Here’s the basic rundown of the situation. My friend wants to start working out. He’s 16 by the way. He cares about building muscle, not so much building strength. He wants to work out 3-4 times per week. I suspect 3x per week is more realistic. He also wants to get leaner. He’s definitely not fat, his stomach is flat but he doesn’t have visible abs (and wants them of course). I was thinking of recommending starting strength to him, but thought I should ask your opinions first.
some stats:
age: 16
weight: 200ish
weight: 6 feet ish
if his stomach is already flat, then ‘leaning out’ is not appropriate at his age. That’s going to be a thing that can develop over the next couple of years just by eating well and lifting. He really should not do a cutting-type diet, please discourage that.
Why in the world would you recommend starting strength? That program is designed quite specifically to promote the opposite of his goals. It’s not a hypertrophy-based program, it’s a strength program. And it’s a boring fucking program at that. Your boy wants abs and bigger muscles, so you want to tell him to listen to a coach that advises drinking a gallon of milk every day, and run a strength-specific program?
There COUNTLESS bodybuilding-style programs out there. A 16 year old beginner should just run any program that he thinks looks like something he would enjoy. That’s it.
He should also be encouraged to develop good eating habits, not necessarily any particular diet. Eating a diet that is centered around a good variety of vegetables, meats, and rice is pretty ideal for most. He should avoid junk food, and heavily processed foods. He should also learn to cook if he doesn’t do that already. Never too early to learn.
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Because I can’t think of any beginner bodybuilding programs off the top of my head. And, coming from reading mostly strength forums, it seems like a pretty standard novice program. The reason I made this thread is that I wasn’t sure that it would actually be ideal for his goals lol.
I’ve seen a bunch of these online, but most of them are a list of exercises with set/rep ranges without any clear progression in place. Should I set him up with one that looks fun and tell him to try to add 5lbs or 1 rep per workout?
I’ll pass that on to him.
See where he is after 3 months, and then try something else. But I think 5/3/1 BBB would be a great starting point, and plenty of 5x10 hypertrophy work
And single ingredient foods like:
Beef, Ingredients: beef
Tomato, ingredients: tomato
Pasta, ingredients: wheat
Rice, ingredients: rice
etc
that’s because progression models are based on strength goals, not physique goals. so my answer to your question is, yes. you do that.
if the guy just wants to get into bodybuilding, or ‘lifting to look good’, you don’t need a progression model, and you don’t need to follow a ‘beginner’ program. The reason beginners run beginner programs is because they need to acclimate to competition lifts. Any idiot can do cable curls and dumbbell flyes and whatnot. With the bigger compound movements, you don’t have to have a perfectly efficient lift, you don’t have to meet contest requirements, etc. You don’t have to touch the bar to your chest on bench. you don’t have to squat to depth. Etc. None of those things truly contribute to a great physique, aesthetically. Learning to do those things is a good idea, and perhaps as your friend gets into lifting, he’ll want to do those things. But for now, just getting in the weight room and getting used to lifting weight’s is a perfectly fine start.
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I’m with @flipcollar on this. I know Rippefinger has a strength at all cost then clean up the mess later philosophy but I think that’s a bad approach (even accounting for GOMAD being for a specific subset of the population).
I’d get him into a program that has a good variety of movements (inc thr big movements and stuff like renegade rows, push ups, dips, etc) and a variety of loading schemes (ramp, straight across, waves, etc) - even supersets. It shouldn’t neglect running/jumping and carrying stuff as well.
Despite what the SS crew would have you believe, beginners are not brain dead morons whose brains will explode if they count past 5.
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Any specific programs you’d recommend that incorporate those movements? I told him to read this article and try the program
You learn something new every day
Never thought about that but it makes perfect sense now that you mention it. That makes everything easier I guess
Doesn’t DeFranco have a program like that? I think there was another site with programs called “Dorian Yates Blood and Guts” and another one called “Shortcut to Size/Strength”
Best program review of SS I’ve seen yet.
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lol thanks, I try.
I’m just thinking back to when I first started lifting. My goals were very different from what they are now. They were much more like what this guy seems to want. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I can pretty much guarantee that if someone had me doing SS from day 1, I would have quit lifting in the first week. I didn’t care what my legs looked like, and while I wanted to be strong, that wasn’t my priority. I wanted to go in the gym and do all the things I’d read about in my Arnold Bodybuilding Encyclopedia. Was what I was doing when I first started the most effective mass-building program on the planet? No. But it kept my interest, and in my opinion, that’s all you should be trying to do with a beginner. You want the beginner to see results, and you want it to be something they enjoy so they keep coming back. The addiction to lifting takes time for most people to develop. I was years into lifting before I really committed to squatting regularly and getting a strong lower body. I hit a 300 bench before I hit a 300 squat.
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Rippetoe only advises GOMAD for young males who are severely underweight and need to put on a lot of body mass for a specific reason. Starting Strength is a good program for building a strength base for a few months. It’s probably worth the investment if the guy is in it for the long haul. If he just wants to look better as quickly as possible, then it’s probably not the right choice. For his purposes the 531 Krypteia might be the perfect choice. It’s 4 days a week for the first couple of cycles and then switches to 3 days. It’s what Wendler uses with his football players and what he recommends to most people who are physically able to handle it.
Not sure the relevance of this statement. I was pointing out that his nutritional advice is poor to people he says should do GOMAD and to people who shouldn’t do GOMAD.
here’s the problem with that… the guy has never lifted weights before. How would he even know if he’s in it ‘for the long haul’? That’s rhetorical. Nobody does.
what makes this the perfect choice? Why would a program that a guy concerned only with strength and athleticism, not appearance, be ‘the perfect choice’ for a guy who just wants to look good?
Seriously guys. STOP RECOMMENDING STRENGTH PROGRAMS. Pay attention to the client. You guys would be the shittiest trainers lol.
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Im 16 and i started working out since i was 15.I didnt follow a program I just trained crazy and ate crazy.I put on 30lbs of muscle in a year and 140lbs on bench.Thats what I would suggest.Tell him not to care about the minor details because at my age if you eat,sleep,and train good youll grow.The difference in me is that im much shorter then him (5 foot 8) and lighter too (173lbs) so i dont know how much harder it will be for him to put on mass.I trained 6 days a week to and still do and it works for me.
I have a very similar story lol. Started 5 foot 7 or 8 at 123lbs, currently 155lbs. I spent the vast majority of the weight gain period going to the gym without a program, just trying to go hard every session. I’m 16 too btw.
If you lift like Mark Rippetoe long enough, you might end up looking like Mark Rippetoe.
Seriously, if aesthetics is your goal, run a program by somebody who looks the part.
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What are your lifts?If better then me then ill have something to aim for.The people i train with are usually weaker from school so I have no one to chase.
Ok, they’re better than yours. Go get it!
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Depends how much better if he squats 500 deadlifts 600 and benches 400 then i wont even bother lol.
Why?
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