What is T-Nation?
T-Nation is a place where bodybuilding’s premier think tank lives and works.
It is a place where chemists, scientists, nutritional theorists, and exercise physiologists – free thinkers all – are allowed to experiment, theorize, and ultimately create new supplements, new training programs, and new nutritional protocols.
It is a place where new ideas are born, where dogmas are destroyed, and where truth and intellect rule.
T-Nation is part chemistry, part science, all attitude.
T-Nation just happens to be perhaps the best place on the Internet to learn about all things related to improving yourself physically. Would you like to increase strength, build muscle, improve sport specific performance, or perhaps lean down to reveal the body you’ve always known you had?
Sounds Great, How Much Does it Cost?
It doesn’t cost anything. Anyone can read the content, register, ask questions, post opinions and participate in various surveys and contests whenever they want. All for free.
The web site is free because it is sponsored by Biotest exclusively. This means that T-Nation is the only place where you can buy a devastatingly powerful line of supplements that were created for the hardcore athlete rather than the mass market.
These products are not sold in stores. The general consumer wouldn’t understand these products. The general consumer would be afraid of these products.
And, by making these super elite products available only through T-Nation.com, they’re priced surprisingly low.
Okay, So How Do I Get Started?
The newest articles and most recent forum posts are highlighted on the home page of our site. Simply click on a title and start reading the contents. Other ways to locate information include viewing the article library, using the search feature or accessing the online archive of past articles.
The article library can be found by clicking on the word articles located on the left hand side of the home page. Once you’ve done that, it will expand into a list of categories. Selecting a category will give you a list of articles of that type.
Using the search feature is easy. Just click the search label near the top of the page. Alternately, the search feature can be accessed when either the articles or forums menu has been expanded. In either case, a small window will pop up asking you if you wanted to search for people or site contents. Simply choose one or the other, enter some text and away you go! T-Nation uses Google search technology so you’ll find it quite powerful.
A complete set of archives containing all of the articles ever published on T-Nation is available by clicking the archives label at the top of any page. When accessed this way, the complete archives are grouped by year with each year of articles presented in chronological order.
Both the high impact articles and authors feature deserve special mention. Within the article library, selecting the high impact link will present a list of topics, each of which will provide a list of significant articles within the topic in question. Finally, the authors feature lets you quickly scan all material posted by any of your favorite authors. Click the authors link also located on the left hand menu.
What About Posting Questions or Comments?
To participate in the forums you will first have to register. This is basically just picking a username and making sure that you have a working email address – just in case it is necessary to contact you. You may certainly use anonymous accounts such as those provided by Yahoo, Hotmail or Gmail if you wish.
Please read the guidelines and FAQ concerning forum use (also located in the T-Directory submenu).
Before you go crazy and start posting all kinds of threads, please be sure to check a few things first. Most questions have been asked many times in the past. Have you already done a search and spent a bit of time looking for the answer? Also, look through the recent threads. Is there another thread on the topic you are about to post? It really isn’t too helpful to have multiple threads on the same topic at the same time.
Also, keep in mind that member posts are moderated. Among other things this lets us stop people from blatantly advertising products and services. We also try to ensure that all posts in the Photos forum have a picture attached with the first post.
Generally, if a moderator has to adjust your post you will receive a PM explaining why. Verifying posts will take a bit of time, especially during busy periods, so please don’t resubmit a post just because it didn’t show up right away.
Informally, you can consider there to be three different levels of moderation on this site. Contributor’s articles are moderated the most, as we’d like to keep those limited to reasoned discussion or debate as well as on topic questions concerning the article itself.
User forums are moderated to a lessor degree, but from time to time blatant flaming and trolling will be addressed. Generally, this type of behavior is not approrpiate for the serious topics but is less of an issue in both the Politics and Get A Life forums. Please try to keep this in mind when adding your own comments.
For more information about forum moderation in general, read the following thread:
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=941445
What Should I Do in the Gym?
Honestly, what you should do in the gym is a combination of both where you are now and your goals. It is difficult to recommend a concise course of action, but keep the following in mind. As a beginner you probably have a lot to learn about nutrition and recovery as well as lifting. You should also get the okay from your physician before starting any new exercise program.
As a very basic introduction, forget about the concept of losing weight. We don’t want to lose weight, we want to lose fat! Severe dieting without sufficient bouts of resistance exercise will result in loss of muscle and a slower metabolism. This is a vicious cycle.
Generally, unfit out of shape people need to put on some muscle, restore a decent metabolism and then through improved eating habits slowly uncover this muscle. All of the information you need to do this, and much more, is readily available on this site. Do you have the will to do what it takes to reach your goals?
Other Good Starting Points
Vroom’s Beginner Thread
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=640350
Jillybop’s T-Vixen Thread
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=645666
