New to the gym

[reevoalex]

Hey guys, so I'm 16, I weigh 190 at the moment. I've recently lost 15 pounds of body fat, and I just got a gym membership. I was wondering if anyone could give me some tips on what type of workouts to do to maximize weight loss and ultimately gain muscle. Yesterday was my first day at the gym and I hit the treadmill for about 40 minutes, and did some bench presses. My goal is to lose weight while gaining muscle. Any tips?

[gmckinney]

Does your school have a strength and conditioning program or a coach that trains athletes? If so talk to him. If he's a decent he hour be able o show you a program and proper form.

[Bequi]

YEY!!! good for you! You are young so I wld start with a basic program hitting each muscle group 1x/ wk

so...maybe something like
Chest
Legs
Back
Arms
Shoulders

Compound movements use the most muscle and burn the most calories so your standards are Bench Press, squats, deads, DB shoulder Press, Wide grip pulldowns, barbell rows
Use free weights to recruit stabilizer muscles (core) and make sure you ask professionals at the gym about proper form if you're not sure. Don't ever feel embarrassed to ask for help or to start light. We were ALL beginners once and it much more foolish to guess or lift weight that is too heavy.
BB.com has great articles on training programs. Find one and start there. throw in some cardio after your weight training and learn what you can about proper diet and nutrition.
"the best part about the future is that it comes one day at a time"~ Abe Lincoln.
keep at it, learn and grow. Since you are starting so young you are a step ahead of most of us!!! Good luck with your training and feel free to PM with any questions!!

[reevoalex]

YEY!!! good for you! You are young so I wld start with a basic program hitting each muscle group 1x/ wk

so...maybe something like
Chest
Legs
Back
Arms
Shoulders

Compound movements use the most muscle and burn the most calories so your standards are Bench Press, squats, deads, DB shoulder Press, Wide grip pulldowns, barbell rows
Use free weights to recruit stabilizer muscles (core) and make sure you ask professionals at the gym about proper form if you're not sure. Don't ever feel embarrassed to ask for help or to start light. We were ALL beginners once and it much more foolish to guess or lift weight that is too heavy.
BB.com has great articles on training programs. Find one and start there. throw in some cardio after your weight training and learn what you can about proper diet and nutrition.
"the best part about the future is that it comes one day at a time"~ Abe Lincoln.
keep at it, learn and grow. Since you are starting so young you are a step ahead of most of us!!! Good luck with your training and feel free to PM with any questions!!

Thanks for the info and the people there are pretty friendly. Some guys in the weight room gave me some advice as they noticed I was new. I saw a forum post that said only do weight training workouts 3 times a week, but do cardio everyday for weight loss, I might just do that.

[gmckinney]

There are so many variations and programs. Read lot of posts and look at the sections with workouts. Also look n the teenage body building forum. At your age focus on diet and getting a good program down. I would seriously look for someone in he gym, maybe a GOOD trainer, to get you started.

[MikeUK999]

cant lose fat and build muscle

[DrJKiel]

Hey guys, so I'm 16, I weigh 190 at the moment. I've recently lost 15 pounds of body fat, and I just got a gym membership. I was wondering if anyone could give me some tips on what type of workouts to do to maximize weight loss and ultimately gain muscle. Yesterday was my first day at the gym and I hit the treadmill for about 40 minutes, and did some bench presses. My goal is to lose weight while gaining muscle. Any tips?

Check out starting strength or 5x5 for muscle gains. For weight loss, you would have to do soemthing more cardio oriented. You really have to pick one or the other, weight loss while gaining muscle is very difficult to accomplish and unrealistic.

[reevoalex]

Check out starting strength or 5x5 for muscle gains. For weight loss, you would have to do soemthing more cardio oriented. You really have to pick one or the other, weight loss while gaining muscle is very difficult to accomplish and unrealistic.

I see, well thanks. Does this mean I shouldn't be lifting at all while losing weight via cardio?

[Dread0124]

cant lose fat and build muscle

Tell that to my buddy who started at 230 and is now 209 with +30lbs to his bench.

[GeneralSerpant]

I see, well thanks. Does this mean I shouldn't be lifting at all while losing weight via cardio?

Actually lifting weights is a great way to lose fat. For most anybody, you can lose weight whether you choose to do cardiovascular exercise exclusively or weight training exclusively, but not as many people can lose weight easily doing both. The key is to only do as much work as your body can proficiently recover from as a result of your rest time. Don't take this to mean that you shouldn't work hard, for two reasons:

1- You are young and your age group has spectacular recovery abilities.

2- What I mean by cardiovascular and weight-training together, is that both of them train different energy systems of your body.

Again, at your age it doesn't really matter, so you can workout like a horse probably. It is a good idea to give yourself at least a day of rest between your weights. Don't feel obligated to do cardiovascular every day if you don't feel up to it. Cardiovascular becomes much easier when you lose weight, and it promotes agility and longevity, while weight-training promotes resistance strength and durability. Weight-loss is common between them, and will eventually be more dependent on your diet.

[Rfurey1]

You are so new to working out, and you are young.... So when you start weight training your body will respond positively with increase muscle mass. Having larger muscles requires more energy throughout the day to keep them working this burning more calories, cardio workouts are fine as well but it doesn't have the same carry over affect as having muscle hypertrophy.
Diet is so important, because you are what you eat, and you can't out train a crappy diet.
Rest is often over looked, get your 8 hours sleep in, and have off days for your muscles to grow
As far as what type of routine find a beginners type of routine to build a solid foundation... Don't worry about the fancy stuff, it is fun to have variety but don't look to those and shun good solid basics, learn how to perform each exercise correctly, bad form equals injuries, and disappointing results.
My favorite foundation building exercises are
Barbell bench
Barbell bent over rows
Shoulder presses
Dips
Dead lifts
Squats
Hanging abdominal leg raises
Crunches
Planks
For Smaller muscles
Curls
Tricep Extensions
Calf raises
Toes raises
Forearm curls n reverse curls
Rear, front and lateral raises
So if you eat right, train right, get enough rest you will gain muscle, and shed fat... Don't worry about the scale and weight loss so much go by how you look... But because you are new to this you can achieve both. But there will come a time when trying to continue adding muscle while dropping BF will be extremely difficult, and like many here will have to cycle there routine to get the results they want

[reevoalex]

Thanks for the responses guys ! these forums seem really supportive and have a ton of information for new people like myself.