It's Now Or Never

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
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Hi all, I’m new to this site, but I’ve spent a few hours over the last two days lurking and have already learned a LOT. (WARNING: LOTS OF WORDS)

I’m 21 years old, 6’2" and about 230 lbs. From about age 6 up through my latter years of high school I wrestled and played football, and was always in great shape (fairly cut and about 190lbs at my peak fitness). Turned out when I hit college, I quit sports and was more interested in partying and the benefits of a bangin social life than staying in shape.

I had always casually lifted to keep my strength and some semblance of muscle mass up, but it was by no means a strict routine and before I knew it I had ballooned to 290lbs (!!!)

Long story short, I got sick of being fat and dropped 90 lbs in about 6 months, I’d say at least 50 of which was pure fat. Around the end of that time I got a serious girlfriend and, sadly, stopped working out and eating healthy, so here I am about a year and a half later back up to 235 and not anywhere near where I used to be as far as strength and muscle mass.

The attached picture is as of today 2/14/2006. Please ignore the goofy “posing,” I’m an amateur at this :wink:

Currently my routine consists of training 6 days a week: Alternating days of upper and lower body, abs and 30 minutes of cardio (jumprope) every day. I would like to find a suitable plan for me, so if any of you have one to recommend, I’d be more than willing to hear your suggestion.

My goals are to slim down, ~8% BF, to build a little more mass then tone up. My problem areas are (obviously) the mantits and spare tire, as well as thighs and ass. Basically, I store fat like a woman. Ideally I’d like to look something like this:

I am not a man of means and as such don’t have the money to spend on a gym, supplements, expensive diet plans, any of that jazz. I have a more-than-adequate freeweight setup in my house, which makes a 1.5 hour workout every morning quite feasible.

This thread is mainly to help me stay focused and chart my progress over the coming months with the help, advice, and support of those who know more about what they’re doing than I do.

I thank you for your time and would greatly appreciate any advice, exercise/diet plans, suggestions, etc you could offer.

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Welcome

OK recomendations on your program what your doing etc. Juast guessing but your working out 6 days a week alternating upper lower and not getting results. Id guess your doing two thing Tooo MUCH and to little.

Your working out way to damn many time doing to much crap and for this you are doing it a a Lower intensity. Yor are not able to really Bring UP the intensity.

I would start by droopping the amount of days your doing if your going to stick with amnd up[p[er lower split and get in there and DO IT!!! hiot it hard. you have to create a stimuluas the body needs to adjust to as well then you need to recover or adjust to that stimulus so the next workout you can go even harder.

Id look at ABBH or similar if wanting to stick to an upper lower. Then add your cardio as needed.

Diet Just nail a solid diet you say you cant afford a fancy diet plan well there are hundred here that dont cost a penny, aside from the foods your eating and thats the importnat part. Id read the newbie thread pinned above all the threads and come back with further ?'s

Phill

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Wow can you please tell us more about your “banging social life”?

Looks like world of warcraft has done your body well.

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Hi

If your goal is to lower your Bodyfat %, you should try to learn as much as possible about Diet and Nutrition.

You could start by reading everything written by Dr. J Berardi

http://www.T-Nation.com/ALSAuthor.do?p=John%20Berardi&pageNo=1

and David Barr

A good example for a Diet Plan would be the somewhat popular “Get Shredded Diet” → http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1150209

At your stage of development, you should not worry too much about supplements. If you stick to the basics (-> eating at least 6-8 small meals thoughout the day, eating enough protein with each meal, try to avoid eating carbs and fat together, try to eat enough fiber etc), lowering the BF% should be no problem at all for a healthy male of your age :slight_smile:

Although lifting 6 days/week sounds really extreme if you are just starting to work out again.

I would rather recommend something like a lifting 4 days per week and maybe doing some Cardio on the non lifting Days, but if you know your Body well enough, it might work. Just try to avoid any burn-out syndrome and make sure you get enough sleep :slight_smile:

gl/hf

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Yeah, get reading, and remember, having a girlfriend or significant other may be time consuming (and I don’t mean that in a bad way) but that doesn’t mean you should not prioritize your time and get to the gym.

In other words, don’t become a big pussy just because you have a girlfriend. You still have interests and hobbies to pursue… and if she is of any quality at all she will prefer that you continue to do things that interest you or are important to you.

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[quote]Roy wrote:
Wow can you please tell us more about your “banging social life”?

Looks like world of warcraft has done your body well.[/quote]

He asked for advice, so if you’ve got nothing important to say, shut up.

To the original poster, just try to get lots of exercise in each week. It doesn’t have to be in a gym lifting weights or doing cardio. Pick-up games of soccer, basketball, frisbee, touch-football, badminton, or tennis are all good ways to burn extra calories, and if you don’t have access to an interior gym, you can go skiing or skating or play hockey. I’ve found that just moving around more each week helps me lose fat, even if my diet isn’t always perfect.