The Beginner's Guide to Weight Training

[b fold the truth]

Bump

I'd really like to see you post your ideas on this type of stuff more often...seriously.

B True

 

[jackangel]

thank you for taking the time and effort. please drink a banana milkshake in your own honor.

 

[Turboturtle]

Could you detail what you mean by big eating? I know protein is the building block for muscle, but would eating lots of carbs also help in having glycogen for a hard workout?

 

[beowulf67]

Debaser,
That was very well written and informative. I'm not a newbie but I sure don't consider myself advanced, so it never hurts to remember the basics.

But if you and several others that replied aren't carefull, you are going to totally destroy the stereotype of lifters being ignorant Neanderthals that can't complete a sentence.

 

[Debaser]

Could you detail what you mean by big eating? I know protein is the building block for muscle, but would eating lots of carbs also help in having glycogen for a hard workout?

Sorry I didn't notice this question earlier...

There are many different thoughts on diet. I don't log my diet, I just follow a few basic guidelines. This keeps me from going insane.

1. I usually alternate meals with protein shakes. My protein shake of choice has recently changed to IronMind's "Just Protein," which tastes good and only has like 5 ingredients, 3 of them being quality proteins (milk, egg and whey). I mix up 2 servings (for 36 g) with 2 cups of milk (another 16) and a serving of Glutagain (I think 15 g) for a 67 gram shake.

2. My first meal of the day is almost always the same. 8 whole eggs, and 4 packets of flavored instant oatmeal (I can't stand the regular stuff). I usually wash this down with a tall glass of milk. This is where I take my supplements of the day--I use Twinlabs dualtabs vitamins. I'm going to try that Unleashed supplement Nelson Montana is peddling for the hell of it shortly. I think that's about all the supplements I take besides the protein listed above, and Glucorell-R that I take with carb-laden meals.

3. I usually have 2 tablespoons of Udo's choice oil a day. Sometimes I'll also have some grapeseed or extra-virgin olive oil as well (often I dump these in my shake).

4. I try to get a bare minimum of 40 grams of protein at every meal. It is usually higher than this. I can't really remember a time lately where it's been less than 50, actually.

5. At 2 or 3 meals during the day I'll try to get in a good portion of a quality carb, like potatoes, pasta or rice. I do get the oatmeal at breakfast which helps too.

6. During the course of a day I usually drink at least a gallon of water. On training days it probably ends up at 2 gallons. On average I seem to consume about half a gallon of milk a day.

Extra comments:

7. My sushi addiction is not unlike that of a coke fiend. Sometimes I'll spend 100 dollars a week on sushi.

8. I can usually get free Chipotle now, and since I get extra chicken each burrito is about 3 pounds of quality food that I consume at least 4 times a week.

--I think that's about it. Most of this is pretty simple, which allows me to remain consistant (the key to progress). If I tried to meet a certain number of calories each day I wouldn't be doing as well.

 

[RobertFontaine]

As the perpetual beginner I have a couple of minor comments.

There is a lot of patience required till the tendons, ligaments, and joints catch up. Once a beginner gets into the groove the challenge isn't bringing the strength up.

My strength easily doubles in the core lifts in the first 6 months. The problem is I dive straight into injury. Each time I return I seem to be able to double my survival rate but...

Strength and muscle growth is easy, peasy. Injury avoidance is "FUCKING" hard. Maybe I'm a phreak but I can get significantly stronger in a very short period of time. I blame needsize and 5x5 for most of that.

But no one has taken the time to tell me how to stop breaking myself. In the last 18 months I have pulled my lower back, (I slouched), worked through shoulder tendonitis (I still don't know how i did this), and pulled a bicep muscle doing weighted chinups (I twitched my hips). It's easy to say concentrate but I find it hard to believe everyone has such good focus when they are lifting. When I do squats I can barely tell you my name.
I'm not frail guy. I'm 210 @ 5'9" up from about 165 in the last 5 years.

So for those of you who have gotten past this. Tell me how. This is what a beginner really needs to know.

 

[azfixi]

nice thread. im a complete beginner and am off to find out what some of it means, (squats etc. -- hey im new ok) but im going to use this as my little 'guidebook' as soon as i do.

 

[Griz1]

STICKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Might keep some of the "dud" threads down.

 

[statey01]

As the perpetual beginner I have a couple of minor comments.

There is a lot of patience required till the tendons, ligaments, and joints catch up. Once a beginner gets into the groove the challenge isn't bringing the strength up.

My strength easily doubles in the core lifts in the first 6 months. The problem is I dive straight into injury. Each time I return I seem to be able to double my survival rate but...

Strength and muscle growth is easy, peasy. Injury avoidance is "FUCKING" hard. Maybe I'm a phreak but I can get significantly stronger in a very short period of time. I blame needsize and 5x5 for most of that.

But no one has taken the time to tell me how to stop breaking myself. In the last 18 months I have pulled my lower back, (I slouched), worked through shoulder tendonitis (I still don't know how i did this), and pulled a bicep muscle doing weighted chinups (I twitched my hips). It's easy to say concentrate but I find it hard to believe everyone has such good focus when they are lifting. When I do squats I can barely tell you my name.
I'm not frail guy. I'm 210 @ 5'9" up from about 165 in the last 5 years.

So for those of you who have gotten past this. Tell me how. This is what a beginner really needs to know.

Excellent question. I've had similar problems, always running into injury once I start making progress. Most of the time for me it's been increasing the weight too quickly, but meanwhile I've racked up some bad tendon & joint problems, and I never even got strong enough to lift any real weight.

Does anyone have thoughts on RF's post?

 

[Lord_Suston]

Sticky