Newbie Question

im gonna start training in a week and i want to know if someone can tell me what to read in t-nation about nutrition, training programs and other basic stuff. please help. i’ve trained before and i haven’t got any good results.

What are you training for? Basically, read everything here at T-Mag because it’s all great information from great sources. But, in order for us to help you get started, we need to know if you’ve trained before, how long ago, what type of training you’ve done, and what your goals are.(mass, strength, athletic performance, looking good naked, all of these)

That being said, I like Chad Waterbury’s articles on training. His programs will kick your ass and most don’t use any olympic lifts. His “ABBH” program is great, I’m just finishing it up now and saw great gains in strength and size.

For nutrition, read articles by John Berardi and Lonnie Lowery.

Let us all know if you’ve got any questions.

good luck

A while back Shugs compiled most of the diets and training programs at t-nation into guides…those would probably be the best place for you to start.

Check out his training program guide (parts 1 & 2)-
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459787
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459367

And diet manifesto-
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459881

Hope that helps a little.

Hello newbie. Pretty much everything on this site is good.

For training I’d first look at the basic stuff and then decide if you want to follow a specific program (such as the one’s by Chad Waterbury or Christian Thibaudeau) or design your own. Take a look at these links:

The Testosterone Training Codex
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459888

The Ian King Cheat Sheets, Part 1
http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=171cheat

The Ian King Cheat Sheets, Part II
http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=172cheat

Big Boy Basics
http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=284big2

Program Design 101
http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=299prog2

My Big Fat Training Program Guide, Part I
http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=279big2

My Big Fat Training Program Guide, Part II
http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=280fat2

For nutrition, there’s a lot of good articles. I especialy like John Berardi. Here’s a few links to nutrition articles:


Foods That Make You Look Good Nekid
http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=172food

The Essential Berardi
http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=199ess

Lean Eatin’ ? Part I
http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=209lean

Lean Eatin’ ? Part II
http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=210lean

7 Habits of Highly Effective Nutritional Programs
http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=210lean

10 Ways to F— Up Your Diet!
http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=241ref2

Massive Eating Reloaded, Part I
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459429


Massive Eating Reloaded, Part II
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459431

Well, this is at least enough to get you started. There’s much more in the archives, I encourage you to read through everything you can.

It’s a lot of information, but gaining knowledge and developing good habits takes time. Be patient, if you put these things into practice and follow them closely you will see results.

After you’ve read this stuff and you start to get the hang of it, re-read it periodically - everyone needs a refresher now and then.

You hit the jackpot with T-Nation my friend - you will not find a better source of lifting/nutrition information.

Hope this helps. There’s a great community here and most are willing to share what they’ve learned. Good luck.

There is much to read. What I did to totally get into everything is to start browsing thourgh the archives by year, it took a few weeks to get thourgh it all.

To help you out right now start searching the archives for the diet and workout manifestos. They contain an overview of the diets and workout programs.

Sadly, it is super hard to search for many articles on specific topics here as many of the article titles are not too descriptive of the article. Don’t worry in a couple weeks you’ll get in all.

i started to train at the beginning of the year, i followed a program from men’s health, the first one of the home-or-gym workout series and a bit of the second. I didn’t see any results after two months so i decided to quit. Now i wanna start all over again. I’m really skinny, i weight 138 lbs and about 5.9 ft tall. I wanna train for mass gain. I have a 2 lbs. ON’s 100% whey protein at home, is it good for mass gain??? if not, can you recommend an affordable and good mass gainer???

[quote]fstefano86 wrote:
i started to train at the beginning of the year, i followed a program from men’s health, the first one of the home-or-gym workout series and a bit of the second. I didn’t see any results after two months so i decided to quit. Now i wanna start all over again. I’m really skinny, i weight 138 lbs and about 5.9 ft tall. I wanna train for mass gain. I have a 2 lbs. ON’s 100% whey protein at home, is it good for mass gain??? if not, can you recommend an affordable and good mass gainer???[/quote]

Read Berardi’s Massive Eating. Get some Surge to maximize your workouts. ON’s protein is quality protein in my opinion, but it has few carbs. You can add carbs or just get some Classic Grow! which has more carbs.

Also take a look at this article:

Shake It Up!
http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=196shake

Most of the weight gainers advertised out there are crap. But there’s a lot you can do with your protein to make your own quality weight-gainer shake. The above article has some good ones like The “No Kiddies” Weight Gainer - over 800 calories!

Eat, lift, eat some more, and rest.