Hello, I just discovered this place, and it looks like a great site with tons of helpful information. I�??m fairly confused right now, and here�??s the story. I�??m 17.5 years old, and weigh about 136lbs and am about 5�??2�?? tall. I don�??t work out at all now. I�??ve gained some inches around my waist, and my chest has become flabby. I used to mess around (unorganized/uninformed crap) with weights a couple of years ago, so my biceps are not small.
All I remember is that my max bench was around 150lbs. I look pretty thick for my extremely short height. I don�??t have a digital camera, but when I borrow my friend�??s camera, I�??ll post some pics. My body just seems pretty weird to me to say the least.
My goal overall is to cut weight, gain muscle, and become ripped. (surprise, surprise!) Before I came to this site, I thought that eating nothing and running a ton would allow me to quickly become ripped. Now that I�??ve found this site, I�??ve been eating a ton more than I used to. I�??ve been following the seven rules for about 5 days now. I�??ve been taking some whey protein shakes with my diet. Also, I am going to have access to my local university�??s gym. I am completely clueless, however, on a workout routine. Can you help me come up with a gym routine to just overall build muscle all over the body? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
You don’t need to cut weight, that’s for sure. But, adding some muscle would be good. I would recommend the Westside for Skinny Bastards program by Joe DeFranco.
go read the beginner’s stickies
The comments I just wrote on another thread make sense to you too:
The exercises you do should be large muscle, compound exercises. You can mix it around but 80% or more should be from this list or variations of these:
Back Squat
Front Squat
Deadlift
Romanian Deadlift
Bench Press
Overhead Presses
Dips
Bent Barbell Row
Pull ups
Cleans
Snatches
Unilateral variations should be done occationally.
It’s easier to see progress if you come back to the main lifts every week or 2 at least. Keep a log and make steady progress.
In your case, you should pick 1 squat, 1 deadlift, 1 press and 1 pull per workout and master it. Give it 3-4 weeks. Then start with a new variation of each and master that. Do that for 3-4 weeks. Then start alternating them and add in the new exercises in the list from time to time with every workout being at least 1 squat, 1 deadlift, 1 push and 1 pull.
Start with 3 sets of 5, 3 times a week and make steady progress from workout to workout. The program mentioned above (WS4SB) is for guys that have build up a foundation of strength and want to take it higher.
[quote]stuward wrote:
The program mentioned above (WS4SB) is for guys that have build up a foundation of strength and want to take it higher. [/quote]
No, he would also benefit from WS4SB.
Sorry about my first post being so messy, I copied it from Microsoft Word. I’ll be going to the gym very soon. I already have a lifting partner and a membership. Thanks for the advice guys. And for the actual lifting, how should I go about selecting how much weight to use? My understanding is that you should start with something easy and work your way up to your max. Could anyone give an example?
Thanks
Start with an empty bar. Do a set, add a few pounds, say 20 (10 on each side) and do another set. Concentrate on form. Once the weight feels sort of hard, stop. Next time do a little more and progress steadily. If you go as hard as you can you will be in such pain that you will miss the next workout ans possibly stop. The important thing is to be consistant and to keep making steady progress.