Go back 10-20 years...

[Dragger]

I'm 28 and just now picked up weight lifting 2 months ago after years of endurance training in the Army and for motorcycle racing.

Question for the vetrans, if you could go back 10-20-30 years or for as long as you've been at it and had it all to do again what would you do different? I'm thinking long term and would like to learn your lessons about injury avoidance, gains, etc... I'm really looking for strength while maintaing my endurance, some parts of me need building like my skinny forarms and no traps/lats.

[Spitfire-1]

1.warm up.....i wish i had, before legs espesially, i do now but they give me jip from time to time.
2.eat and rest....the magic happens when your not in the gym. So fuel your body correctly
3.Use suppliments wisely......weight gain powders/proteins/multivits etc
4. don't by wonder pills!.....all these dumb steroid alternatives. They don't work, which is why they use terms like MAY or COULD, and don't use terms like ...."WILL" make you grow.
5.Don't over train......More does not mean bigger in this game!
6.Form.....do not use weight you can't handle. The growth is stimulated through overload of intensity, not weight.
7.Enjoy your time in the gym....don't worry about how much the guy next to you is doing. Just keep trying to better yourself for yourself.

thats about it ! ......

[John Prophet]

1) dont be an idiot..be a pro....in other words dont rush into the gym, running late, then just start slapping plates on and throwing weight around. That is what amateurs do and they generally suck and end up with all sorts of nagging injuries. Take your time, plan it out beforehand, warm up in some methodical manner.

2) dont let bodyfat creep up...maybe around 15% should be the HIGHEST you allow it to go. My biggest mistake has always been the mentality of "I can always cut later, I dont want to cut now since I am making good gains"......and you just end up with over 20% bodyfat and no one respects you at all.

I am personally sick and tired of guys who weigh 50 lbs LESS than me getting all the "oohs and aahs", lol. Yes, for all of the hard work I have put into this I do want some respect...but I am not getting it, mainly because I allowed my bodyfat to get too high.

Looking back, would I have REALLY been any shorter on muscle mass if I had taken 6-12 months to focus on losing the bodyfat?? I seriously doubt it.

3) dont ignore weak points...calmly and systematically attack them

[msfitnetz]

I would have started when I really wanted and NOT listened to stereotype, "Girls CANNOT lift!! My heroes: Carla, Cory, Rachel, Bev etc were Damn it!!

[Fishhawk]

One thing I wish someone had told me was to spend more time with compound movements and less time with isolation movements. I waisted a lot of years spinning my wheels wondering why I wasn't getting bigger or stronger.

[johnnyironboard]

if you could go back 10-20-30 years or for as long as you've been at it and had it all to do again what would you do different?

1. Embrace a low carb diet.

2. Narrow my bench grip-wider got me stronger and hurter.

3. Concentrate on higher intensity shorter duration cardio.

4. Not run- two broken bones in my foot would have been saved.

That is what I would have done differently. No. 1 is so far in front the others really don't matter to me.

[lukamar]

10 years ago I was in much better shape than I am now after my accedent......but.....

1:- I wish i had of spent more time on a decent diet with more protein..

2:- Start - work 45 min - done. Wish I had of known that.

3:- Do more cardio - (I'm still learning that one)

4:- Be smart enough not to hurt yourself doing something stupid or trying something at home you should have a spotter for.

5:- Legs, legs, more legs. I stopped doing them about 30 years ago because of my knee problems - big mistake - I should have bit the bullet and taken off the weight plates and at least done something.

6:- Rest more.... Workout less.. I figured that one out now.

[oldsuperman]

I'm 28 and just now picked up weight lifting 2 months ago after years of endurance training in the Army and for motorcycle racing.

Question for the vetrans, if you could go back 10-20-30 years or for as long as you've been at it and had it all to do again what would you do different? I'm thinking long term and would like to learn your lessons about injury avoidance, gains, etc... I'm really looking for strength while maintaing my endurance, some parts of me need building like my skinny forarms and no traps/lats.

I know ur looking for advice on trainin for the body, yet I'm gonna give u another spin on it.

First, I don't believe in lookin to the past to see what I "could a, would a, SHOULD A," changed. I don't like it when people "should" (****) on me! I do believe learnin from the past is all that it's good for. What I learned is BALANCE is the key to being happy. The only time I was miserable was when I didn't keep things in perspective and balanced. Body, mind, and spirt.

One last thing. Remember when ur mom said, "put that down! U'll hurt ur back! U'll regret it when u get old!" She was rite!!!!!

[pastorgbc]

If I could do it all over again:

1. No drinking and no drugs.

2. Eat well and clean.

3. Lift heavier, but never do singles unless you have specifically trained for a lift.

4. Keep a daily journal.

5. Have a purpose for every workout.

6. Work legs harder.

Ray

[Eileen]

Well, I've always cycled, and I've always lifted heavy, though it would have been nice to have known what I know now about constructing a really useful training split instead of doing endless circuits of machines.

I do wish I had known that all those "experts" who told me that I needed to eat low protein, low fat and very high carb where talking through their arses. If I had known that a low carb diet would let me drop nearly 50lb with very little effort, things could have been a lot different.

Mind you, the main difference is probably that I would have screwed around even more than I actually did, so I might now have a number of nasty diseases instead of three cute kids. Perhaps it's just as well I was slow on the uptake....

[Oregonian]

1. Not followed magazine routines of pro's..............who have a little bit of an advantage thanks to a few CC's of test every few days.

2. Not overtrained - which is a direct result of #1 above. Injuries would have been avoided.

3. Reduced the amount of time in the gym. Endless sets of POF, or whatever the flavor of the month was got me nowhere. Less is definitely more.

4. Done more open minded research. I'm onto HST right now because of accepting ideas that once seemed outdated (full body workouts frequently). So far after one cycle of it 4 lbs gained and 3/4" of bicep size.

5. Focused more on nutrition. Thinking that the calories from those two Supreme Croissants from Jack in the Box would make me grow.........then I realized the fat grams for my breakfast were enough for a day or two!

[widebody195]

Great advice from everyone, let me add my lessons learned:

1. Stick to the basics: compound exercises (the big 3: squats, deadlifts, bench press) instead of the "workout of the month" advertised in the BB mags.

2. Stick to the basics: protein and lots of water, instead of fly-by-night miracle supplements and potions. I've wasted money on a lot of them: Hot Stuff, Cybergenics, MCT Fuel - those are all gone but protein's still around.

3. Stick to the basics: sleep and good rest, because that's the key to muscle repair and growth. Nintendo and David Letterman were my undoing in my younger days.

[Plato458]

Diet Diet Diet. Don't do one - have an excellent one.

I gave myself a big disadvantage in my 30s by permanently living on a crap one in my 20s - too much work and neglected my diet completely. Low everything (except beer) and ended up fat skinny and then just fat fat.

This was entirely self-inflicted, so no one is stopping me now!

Good Luck
Px

[BergMuscle]

1.warm up.....i wish i had, before legs espesially, i do now but they give me jip from time to time.
2.eat and rest....the magic happens when your not in the gym. So fuel your body correctly
3.Use suppliments wisely......weight gain powders/proteins/multivits etc
4. don't by wonder pills!.....all these dumb steroid alternatives. They don't work, which is why they use terms like MAY or COULD, and don't use terms like ...."WILL" make you grow.
5.Don't over train......More does not mean bigger in this game!
6.Form.....do not use weight you can't handle. The growth is stimulated through overload of intensity, not weight.
7.Enjoy your time in the gym....don't worry about how much the guy next to you is doing. Just keep trying to better yourself for yourself.

thats about it ! ......

Everything Spitfire-1 said. Couldn't have said it better myself and all of it is true for me, too.

[dmr11]

With age comes wisdom, for some of us at least. The only thing I would have changed would have been to find good role models in BB. When and where I grew up BB was not even known about. Of course, that was "the do your on thing" era, the era of Twiggy and "you can never be too thin". Be thankful for the knowledge we now have.

[BergMuscle]

1. Not followed magazine routines of pro's..............

Amen to this one, too.

All too often I've built a routine based on a magazine article because the guy in the pictures had big muscles like I wanted, but the routine wasn't right for my body.

Seriously, the best thing I've done for myself this year was to start training my arms based on my bicep length (or rather lack of length). I'm two months and six days away from turning 50 and have the best biceps of my life.

[never2late]

I wish I had understood more about the role of the mind . . . i.e. the fact that our organs and muscles are not isolated, but an integral part of the brain/mind itself. Each cell connected and controlled via not only the central nervous system, but in essence, our thoughts (both good and bad) as well.

"If you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right" -- Henry Ford

I think Arnold was and continues to be the champion of the power of the mind over the body. His ability to visualize and turn that vizualization into physical reality . . . not only for himself and his own development, but his mind's influence over others as well.

One can have thoughts of greatness, but thoughts themselves are only cold and empty without the ability and knowledge on how to turn them into whatever the thoughts represent.

[Tallho]

Great post!

It will help many of us just trying to get jump started and do the right thing to start off with to see some exellant results to help with the mental part of this change in lifestyle.

[SR800]

Don't quit when you are ahead. I lost everything (except my knowledge)I worked so hard for over the course of a decade. Do not fall prey to the people around you who stop exercising, eat wrong, stay up late, and just get the oh well I am old so there is no reason to stay in shap mentality because one day you will look in the mirror or at a photo or see some old pictures next to new ones and think, My God, what have I done. It is much more difficult to grow the second time around if you received the good evolution genes. Very few of us have the evolutionary dead end (big muscle) predisposition (or obviously our species would not be here).

[johnnyironboard]

1. Stick to the basics: compound exercises (the big 3: squats, deadlifts, bench press) .

This is why form is so important. I don't do any of those three anymore- all my worse injuries came from those three.

[Ironized]

Good thread!


1. Have the understanding that the negative part of the rep is just as important as the positive part of the rep.

2. Trying to increase both strength and size while at the same time trying to remain cut.

3. Education, family obligations,work,ect. is just as important as our little gym time, if I have to miss a workout now and than becouse of one of these I am better with it.

[bkeithb]

This is an EXCELLENT and very informative thread. Thanks to all the veterans sharing your knowledge and wisdom with those of us less far along the journey.

[Bob45]

I would have stuck with it! I worked hard for 5 years and stopped for 20+. Now I still end up giving it up in the summer. Maybe I will never learn. I also wish when I got lean I didn't let myself overeat again!

[redweston]

Simple: Set your goals and keep everthing in balance.