Skinny-Fat Looking to Get Bigger/Stronger

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

The title basically says it all. I’m 5’10", 175lbs, and I’m about 20-something% bodyfat with little muscle and strength. I am hoping to gain muscle and lose fat for college. I also wouldn’t mind getting stronger. When I googled it, the same exercises kept coming up, so I decided to make some sort of a workout plan out of them. So, how does this look?

Workout A:
Squat
Bench Press
Row

Workout B:
Deadlift
Military Press
Chin Ups

I plan on working out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, rotating between Workout A and Workout B. I might add in some dips and curls when I get more used to working out. I’m going to try to eat a lot of protein and healthy whole foods, and drink a lot of water and milk. What should I do about cardio as well? Should I just run on the days in between lifting or something? Thanks a lot for any help.

2

Just do Starting Strength as is.

When you are a beginner, you don’t create yourself. You follow someone that knows what they are talking about.

3

That’s a good point, but will Starting Strength really help me cut down my gut and build some muscle? I thought that was more of a strength workout, as the title denotes.

4

[quote]jmclaughlin93 wrote:
That’s a good point, but will Starting Strength really help me cut down my gut and build some muscle? I thought that was more of a strength workout, as the title denotes. [/quote]
DIET will help you cut bodyfat and the training will help you build and maintain muscle. You dont need to exercise specifically for fatloss.

5

[quote]jmclaughlin93 wrote:
That’s a good point, but will Starting Strength really help me cut down my gut and build some muscle? I thought that was more of a strength workout, as the title denotes. [/quote]

If you eat right you will definatly gain muscle on Starting strength. I wish someone would of forced me to do it when I graduated highschool. Do yourself a favor and buy the book as well. Then read it twice.

Keep things simple. Lift hard. Listen to those with years (decades) of experience. Eat right. Stick to proven principles. Knowledge is power, but don’t drown in it.

6

do chins/ pullups and pushups every day, too.

7

If you are trying to lose fat, gain muscle, and look good, then Starting Strength is absolutely NOT the program you should be using, and you will be extremely disappointed at your results (like many other people have, who had the same goals). It is a squat specialization program.

If you are out of shape, then you need to “get in shape” before you start pursuing goals of looking like a bodybuilder or anything like that. My advice would be to simply start eating a clean, high-protein diet, running or cycling 3-4 days a week, and lifting weights 4-5 days a week.

You will see people saying online that the only exercises you need to do are the squat, bench press, deadlift, military press, and barbell row, because that is the modern trend in the world of fitness bullshit. But these people usually look no better than you do now, and in order to work all your muscles, on top of those exercises you also need things like pullups or pulldowns, barbell curls, tricep extensions, calf raises, situps, side raises, and incline bench presses.

A simple time-tested program you could follow in the gym would be push/pull/legs/rest/repeat (meaning chest, shoulders, and triceps… back, biceps, and traps… thighs and calves… take a day off, then start over). If it were me I would try to run for 30 minutes 4 days a week on upper body days or rest days.

Hope this helps. You really do have to weed through a lot of bad advice on these forums unfortunately, it seems like beginners are always trying to advise other beginners.

8

Starting strength is a better version of what you wrote down.

Tested, proven, many times over.

9

jmc,
you are seeing differing opinions above, and as strange as it sounds, I agree with all of them. I was a skinny-fat teen who blew up on a Starting strength program, gaining 40+ lbs of bodyweight in one semester at school. That said, you have to get in shape. For someone like you, who is fairly young, I would just add some Alwyn Cosgrove Barbell Complexes at the end of your workouts on Mondays and Fridays (or at the end of any workout, as long as it is followed by an off day.)

Start with just the bar, no added plates, and be disciplined about the rest periods between the giant sets. Start with 90s between sets, and drop the rest periods 10s a week. When you can get through 4 sets of 48 reps 45lbs with 60s rest between sets, you will be in shape enough to add weight to the bar, lengthening your rest periods again.

Diet is what will ultimately make you lean, but a fat-loss meal plan looks very different for when you are in shape and have some muscle on your body, versus a fat-loss meal plan to lose fat when you are skinny-fat. Eat lots of food, get in shape, THEN learn about diet for fat loss (I recommend you read everything on this site about carb cycling).

10

[quote]mr popular wrote:
If you are out of shape, then you need to “get in shape” before you start pursuing goals of looking like a bodybuilder or anything like that. My advice would be to simply start eating a clean, high-protein diet, running or cycling 3-4 days a week, and lifting weights 4-5 days a week.

You will see people saying online that the only exercises you need to do are the squat, bench press, deadlift, military press, and barbell row, because that is the modern trend in the world of fitness bullshit. But these people usually look no better than you do now, and in order to work all your muscles, on top of those exercises you also need things like pullups or pulldowns, barbell curls, tricep extensions, calf raises, situps, side raises, and incline bench presses.
[/quote]

I would generally agree with you for anyone except an absolute beginner. By that, I mean someone who has never trained with weights before ever. I’ve been teaching a friend how to lift and stuff, and I started him out doing something similar to what you’re suggesting. What I came to find is that he just didn’t have the level of muscular coordination needed to do a surprising number of exercises. I started him on SS after a couple months of getting nowhere (it was frustrating for me too because I was having to teach and reteach movements that seemed very fundamental), and SS has treated him very well.

Is it the program that I recommended he stay on for years or whatever? No. But those basic movements–bench press, squat, etc–are what have started to develop a level of muscular coordination and comfort with training intensely that will allow him to do a more advanced training program in the future–one that more closely resembles what you’re suggesting.

Just my two cents and based off one anecdotal experience, but take it for what it’s worth.

11

[quote]The3Commandments wrote:

[quote]mr popular wrote:
If you are out of shape, then you need to “get in shape” before you start pursuing goals of looking like a bodybuilder or anything like that. My advice would be to simply start eating a clean, high-protein diet, running or cycling 3-4 days a week, and lifting weights 4-5 days a week.

You will see people saying online that the only exercises you need to do are the squat, bench press, deadlift, military press, and barbell row, because that is the modern trend in the world of fitness bullshit. But these people usually look no better than you do now, and in order to work all your muscles, on top of those exercises you also need things like pullups or pulldowns, barbell curls, tricep extensions, calf raises, situps, side raises, and incline bench presses.
[/quote]

I would generally agree with you for anyone except an absolute beginner. By that, I mean someone who has never trained with weights before ever. I’ve been teaching a friend how to lift and stuff, and I started him out doing something similar to what you’re suggesting. What I came to find is that he just didn’t have the level of muscular coordination needed to do a surprising number of exercises. I started him on SS after a couple months of getting nowhere (it was frustrating for me too because I was having to teach and reteach movements that seemed very fundamental), and SS has treated him very well.

Is it the program that I recommended he stay on for years or whatever? No. But those basic movements–bench press, squat, etc–are what have started to develop a level of muscular coordination and comfort with training intensely that will allow him to do a more advanced training program in the future–one that more closely resembles what you’re suggesting.

Just my two cents and based off one anecdotal experience, but take it for what it’s worth.[/quote]

I don’t understand your point here. You are saying you had a better time teaching your friend to do squats, deadlifts, bench presses, military press, and power cleans… doing 5 rep sets and adding weight every time… but when it came to learning how to do barbell curls and calf raises he just wasn’t coordinated enough?

What I suggested is in no way “advanced”. Beginners always suck, that is why they’re beginners. If he sucks at doing side raises and situps now, avoiding them for 6 months and doing an incomplete program isn’t going to make him suck any less at them.

12

Ok, here is my take. And keep in mind that I’m first and foremost a barbell guy. I love the big basic lifts and for years they were the cornerstone of my training.

And they should absolutely be part of your training program.

But in your specific situation and with your goals, they should not be the only thing in your program. Especially if you are training them for strength.

YES, getting stronger on the big basic lifts will put muscle on ya. But if your goal is building a muscular body you’ll have to do some more targeted work to. And, ironically, the better you become at the big lifts, the less effective they are for overall hypertrophy because 1 muscle will always be the dominant muscle and take over the movement, leaving other muscles under stimulated.

I’ve known a lot of people who do use a minimalist approach (I often do to), but it never leads to an aesthetic muscular physique. It typically lead to farm-boy type physiques. There are obviously exceptions (genetically gifted individuals).

I would certainly recommend doing some more targeted, single-joint exercises for maximal development. So what you could do is this:

Monday: Workout A
Wednesday: Workout B
Friday: Targeted work for the muscles you either want to emphasize the most or that are responding the least from the A-B workouts.

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