Ok...after thinking about it, and constantly answering the same questions over and over. I am going to attempt to write out a guide for beginners or people who are still green to lifting. I am going to cover routine(s), cardiovascular activities and eating basics in hopes of giving a good general idea on what to do and how to go about doing it regardless of your ultimate end goals. Im going to try to do this as organized as possible so bare with me here...
I would also like to say most of this information is a collection of what I have learned from various people and articles. Some of this will indeed be my own opinion, but most coming from other sources just compiled into this guide.
I have edited with some links and video's. I would like to give credit to:
Mark Rippetoe
Dan
Madcow
As I have used sources by them.
Im sure I will be making edits and what not, so here goes:
1.) Introduction
2.) Weight lifting
a.) exercises
-compounds vs isolations
-assistance exercises
b.) routines
c.) Progression
- Frequency
d.) overtraining and D.O.M.S
3.) Cardio
a.) Tabata
4.) Nutrition
5.) everything else (awesome section I know)
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1.) INTRODUCTION My name is Nik, I have been training off and on since I was 16 (I am now 24). It has been one year though since I have really figured most of the "secrets" out to gaining muscle and seriously training. You want to know what the "secrets" are?
good...old...fashion...hard...work...
Yup, probably not what most people want to hear. everyone wants the miracle pill or magic machine thats going to make them ripped with 6 pack abs and 18" arms. Well,
the sad truth is people just need to stop being pussys and start training. The secrets to gaining muscle have been around for AGES, but somehow got lost in the hype of mass infomercials and global chain gyms with the latest machines.
Now machines have their place (In the closet collecting dust...ok...ok...) they can be utilized with certain cases or injurys. But the basics of barbell training and dumbbells are whats important.
hard work is exactly that...HARD WORK, and its why people always gravitate to the "new" easy way out...which is not really going to help you much at all to begin with.
Regardless of your goals, you need to learn how to lift properly with the correct exercises. Sports, power lifting, body building or even physical jobs. Everyone needs to start out the same, how you branch out after that is up to you and your own goals.
And im not Mr. ****ing universe either, I still have a long way to go. But what I have done so far I have done naturally thanks to hard work, setting goals and just doing the simple basics. And I really believe anyone can gain like I did naturally, if they just train and teach themselves how to do it.
Its just like that old saying: You give a man a fish, and he will eat for the day. You teach a man to fish, and he will eat for a lifetime... So the points of this guide I hope will serve you for years and years of training and able to build a foundation for which you can build your dreams and goals out of.
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2.) Weight lifting So the most common misconception is this is the most important thing your doing. Wrong, that would be your diet. And most people think that your building muscle in the gym. Wrong. You do it outside the gym. Weight training is very important, but dont get so caught up in thinking that it is THE most important thing and let everything else slack...
it happens to a lot of people, dont let it happen to you!
This is going to be one of the most important things you learn though, proper lifting form in the weight room. This is the foundation for which all your future lifting and gains will take place. I can not stress this enough...
LEARN PROPER FORM BEFORE TRYING TO BE SUPERMAN...your going to hurt yourself.
The one book I must absolutely recommend is Starting strength by Mark rippetoe, this book will teach you how to perform each lift with proper biomechanics to your body structure. Obviously lots of people are lazy or poor, or both...so I will try to link video's showing or teaching proper form.
A.) Exercises (Big compounds you need to know) (I will edit with video's/links)
- Squat - this is the Mac daddy of all exercises, if your not squating I dont want to hear anyone whining about not gaining size/muscle/strength. Squats affect the entire body whether you know it or not. Yes while directly a lower body exercise, these release gobs of Growth Hormone into the body effecting everything. This is by far the most important exercise you will ever learn. Period.
- Intro to squat video
- Fixing Hip drive video
- Coaching 10 rep squats
- Deadlifts - Second to squat comes the deadlift, this is the second most important exercise you can learn. This is another monster compound that will pack on muscle faster then brittney spears can clean out a buffet. This also comes with risk, while the squat is technically harder in My opinion to get the form down, I feel it is much easier for people to injure themselves due to the mechanics of the lift. It is especially important to learn proper form for every single lift, but I would put the most emphasis on this one.
- Deadlift anatomy video
- Deadlift Set-up
- Cleans - There are many variations. Full cleans, power cleans, hang cleans...they are all amazing for developing power. This is probably the most technical lift for beginners to learn but the benefits are amazing.
- coaching cleans, jumping point
- Power clean Geometry
- Over head press - This used to be the pinnacle of upper body strength before bench press became popular. This is an extremely important lift for upper body strength, it also helps when you advance into other things such as Olympic lifts (clean and jerk/press) or push presses.
- Coaching Press
- Coaching press 2
- bench press - the new standard of upper body strength. great compound, but dont make the mistake of getting so caught up in bench pressing that you forget your other lifts. I cant tell you how many guys I see focus entirely on bench, and neglect their lower bodys. Even in sports, the bench press motion is rarely used. Perhaps most notably in football in a position where you need to push someone away from you. Regardless, its a strong and important upper body compound that you need to learn how to do properly.
- Bench press positioning
- Intro to bench explanation part 1
- Intro to bench explanation part 2
Now I will be editing to show links and video's. Again it is very important you learn the proper lifting techniques to those exercises as they are regarded by many as the core/backbone of your routines.
Compounds vs isolations this comes up a lot. Those exercises I listed above should be the bulk of any beginners routine. I would say every routine should be about 80% compounds 20% isolation's is an exceptable ratio for beginners. And the point is, your going to do isolation's anyway, so you might as well do them the right way.
Compounds are always the better way to go. The body was designed to work together, so why are you going to train it separately at the joints? We didnt evolve on the leg extension machine, we evolved by doing squat motions, lunging motions, running and jumping.
Again isolation's have their places like machines, but for the most part you shouldnt worry about isolations.
Assistance exercises Its almost the same thing as isolation's really, and isolation's tend to fall into this category. They are exercises you add in to assist you with your compound exercises.
for example, I am having trouble bench pressing and would like to add something at the end of my workouts to assist. Dips are a great choice. When it comes down to choosing assistance exercises choosing more compound oriented ones are a better idea.
you should keep your assistance exercises to about 2 sets 8-12 reps. you still want to progress but remember they are there to help your compounds, not to be focused on by themselves. I would keep them to 1-2 exercises excluding core work.
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Core work Im going to throw this in here as well. Core work is referred to as the midsection. Ab's/lower back, Adding in core work at the end of your workouts is fine as assistance exercises. Because your core needs to be strong, it can handle a lot. Just be aware that squating, deadlifitng and pressing heavy weight is going work your core amazingly. The first time I ever did a set of 20 rep squats, the next day my ab's were sore for the first time in a long time. So yes to answer any questions regarding lower back/ab work, its perfectly fine to throw 2-4 sets in at the end of your workouts.
B.) Routines This is the important part, the actual routine. This should be simple because there is one routine I think everyone should do as a beginner. After this you can sort of mix things up due to goals, but after this you should be pretty done with linear progression (ill get to that later) and you will need to switch things up...but for now we will stick to this one.
This is the routine outlined in Starting strength. It is a 3 day Full body program.
Major points to this program:
-Compound exercises
-Squating every day
-Increase weight every single workout. This is linear progression.
-Really focus on proper form
Workout is as follows:*
Workout A.)
Squats 3x5
Bench 3x5
Deadlift 1x5 (ramping sets)**
Workout B.)
Squats 3x5
OH press 3x5
Power cleans/Rows 3x5***
* This is not including warm up sets, warm up sets are extremely important and should always start with an empty bar. 2-3 warm up sets before you jump into working sets.
** Ramping sets are sort of pyramiding up in weight, so your going to start out with less weight and work your way up in weight to your working set of 1x5x225.
*** Either or can work, the program calls for P.cleans, but with it being a very technical exercise, an easier version can substitute rows in for the cleans.
The routine alternates each day. So lets say your doing monday, wednesday, friday... you would do
A,B,A
next week would be...
B,A,B
and repeat.
Now if you notice I did not list any core work or assistance exercises. They are not required but can be added in. I will list a bunch of isolation/assistance work I would find acceptable to add in at the end of the workouts as an example.
Pull ups
Chin ups
Dips
Rows (if your doing cleans in the routine)
Barbell curls
Lateral raises
push ups
Core work,
Decline sit ups
Leg raises
Swiss ball crunches
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Some things to note about your routine. -getting your form down is number one priority, please do not forget this.
-It is much better to start out light, then to go to heavy. You can always keep going up in weight. If you start to heavy you will end up stalling before you should and it creates big problems.
-Progression is the name of the game in weight lifting, and progressing every single workout is key here. Some lifts will progress faster and longer then others. In order of fastest and most progressive to least:
Deadlift > Squats > Bench > cleans > Oh press
Strength standard numbers chart for 1RM that is also the order in which your numbers will be strength wise.
-When this routine is over, and by over I mean You have stalled on ever lift and have not been able to progress up in weight for at least 2 weeks. Its time to deload.
Deloading is basically giving your body a chance to recover, there are a few ways to deload depending on how you handle it. You can take a week or 2 off completely from the gym. Or you can stay in the gym 2x a week, and keep the weight light.
I myself fall into the second category, I do much better coming back if I stay in the gym during deloading.
Now when I say stall...I mean you have tried for 2-3 weeks to increase your numbers. and have been genuinely stuck ob everything or nearly everything. Just because you stall on 1-2 things for one week does not mean you need to deload.
When coming back from deloading Beginners should repeat this program, changing assistance exercises and starting at a higher weight. You are still aiming to progress up in weight every workout, but this time your goal is to get higher then you did the first run through.
for example if your first time you started squating at 135x3x5 and ended at 225x3x5, the second time you will start at 245x3x5 and possibly aim to get 245-255x3x5. Just an example.
You should be able to run this program, depending on the person back to back for 6-9 months depending on how well you progress and plan, as well as eat and rest.
a.) Other routines These are other programs one can do, or can be designed to work for a beginner even up to intermediate/advanced. But please note, I HIGHLY recommend the above starting strength routine if you are a beginner or if you are still fairly new before you try any of these. I wont go into detail myself, just a basic description of it and a link for further interest.
HST (Hypertrophy specific training) - Just what the name says, it is aimed at hypertrophy. Its a fullbody routine where you break up every exercises workload over the week. For every cycle of HST, there are in itself 4 micro cycles typically broken up over 2 weeks each of 15 reps, 10 reps, 5 reps, 5 reps/negative reps.
Madcows/Bill starr intermediate 5x5 - a strength oriented program, and uses weekly linear progress to bump up your 5rm's. Similar in structure and design to something like texas method, this is something you can jump into if your more interested in increase your numbers. Dont make the mistake of thinking you cant get big on strength routines...because you can and will if...? your diet is in place and your eating over your daily calorie maintenance levels...yes good.
And while your here, take the time to check this out. This is Madcows training primer, similar to what im attempting to do (educate people) its a very good read and definately worth the time if your at all serious about progressing past the beginner stages. This is for anyone, not just beginners.
Training Primer c.) Progression As I said before, this is the important thing to remember while in the gym. This is how you will gain and gain in the future. While you wont progress linearly forever (infact it will probably end by the time your done with this routine)
Linear progression is simply progressing up in weight every workout. This is what every beginner should focus on because of "newbie" gains.
Thats basically all you need to know right now.
Periodization comes into play later on in your lifting career. instead of progressing every workout you progress every week, weeks/months... the longer you have been training, the longer it usually takes.
Also note that weight is just one aspect of progressing, as a beginner you want to focus on weight. But as you grow and go on to new routines, understand that things like reps, sets, tempo, rest time are all variables you can play with in order to progress if weight can no longer be increased.
-Frequency - Is often over looked by a lot of people, and I would like to point out that one of the reasons not only myself but many people recommend the above routine and full body routines in general is due to frequency. Frequency will allow you to hit the same muscle group several times a week, stimulating it and allowing it to adapt without giving it so much time as to un-adapt, think 5 day splits. Im not saying 5 day splits are bad, they can and some do have frequency. I just wanted to point out one of the major advantages to full body routines.
Also note your body does not need a full week to recover, you can train again in 48 hours and be fine. You do not need to be 100%, and if your following this you wont be...and thats ok. Your body adapts and can handle it.
D.) Over training This term gets thrown out way to often. And I will go ahead and say this, you will most likely never over train or even come close to over training.
Over training is really something you have to either plan for, or be extremely stupid for a very long time. It takes quite a while to over train. Your body and mind will give you warning signals if you are
Over reaching, which is what come before over training. It is more likely people will reach this stage without proper rest/deloading.
However, too many people, especially beginners confuse
D.O.M.S (delayed onset muscle soreness) or fatigue with over training.
Let me get into D.O.M.S while im here. This is going to happen whenever you do something the body is not accustomed too. However, if you keep up the frequency, your body WILL adapt to whatever your doing.
What does this mean? Dont skip squats because your so sore you cant sit down on the toilet, keep progressing and doing them and your body will adapt and get accustomed to the work load. If you do in fact skip them, your just going to allow D.O.M.S to re occur.
Fatigue will happen in a routine, proper rest and recover will help with this.
REST AND NUTRITION are HUUUUUGGGGGEEEEE...muscle is built where? thats correct, outside the gym.
So dont ever wonder if your over training, you will mentally be burned out from not just the gym but everything, insomnia, irritable, forgetfulness, basically feeling like you cant do anything... your body will let you know in some way or another if you were to infact over reach before ever getting close to over training.
Over training is also about your nervous system, its not really about your muscles...all though it may seem like it because thats what your lifting in the gym, its your CNS (Central Nervous System) that is controling everything. It can fatigue, and it will if you let it.
I dont want to scare anyone, because as a beginner even up to intermediate you really dont have to worry about it, However if you would like to read more about Over training, over reaching
you can read this 3.) Cardio This should be noted this is mostly a personal opinion section. You can achieve muscle building/fat loss without cardio...
However, it is my personal opinion to stay healthy in all aspects. So I tend to want to take care of my cardiovascular system as well as my muscular/skeletal.
Theres not much to get into with this section. I would not recommend running more then 10-12 miles a week while trying to build muscle.
I also prefer to recommend and do a more
HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) style of cardio.
an example of HIIT would be
Jog/walk for a 1:00
sprint for 30 seconds
Jog/walk for 1:00
Sprint for 30 seconds
etc...
done for as long as you desire. The variables can be changed. You can sprint/longer shorter, walk/jog longer/shorter. HIIT can also be done on bikes, rowing machines, elipticals, pretty much anything cardio related.
How does HIIT compare to a more steady pace type of cardio? Well, while you may run 3 miles at a jogging pace for 25 minutes. You could do HIIT for 10 minutes while sprinting/walking. So its sort of a trade off, do you want to run at a more comfortable pace for a longer duration. Or would you rather run smaller more intense periods, at a lower over all time?
You can go either way! the trick with cardio is, the body will adapt to cardio much faster then any program your doing with weights. So it is necisary to change things up every week or 2. Increase time, increase speed, change equipent, increase distance...etc. Theres a lot of things you can play with
When would be the optimal times to run?
well, you can run at any time, just be aware that your glycogen levels are lowest after you wake up in the morning and after your weight lifting session. Glycogen is basically what your using as energy before you turn to fat storage. So, doing cardio while your glycogen stores are the lowest will allow you to reach your fat storage faster for energy. This is something I think anyone should keep in mind regardless of a bulk or cut.
Also should be noted that while bulking, you are burning calories while doing cardio so naturally you will want to make up those lost calories in your diet.
a.) Tabata - Tabata is basically a cardio HIIT session with weights, and a pretty damn good workout. You may scoff at squating 45 lb's, but when its non stop for 20 seconds, with 10 seconds of rest back into 20 seconds, etc... repeat 8 times... it gets pretty tough, especially when you start upping the weight.
Tabata can used from nearly any weight exercise and used for cardiovascular purposes. Typically better used with compound movements of course. Squats, rows, bench are great choices for tabata.
4.) Nutrition This is perhaps the most important section, because without having a basic knowledge of this...your not going to get very far losing fat or building muscle.
You can be on the best mass building routine in the world, but if your not eating enough...you wont gain muscle.
The first thing you need to do before asking anyone any other questions is figure out approximately how many calories you should be eating a day. Everyone should know this number...To many times you see people asking a question, well im training real hard but im not gaining much muscle...or im not losing much fat or losing any at all...well, what the **** do you want us to do for you? If you are un willing to take the time to figure out something basic like that, then how can you expect to progress with anything?
Its the same thing with weights, you should know what your doing in the gym before you even get there.
Find out your daily caloric maintenance here (there are others out there so look around. Also remember that this is an estimate, but it should give you a good idea of what you need and give you enough to play around with)
Knowing your daily caloric maintenance number is very important. From here you can add calories, subtract calories or even stay at this level depending on your goals and needs. Thats why its so important, because you can regulate everything by adjusting this number.
More in depth guide to Bulking More in depth guide to Cutting Im not going to get into much details, as nutrition can get very very complex and complicated. Points I would like to get across however...
- Daily caloric maintenance number, important. Figure yours out.
- Fat is not bad, and is needed for many things but one that may serve as importance to most of you is testosterone production. Good fats like Monounsaturated (the best) Polyunstaurated, saturated (in moderation). Trans fat is man made, it is designed to increase shelf life and need to avoid at all costs. Watch for hydrogenated vegetable oils, and labels claiming 0 grams of trans fat. Theres a loop hole where manufactures can claim 0 grams per serving if the actual trans fat level is under a certain amount.
- Carbs are complicated. And a lot of people hear a lot of different things. Rather then to get into things too much. I will say Carbohydrates are necissary for the body to function and carry out many tasks. As a beginner never make the mistake of never eating carbs, it is unhealthy. Now, I will say staying away from high processed carbs like white bread/pasta is something you want to do. Also avoiding things high in sugar (sugar = carbs), High fructose corn syrup are all generally healthy idea's and something you should practice.
-Protein, (I will go into protein suppliments in the suppliment section) is necissary to build muscle. Again your going to hear a lot of answers. But generally if your within .5-1.5g per body weight, your fine. Something you will also want to keep in mind there are two types of protein, Whey and Casein. Whey is what you suppliment with shakes/bars, It absorbs quickly and doesnt take long to digest. Casein protein is slower, this is things like milk and dairy products. There are better times to take whey protein and visa-versa, ill get into that later.
Thats most of what I want to cover atm (besides links) here are a few other pointers just to throw out for beginners.
- Eat breakfast, every day...yes its that important
- Pre workout nutrition is just as important as post workout nutrition, dont neglect it
- You are going to cheat every now and then. Might as well accept it now so your nto beating yourself up about it.
- You have to eat more then your body needs to put on muscle. Theres just no other way around it, no magic. You have to eat to build muscle.
- It takes 3 weeks to form a habit. So start making concious decisions on healthy foods and watching your numbers for 3 weeks and you will get accustomed to it.
- Carbs before bed, might want to go easy on them or cut them out 3-4 hours before bed.
-before bed a meal or snack high in protein and good fats is optimal and important. It will help curve hunger over the night and fuel your body longer while your fasting (sleeping)
ack...editing...still need to finish everything.
<message edited by Nm0ney34 on Saturday, September 05, 2009 7:35 PM>