I am Ready to Build My Body Up!

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

Alright to start with I am 15 5’11 169lbs, and have tried working out before. I was working out my arms and chest doing numerous exercises with dumbells. I posted my work out on another forum and they said I wasn’t doing any good except giving myself a hard time.

I am here to get advice. I am definitely not scrawny but I want to get pretty built. I am very committed and do whatever it takes. I have some flab but I see myself being pretty strong. What exercises should I do to build my whole body up? I do run 2.5 miles a day and that’s doing pretty much my best.

Also how important is diet. I don’t want my diet to be completely ridiculous. I will change a lot though. I don’t have complete control because my parents buy the food and won’t buy EVERYTHING I tell them to get. Well this sums it up. I am researching these beginner forums a lot too!

Thanks!!1

2

You need to do some research, and not expect others to do it for you.

Start with the stickies at the top of the page.

And diet is extremely important.

Pick a program, learn to eat clean, and run with it. Don’t get too bogged down in finding the “perfect” plan. Just pick one and go.

3

At the top of the beginner’s forum, there are four ‘stickied’ threads. Read through them. They will provide the tools for you to answer most of your current questions and probably many you do not know you currently have.

After reading them, come back to this thread and ask questions to clarify y our knowledge of what you read.

Oh, and Rippetoes.

4

Ok I read them and learned a lot. I don’t know exactly what to do. I want to work out my legs chest and arms what excersizes should I do?

5

[quote]John Eclipse wrote:
Ok I read them and learned a lot. I don’t know exactly what to do. I want to work out my legs chest and arms what excersizes should I do?[/quote]

You can’t be serious?

Ever heard of the squat, bench, and curls, or variations thereof?

Better yet, stick to Swiss Ball crunches and Tricep Kickbacks with pink dumbbells. These are much more complex movements and have been known to increase hormone levels in a variety of well-known mammals.

6

Read TC’s sticky and Vroom’s sticky again.

7

Come on guys…

John, welcome aboard.

On the outside, it is as simple as eat correcty/often, lift correctly/often. That’s a good starting point really, because as you slowly read more about how to do that, you’ll develop more and more questions. This is good.

Read a ton, and ask specific questions along the way.

Good luck, and don’t get overwhelmed. Keep it simple for now.

Bottom line, brother- Get in the gym, educate, execute.

8

[quote]Dissonance wrote:
Come on guys…

John, welcome aboard.

On the outside, it is as simple as eat correcty/often, lift correctly/often. That’s a good starting point really, because as you slowly read more about how to do that, you’ll develop more and more questions. This is good.

Read a ton, and ask specific questions along the way.

Good luck, and don’t get overwhelmed. Keep it simple for now.

Bottom line, brother- Get in the gym, educate, execute.

[/quote]

^^ This.

It can be confusing. Your best bet would be to find a good, solid, basic 5x5 program (Rippetoe’s Starting Strength, Stronglifts, something that focuses on squats and deadlifts, with good push and pull motions).

At first, you’ll be wondering why you’re exercising so little. At least, I felt that way when I started Stronglifts. 5 sets of 5 reps of 3 lifts and a bodyweight exercise? It didn’t seem like nearly enough.

Then I tried it.

Then I began adding weight every workout.

Then I reached the point I couldn’t add weight every workout.

Then I switched to a more advanced 5x5 program to continue adding weight.

The various 5x5 (or 3x5) programs out there are great places to start. They’re simple, they hit all the major muscle groups, they provide a solid foundation both in terms of muscle and form, and they’ll kick your ass if you let them.

As some other folks have mentioned at various times in other threads: There’s a reason a lot of people recommend Rippetoe’s or some variant: it works.

Personally, I’ve been doing Stronglifts (which is a Rippetoe’s variant) for 6 months, having never lifted before in my life. Now, I’m 15 pounds away from hitting 300 lbs on my squat, 20 away from 300 on my deadlift, and 15 away from 200 on my bench. And I can knock out 3 sets of pullups with 10 lbs strapped to my waist. And 3 sets of dips with 40 pounds strapped to my waist.

Not bad for a 230 lbs lardass!

Get yourself a notebook (I use a Moleskine pocket notebook and a small pen I keep clipped to it), and write down every exercise you’re supposed to do each day, one day per page. Mark off your progress each workout. Take notes about how you feel, how you did, when you cheated (and you’re going to, until you get your form down, or when you have off days and just can’t make that last rep, etc), what you eat, etc.

Make it a habit. Make it a ritual. Embrace the suck, and enjoy!

9

good post mcl