Super Duper Beginner Questions

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

Hello T-Nation. I made a post before but I believe I made it in the wrong section so I will repost it correctly now.

First off my name is Steve. Im 20 5 foot 9. My story is a sad one but motivating for me at least so far. I used to be extremely obese topping out at 300 pounds. I started working out a year and a half ago and managed to lose some 40 pounds.

Recently I was introduced to this wonderful world of weightlifting and I was addicted; let alone when I was told I could lose bodyfat coupled with it. I decided to start on a circuit training program consisting of 9 exercises which I will post below.

After much thought i decided i would go the old route of eating less calories , more vegetables, less carbs and obviously less fat while completely omitting junk food.

However, I havent been able to find a really good lifting program for me and every single ive ever talked to and believe me ive talked to dozens gives me BS. I dont even know if the circuit training program i do is effective.

My ultimate long term goals would be to get down to about 200 - 210 pounds and get cut up ? i guess is the proper term. A personal trainer once told me i had a fairly good amount of muscle covered in fat… is that possible?

My biggest concern at this point is to lose all of it while losing weight. But i was told that circuit training would help me retain as much muscle as possible while losing bodyfat at a good pace.

I absolutely love weightlifting and i cant weight to really start making progress, but everything is very confusing to me.

Right now my diet consists of the following.

Morning: 1 small cup of coffee with skim milk and splenda.
2eggs with cheese or sometimes oatmeal with skim milk and on other days i eat mini wheats with skim milk.

Snack: A banana or some sort of fruit. On other days i may eat a pack of almonds or a granola bar.

Lunch: Tuna sandwich with lettuce and tomatoes.

Dinner: Vegetables , with some salad , either grilled chicken or beef with some peppers , boiled potatoes , sometimes avocado , on some days i may have a little rich with beans.

I avoid fried foods entirely and try to limit my carb intake to no more than 100grams on workout days and no more than 50 on resting days just like in the T Dawg diet posted here.

My workout routine is as follow:

Monday, Tuesday , thursday , friday i do a circuit training that consists of the following 9 exercises.

  1. Bench Press 120lbs
  2. Leg Press 140lbs
  3. Lat Pulldowns 75 lbs
  4. Hamgstring extension 80lbs
  5. Seated Rowing 120lbs
  6. Calf Raises 80lbs
  7. Tricep estensions? i dont know the exact name of the exercise but i use a 30lb dumbell.
  8. Bicep curls 30lb
  9. Ab exercise

I do this whole circuit coupled with 15mins on the treadmill keeping my heart rate at 138 ~ 141, and also about 5mins on the bike, i usually incorporate the bike inside the circuit.

I usually play handball about 4 times a week as well for a couple hours.

As for each exercise , i use that weight and i do slow steady reps pumping about approximately 12-15 reps per exercise depending on which one. For example i can only rep a 30lb dumbell doing curls 10 times. The whole circuit lasts about 30 mins plus 15 on the treadmill. As i said before i do this 4 times a week.

I take wednesday , saturday and sunday off.

any advice on this would be greatly appreciated as I really need it. And im open to anything that anyone could help me with.

Ps: as for protein right now im a broke ass college student so trying to dish out 40 bucks a week for protein powder is really expensive for me as i have many bills and since i weigh so much i need more protein. Any alternative?

Thanks in advance !!!

2

[quote]Colombinany wrote:
obviously less fat while completely omitting junk food.
[/quote]

Kudos for dumping the junk food. Don’t go too far with the fat though. You need a reasonable amount of fat to stay healthy, and as counterintuitive as it may seem, sometimes eating MORE fat is better.

This program is atrocious. In my opinion, first and foremost there should be progress in your weightlifting. Gaining muscle, getting shredded, etc… will follow. With a program like this, you simply will not make any progress after the first few months of training.

There are dozens if not hundreds of high quality training routines on this site. Look through the articles for training plans. The majority of programs presented are okay for beginners, but if the program advocates doing low reps (<6), I’d stay away from it until you have been doing this stuff for a while. Others may disagree on this point, but I think your body really needs to get used to the movements before taking on one of those routines.

Don’t sweat it. It’s small stuff. Try to eat regular foods that are naturally high in protein. 40 bucks a week seems a little overkill in any case. If you find you can’t get enough protein in your diet with food, the whey protein that Biotest sells is a pretty good deal… $30 and it would probably last you a lot more than a week.

3

Congratulations on the weight loss so far. And I’m really glad to see you’re addicted to lifting. It’s a lot of fun.

Retaining muscle while you diet is a function of two things–retaining muscle through your training style and effort, and eating enough to support your present muscle while still losing fat. The eating is a lot easier when one is still overfat because you’ll burn fat preferentially until you get a little better, after that point the Stubborn Former Fat Boy syndrome will kick in an you’ll have a harder time dropping the last fat than most.

Your present program is doing neither for you. The training is atrocious (not your own fault, but your trainer’s). After 4 months–no, after 2 months of solid dedicated reading every day on this site, you should be able to custom design a program on your own that kicks the piss out of your trainer’s program, even though you’re still a newb.

I’d still follow written programs though, just to analyze them, and continue your education.

Your diet is clean (good), but seemingly extremely low in calories for your present weight (bad) and doesn’t seem to promote muscle retention. This wouldn’t be a huge problem in your particular situation if your lifting was heavier (it would be a problem for most other people in any situation though). However it would be best to avoid ultra low calories regardless. Not a good habit.

I would add a snack between lunch and dinner, and maybe something before bed. Beef jerky could fit the bill, chicken/veggies, whatever. Try to find some way to get protein in your morning snack as well (canned tuna, or chicken, or chili).

You’ll want to look at Big Boy Basics, Total Body Training, or Anti-Bodybuilding Hypertrophy programs here by Chad Waterbury. Pick one of these three and do it as written. My personal choices for you would by either of the first two programs.

4

Congratulations on the progress so far and your commitment to getting into shape.

If I am reading correctly, you currently weigh 260 and you’d like to get down to 200-210, which means that you need to lose 50-60 lbs.

Rather than go about this weight loss slowly, I suggest doing the velocity diet for a month, which should bring you to about 230 lbs, then switch to a diet similar to the one you are currently following and focus on losing the next 20-30 lbs over the course of 4-5 months.

Your “routine” leaves much room for improvement. Learn the proper way to squat, deadlift and lunge. Start gaining strength on the big basic exercises like squats, deadlifts, bench press, rows, military press, etc. When you get down in weight you can add in dips and chin ups. Get much stronger at these exercises.

This way, you will target fat for weight loss and preserve your muscle, so when you get down to your ideal weight you’ll have a muscular, athletic shape.

You can still do cardio but focus on gaining strength, which will preserve and possibly build muscle, in addition to increasing the metabolic demands of your workouts because you’ll be hoisting around more weight, which will cause more fat loss.

Best of luck!

5

Congrats on your progress!

Nice to see someone making the effort and challenging themself! keep going.

This was posted a while back may be of some use.

http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1069729

6

[quote]bretc wrote:
Congratulations on the progress so far and your commitment to getting into shape.

If I am reading correctly, you currently weigh 260 and you’d like to get down to 200-210, which means that you need to lose 50-60 lbs.

Rather than go about this weight loss slowly, I suggest doing the velocity diet for a month, which should bring you to about 230 lbs, then switch to a diet similar to the one you are currently following and focus on losing the next 20-30 lbs over the course of 4-5 months.

Your “routine” leaves much room for improvement. Learn the proper way to squat, deadlift and lunge. Start gaining strength on the big basic exercises like squats, deadlifts, bench press, rows, military press, etc. When you get down in weight you can add in dips and chin ups. Get much stronger at these exercises.

This way, you will target fat for weight loss and preserve your muscle, so when you get down to your ideal weight you’ll have a muscular, athletic shape.

You can still do cardio but focus on gaining strength, which will preserve and possibly build muscle, in addition to increasing the metabolic demands of your workouts because you’ll be hoisting around more weight, which will cause more fat loss.

Best of luck!

[/quote]

Simply amazing the feedback ive gotten from you guys thanks alot !!!

As everyone has agreed i believe, I should eat a little more maybe incorporate 2 more snacks into my diet correct?

Also as for a lifting program to burn fat any specific suggestions ? The thing is when it comes to description of an actual lifting program i get confuzzled HAHA , i havent much experience in the lifting world so specific terms might be kinda difficult for me to grasp. I forgot to mention i take 2 capsules of omega 3 everyday as well as a multivitamin.

Anyway BRet im really really interested in what you posted, Can you link me perhaps to the velocity diet? and can you also possibly link me to a workout i can use at this moment to lose fat but incorporate those details you spoke of ?

If you can go into a little more detail id appreciate your help and time man. Again i know people here probably have better things to do than to help a complete newbie but believe it or not the opinions here matter more to me than the ones from the gym rats at my local training facility. Haha.

Thanks again !!!

7

[quote]Colombinany wrote:

Simply amazing the feedback ive gotten from you guys thanks alot !!!

As everyone has agreed i believe, I should eat a little more maybe incorporate 2 more snacks into my diet correct?

Also as for a lifting program to burn fat any specific suggestions ? The thing is when it comes to description of an actual lifting program i get confuzzled HAHA , i havent much experience in the lifting world so specific terms might be kinda difficult for me to grasp. I forgot to mention i take 2 capsules of omega 3 everyday as well as a multivitamin.

Anyway BRet im really really interested in what you posted, Can you link me perhaps to the velocity diet? and can you also possibly link me to a workout i can use at this moment to lose fat but incorporate those details you spoke of ?

If you can go into a little more detail id appreciate your help and time man. Again i know people here probably have better things to do than to help a complete newbie but believe it or not the opinions here matter more to me than the ones from the gym rats at my local training facility. Haha.

Thanks again !!![/quote]

I’m not Bretc, and I don’t want to steal his thunder, but I feel the need to interject here.

I think you’d be better off getting a solid lifting program first, like BBB or TBT as I mentioned, than doing the Velocity diet.

BretC gives great advice here. And the V-Diet could be very useful to you. It’s a great diet, and you could use it in your situation quite well… HOWEVER, you have not figured out HOW to lift well, and doing the V-Diet requires an extreme amount of planning on all levels of your life for a month. It also brings up a much more nebulous question of how to train with weights while on the V-Diet. Things that would normally work might be too draining on it.

So I think you need to get a solid education on lifting, and look at the V-Diet after another couple of months. As good as it is, it raises more problems for you on how best to train than you have the ability to answer. IMHO.

Fat loss training basics–

  1. Big compound movements create more metabolic demand and muscle trauma. They are more mentally challanging. They take more effort. This = better fat burning potential than isolation movements that don’t stress your whole system.

  2. Whole body workouts create this same system stress that’s great for fat loss and muscle building. I admit I’m a fan of split training more than whole body, but man for fat loss whole body is great stuff.

  3. At this stage in your training life, you just need to do a program prewritten for you.

You need to pick up a whole body program or do the Big Boy Basics program.

8

[quote]Aragorn wrote:
Colombinany wrote:

Simply amazing the feedback ive gotten from you guys thanks alot !!!

As everyone has agreed i believe, I should eat a little more maybe incorporate 2 more snacks into my diet correct?

Also as for a lifting program to burn fat any specific suggestions ? The thing is when it comes to description of an actual lifting program i get confuzzled HAHA , i havent much experience in the lifting world so specific terms might be kinda difficult for me to grasp. I forgot to mention i take 2 capsules of omega 3 everyday as well as a multivitamin.

Anyway BRet im really really interested in what you posted, Can you link me perhaps to the velocity diet? and can you also possibly link me to a workout i can use at this moment to lose fat but incorporate those details you spoke of ?

If you can go into a little more detail id appreciate your help and time man. Again i know people here probably have better things to do than to help a complete newbie but believe it or not the opinions here matter more to me than the ones from the gym rats at my local training facility. Haha.

Thanks again !!!

I’m not Bretc, and I don’t want to steal his thunder, but I feel the need to interject here.

I think you’d be better off getting a solid lifting program first, like BBB or TBT as I mentioned, than doing the Velocity diet.

BretC gives great advice here. And the V-Diet could be very useful to you. It’s a great diet, and you could use it in your situation quite well… HOWEVER, you have not figured out HOW to lift well, and doing the V-Diet requires an extreme amount of planning on all levels of your life for a month. It also brings up a much more nebulous question of how to train with weights while on the V-Diet. Things that would normally work might be too draining on it.

So I think you need to get a solid education on lifting, and look at the V-Diet after another couple of months. As good as it is, it raises more problems for you on how best to train than you have the ability to answer. IMHO.

Fat loss training basics–

  1. Big compound movements create more metabolic demand and muscle trauma. They are more mentally challanging. They take more effort. This = better fat burning potential than isolation movements that don’t stress your whole system.

  2. Whole body workouts create this same system stress that’s great for fat loss and muscle building. I admit I’m a fan of split training more than whole body, but man for fat loss whole body is great stuff.

  3. At this stage in your training life, you just need to do a program prewritten for you.

You need to pick up a whole body program or do the Big Boy Basics program.[/quote]

Aragorn you give some great advice here. While I agree with most of what you said, I disagree with one point. At this stage of the game, I feel it is a perfect time for him to do the velocity diet while learning how to perform the big basics (squats, deadlifts, bent over rows, bench press, military press).

Since he is neurally inefficient and lacks coordination, he won’t be using nearly as much weight as he will be two months from now and therefore doesn’t need the additional calories for recovery.

I think that this is a case where we are both right and he could go either way.

A good program I would recommend would be:

Monday

squats
bent over rows
bench press
walking lunges

Wednesday

deadlifts
military press
barbell shrugs
barbell curls
pillars, side pillars

Friday

squats
bent over rows
bench press
walking lunges

You could substitue in lifts like incline press and underhand grip pulldowns for bench press and bent over rows. You could learn front squats and substitute them for squats from time to time. Same with sumo deadlifts and conventional deadlifts. Same with bulgarian squats, step ups and lunges.

Obviously you have much to learn!

9

[quote]Colombinany wrote:
Hello T-Nation. I made a post before but I believe I made it in the wrong section so I will repost it correctly now.

First off my name is Steve. Im 20 5 foot 9. My story is a sad one but motivating for me at least so far. I used to be extremely obese topping out at 300 pounds. I started working out a year and a half ago and managed to lose some 40 pounds.

Recently I was introduced to this wonderful world of weightlifting and I was addicted; let alone when I was told I could lose bodyfat coupled with it. I decided to start on a circuit training program consisting of 9 exercises which I will post below.

After much thought i decided i would go the old route of eating less calories , more vegetables, less carbs and obviously less fat while completely omitting junk food.

However, I havent been able to find a really good lifting program for me and every single ive ever talked to and believe me ive talked to dozens gives me BS. I dont even know if the circuit training program i do is effective.

My ultimate long term goals would be to get down to about 200 - 210 pounds and get cut up ? i guess is the proper term. A personal trainer once told me i had a fairly good amount of muscle covered in fat… is that possible?

My biggest concern at this point is to lose all of it while losing weight. But i was told that circuit training would help me retain as much muscle as possible while losing bodyfat at a good pace.

I absolutely love weightlifting and i cant weight to really start making progress, but everything is very confusing to me.

Right now my diet consists of the following.

Morning: 1 small cup of coffee with skim milk and splenda.
2eggs with cheese or sometimes oatmeal with skim milk and on other days i eat mini wheats with skim milk.

Snack: A banana or some sort of fruit. On other days i may eat a pack of almonds or a granola bar.

Lunch: Tuna sandwich with lettuce and tomatoes.

Dinner: Vegetables , with some salad , either grilled chicken or beef with some peppers , boiled potatoes , sometimes avocado , on some days i may have a little rich with beans.

I avoid fried foods entirely and try to limit my carb intake to no more than 100grams on workout days and no more than 50 on resting days just like in the T Dawg diet posted here.

My workout routine is as follow:

Monday, Tuesday , thursday , friday i do a circuit training that consists of the following 9 exercises.

  1. Bench Press 120lbs
  2. Leg Press 140lbs
  3. Lat Pulldowns 75 lbs
  4. Hamgstring extension 80lbs
  5. Seated Rowing 120lbs
  6. Calf Raises 80lbs
  7. Tricep estensions? i dont know the exact name of the exercise but i use a 30lb dumbell.
  8. Bicep curls 30lb
  9. Ab exercise

I do this whole circuit coupled with 15mins on the treadmill keeping my heart rate at 138 ~ 141, and also about 5mins on the bike, i usually incorporate the bike inside the circuit.

I usually play handball about 4 times a week as well for a couple hours.

As for each exercise , i use that weight and i do slow steady reps pumping about approximately 12-15 reps per exercise depending on which one. For example i can only rep a 30lb dumbell doing curls 10 times. The whole circuit lasts about 30 mins plus 15 on the treadmill. As i said before i do this 4 times a week.

I take wednesday , saturday and sunday off.

any advice on this would be greatly appreciated as I really need it. And im open to anything that anyone could help me with.

Ps: as for protein right now im a broke ass college student so trying to dish out 40 bucks a week for protein powder is really expensive for me as i have many bills and since i weigh so much i need more protein. Any alternative?

Thanks in advance !!![/quote]

Hey Steve,
First off, congrats on your progress so far.

In terms of your nutrition, look at all articles by John Berardi, specifically Tailor Made Nutrition, Part I. There are 7 rules there, and if you can follow those for a bit, they’ll do you good.

In terms of training, I’m taking it that you’re interested in aesthetics primarily, specifically fat loss. Click on the Authors Link, and just start reading through the programs. There’s no magic program or magic split, and there are ton of programs on here to help you make progress. Check back with us and let us know which ones catch your eye, and we can help you make a decision about which direction to go in.

In terms of supplements, If you’re limited, I’d personally invest in Surge, and if you have any left over invest in some low carb Metabolic Drive. HOT-ROX Extreme would also help you, but if money is tight, make sure you have your basics in order.

Good luck man, but your success won’t have anything to do with luck; just hard work.

10

This thread is a lot of help to me too. I’m trying to do the same as the OP.

This is a very small piece of the pie, but how much fish oil should one take? The ones I have are 1200mg. I remember I used to take 7-10 a day at one point. I was working out, eating right, taking supplements, and feeling great.

11

[quote]Weakling 8 wrote:
This thread is a lot of help to me too. I’m trying to do the same as the OP.

This is a very small piece of the pie, but how much fish oil should one take? The ones I have are 1200mg. I remember I used to take 7-10 a day at one point. I was working out, eating right, taking supplements, and feeling great. [/quote]

I depends on the amount of DHA and EPA in the capsule, for example Flameout has the same amount of DHA in 4 capsules as some brands have in 15. Take a read of the Flameout write up (it is an advertisement, but it’s still good info).

12

I would like to second novagreg’s suggestion to read Berardi’s “Tailor Made Series”. Even if you do the V-Diet this should be your long term nutrition approach.

As for training, I do like something simple like bretC posted. I would recommend though that you minimize rest periods (60 seconds) and keep adding weight every session. I’d also add in 10 minutes of “Free Time” at the end of your planned session.

This free time is for whatever you want to do in the weight room, assuming you don’t go overboard. For example, bretC doesn’t have any barbell/dumbbell curls listed, maybe you really want to do these. So after your planned session, use your free time and do a few sets. DO NOT GO OVERBOARD, stick to the 10 minute max.

If you have the opportunity buy the book “The New Rules of Lifting” by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove, it’s inexpensive, contains a full year worth of programs (and many options for afterward) and it is geared to people in your situation.

Don’t worry about supplements for now. It can be handy to have some protein powder at home for when you’re going to miss a meal, but other than that newbies really don’t need any. The Whey protein powder here is a good deal, but if that’s all you’re ordering then the shipping may kill you, so just pick up a Whey protein powder tub at a health food store.

Keep reading through the info on this site, you will learn a lot and the more you read the more dedicated you likely become.

Train hard.

13

To the vets offering help:

You guys are what makes this site awesome. (and the articles)I think TC would be proud.

To the OP,
Good job on your decision to improve your strength and health. You have a good attitude, which is why people have taken the time to help you.

One bit of advice (one newb to another)I’ll reiterate is, take the time to learn and practice the big compound lifts. They can seem difficult at first but they are addicting.

Plus they are the measuring stick among any serious trainers.

Different variations of:
Deadlift
Squat
Bench Press
Military Press
Pull Ups
Rows

Go ahead and throw some curls in there too. Almost everyone wants big guns :)and 3-5 sets of curls won’t take long.

Stick to these basics and be careful of your form. Your body may not be used to these movements for a while but you will get the hang of them.

Google exrx for some pretty good videos of different exercises. I don’t have the link in front of me.

Injuries suck and can put you out of commission for weeks or months. Work hard and push it but listen to your body. Muscle soreness is one thing but acute pain is another.

Don’t get too lost in all of the details you’ll find here. You can learn as you go.

Just make sure you are CONSISTENTLY doing SOMETHING in the gym while you are learning outside the gym.

If you have to choose how to spend your time. Spend it in the gym, not reading another article or internet argument.

Good luck and you have received some great advice in this thread from the other guys.

Keep us posted on your progress. (no pictures though) :slight_smile:

New2

14

Thanks guys you dont know how much help you’ve been to me.

I spend about 2 hours a day reading through this site and other sites looking at bodybuilding tips and actual medical files of how our body functions and nutrition articles.

Its really interesting and educating to read this stuff because at the same time i can laugh at the idiots who make hard headed mistakes and argue with me about it. Anyway !!!

Thanks again guys. The general consensus seems to be for me to plan out to start the Velocity diet which i read fully and thoroughly last night. (my god im a little intimidated BUT WHATS 1 MONTH FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE RIGHT ??!! ) I will start that diet and use your exercise routine bret.

I will also walk 2 miles daily like in the diet. If i can only walk 1 mile i will do it but add more handball exercise to the mix. After coming off i will follow the t dawg diet coupled with a new training program. I have some last questions.

  1. I heard if i do this diet my body may go into starvation mode and instead of losing will “retain” fat is this true ?

  2. If i follow brets lifting routine do i have to walk 2 miles daily as in pauls v diet ?

  3. For your program while on the diet bret, how many sets reps and how much weight should i lift. Should i use free weights as opposed to machines ?

  4. As a small outline to what my strength is at the gym. I can bench 160 and i isually rep this about 8 times. For my legs i usually do sets of 8 for 220 pounds on the leg press machine. For arms i do 30lb bells.

These are the last of my questions, and i believe beyond this point the road will be hard and narrow but full of rewards at the end.

Thanks to all of you who have given advice , and bret if you dont mind i would like to add you as a friend on this site to maybe harrass you a couple weeks down the line for some more advice ( if thats cool ). Thanks guys !!!

15

[quote]bretc wrote:
Aragorn wrote:
Colombinany wrote:

Simply amazing the feedback ive gotten from you guys thanks alot !!!

As everyone has agreed i believe, I should eat a little more maybe incorporate 2 more snacks into my diet correct?

Also as for a lifting program to burn fat any specific suggestions ? The thing is when it comes to description of an actual lifting program i get confuzzled HAHA , i havent much experience in the lifting world so specific terms might be kinda difficult for me to grasp. I forgot to mention i take 2 capsules of omega 3 everyday as well as a multivitamin.

Anyway BRet im really really interested in what you posted, Can you link me perhaps to the velocity diet? and can you also possibly link me to a workout i can use at this moment to lose fat but incorporate those details you spoke of ?

If you can go into a little more detail id appreciate your help and time man. Again i know people here probably have better things to do than to help a complete newbie but believe it or not the opinions here matter more to me than the ones from the gym rats at my local training facility. Haha.

Thanks again !!!

I’m not Bretc, and I don’t want to steal his thunder, but I feel the need to interject here.

I think you’d be better off getting a solid lifting program first, like BBB or TBT as I mentioned, than doing the Velocity diet.

BretC gives great advice here. And the V-Diet could be very useful to you. It’s a great diet, and you could use it in your situation quite well… HOWEVER, you have not figured out HOW to lift well, and doing the V-Diet requires an extreme amount of planning on all levels of your life for a month. It also brings up a much more nebulous question of how to train with weights while on the V-Diet. Things that would normally work might be too draining on it.

So I think you need to get a solid education on lifting, and look at the V-Diet after another couple of months. As good as it is, it raises more problems for you on how best to train than you have the ability to answer. IMHO.

Fat loss training basics–

  1. Big compound movements create more metabolic demand and muscle trauma. They are more mentally challanging. They take more effort. This = better fat burning potential than isolation movements that don’t stress your whole system.

  2. Whole body workouts create this same system stress that’s great for fat loss and muscle building. I admit I’m a fan of split training more than whole body, but man for fat loss whole body is great stuff.

  3. At this stage in your training life, you just need to do a program prewritten for you.

You need to pick up a whole body program or do the Big Boy Basics program.

Aragorn you give some great advice here. While I agree with most of what you said, I disagree with one point. At this stage of the game, I feel it is a perfect time for him to do the velocity diet while learning how to perform the big basics (squats, deadlifts, bent over rows, bench press, military press).

Since he is neurally inefficient and lacks coordination, he won’t be using nearly as much weight as he will be two months from now and therefore doesn’t need the additional calories for recovery.

I think that this is a case where we are both right and he could go either way.

A good program I would recommend would be:

Monday

squats
bent over rows
bench press
walking lunges

Wednesday

deadlifts
military press
barbell shrugs
barbell curls
pillars, side pillars

Friday

squats
bent over rows
bench press
walking lunges

You could substitue in lifts like incline press and underhand grip pulldowns for bench press and bent over rows. You could learn front squats and substitute them for squats from time to time. Same with sumo deadlifts and conventional deadlifts. Same with bulgarian squats, step ups and lunges.

Obviously you have much to learn![/quote]

I would do it a little differently, but I really like your post.

Monday
Squat
Row
press

Wednesday
Deadlift
Overhead Press
Pulldown

Friday
Press
squat
row

I would use different exercises for Monday and Friday and alternate the order. I only listed three exercises (which is plenty if you’re working them hard) but you could add in some ab work or arms or whatever at the end.

16

Well you’ve got a lot of great information to start with here thanks to all the above posters. And just to echo theior sentiments, congrats on making the new lifestyle choice. Just remember intensity is the key, as if that hasn’t been stated enough yet.

Get off the machines, leg press among others, and do the free weight versions, squats. A great way to learn to squat is the Lumberjack Squat. It is in CT’s semi-recent article on favorite exercises. Increase weight whenever you feel you can, and sometimes when you feel you can’t.

You may surprise yourself. Your improvements in strength should be a source of pride so make sure those numbers continue to creep upwards.

As far as fish oil, it is the supplement I reccomend/insist all my clients use. Flameout is a great one. Besides that, keep working hard, don’t get overwhelmed with all the info you have gotten, and Keep It Simple!

-Chris

17

bretc, I think you’re correct, he could go either way.

18

[quote]Ruggerlife wrote:
I depends on the amount of DHA and EPA in the capsule, for example Flameout has the same amount of DHA in 4 capsules as some brands have in 15. Take a read of the Flameout write up (it is an advertisement, but it’s still good info).[/quote]

My pills are 1200mg each. In two pills they contain:
EPA 432mg
DHA 288mg
Other fatty acids 24mg

Omega-3 720mg

Those numbers don’t add up to 2400mg. WTH?

19

Yeah. First off, regardless of what brand of Omega 3 you buy, you need to get substantially more than 2 grams a day total for meaningful benefits. My suggestion is between 6-10g daily. Taking Flameout, you can do that in one serving.

Secondly, you need to take your Omega 3’s on a full stomach/with food. Remember, they’re fats, and fat can be used as calorie burning fuel. You want to increase the chances your Omega 3’s are incorporated into your cells in a way OTHER than being burned for energy.

Thirdly, fat can and will go rancid after a while, so whenever you open a bottle of Omega 3’s, refridgerate them to prolong their usefulness.

20

I would have gone with Aragorn on this one, and not done the v-diet just yet, but if you do decide to go on it, how you come off of the diet is just as important.

If you come off the diet and immediately start eating tons of carbs, etc… you will totally mess your body up. Look at some of the articles on the site for how to COME OFF of the diet.

The v-diet is hard, but can make a big difference. I was on the diet for 4 weeks at one point and lost 13 pounds, about 8 of which was fat (rest seemed to be water).

Good luck, and start getting familiar with the training terms. If you have specific questions, post them as well.