Beginner. Some questions about some basics

[markcubed]

Sup guys,
I'm new to these parts and I have been reading as much as I can for the past month. I have been putting in consistent efforts at the gym, and made some major changes to my diet.

My goal is to lose some fat and build some muscle. I'm currently ~195lb (88ish kg) and 19 years old. I just jumped straight into my routine about two months ago, figuring I would learn as I go. The more I read, the more I am trying to fine tune my gym routine, my diet and supplement intake. Because I know basically nothing in any of these categories, I thought I would ask some questions here hoping for some help.

Currently I am going to the gym 4-5 days a week on average. I spend at least an hour there, but no more than two hours. On average about an hour and a half. I have been trying to cut this down though by changing exercises quicker, focusing on different parts of the body on different days, etc. Initially, and still now to a good degree, I lack a good and effective workout routine - something I hope people could shed some light on.

Most of what I do at the moment I have just observed others at the gym doing. I am hoping to put together something more rigid.

-> 10 minutes of rowing - always at the start of my gym session. It?s slightly over 2500m.
-> 20 minutes of running - normally at the end of my workout. I normally run at 8-10km for that duration.
-> Bench press, Incline dumbbell bench press, seated cable row, dumbbell seated shoulder press, dumbbell seated lateral raise, assisted pull up, lat pull down (sometimes using the triangle handle, sometimes with the normal bar, sometimes I also use the normal bar with a reverse grip), bicep curl, alternating dumbbell curl (with twist), triceps pushdown, leg curl, leg press.

No doubt I left some things out, and I don't do everything every day. I realising that i'm neglecting parts of my body, something i'm trying to improve upon. I have a few questions;

1) How many days a week should I be going to the gym a week?

2) How long should I spend per session?

3) Does anyone know of a good workout that could suit my needs (I know to a certain degree that everybody is different, and takes some playing around)?

4) Should I be doing a constant workout, or focus on different regions on different days (chest, legs, arms, etc)?

5) Sometimes I read that doing cardio is somewhat counter-productive. Is this true?

I have been up till now, using GNC protein (mega isolate), and GNC creatine (not mono, some formula). I know, lesson learned. I also have been taking a good multivitamin. I?ve been having one serving of protein in the morning when I wake up, with my multi. On gym days, I would have a serving of creatine pre-workout, and two servings of protein post-workout.

I've just received an order from bb.com with the following;

-> Controlled Labs White Flood
-> Controlled Labs Green MAGnitude (x 2)
-> Prolab Creatine
-> AST Multi Pro 32X
-> ON 100% Gold Whey

I had planned on using them somewhat similar to my current routine. One serving of protein in the morning with my multivitamin. On gym days I would use White Flood pre-workout, and two servings of protein with Green MAG post-workout. On off days, I would use the mono sometime during the day.

6) Can anyone tell me how I should be taking these supplements? Am I close? I ordered the mono for off days (is that a good idea?)

7) Should I take the Green MAG and White Flood together?

8) Do I need to cycle these supplements?

I am really trying hard to create a good clean diet, because I know it's imperative to success.

Thanks alot guys! I know I asked alot of questions, so any information or links would be much appreciated.

[bigbeezy]

Sup guys,
I'm new to these parts and I have been reading as much as I can for the past month. I have been putting in consistent efforts at the gym, and made some major changes to my diet.

My goal is to lose some fat and build some muscle. I'm currently ~195lb (88ish kg) and 19 years old. I just jumped straight into my routine about two months ago, figuring I would learn as I go. The more I read, the more I am trying to fine tune my gym routine, my diet and supplement intake. Because I know basically nothing in any of these categories, I thought I would ask some questions here hoping for some help.

Currently I am going to the gym 4-5 days a week on average. I spend at least an hour there, but no more than two hours. On average about an hour and a half. I have been trying to cut this down though by changing exercises quicker, focusing on different parts of the body on different days, etc. Initially, and still now to a good degree, I lack a good and effective workout routine - something I hope people could shed some light on.

Most of what I do at the moment I have just observed others at the gym doing. I am hoping to put together something more rigid.

-> 10 minutes of rowing - always at the start of my gym session. It?s slightly over 2500m.
-> 20 minutes of running - normally at the end of my workout. I normally run at 8-10km for that duration.
-> Bench press, Incline dumbbell bench press, seated cable row, dumbbell seated shoulder press, dumbbell seated lateral raise, assisted pull up, lat pull down (sometimes using the triangle handle, sometimes with the normal bar, sometimes I also use the normal bar with a reverse grip), bicep curl, alternating dumbbell curl (with twist), triceps pushdown, leg curl, leg press.

No doubt I left some things out, and I don't do everything every day. I realising that i'm neglecting parts of my body, something i'm trying to improve upon. I have a few questions;

1) How many days a week should I be going to the gym a week?

2) How long should I spend per session?

3) Does anyone know of a good workout that could suit my needs (I know to a certain degree that everybody is different, and takes some playing around)?

4) Should I be doing a constant workout, or focus on different regions on different days (chest, legs, arms, etc)?

5) Sometimes I read that doing cardio is somewhat counter-productive. Is this true?

I have been up till now, using GNC protein (mega isolate), and GNC creatine (not mono, some formula). I know, lesson learned. I also have been taking a good multivitamin. I?ve been having one serving of protein in the morning when I wake up, with my multi. On gym days, I would have a serving of creatine pre-workout, and two servings of protein post-workout.

I've just received an order from bb.com with the following;

-> Controlled Labs White Flood
-> Controlled Labs Green MAGnitude (x 2)
-> Prolab Creatine
-> AST Multi Pro 32X
-> ON 100% Gold Whey

I had planned on using them somewhat similar to my current routine. One serving of protein in the morning with my multivitamin. On gym days I would use White Flood pre-workout, and two servings of protein with Green MAG post-workout. On off days, I would use the mono sometime during the day.

6) Can anyone tell me how I should be taking these supplements? Am I close? I ordered the mono for off days (is that a good idea?)

7) Should I take the Green MAG and White Flood together?

8) Do I need to cycle these supplements?

I am really trying hard to create a good clean diet, because I know it's imperative to success.

Thanks alot guys! I know I asked alot of questions, so any information or links would be much appreciated.

Yo whats up, let me try and help

1) no more than 4 days a week
2) high intensity, no more than one hour, usually about 50 minutes
3)http://www.geocities.com/elitemadcow...Linear_5x5.htm, if you follow this workout strictly and eat good, you will gain lots of weight.
4) read above link
5) intense cardio, is going to burn lots of calores, while bulking, i would walk maybe 20 minutes 3 times a week on treadmill
6) creatine before workout, protein shake before bed and post workout,
7) yes
8) not the protein, but yes to the others

diet is the key, if you lift hard and eat right you will get big

[ryanthestark]

k ill try to get everything, no guarantees tho.

1)Personal thing, switch to a good beginer strength training program that emphasizes full body w/o's and mostly compounds, cause honestly ur routine is pretty bad (my first was worse tho). Check out ripptoes, seems to be the universal noob routine.
2)45-1hr, some will say longer is ok but quick in and out works great for me and keeps catabolism down after u run outta fuel, drop the rowing and running, save it for cutting and just work on building muscle for now.
3)ripptoe's starting strength, great place to get the basics down. If ur not squatting and deadlifting ur not working.
4)fullbody should be a good place to start.
5)Kinda, cardio is mainly for increasing a caloric deficit in a cut, to lose bf. If ur trying to mainly build muscle, then ur just wasting energy stores when doing cardio. U can bulk and cut at the same time, but the diet manipulation required to do it is beyond ur grasp (and mine), so start bulking, cut when u have some muscle.
6)lol, spend a little more time in the supps section then over here dontcha? Good choices tho, did a little reading I can see. The mono is good off days, I actually like it all the time and just stick with it over more expensive creatines. U should take a scoop of whey both pre w/o as well, immediatly before. I'd toss a little fishoil in the mix (cheap at costco or sale at local pharmacy/grocery store) just to round off ur basics stack.
7)I dont see any reason why not, no problems i can see.
8)eh, creatine is reccommended but not really necessary, i'd follow the instructions on white flood, might build up a little tolerance, especially if it has caffeine (not sure).

Summary: Get on ripptoes or something similar, supps look good add some fishoil, get ur a*s over to the nutrition section, thats gonna make more of a difference than all this bs (it is important too tho)

[markcubed]

bigbeezy, ryanthestark;

cheers for the responses!

[Anvilsmith]

All that running at the end of your workouts seems like it's going to lay waste to your already nutrient-depleted muscles. I'm not a cardio expert by any means, but perhaps you ought to look into it further.

Diet is a lot more important than supplements. If you're not lactose intolerant or suffering from magnesium deficiencies, I wholeheartedly recommend milk - I take a liter or two every day.

1 and 2) depend a lot on the volume and intensity of work you perform every week/session, how much cardio you do during the session and how long your breaks between sets/exercises last. You can work out seven days a week for months on end without breaking a sweat if you're doing a different muscle group each session and using light weights. As for full-body workouts, they usually take 3 or 4 days a week.

3) It depends if you want to get big in the long term or the short term. Many people on these boards advise that you take up a strength program like Rippetoe's Starting Strength or Westside for Skinny Bastards. Rippetoe's is simple and rigid. You learn how to develop good form and add a lot of weight to the bar on a small set of crucial lifts. Westside lets you customize a lot of things, so you'll have a greater variety of exercises, but might not master their technique. Then there's HST (hypertrophy specific training), which has gotten a lot of praise as a hypertrophy program - good for adding muscle, though it might not get you the same results strength-wise as Rippetoe's or Westside.

Bigbeezy recommended Bill Starr's 5x5, which is a great program developed specifically for intermediare lifters. If you're still a beginner, don't bother with it for now.

4) By "constant" workout, you must mean a full-body workout. Full-body workouts aren't usually constant, in that you still do different exercises on different days. These workouts typically use a lot of compound exercises. Whether you do full-body workouts or splits is up to you, though from my understanding, you're going to benefit more from full-body workouts at this stage.

5) I've heard that as well. I try to avoid heavy cardio, though I do sprint, jog and walk a lot as part of my daily activities.

I don't take supplements, so I can't answer the rest of your questions.