Beginners Guide -- For Everyone Getting Started With BodyBuilding

[Pace]

Beginners Guide To BodyBuilding




I see alot of newbies everyday asking alot of questions about what they need to do when it comes to Diet, Weight Training, Cardio, and Supplements.

To start you need to sit down relax and write out on paper what your goals are:

Do you want to get healthy?
Do you want to lose weight?
Do you want to gain weight?
Do you want to get more cut and vascular?
ETC....


Make sure it is a realistic goal, if it is not you will be nothing but stressed out when that time comes that your supposed to meet that criteria and you dont. Make a goal that is realistic: 25lbs of pure muscle in 2 weeks is a great example of something that will not happen.


Diet:

Diet is what I believe is the most important factor to training. The way you eat shows up on your body. If you eat fatty, high carb foods your going to be out of shape, possibly obese. If you eat Lean proteins, good complex carbs, good fats, etc you will see a lean inshape person, who in most cases is very healthy.


A good place to start:

Lean Proteins - Most lean protein is found in fish, chicken, some steak, etc.
Complex Carbs - Oats, potatoes, brown rice, veggies, etc.
Good Fats - Moderate amounts of peanut butter, nuts, oils, etc.

Protein is probably the most imoprtant, make sure you consume atleast your BodyWeight when it comes to Grams of Protein, 1.5 or 2 times is even better.
Example: if you weight 200lbs and you wanted to take your BW in protein you would consume 200x1= 200g Protein or 2 times BW 200x2= 400g Protein.

Make sure you consume a decent amount of calories as well, if you do not eat enough your body will not reach its full potential. If your trying to lose weight and you do not enough your body will end up going into starvation mode, and this means you do not lose weight.

More Info: http://johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/7habits.htm


Weight Training:

Obvioulsy this is very important, if you are just starting you need to focus on basics:

I suggest a Full Body Workout: 2-3 sets 10-12 reps

Start with Option 1 & alternate with Option 2.


Option 1

squats
leg curls
flat BB bench press
bent over BB rows
seated DB shoulder press
lat pulldowns
DB curls
triceps rope pushdowns
calf raises


Option 2

deadlifts
leg press
incline bench press
DB rows
standing BB shoulder press
pullups
close-grip bench press
hammer curls
abs

More Info: http://www.bsu.edu/webapps2/strengthlab/home.htm


Cardio:

A very important factor to weight loss and keeping fat off when bulking. If you are trying to lose weight I suggest 3-5 days (30-60min sessions) a week of cardio. start slow and than work your way up. If your bulking you do not not to do cardio but if you want to keep some fat off than 2-3 days of cardio would be fine. Alot of people do not perform and kind of cardio when bulking because cardio has the ability to burn muscle. This is also why diet is very important as stated above, it helps keep muscle and it helps keep and/or get you lean.


Supplements:

Supplements are usualy what people focus on way to much, thats why I left this for the end. This is all you need, everything else you use should be added for an extra boost or for motivation. I realize that when I try something new I tend to lift and work harder, It gets me motivated.

All you need:

Whey (protein)
Multi Vitamin
Flax Seed
Fish Oil


If you realy have an erge to try something else and than you can give No2 Or Creatine a try. I say give your body some time to get used to your everyday diet and workout and than consider using these 2.


I hope this helps you reach your goals. Best of luck.




PACE

[Pace]

^^^^

[sloshy]

Hmmm... I like. should be in the stickies

[Madcow2]

The one thing that I would really stress is that people don't seem to realize that you can eat the healthiest zen food on the planet and not put on an ounce of muscle if you don't eat enough of it. More people, particularly BBers, screw this up than anything else as they are more worried about trace mineral intake and whacked out supplements than providing their body with enough food to grow.

So many guys on these boards wonder why they didn't gain any muscle from a given program. You go on to ask about their bodyfat level - which is generally not very high meaning that their current diet did not provide anything very significant in the way of excess intake (otherwise they'd be fatter as this is where excess calories go regardless of whether they are clean (pure organic brown rice) or McDonalds). Then you ask about weight gain from the program - pure weight fat or muscle. They tell you they didn't gain anything.

Hmmm - no weight gain at all either fat or muscle means no caloric excess present. You can't gain muscle eating at the margin to maintain your current existance (unless you decrease activity level and expenditure). If their training sucked, they'd have at least gained fat. If their training was good, they'd have gained a good proportion of muscle (i.e. holding bodyfat constant requires fat and muscle to be gained in ratio - very hard for a lean person to lose bodyfat and gain muscle and certainly not efficient in either manner).

What you have is a person totally hamstringing their efforts to gain muscle by simply not feeding themselves enough. They could eat a perfect puritan diet but it won't mean a thing if their goal was to gain muscle. A guy could eat McDonalds 5x a day, pretty unhealthy but if he eats enough, he will get bigger and put on muscle. So you can get big and strong on any reasonable diet, and I've seen a number of people do it eating pretty damn ****ty and treating their body poorly. The key is eating enough. If it's healthy, all that much better.

That said, healthier diets tend to have less fats and sugars which make them less calorically dense. These means that people will need to consume a greater volume for the same number of calories. People often start new programs and eat the same amount (volume) but substitute healthier foods - which basically lowers their caloric intake. Generally these people have to eat more. This is particularly an issue for people with high caloric requirements (very active and/or very fast metabolism) - it makes it worse if they don't have big appetites and can't consume the amount of food required.

Another point is that as one gains more muscle, base caloric requirements increase. Consumption must increase in line to maintain or provide for excess.

[OrangeNBlack]

here's another thing i think that does not get stressed enough..especially in the supp forum..

ATTENTION NOOBS:

I hear all the time about peole putting down certain training programs and schemes. I hear all the time in the gym from noobs about how "doing 4 sets of 4 is better than doing 3 sets of 8" or whatever the dumb ass argument would be. Or how one creatine is better than another or how one protien is better than another.

NONE OF THIS MATTERS!!!!!!

For noobs, any kind of workout routine is going to work. Everyone in the exercise forum is looking for that one awesome, end all routine that will make them huge. ITS NOT OUT THERE!!!! Any routine will help you out. You can throw together an logical workout and it will make you grow. Here's why.

Noobs who are just starting weight lifting are going to repsond to any kind of stress it's muscle are put under. Every thing works. Thats the problem. There is no exact science in weight lifting (well, ok...technically there is) but there is no exact formula to make you huge.

You can buy all the supps you want and stock up on creatine, glutamine and protien but if you don't eat right and train hard. NONE OF IT MATTERS!!!!

You give me a guy with no money to spend on supps but who will bust his ass in the gym and eats his ass off and sleep enough at night and i'll put him against any kid that has all of mommy and daddys money to spend on the latest and greatest from MuscleTech.


sorry for the rant...i'll rant some more later..but i gotta go eat now...EAT!!!!!

[Pace]

Bump

[tommo]

here's another thing i think that does not get stressed enough..especially in the supp forum..

ATTENTION NOOBS:

I hear all the time about peole putting down certain training programs and schemes. I hear all the time in the gym from noobs about how "doing 4 sets of 4 is better than doing 3 sets of 8" or whatever the dumb ass argument would be. Or how one creatine is better than another or how one protien is better than another.

NONE OF THIS MATTERS!!!!!!

For noobs, any kind of workout routine is going to work. Everyone in the exercise forum is looking for that one awesome, end all routine that will make them huge. ITS NOT OUT THERE!!!! Any routine will help you out. You can throw together an logical workout and it will make you grow. Here's why.

Noobs who are just starting weight lifting are going to repsond to any kind of stress it's muscle are put under. Every thing works. Thats the problem. There is no exact science in weight lifting (well, ok...technically there is) but there is no exact formula to make you huge.

You can buy all the supps you want and stock up on creatine, glutamine and protien but if you don't eat right and train hard. NONE OF IT MATTERS!!!!

You give me a guy with no money to spend on supps but who will bust his ass in the gym and eats his ass off and sleep enough at night and i'll put him against any kid that has all of mommy and daddys money to spend on the latest and greatest from MuscleTech.


sorry for the rant...i'll rant some more later..but i gotta go eat now...EAT!!!!!

I agree with the supps & money... but people new to bodybuilding need a solid training program to start out... not just "anything"... sure you'll see gains, but why does it matter if someone who is new has a decent program ? Or an understanding of what sets / reps they are lifting effects different training outcomes. Not very good logic to undertake anything without an idea of whats going on.....

[9cyclops9]

I agree. I hear people say "you'll gain on pretty much anything as a newbie," but why settle for that? Why not choose an effective program as a newbie to maximize those newbie gains?

[Pace]

I agree. I hear people say "you'll gain on pretty much anything as a newbie," but why settle for that? Why not choose an effective program as a newbie to maximize those "newbie gains?"

Well thats why I provided the info

[9cyclops9]

Well thats why I provided the info

Exactly.

[DamnImBig]

Diet is by far the hardest part to building muscle and not getting fat as **** in the process.

[OrangeNBlack]

I agree. I hear people say "you'll gain on pretty much anything as a newbie," but why settle for that? Why not choose an effective program as a newbie to maximize those newbie gains?

oh don't get me wrong. having a proper program is great. i just hang out in the exercise forum alot and all i see are people looking for that one awesome program. and i think noobs need to know that not one program will get you huge. doing arnolds program that was in FLEX magazine won't get you huge. make up your own program stick with it for 3 mos and then change it up

[Pace]

Pump

[Pace]

Exactly.

[ngates0516]

when do you suggest taking whey protein, mulitvitamins, and fish oil?

[Pace]

when do you suggest taking whey protein, mulitvitamins, and fish oil?

I suggest using whey throughout the day, make sure you use it after your workout as well. Sometimes I use whey before and after workout, find out what works best for you. Multi I take mornings, and fish or flax i take moenings and sometimes before or after my workout; for joint reasons.

The trick is take in as much protein as you can.

[tommo]

I suggest using whey throughout the day, make sure you use it after your workout as well. Sometimes I use whey before and after workout, find out what works best for you. Multi I take mornings, and fish or flax i take moenings and sometimes before or after my workout; for joint reasons.

The trick is take in as much protein as you can.

I think you're wrong there. You dont need whey all through the day.... and protein is important but so are carbs.... I only have 1 protein shake a day if that, I supp with BCAA after training and make sure I get some carbs shortly after... I have tried both ways, and the only difference is the amount of money you spend on protein. If anything I think it over-loads your body.

[tommo]

By the way you do store excess protein as fat. :>
1 gram of protein = 4 cal
1 gram of carbs = 4 cal

Everyone gets suckered into these companies crap about needing protein shakes all day every day.

[Madcow2]

By the way you do store excess protein as fat. :>
1 gram of protein = 4 cal
1 gram of carbs = 4 cal

Everyone gets suckered into these companies crap about needing protein shakes all day every day.

I'm not a diet expert but the conversion of protein to usable energy then to fat storage takes a bit out of it. From what I recall it was something like 50% to energy (start with 4 cals now 2 cals left) then another 50% to fat (2 cals now 1 cal left). So the idea would be for every 1 gram of protein you overeat, you wind up storing only 25% or 1 calorie as fat - I'd also guess this is one reason why higher frequency protein intake keeps metabolism runing fairly high. Carbs are a lot easier and fat itself at 9 cals per gram takes little energy to mobilize and store. This is my understanding anyway.

To be honest though, good training + adequate caloric intake and a reasonably balanced diet is the key. Too many people sweat these little 1-2% nuances and have attrocious training programs and even worse want to gain muscle but don't eat enough. Learn to squat, dead, row, and press properly and then focus on getting better systematically at these exercises while eating in line with weight gain or fat loss depending on the objective.

[tommo]

Its not just the conversion to fat that is just a problem. Those figures that you wrote are for when you are requiring protein, not for an excess of protein. However it does take more calories and time to turn protein into fat but to my understanding its not significant.

high protein diets increase excretion of calcium.
causes dehydration, water is taken from the body to dilute the nitrogen waste from protein.
adds stress to the kidneys.

[9cyclops9]

Its not just the conversion to fat that is just a problem. Those figures that you wrote are for when you are requiring protein, not for an excess of protein. However it does take more calories and time to turn protein into fat but to my understanding its not significant.

high protein diets increase excretion of calcium.
causes dehydration, water is taken from the body to dilute the nitrogen waste from protein.
adds stress to the kidneys.

Let's see some sources on that statement.

[tommo]

Let's see some sources on that statement.

here is a start......

http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/article...&artid=1169452

[9cyclops9]

here is a start......

http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/article...&artid=1169452

That study is on a particular type of high protein diet, namely, a low-carb, high protein diet such as Atkins. Well no **** those are bad for you. How about a study on a high protein diet rich in fruits, vegetables, complex carbs, and healthy fats? Ya know, the kind of diet most people on this site actually follow (or should anyway) rather than an extreme.

[tommo]

That study is on a particular type of high protein diet, namely, a low-carb, high protein diet such as Atkins. Well no **** those are bad for you. How about a study on a high protein diet rich in fruits, vegetables, complex carbs, and healthy fats? Ya know, the kind of diet most people on this site actually follow (or should anyway) rather than an extreme.

i said its a start, calm down mate. I will get your info.
no need to get all excited.
Errr and besides, say for example the atkins diet was based on Fats and fruits as well. lol. And my argument was that you dont need to consume excess amounts of protein as you must do as your getting all @#$ over it
You might recall I said protein is important.

[tommo]

That study is on a particular type of high protein diet, namely, a low-carb, high protein diet such as Atkins. Well no **** those are bad for you. How about a study on a high protein diet rich in fruits, vegetables, complex carbs, and healthy fats? Ya know, the kind of diet most people on this site actually follow (or should anyway) rather than an extreme.

...........High intestinal calcium absorption can raise the load of filtered calcium presented to the renal tubules. The reabsorption of filtered calcium by the renal tubules may also be reduced. Either mechanism can increase urinary calcium level, which can be further increased by glucose or sucrose loads (29), high sodium intake (30), and a high-protein diet.............

I can give you the full report if you want... its a report on kidney stones..... quite boring but points out the high-protein and calcium factor.

[9cyclops9]

Who's getting excited?

High amounts of protein have been shown to be very beneficial for health and body composition. Dr. John Berardi, Dr. Lonnie Lowery, and Dave Barr have all published articles based on extensive research showing the benefits of high protein diets. Dr. Berardi in particular. He has an article (I'll try to find it if you'd like) that discusses "need vs. optimization" as it applies to protein intake. He argues that while meeting your protein needs is fine, it is optimal to overeat protein because of the benefits it provides.

[tommo]

more coming....

[tommo]

Who's getting excited?

High amounts of protein have been shown to be very beneficial for health and body composition. Dr. John Berardi, Dr. Lonnie Lowery, and Dave Barr have all published articles based on extensive research showing the benefits of high protein diets. Dr. Berardi in particular. He has an article (I'll try to find it if you'd like) that discusses "need vs. optimization" as it applies to protein intake. He argues that while meeting your protein needs is fine, it is optimal to overeat protein because of the benefits it provides.

well post it... Im just posting the facts...
you doing the same ?

[9cyclops9]

...........High intestinal calcium absorption can raise the load of filtered calcium presented to the renal tubules. The reabsorption of filtered calcium by the renal tubules may also be reduced. Either mechanism can increase urinary calcium level, which can be further increased by glucose or sucrose loads (29), high sodium intake (30), and a high-protein diet.............

I can give you the full report if you want... its a report on kidney stones..... quite boring but points out the high-protein and calcium factor.

And I can show you a report that says the calcium "deficiency" caused by a high-protein diet can easily be fixed by simply drinking a glass of milk per day. We can both cite as many articles as we like to back our point, but in the end it's all going to boil down to "which side of the argument do you choose to believe?" Personally, I'll take the high protein side. It works well for me.

[9cyclops9]

well post it... Im just posting the facts...
you doing the same ?

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do...ydra?id=460708

Of course I am.