The Beginner Workout Guide: Answers to Commonly Asked Weightlifting Questions

[joebrosef]

am i reading a sticky or a fuking novel?

[peanut-butter]

Few things I spotted glancing through:


'Do not train a muscle group more than twice a week'.

And,

'You must shock your muscles'.

Skimming though I found:

Do NOT work out the same muscle more than twice a week (Excluding Calves, Abs, and Forearms if you want).

When should I drink my protein shakes?
Directly after your workout

What is soreness an indicator of?
Soreness is an indicator of torn muscle fibers. It doesn't necessarily mean growth, but it's a good indicator that you did something right. When you first begin working out, your body will get really sore because it is not used to working out. After a few months, however, your body will not get as sore anymore after your workouts, unless you dramatically change your routine and shock your muscles.

Did not even see your post, yet I feel they are so a like.

[LiftRightMeow]

am i reading a sticky or a fuking novel?

a novel. It's everything from the other thread, but just in the first few posts.

[LiftRightMeow]

bump

[PowerSledge]

So whats the difference between this thread and the sticky you wrote?

[Scott9585]

great thread

[LiftRightMeow]

So whats the difference between this thread and the sticky you wrote?

I added a lot of extra stuff (good form videos/more advice) and I made it all in the first post instead of throughout the thread. I just want them to unsticky the other one and replace it with this one

[CrazyMinnesotan]

Would have loved to have read this when I first started working out, took me a couple of months after lifting to find bodybuilding.com

[BigDave666]

Lots of good infos in this tread.

[Alberto93]

This is some really useful info. Thanks for the post

[PimpGJt]

Good thread . A worthy stickie . People you don't have to read it all so quit complaining . Read the section that answers a question you may have .

[LiftRightMeow]

Good thread . A worthy stickie . People you don't have to read it all so quit complaining . Read the section that answers a question you may have .

yea just hit control f and type in any keywords you're looking for

[nusa]

Static stretching before lifting is a big no-no.

Dynamic stretching shall be fine imo.


Edit: no rhyme intended.

Why is static stretching a big no-no before lifting?

[iLiftNoodBrah]

In all honesty this thread kinda sucks and has bad info as HG, PB, and b1g pointed out.

So much broscience

[LiftRightMeow]

In all honesty this thread kinda sucks and has bad info as HG, PB, and b1g pointed out.

So much broscience

I fixed what they were talking about. And stfu it doesn't have bad info. It's a very informational thread with a lot of useful information for beginners.

Please, point out the broscience too

[iLiftNoodBrah]

I fixed what they were talking about. And stfu it doesn't have bad info. It's a very informational thread with a lot of useful information for beginners.

there was another threead like 10x better then this that got unstickied out of nowhere like a lot of other ones.

edit: here

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...make+thread%3A

[LiftRightMeow]

there was another threead like 10x better then this that got unstickied out of nowhere like a lot of other ones.

edit: here

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...make+thread%3A

I see just as much "broscience" in that thread as in this thread. Also, all of the information in that thread is covered here. Dont see the reason for hate

[iLiftNoodBrah]

I see just as much "broscience" in that thread as in this thread. Also, all of the information in that thread is covered here. Dont see the reason for hate

you obviously didnt read that thread at all, please point out the broscience sir... this thread was full of crap until other people had to tell u what to fix.

[sogeking]

lul this thread is dildos

[LiftRightMeow]

you obviously didnt read that thread at all, please point out the broscience sir... this thread was full of crap until other people had to tell u what to fix.

**** you dude. I took three hours out of my day to put this together without compensation. There's nothing wrong with this thread, and the stuff they pointed out wasn't even that big or important. Mostly word choice errors. Please, point out the broscience in this thread. Go ahead. Make sure you go and rate this thread 1 star too, because it's obviously worse than the other stupid **** threads that get posted on this website daily. I'm sorry that I'm trying to help other people.

And if you're so high and mighty, why not actually contribute to the thread and add useful information to help beginners instead of saying it sucks. The entire first page of this thread was wasted by dumbass posts, when people could have instead provided their own input and tips for working out.

That's what is wrong with this website. So quick to brush aside anyone who's actually trying to help others because you're so butthurt over reps/etc. I wanted this thread to be a place where people could share their weightlifting knowledge, but that's clearly not the direction it is headed.

And by saying "just as much broscience," I meant that there is no broscience in either of the two threads.
This thread also wasn't full of crap, because I literally only changed two sentences, so that statement is just stupid.
Did you even read the thread, or are you just trolling? By the way, the thread that you're so butt hurt over says everything my other thread said http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=117423471 . I find it weird that you can write the exact same information as me, but then say it sucks. Are you just bi-polar, or retarded?

Now can we please make this thread a place to post weightlifting tips for beginners, rather than a flame war about how supposedly ****ty this thread is?

[iLiftNoodBrah]

Some useful workout tips for beginners:
- Try to limit how much junk food and candy is in diet. There's nothing wrong with having fast food/etc every now and then, but don't overdo it.

Here is a good article on this topic: http://www.theragear.com/article/simple_sugars.php

IIFYM

I can eat sugar and candy all day, as long as I hit my macros body composition won't be affected. Dave Tate ate cookies all day and little protein before a bench meet I heard and did awesome.

Questions:
What’s a good starting routine?
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=131379243 – that is.

How do I gain weight?
Also known as bulking, you simply gain weight by eating more calories than your body uses throughout the day. You may have to experiment a little to find the right number of calories that you need to eat, but try about 3000 - 3500 for the first week and see if you gain any weight. Everyone is different with how much food they need to eat, so experiment to find and see what works for you. While bulking, you need to make sure that you aren’t just adding fat. Track your progress in the mirror or in progress pictures to ensure that you are bulking properly. Some fat gain is inevitable while bulking, but don’t get carried away with it. I see way to many people posting year apart progress pictures of them just gaining fat and little to no muscle – do not be one of those people. This is easily avoided by having a good diet and routine.

How do I lose weight?
Also known as cutting, you lose weight by eating less calories than your body uses throughout the day. You may have to experiment a little to find the right number for you, but try around 2500-3000 calories. While cutting you should have your diet in check so that you can maintain muscle while losing mostly fat. You will most likely lose some strength while cutting, but you cannot avoid that. It’s worth it though, still to it and you’ll be shredded in no time.

This is plain dumb imo. Some people start at like 110lbs, some people start at 300lbs. Pulling a number out of your ass isn't a good start with your diet, at least a BMR calculator/formula can give you a ball park idea, not pulling numbers out of your ass. I bulk on 2500 calories, my brother bulks on 7000 calories.

Also, you can avoid losing strength on a cut, WTF am I reading. It is so easy to lose fat and get stronger.

Cardio
- Cardiovascular exercise is a great way to lose some calories while also strengthening your cardiovascular system. Make sure that you don’t neglect cardio. You don’t want to be jacked yet unable to run a mile in a respectable time. Although some people can get away with doing cardio altogether, I believe that is really helpful in cutting off whatever fat you have left. When I added cardio to my routine, I began to get more vascular and cut.

You get more vacular and cut from being in a caloric deficit, not by adding cardio.

Stretching
Stretching is extremely important before and after you work out. If you take 3-5 minutes to stretch before you work out, it will be safer, and you won’t get hurt. Those 3 minutes of stretching can save you from an injury that could keep you out of the gym for months.
Here is a list of different stretches - http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/stretches.htm

Static stretching before lifting is horrible for your joints/ligaments, goat mentioned this earlier, in general its a bad idea to stretch out cold. Before you workout is a bad idea, after your workout is fine.

Progress
Every week, try to add 5 pounds to your compound lifts without sacrificing form. Also, add weight on for your other exercises too; however, these other exercises, such as lateral raises, take time to make progress in. You may not progress every week enough to add weight, but try to. If you stop making progress, then either change your routine or your diet (or both). Either your routine hasn’t been changed in a while and your muscles have become accustomed to it or you aren’t eating enough calories in your diet (it’s much easier to progress in strength while bulking than cutting --- in fact, while cutting, your strength will most likely decline).

If you cannot move up in weight, its not because your muscles are accustomed to your program, its because you aren't eating enough. I've been Squatting 3x a week strictly 5 reps for all my exercises and I grow/get stronger.

What should my diet consist of?
Try to eat at least 1 gram of protein for each pound that you weigh (For example, a 160 lber would eat 160 grams of protein) every day. I mainly try to eat foods that are high in protein and low in simple sugars. Some examples of foods that are great for muscle building are tuna, chicken, peanut butter, oats, milk, and eggs. There’s nothing wrong with having a snack or a cheat meal every now and then (genetics pending). A great way of tracking your diet/caloric intake is www.fitday.com

IIFYM. There's nothing wrong with eating KFC all day either

What should I have to eat after I workout?
Make a protein shake with whey protein. I like to throw in some fruit, milk, and a yogurt too to make it taste better.

There is nothing wrong with this in particular, but it should be mentioned that post workout nutrition is entirely irrelavant if you have good pre workout nutrition.

Rest
Do NOT work out every single day of the week. Your muscles need some time to rest. Working out for 4 or 5 days is more than enough.
Do NOT work out the same muscle more than twice a week (Excluding Calves, Abs, and Forearms if you want).

Absolutely horrible advice, novice/beginner lifters should be working every muscle 2-3 times a week. If you look in the BB Mythbusters thread, studies show it too.

How do I increase my bench press?
There are many ways to increase your bench press. Most importantly, if you gain weight, your bench will most likely go up if you are doing everything correctly. Another way is to switch up your routine. For example, you can switch to dumbbells or barbells for a month.

This is as well retard-advice. If you want a big BB Bench Press, you need to do that exercise, eat an ass ton, and work on your form, not switching to DBs.

There are many articles on this website alone that specifically focus on how to increase your bench. Just use google. Books can be written on this subject. The simplified answer is eat well, sleep, and train consistently, and your bench will go up.

Google and the Supersite on this site are horrible sources. WedMD tells me to eat 6 meals a day to speed up my metabolism, I can't imagine what kind of advice they will give me to increase my Bench Press.

[QUOTE=LiftRightMeow;704318341]
How many cheat meals should I have a week?
There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a cheat meal every now and then. Don’t go overboard and learn to control your urges. Personally, I have a bag of chips every other day and fast food once a week. You can have junk food every now and then if it fits into your diet, just don't go overboard.

You really need to learn about IIFYM. I eat KFC all day and I'm sitting at <10% BF

How long should my workout last?
About an hour, give or take 20 minutes. It depends on whether or not you do cardio/etc. My workouts on average take about an hour.

The length of your workout is entirely irrelevant, its more so the quality of it, how taxing it was, what you did, etc. When I was on SS, some of my workouts were as long as 2 hours to complete all the warm up sets, and rest in between sets were as long as 10 minutes.

What is soreness an indicator of?
Soreness is an indicator of torn muscle fibers. It doesn't necessarily mean growth, but it's a good indicator that you did something right. When you first begin working out, your body will get really sore because it is not used to working out. After a few months, however, your body will not get as sore anymore after your workouts.

Soreness is not an indicator of doing something right, I can get sore every workout from doing Bicep Curls, and bench press, it doesn't mean I'm doing anything right.

Squats
Squatting is arguably one the best leg exercises that you can do.

How do I squat properly

This is parallel squatting. To squat parallel, lower yourself until your hamstrings are parallel to the floor under you. You may be tempted to add weight on that you cannot handle, but don’t. You’ll probably end up hurting yourself that way, and you won’t make much progress.
You can also squat ATG(ass to grass) ; try both of them out and see which one you like to do more.


Parallel means your hip joint is at the same level as your knee, none of that hamstring parallel to the floor. If that were true, then the bigger your hamstrings are, the shorter ROM you would have, and vice versa.

[iLiftNoodBrah]

also, i didnt write anything up in the other sticky, i just posted it there since there is a 45 second rule between posts, and the OP wanted the posts to be back-to-back. even then there were like 3-4 questions that were similar, lol. your older thread also sucked, telling people to do splits, and they were just sh!tty programs in general.

[LiftRightMeow]

[QUOTE=iLiftNoodBrah;708355281]There is nothing wrong with this in particular, but it should be mentioned that post workout nutrition is entirely irrelavant if you have good pre workout nutrition.

How many cheat meals should I have a week?
There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a cheat meal every now and then. Don’t go overboard and learn to control your urges. Personally, I have a bag of chips every other day and fast food once a week. You can have junk food every now and then if it fits into your diet, just don't go overboard.

You really need to learn about IIFYM. I eat KFC all day and I'm sitting at <10% BF


How long should my workout last?
About an hour, give or take 20 minutes. It depends on whether or not you do cardio/etc. My workouts on average take about an hour.

The length of your workout is entirely irrelevant, its more so the quality of it, how taxing it was, what you did, etc. When I was on SS, some of my workouts were as long as 2 hours to complete all the warm up sets, and rest in between sets were as long as 10 minutes.


What is soreness an indicator of?
Soreness is an indicator of torn muscle fibers. It doesn't necessarily mean growth, but it's a good indicator that you did something right. When you first begin working out, your body will get really sore because it is not used to working out. After a few months, however, your body will not get as sore anymore after your workouts.

Soreness is not an indicator of doing something right, I can get sore every workout from doing Bicep Curls, and bench press, it doesn't mean I'm doing anything right.

- There's nothing wrong with telling people to have a protein shake post-workout
-The cheat meals thing is targeted towards beginners. Think back to when you started working out and how little you knew. By that point, I mean cut back on ****ty food and get a better diet.
- The "how long should my workout last" point is targeted towards beginners. I mentioned that the time varies, so i don't even know why you pointed it out. It's a basic guideline for the clueless. When I first started, I didn't know whether I should workout for 30 minutes or 3 hours.
- Notice how I said "doesn't necessarily mean growth" in the soreness point

You need to realize that this is a workout guide for beginners.

So basically, you're trying to say this thread sucks because I said to have a protein shake PWO, to cut back on ****ty food, to workout for about an hour, and that soreness (which doesn't necessarily mean growth) starts to lessen as you become accustomed to working out.

You're just nitpicking at this point, and those are all valid points.

please, just read that thread you posted, and then read this thread. If you cannot see how similar they are...

[iLiftNoodBrah]

[QUOTE=LiftRightMeow;708359171]

There is nothing wrong with this in particular, but it should be mentioned that post workout nutrition is entirely irrelavant if you have good pre workout nutrition.





- There's nothing wrong with telling people to have a protein shake post-workout

Sure, but its stupid to mention that, and not even mention the real important part on how it can be completely irrelevant if you have good pre workout nutrition.

-The cheat meals thing is targeted towards beginners. Think back to when you started working out and how little you knew. By that point, I mean cut back on ****ty food and get a better diet.

When your a beginner you can feast on anything, as much as you want, its when you gain the most, go to the nutrition section and read up on IIFYM, seriously. Caloric quality is not important, quantity is (as far as body composition).

- The "how long should my workout last" point is targeted towards beginners. I mentioned that the time varies, so i don't even know why you pointed it out. It's a basic guideline for the clueless. When I first started, I didn't know whether I should workout for 30 minutes or 3 hours.
- Notice how I said "doesn't necessarily mean growth" in the soreness point

You don't understand, you were still wrong about it, soreness =/= doing it right.

You need to realize that this is a workout guide for beginners.

You need to realize the info in this thread is simply not very good, and feeding it to beginners isn't helping them.

edit: you seriously need to lower your ego, there is a miles difference between this thread, and the thread I posted. You can see it alone just from the responses to the other thread, and the first responses to this thread. Its obvious, get over yourself.

Also

Squat: 276
Deadlift: 306

WTF am I reading?

[LiftRightMeow]

[QUOTE=iLiftNoodBrah;708363311]

You need to realize the info in this thread is simply not very good, and feeding it to beginners isn't helping them.

edit: you seriously need to lower your ego, there is a miles difference between this thread, and the thread I posted. You can see it alone just from the responses to the other thread, and the first responses to this thread. Its obvious, get over yourself.

Also

Squat: 276
Deadlift: 306

WTF am I reading?

Lol quoting old stats now. Why are you so butthurt? By the way I could honestly give two ****s about my lifting stats. All I care about it appearance. The info is good. You have yet to point out anything wrong with what I said, and with that I'm done replying to you because you're clearly retarded. Yea, definitely miles ahead. I love how it says exactly what's in here, doesn't provide many pictures, doesn't have as much information, doesn't have any videos, etc. I'm not bashing the first post in the other thread, but everything in it is covered +more in here.

[iLiftNoodBrah]

[QUOTE=LiftRightMeow;708374311]

Lol quoting old stats now. Why are you so butthurt? By the way I could honestly give two ****s about my lifting stats. All I care about it appearance. The info is good. You have yet to point out anything wrong with what I said, and with that I'm done replying to you because you're clearly retarded

Translation: I'm running away from the situation because I have been proven wrong. Dude I put in bold everything wrong about your thread, the entire first 2 pages are a sh!tstorm telling you straight up what is wrong with this thread, and you are still lead to believe you give out good advice.

I'm sure you'll sleep like an angel tonight.

edit: if appearance is all you care about, your still not exactly doing it right after 2 years.

[LiftRightMeow]

[QUOTE=iLiftNoodBrah;708375391]

Translation: I'm running away from the situation because I have been proven wrong. Dude I put in bold everything wrong about your thread, the entire first 2 pages are a sh!tstorm telling you straight up what is wrong with this thread, and you are still lead to believe you give out good advice.

I'm sure you'll sleep like an angel tonight.

edit: if appearance is all you care about, your still not exactly doing it right after 2 years.

And I replied explaining how you're wrong/just nitpicking. You clearly can't read. And its not a ****storm, it's more like "Oh noes, you misworded this one sentence," or, "I'm not going to read this."

And who the **** are you to tell me what my goals are in weightlifting. go **** yourself

[DDon1996]

[iLiftNoodBrah]

[QUOTE=LiftRightMeow;708377371]

And I replied explaining how you're wrong/just nitpicking. You clearly can't read. And its not a ****storm, it's more like "Oh noes, you misworded this one sentence," or, "I'm not going to read this."

And who the **** are you to tell me what my goals are in weightlifting. go **** yourself

You did not tell me how I was wrong, and how the hell was I nitpicking? Your thread had just straight up false info.

I'll even list them again

You said not to workout muscles more then 2x week aside from the smaller ones.

My reply was you were straight up wrong, and couldn't be anymore wrong. You should train your body with higher frequency, and I even told you my source to find out. You never addressed that, and thats probably one of the biggest/most important problem with training these days.

You don't even know what IIFYM, your telling people to stay away from junk food.

You have no idea what a parallel Squat is.

You think soreness means your doing it right, when it does NOT.

Static stretching pre workout = more chance of getting injured

[.Excalibur]

Omg, this got stickied?