single legged work is a start to remedying this. Ensure you are keeping a flat back while dead lifting! Do it with speed.

104

4 and a half months into it, I have a small update.

I’ve been lifting consistently since I posted here first. The replies I got, which I at first perceived as negative, I later found inspiring as I tried to keep at it. Thanks Professor X.

Especially after I quit my job and moved to a small town, effectively losing the gym I knew and my training partner. But I kept at it, and I found a new gym without missing a beat. Still no new partner.

I had some weeks where I didn’t fill my 3 day per week lifting schedule, but they aren’t many.

I’m mostly writing cause I managed today to beat an old friend at a little deadlifting competition we had going. We were racing to the 160kg (352#) mark.

Today I managed to pull 155kg (341#) 3 times. Plus I’m taller than he, so I think I have him beat. Why not go all the way? Well, I wanted to give the guy a chance to beat me on the homestretch. Plus I was too lazy to remove the clamps and add the couple of 2’n’half kilos I was missing.

In squats I’ve peaked at 110kg, although I rarely exceed 100kg these days because I’m more comfortable about my form at that weight.

Benchpresses are still my achilles’ heel. I’m currently working on high reps, so I go at 5x10x60kg in barbell, 5x5x28kg in dumbell, flat and incline. I don’t do incline with barbells. I’ve traced the problem to an old shoulder injury on my left shoulder which causes me to lose balance. I’m currently working on this with some overhead presses and an exercise I picked up from a local strongman.

I focus on deadlifts, squats, and presses. With a very simple plan. I’m quite happy with my lifting though I’m not happy about snatches and cleans have declined since I rarely perform them now. Just something I need to work on.

As for looking like a lifter, I think I’m failing. Only thing people comment on are my lats and quads.

I use the word “think” cause I think it’s obvious to me now that I have a body dismorphic problem. I went to the doctor cause I had a cold on and off for 6 weeks. He didn’t seem interested in the cold after I told him I was lifting. He told me to step on a scale, and measured my height, 107kg / 188cm, turned some little dial he had on his desk and told me I am “obese” according to his BMI.

I at first thought it was just some doctor type bullshit or scare tactic, because my arms and feet dont’ “feel” fat, so I told him we all have different goals in life. But he got me without a doubt when he measured my circumference over my belly, which was a bit over a meter.

He convinced me to drop 7-10 kg. Says it’s fat underneath my abs, also known as “heart-attack fat”.

To combat this I’ve cut calories from ~3200 to 2500, and am starting to do 12 minute cardio after each lift. Plus no more icecream, ever, and fuck cakes. My new training goal is living to grandfatherhood.

105

Good to see that you have stuck with it. Dropping the junk is a good idea.

Keep hammering away at it.

106

[quote]Professor X wrote:
nanobyte wrote:
Point taken.

Now are you done turning my thread into the X show?

Are you done procrastinating?[/quote]

That was funny. :slight_smile:

107

I know I can get flamed big time for this, but here goes. I think the advice given to beginners on this site usually sucks. The advice always goes something like this. “Starting right now, you should (1) eat more food; (2) do only the biggest, hardest exercises; (3) use heavy weights to build on that mass; (4) do lots of sets with lots of intensity; (5) make a food log and track everything you eat; (6) completely give up everything you have been eating and change to something new; etc…”

In short, the advice is to immediately start doing everything an advanced bodybuilder does.

It does not matter whether it is bodybuilding or learning to fly kites or anything else. One step at a time is best and if you try to rush it you will burn out.

So here is my advice. Pick one thing and one thing only to concentrate on now. Most likely this one thing to pick is to learn to work out consistently with intensity in the gym. Forget everything else.

What exercises should you do? It does not matter. Do whatever you want to do as long as it motivates you to work out hard and consistently. If you hate squats then don’t do them. Skip whatever you hate and do whatever you like, but keep going.

As you are doing this you are going to feel your impatience and frustration telling you to either do more things or to quit altogether. Impatience and frustration are the things that can get you in the end, and they are what you need to deal with forever.

Keep going for three months. You should see results. You should see some new muscle and less fat. If not, then you have not learned to work out hard and consistenly.

At the end of three months you can add a pre and post workout shake. Find out for yourself what these things really do.

At the end of four months you can come back here and get a program with the best exercises. You are now ready to do the exercises that before you hated to do, so have not been doing them. Why? Because you now have four months invested and if you quit now you lose that investment.

Six to eight months have gone by. You have proven your ability to work out hard and consistenly, at least for eight months. Now start looking at food and incremental changes to make. Making food changes is the hardest thing to do. Sure, anybody can do it for a short time, but keeping it up for a long time is very difficult.

Keep going like this forever, at each step increasing your investment knowing that if you quit you lose what you already invested. That is how people get somewhere in life. It does not matter what you are doing, bodybuilding, playing tennis, or building a business.

I am not going to defend any of the specifics of this plan. You can make your own plan as long as you follow the general principles.

Good luck.

Whew.

108

I thought this was a new thread when I posted my response. Glad to see you are still here.

109

[quote]onewall wrote:
…
[/quote]

onewall: I’m not sure where you’re coming from with that. If I’m still working out, progressing, and having fun, I don’t see where an iconoclastic rebuttal to those who advised me fits in. Unless you think I’d have been better off taking things slower than I did.

If I had hurt myself, or given up, it would be more understandable that you would think I had been mis-advised.

Generally, however, I think people will propose that which worked for them. And those who have had results have had the tenacity to keep on fighting. And that kind of drive isn’t easily quenched, so they push the envelope harder, and they expect that to be the norm when others start out. Nothing wrong with that. Turns out I love the squat. Almost as much as the deadlift.

Pushing the squats and deadlifts hard in the beginning gave me a sense of achievement. My body was completely dead after a good workout. Then I started to get used to it, and that feeling of fatigue started to disappear. Which is when I started to push harder, and believe in myself, that I could take more reps or a little more weight. Until I got the feeling back.

Thanks for taking the time to write all that, though. =)

Skyzyks: Thanks dude, I will! :slight_smile:

110

[quote]onewall wrote:
I thought this was a new thread when I posted my response. Glad to see you are still here.[/quote]

Ah, I see :slight_smile:

111

post some new pictures.

there is fat that can cause health risks if it’s close to organs.

but also, if the doctor uses bmi and more importantly believes in it, i would have to question him.

But fat isn’t a good thing, and it’s good to see you changing the diet, and adding some cardio. Even throwing in some low intensity incline treadmill walking after your workouts would be ok.

good job staying with it.

112

[quote]nanobyte wrote:
Kruiser wrote:
Oh, LEARN HOW TO SQUAT! Even if you need to use a broomstick.

Oh, I know how to squat. Atleast, as far as I know. I focus on keeping my back in a good position, my feet perpendicular to my shoulders and my heels nailed to the ground. I go quite low, but I don’t go into a joint lock with my knees.

But I usually just squat 110lbs for 6-7 rep sets. It’s not quite enough to fire my quads for some reason. I just don’t feel confident loading up stuff on a rack and squatting it, because I’m afraid of failure, and have no spotter.

I have been practicing my front squats, and find them quite a bit more difficult. Not sure if that’s normal or not.

I guess DB squats could be a route.

One legged ones would be a stretch outside my league probably.

Sissy squats too.[/quote]

110 pound squats? No wonder your quads aren’t feeling anything. This is like squatting air. I have 15 year old japanese boys who weigh 130 pounds squatting more than you, and they are beginners too.

Also, I would listen to anything X says with humble respect , as he started out a skinny weed and is now a monster.

You were wrong to wait around looking for the perfect program…I remember when I began training. I was clueless about training and nutrition too. I also played every sport under the sun and probably spent much of the day in a catabolic state. Yet, I made progress, because I was in the gym 3-5 times a week, going hard. I may have been doing lat pulldowns and too much benching and curls… and not drinking a protein shake straight after the gym… but I still progressed. You don’t progress sitting in front of your computer.

Having said all that, we cannot change the past. we can only influence what happens from now. Train like 40 sweaty bastards. Eat a reasonable amount good food- no Warrior Diet bullshit. And I would say you can do cardio, because as you have had a lay-off and are basically a beginner, you can lose fat and build muscle at the same time, in my opinion people in this situation can do both, for a while anyway.

Eat strategically for this- what this means is eat the majority of your carbs around your workout. You do look terrible now, but with consistency over time (years) you can achieve a good physiue (although Mariuz Pudzanowski’s physique will almost be impossible for you even if you go on roids, sorry to say. Anyway, get to work, and stay for the long haul.

113

Sorry, I thought this was a new thread too.