Complete Newbie Looking for Advice

Training Bodybuilding
1

Hey guys I guess this is the right forum for me considering im a complete beginner. Im writing here in the hopefully valid faith that you guys know everything and are willing to share. I find the articles here good, although I tend to find them full of facts I dont entirely want to know. Also some of them tend to repeat themselves. Not criticizing or anything, merely stating why I dont gather my answers from all your articles; mainly being the time factor.

Anyway, basically, I’m sick of being a flabby unfit bastard. I want to transform myself blah blah… youve heard it all before. I was just wondering if people would be interested if i posted a before pic up here. I’d post it up as a kind motivation to prove to any readers that I can do it!! Something like that anyway. I was wondering, is there anyway to measure body fat without those caliper things…

I’m attempting this transformation as a homejob, I’ve got A Bench and weights. I’m a student, that means im poor, I’ve got like maybe 1.5kgs of protein left from a previosuly failed attempt to get fit. Although I do have ample creatine…yes i know, i admit I was half fooled by the the marketing ploys into thinking getting fit and big could be easy. I’m not exactly fat as such, but im definately not skinny.

Anyway i was thinking of a routine along the lines of; 3 workours a week, monday, wednesday and friday.Possibly in a biceps and triceps, legs, shoulders and abs cycle Coupling that with cardio before breaky to burn fat as often as i can manage. Also assuming best time to consume protien, due to my rationing necessity,is after workout, creatine before. Also thinking it could be good to measure progress, just get out the tape i spose.

I’d like to know body fat, too poor to afford calipers, any other methods would be appreciated. Thats all I can think of for now, any advice would be great

2

[quote]billyfraser wrote:
I find the articles here good, although I tend to find them full of facts I dont entirely want to know. Also some of them tend to repeat themselves. Not criticizing or anything, merely stating why I dont gather my answers from all your articles; mainly being the time factor.
[/quote]

I don’t know about everyone else, but I stopped reading right there.

Bodybuilding, fitness, weight loss, it’s all a game of time. It’s something that most individuals on this site are dumping more than the ‘hour a day’ at the gym into. It carries into your outside life also as far as diet, reading, learning, and overall living is concerned. So you have to understand that if you want to achieve your goals, you’ll probably have to put the some time into it and not be handed information that pertains just to you. That information is on this site. If you want it bad enough, you should read it. But that’s just my opinion.

3

When you wrote this did you notice the post at the top in the beginners section?

One of the regulars put it together using a great deal of his own time. Read it and get back to us. If it is not worth your time, why should we do all the work for you.

4

read vroom’s beginner thread.

you don’t need fanatical devotion to improve yourself. and you don’t need hours every day in the gym. but oyu need to be consistent.

as has been said many times before, consistency is your first hurdle and you should focus on this above all else. learn how to schedule your life and never miss a workout, never miss a meal, and get more sleep than you think you need. the saying “90% of life is just showing up” definitely applies here.

whatever your workout make it simple. make it heavy. as a beginner you could improve greatly just by squatting mondays and deadlifting thursdays and doing 50-100 dips and chins a week.

you can’t supplement your diet if you don’t understand what your diet is. a food log is a pain in the ass but you can’t be consistent w/o it. do it. learn how many calories you actually consume and expend over the course of a week. a month. food is alot more important than supplements.

get more rest than you think you need. rest is where it all happens. you don’t grow while you’re lifting, you grow while @ rest. the effort you put into lifting gives you an opportunity to grow if you eat and sleep enough. don’t cheat yourself. one more hour of sleep everynight = one more night of sleep @ the end of the week. that’s significant.

good luck.

5

[quote]swivel wrote:
read vroom’s beginner thread.

you don’t need fanatical devotion to improve yourself. and you don’t need hours every day in the gym. but oyu need to be consistent.

as has been said many times before, consistency is your first hurdle and you should focus on this above all else. learn how to schedule your life and never miss a workout, never miss a meal, and get more sleep than you think you need. the saying “90% of life is just showing up” definitely applies here.

whatever your workout make it simple. make it heavy. as a beginner you could improve greatly just by squatting mondays and deadlifting thursdays and doing 50-100 dips and chins a week.

you can’t supplement your diet if you don’t understand what your diet is. a food log is a pain in the ass but you can’t be consistent w/o it. do it. learn how many calories you actually consume and expend over the course of a week. a month. food is alot more important than supplements.

get more rest than you think you need. rest is where it all happens. you don’t grow while you’re lifting, you grow while @ rest. the effort you put into lifting gives you an opportunity to grow if you eat and sleep enough. don’t cheat yourself. one more hour of sleep everynight = one more night of sleep @ the end of the week. that’s significant.

good luck.

[/quote]
This is great advice many newbies jump in head first over due it get over whelmed and quit. Work hard butr take everything slow, dont expect to nail and change your whole life in a day. make changes make them part of your life and be consistant you’ll be hoked in no time

6

[quote]deapee wrote:
billyfraser wrote:
I find the articles here good, although I tend to find them full of facts I dont entirely want to know. Also some of them tend to repeat themselves. Not criticizing or anything, merely stating why I dont gather my answers from all your articles; mainly being the time factor.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I stopped reading right there.

Bodybuilding, fitness, weight loss, it’s all a game of time. It’s something that most individuals on this site are dumping more than the ‘hour a day’ at the gym into. It carries into your outside life also as far as diet, reading, learning, and overall living is concerned. So you have to understand that if you want to achieve your goals, you’ll probably have to put the some time into it and not be handed information that pertains just to you. That information is on this site. If you want it bad enough, you should read it. But that’s just my opinion.
[/quote]

hmmmm exactly what i was hoping not for… I was merely trying to justify why i was asking for help, rather then diving into the seeminly endless array of meticulously specific articles. I guess you thought my post implied I was uncommitted. I dont think I am and I stand by my reasoning;

I’m a begginer- I dont need nor want some rocket science technique suggested in alot of these articles, I just wanted some basic advice on getting started and thought the advice I needed would be a quick task for one of the limitless experienced body builders on this website.

Anyway, I guess I cant escape the fact that the majority of people cant hide that sense of superiority they feel over people that cant do stuff as good as them(goes for anything, not just body building). Although, thanks to the other people who posted considerately and gave actual advice without the un-needed arrogance.

Anyway I’ve discoverd HST, I guess you guys all know about it. I’m gonna give that a whirl. Any advice on a newbie trying that? some people in the HST suggested noobs do a kinda of “break in” run before the real thing. any thoughts or links to articles relating to HST on this site?
Billy

7

Waterbury’s Big Boy Basics and Beradi’s 7 habits are always a good place to start

8

[quote]billyfraser wrote:
deapee wrote:
billyfraser wrote:
I find the articles here good, although I tend to find them full of facts I dont entirely want to know. Also some of them tend to repeat themselves. Not criticizing or anything, merely stating why I dont gather my answers from all your articles; mainly being the time factor.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I stopped reading right there.

Bodybuilding, fitness, weight loss, it’s all a game of time. It’s something that most individuals on this site are dumping more than the ‘hour a day’ at the gym into. It carries into your outside life also as far as diet, reading, learning, and overall living is concerned. So you have to understand that if you want to achieve your goals, you’ll probably have to put the some time into it and not be handed information that pertains just to you. That information is on this site. If you want it bad enough, you should read it. But that’s just my opinion.

hmmmm exactly what i was hoping not for… I was merely trying to justify why i was asking for help, rather then diving into the seeminly endless array of meticulously specific articles. I guess you thought my post implied I was uncommitted. I dont think I am and I stand by my reasoning;

I’m a begginer- I dont need nor want some rocket science technique suggested in alot of these articles, I just wanted some basic advice on getting started and thought the advice I needed would be a quick task for one of the limitless experienced body builders on this website.

Anyway, I guess I cant escape the fact that the majority of people cant hide that sense of superiority they feel over people that cant do stuff as good as them(goes for anything, not just body building). Although, thanks to the other people who posted considerately and gave actual advice without the un-needed arrogance.

Anyway I’ve discoverd HST, I guess you guys all know about it. I’m gonna give that a whirl. Any advice on a newbie trying that? some people in the HST suggested noobs do a kinda of “break in” run before the real thing. any thoughts or links to articles relating to HST on this site?
Billy
[/quote]

Billy, don’t get over-sensitive because nobody up to this point is being arrogant in their advice to you. If there is anything in their posts that implied their superiority, all it showed was that the posters have enough patience and commitment(sp?) to do the necessary reading.

You admit that you are a beginner and claim to be committed, yet you refuse to do any learning by taking the time to read the many training articles here…

Anyways, since you discovered HST, do give it a try. Oh, and my advice to you on HST? Read the ENTIRE write-up and FAQ on the program at the HST website. There is alot to figure out because you need to determine your 20RM, 10RM and 5RM, along with your warm-up poundage to the working sets, as well as your exercise selection and timing.

Good luck!

9

like phil said above, the law of averages says complete newbies will do stuff that’s too complicated and burn out. i know everyone thinks they’re the special exception to the rule but really, you should try and stack the deck in your favor.

figuring all that shit out is complicated. paying attention to it in the weight room takes mental energy. energy you should be spending learning how to squat. energy you should be spending upping your intensity. upping your poundage.

so i still say keep it simple. i wasn’t kidding about only using just those four exercises. think about how much easier it would make your life. you could put on 15 pounds in 6 months doing just those and you would build a great mental foundation/discipline/work ethic that would serve you well and carry you into any program.

10

Yeah, It’s not that i refuse to read the articles, I’ve spent countless hours reading up on the stuff. It’s just Im a begginer and most of the articles I’ve seen here are loaded with complex jargon. After all, I just want to put on a few kilo, not become a PHD in muscle dynamics.

Yeah the HST seems pretty good, its the most scientifically self proposed method I’ve seen so far. Although It kinda seems more geared for the more advanced lifters. It also seems kind of counter intuitive; lifitng sub maximal weights, and doing 5 rep cycles. I always thought the lower rep sets wer for strength, but i guess through reading it, they emphasize the need for progression. Hmm i guess all the science doesnt make complete sense to me, but more sense then anything else, so I’ll give it a go. Yeah whoever suggested those main excercises, there all innvolved in HST as they suggest compound movements over isolated. Cant do the chinups as I have no bar though.