OK READ THIS POST. Hi, you are very fortunate you found t-mag at such a young age and will have a promising future because of this. I recently turned 17 and have been lifting since 12. None of these guys have the right to demeaner your intentions. When i began training i was a duesh, it was a slow and long process for me to get in enough protein, id skip meals, id train like an idiot. But something happens when you train, you become more and more obvsesive. As the years went by i got more and more involved, read every article and worked my ass off. So if you are just starting out don’t worry, you’ll become more interested as time progreses, believe me. Also, someone said to pace yourself and focus on school, some guy at the gym said the exact same thing to me once a while back, statements like that are complete crap and kill motivation. You want it, you gotta earn it. Hell, sophmore year i actually worked the entire school year just to earn enough money for protein. Lifes tuff, suck it up and read a lot. My very first program was Ironman’s Size Surge, although i don’t recommend subscribing, i found that full body workouts like these were best when i first began. Do big compound exercises, DEEP squats and deadlifts are your best friends. Also, i really didn’t train bi’s directly when i first started out, it just wasnt necessary. BEST BEGINNER RECOMMENDATION: Read Poliquin Principles. If there were ever Bodybuilding 101, this would be an almost perfect textbook, aside from some of the dated nutritional stuff. READ READ READ TILL YOU BLEED. Good Luck Pro to be.
It wasn’t that they were intimidated, guy, it’s that they didn’t like your attitude.
What attitude?
The “I’m a teenager and basically can not limit myself to pure protein diets, nor do i have the time and money to buy supplements and go to the gym,” attitude.
Do you understand how limiting this is? You’re basically saying, I don’t have time to do anything to set myself up for success.
You’ve had some good advice in this thread, which I will now summarize, and add another little piece.
- Train compound exercises heavy and with good form. Don’t pussyfoot around with a split where you work one body part a day. Ain’t gonna help.
- You have to eat if you want to get big. The easiest way to eat a lot is to eat often.
- Don’t worry about being “cut”. Getting big and getting cut are two different concerns. Right now you need to add some mass, then you can worry about cutting down.
Read the “reality checks” at the beginning of this article. Choose something easy like the Chanko or MRP (obviously 1/2 solid, 1/2 MRP) diets.
I think that’s all I got for you right now. Your priorities are: 1. Calm down, you’re too high strung, it’s making you catabolic. This means sleep an extra hour or two a night if you can. 2. Lift heavy compound weights 3. Eat more often, more calories, and more protein overall.
Good luck.
So i feel sorry for the assholes who get intimidated, when a 15 year old writes for the first time a post in T-mag.
Don’t say that. I’d like to think you know better.
DI
Young man, don’t let others push their negativity on your ambitions. I suspect they might be reacting the way they are because of your age, NATURALLY HIGH TESTOSTERONE AND HGH LEVELS, and your capacity to recover much faster than they can at older ages…me thinks there might be some envy or jealousy motivating it. I guess if you want to look like a horse you sort of have to eat and exercise like a horse.
You are by virture of your age going to have to keep the calorie content high just to support all the growth your body would undertake even without the ambitions; couple that with the demands you place upon your organism with training and cardio (don’t leave that variable out of program–only the myopic have a disdain for cardio) and you’ve got a lot of food to eat.
Find some good literature on nutrition programs–ignore that and all the exercise you do will be undermined. Sixteen years ago a nine year old approached me about training him at our gym (I squatted 405 and later pressed 1250 lbs that day). His father also asked me to help him and we worked consistently for several years. Now he plays in the NFL.
VISUALIZE WHAT YOU WANT AND HIT IT HARD!
The training program tiree posted isn’t too bad, for the record.
I’d just add some sort of horizontal rowing, especially since that area (upper back/shoulders) is a /very/ common weak point in people (ie the hunched over meathead look).
glassman, how would you go about getting Poliquin Principles? i could’ve sworn it was out of print? Could you kindly explain how giving a 15 year old advice to concentrate more on education but train still is " a complete crap and kills motivation"? Getting a good education and training is something that is not impossible especially in the good 'ol USA. U just have to work hard.
I don’t understand how being in high school and getting good education interferes w/ bodybuildling/workingout, but o well.
You need to eat more often, eat more protein, drop soy sausage, and start reading the magazine. Until you read the articles on this site and start doing some REAL workouts and eat properly, I don’t think people will be able to help you much.
BTW – it’s very difficult to get HUGE and RIPPED at the same time. You can do it, but very difficult. You’re better off concentrating on getting big or getting ripped. Most people alternate between bulking and cutting.
Bro–
I hope you are still following this post. I felt compelled to help you as I once was in your shoes. There is light at the end though. No lecture here. Here is how a high school kid should eat to grow. See take advantage of the foods you can get mom to buy for sure. Milk, peanut butter, bagels, cereals that arent sugar laden. Seriously, say, hey mom instead of cocoa puffs can you get plain wheaties? Here is the diet that will add size. Remember you have to eat to grow, worry about your so called gut later as you add muscle and train harder things will happen.
Meal 1: 2 whole eggs + 4 whites, 2 pieces of wheat toast with butter, 1 8 oz of skim milk or 2%, and a 1/2 bowl of oats and add some peanut butter to the oats.
Meal 2: 2-3 scoops of protein powder and a small baggie full of nuts Now dont tell me you cant afford some type of powder. Dont worry if its not super charged whey rock my world blend. Get something. Put this in a shaker in the morning with ice and put in school bag and drink at 10pm in between bells. Screw your friends if they look at you weird if you want to be a bodybuilder you will get so many looks anyways. Or you can tell them its chocolate milk.
Meal 3: I suppose you eat in the cafeteria. So get another serving of milk, big turkery sandwich on wheat add some veggies if possible. Two pieces of wheat bread and copious amounts of peanut butter. Yes carry it in your bookbag not that hard.
Meal 4: same as above.
Meal 5: Get mom to make some chicken, fish, lean beef, steak, etc. Have a sweet potatoe OR rice OR more oats OR white potatoe Add some veggies.
Meal 6: Cottage cheese. I dont care if you like it or not its slow digesting and great for a nightime snack. Add a can of tuna if you like. This is an awesome post bed snack.
Eat every 3 to 3.5 hours all the way up to bedtime. Dont forget to be a kid, if you want pizza one day for lunch go ahead. But have all other meals. If you skip a meal dont beat yourself up over it, try harder the next day. Always have the shake after workout as the protein will enter the muscles quicker. You can add carbs post workout for better results as well. I hope you see the kind of foods that will help here. I did this for about a year. I was not ripped when done but I had the size I need to do something with. I also learned a whole helluve lot about my body in the process which will be essential when its time to strip the fat and get ripped. Good luck,
Jason
Tiree forgot to add that Tiree also had chin ups in that program. They help those bi’s. They are a very important muscle. SOME people, with skinny arms dont think that. But, for the record…
They are an imposing muscle. Think of it this way…
DAMN that fella has HUGE hamstrings! I should run in phear
OR
Shiat. That fella can rip a shirt flexing.
Who are you gonna be scared of…
Also, they are HIGHLY important for manual labor, almost as much as the back and forearms. Unless you can pack a couch on your shoulders…
Or large boxes.
AND they help you get the women. They dont give an ass about your calves. Or your traps. or your lats for that matter. BUT the arms YES. That and glutes.
And last arguement in favor of biceps
Womens arms generally have nice and defined triceps. Do you want to look effeminate?
The biceps are bi far not the most important muscle, but they are more important than lots of others