Help a Newbie?

Training Bodybuilding
1

HI guys and gals, first time poster long time reader. And completely newb weightlifter.

After searching through the forums I was completely overwhelmed with all the information, different programs and what not that I had no about.

I’ve been going to the gym a bit in the last couple of weeks and really got in to it (apart from all of the people, and having to wait for everything)

I really want to lift weights and get big.

Some more details for would be helpers:

  1. I’m a 16 year old male.
  2. 5’5 around 75KG.
  3. Type 1 Insulin Dependant Diabetic (child onset).
  4. I have access to a home gym, Bench free weights, swiss ball etc. But no partner to do it with
  5. I play soccer(mid field) I need stamina for this. But i want to be overall healthy and “big” without comprisming for speed and agility.
  6. My diet is quite good.

At the moment I can Bench 70kg
Dead lift around 90kg.

My goals for the end of 2007 is to bench 100kg and dead lift 140kg.

If I achieve these goals before the end of the year I will reevaluate them.

What I’m asking would be helpers is, if you could give me a general idea of what i should be doing, how many reps, sets, how much cardio i should be doing etc.

Thank in advance for any help you give, I appreciate it.

2

[quote]eldarado wrote:
HI guys and gals, first time poster long time reader. And completely newb weightlifter.

After searching through the forums I was completely overwhelmed with all the information, different programs and what not that I had no about.

I’ve been going to the gym a bit in the last couple of weeks and really got in to it (apart from all of the people, and having to wait for everything)

I really want to lift weights and get big.

Some more details for would be helpers:

  1. I’m a 16 year old male.
  2. 5’5 around 75KG.
  3. Type 1 Insulin Dependant Diabetic (child onset).
  4. I have access to a home gym, Bench free weights, swiss ball etc. But no partner to do it with
  5. I play soccer(mid field) I need stamina for this. But i want to be overall healthy and “big” without comprising for speed and agility.
  6. My diet is quite good.

At the moment I can Bench 70kg
Dead lift around 90kg.

My goals for the end of 2007 is to bench 100kg and dead lift 140kg.

If I achieve these goals before the end of the year I will reevaluate them.

What I’m asking would be helpers is, if you could give me a general idea of what i should be doing, how many reps, sets, how much cardio i should be doing etc.

Thank in advance for any help you give, I appreciate it.[/quote]

Hi

if you are just starting serious weight training, i would strongly recommend trying to read/learn as much as possible (not just about training principles, but also about nutrition and recovery), without worrying too much about set/rep schemes etc.

If you say you want to get ‘big’, at a certain point you’ll have to compromise some endurance for strength, simply because you’ll be carrying all that added muscle around with you the whole time.

If you want to gain size/weight, first thing you probably want to change are your current eating habits

Massive Eating 1 - Calorie Needs
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=460331

Massive Eating 2 - Meal Combinations and Individual Differences
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=460327

this covers the basics very well :slight_smile:

After that, you should choose a program, for example

ABBH
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459341

or

WS4SB I
http://www.T-Nation.com/findArticle.do?article=311west2

WS4SB II
http://www.T-Nation.com/findArticle.do?article=05-100-training

If you perform additional cardio, try to do that on either the non-lifting days or ~6hours after your lifting :slight_smile:

Other than that, stick to the basics. Try to change programs at least every 6-8 weeks, find what works best for you and your goals, eat enough and get enough rest/sleep.

gl/hf

3

May or may not be for you but power to the people (which is 2x5 of deadlifts and in your case bench) every day, really helped me get off the ground…hell, I’m right back into it. This shouldn’t really interefere with the cardio you’ll have to do to play midfield.

4

Thanks for the replys.

After looking into the ws4sb programs ive decidided to use one of the programs, dont no which one but it seems to be the right program for me.

5

I second the Petrichor post above, but would add that if you are completely new to weights, you should not max out and you should not go below 6 reps per set, for your starting weights/reps schemes. Undoubtedly you’ll hit failure at some point, but the idea is to get your tendons gradually used to the loads of external weight, and THEN hit the heavy iron when you’re ready.

I myself am a huge fan of heavy, 1-3 rep lifting, but newbs such as yourself are very uncoordinated at the technique and lifts, your muscles and CNS are uncoordinated for the heavy lifts, and your tendons and connective tissues are totally unprepared for extremely heavy low rep lifting. Do the work to condition yourself for the first, say, 12 weeks, then start to hit 5 rep maxes in training. I have seen the effects first hand of having total newb lifters hit low rep maxes before, and it’s not pretty.

I would say that to start, WS4SB or ABBH are good choices. Also look into TBT (or Total Body Training) by Chad Waterbury, or BBB (Big Boy Basics). TBT is probably my favorite to start people on, or similar. My personal advice is to set out a nutrition log and a lifting log, and be religious in filling them out after every meal or during training sessions. Bad habits are much harder to get when you keep track of everything.

You have the unique advantage of making progress on almost any serious weight routine as a newb if you eat enough, so I say go balls out, but at higher reps than 6 for the first little while. Very beginner weight lifters most growth is going to occur in the higher rep ranges (10-12), this will also be easiest to get used to physically. As you get more experienced in weightlifting, the average reps can drop for continued growing.

6

Oh yeah, cardio. I take it you play for a school team? If so, then don’t bother too much with cardio while you work out with the coach. They tend to run players too much anyway, so I’d just avoid extra cardio training, as it won’t really help anything. If your school is anything like my high school was, you’ll be running 5 days a week for a long time each day. That’s plenty. Unless you want to play a pick-up basketball or football game. Point is, don’t do any cardio training outside of your school team unless the goal is having fun with friends by playing games.

The point at which you have to give up stamina to continuing getting “hyooge” is not anywhere within sight right now. Point in case–rugby players run as much as soccer players, but there are a lot of guys past the 220 lb mark that play rugby really well.

7

[quote]Aragorn wrote:
Oh yeah, cardio. I take it you play for a school team? If so, then don’t bother too much with cardio while you work out with the coach. They tend to run players too much anyway, so I’d just avoid extra cardio training, as it won’t really help anything. If your school is anything like my high school was, you’ll be running 5 days a week for a long time each day. That’s plenty. Unless you want to play a pick-up basketball or football game. Point is, don’t do any cardio training outside of your school team unless the goal is having fun with friends by playing games.

The point at which you have to give up stamina to continuing getting “hyooge” is not anywhere within sight right now. Point in case–rugby players run as much as soccer players, but there are a lot of guys past the 220 lb mark that play rugby really well.[/quote]

Thanks for all the info.

Currently the soccer season hasn’t started yet, but i would like to get into shape before it starts. I plan to do a 3 day a week weight lifting plan(maybe add in another leg day when I get comfortable)

Followed with 3 days of cardio and just general mucking around with the soccer ball.

So i should start out with high reps in the 10-12 range, should i train to failure or just do low weights and build up my tendon strength? Then in a month or so start doing lower reps

And focus more on technique rather than poundage?

8

[quote]eldarado wrote:

Thanks for all the info.

Currently the soccer season hasn’t started yet, but i would like to get into shape before it starts. I plan to do a 3 day a week weight lifting plan(maybe add in another leg day when I get comfortable)

Followed with 3 days of cardio and just general mucking around with the soccer ball.

So i should start out with high reps in the 10-12 range, should i train to failure or just do low weights and build up my tendon strength? Then in a month or so start doing lower reps

And focus more on technique rather than poundage?[/quote]

If possible, i would recommend mixing the weight training days with soccer/cardio, rather then performing 2 ‘blocks’ of 3 days in a row.

10-12 reps a not really “high”, more like normal, very good for hypertrophy

First thing you want to do is to get the movement down properly, especially exercises like the backsquat are very complex and difficult and the odds of walking into an average gym and seeing someone performing correctly and winning the lottery are about identical.

http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html
is a good place that lists many different exercises with description and animated GIFs

http://www.midwestbarbell.com/videos.htm
also, with videos :slight_smile:

i would start using very light weight until you get a good feeling of the motion, or maybe even only the barbell with no added weight at all

Training to failure everytime is not a good idea (although there is lots of debate and everyone reacts different to different stimuli), basically training within 1 rep of ‘technical breakdown’ is considered optimal by most.

With means if you do a certain number of repetitions you stop a the point at which you could only do 1 more rep while maintaining proper technique

gl/hf

9

My bad i meant:

Mon Weights
Tues Cardio/ball skills
Wed Weights
Thurs Light cardio/ballskills
Fri Weights

Sat/Sun light exercise cardio maybe a soccer game

Thanks again Petrichor you’ve helped me a lot, as well as everyone else.