Need advice - Newbie - Building muscle

Hello,

I am a 'newbie' at muscle building and was hoping for a bit of advice from the sythe community. I am 6 foot and reasonably skinny but with strong legs from a large amount of skiing and football. Essentially during the summer I would like to start building muscle and aim towards gaining a more desirable physique.

I was planning to start on Kris Gethin's 12-Week Plan but I am unsure if I should be starting with this.

I have no past experience so any help/suggestions/tips will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks Soviet!

 

Mate I don't even lift but Jack Goff is a good person to ask, he's into weight lifting and stuff. I talked to him for a while about this and he knows a lot.

 

You're 6ft and skinny which tells me you have trouble just gaining weight in general. That's not a problem though, I'm the same way! You're going to have to eat, and you're going to have to eat a lot! First thing I would get to help your cause is some whey protein. I can't really tell you which is best or not because I'm somewhat lactose intolerant and I stay away! But whey protein is a good simple start to getting in calories to feed your fast metabolism!

Me personally I would try and stay away from unhealthy foods like Mcdonalds and such. Stick with whole foods, red meats, chicken, seafood...trail mix and whatnot for snacks. Eggs, oatmeal, granola. Personally my snack of choice was always peanut butter!

I would also carb it up if I were you, that'll definitely help the cause. Things like pasta, whole wheat bread, brown rice....and beans if you're into them!


I would try and stay eating if I were you! Eat a nice hardy breakfast, in between breakfast and lunch have a protein shake and a snack, lunch I'd incorporate some form of meat/carbs/vegetable...another protein shake in between lunch and dinner, then finally dinner! Thats going to be hard at first because you're probably not used to eating so much so you will definitely not have the desire to start stuffing your face....but if you add working out on top of your already fast metabolism you're going to be burning a lot of calories!



Lifting wise there are a ton of different workout regiments that can easily be googled...the trick is to find one that you're excited about trying so you stay motivated. Staying motivated is key, if you're doing something you don't want to do its just not going to workout for you the way it should! Generally they say you lift high weight low repetitions for size, and low weight high reps for definition...Fuck that, this isn't applicable to you right now. Some serious personal advice to you is to FOCUS on your FORM, and not the weight. If the weight is too heavy to be lifted properly bring it down a notch. Especially because you don't lift, your muscles, joints and ligaments have to get warmed up and built up to support the weight. Don't look at what everyone else is lifting and feel self conscious about what you have in your hands. I am always soooo happy when I see a new lifter focusing on form with incredibly light weight, don't feel judged. However I am definitely judging the asshole trying to curl 70lb dumbbells turning it into a bent over row/shrug combination lol.

I kinda just touched base on a lot of stuff, feel free to ask whatever specific questions you may have!

 

Whey protein is a poor place to source a lot of calories. For example, my whey protein is only 161 calories per scoop.

reddogwwa, what's your typical protein intake per day? I've found very mixed results on what protein intake should be per day. These have ranged from 1.2g per KG up to 2.2g per KG (1g per pound). Personally I aim for 120g (I'm not too anal about hitting it). I feel its a decent middle ground and is what is promoted by Hodgetwins as being all you need. Is it comprehensive proof since Hodgetwins promote it? Definitely not but 120g isn't too hard to fit into your diet and I feel it will be enough.

Low weight high reps for definition is broscience. The only way to obtain definition is to reduce your body fat so your muscles become more visible.
What seems to be unanimous is that for strength you do low reps, high weight. Muscle endurance is low weight, high reps (I'm skeptical of if this is true or even why you would bother). Medium reps, medium weight is the generally used by bodybuilders i.e. 8-12 reps is the norm.

Form is very important. Without it you risk injury and will not target your muscles properly. Love your example reddogwwa, curls are supposed to be an isolation exercise for your biceps, you shouldn't be swinging or anything like that. Watch some youtube videos at the start to get your breathing and form correct and later workout with a friend or something similar and have them comment on your form.





I wouldn't advise you to go with that workout routine. What it is is a brosplit where you hit everything once per week except for some strange reason you do legs twice in a row. To optimize gains you should hit each body part twice per week. This is due to protein synthesis lasting around 3 days post workout. Popular splits for this include PPL (Push, Pull, Legs, Rest) or Upper/Lower (Upper Body, Lower Body, Rest).

The real gains are made in the kitchen though so make sure you have your diet in check. Best of luck man.

 

Cheers for the suggestions!

Do either of you have a recommended routine to follow or is it sort of create and find one suitable for yourself?

I assume your diet changes as you gain more weight? I eat reasonably healthily but I know for a fact I am most likely not eating anywhere near the amount of protein I will need to and would probably need to completely rework my diet.

I had a look to try and find a routine that hits each body part twice a week
and found Arnold Schwarzenegger's Blueprint

Thanks again for the help!

 

The only reason Arnold trained a body part twice a week is because he was on steroids.. Simple as that.

And about the routine.

Mon : Chest & Triceps
Tues : Back & Biceps
Wed : Off / Cardio & abs
Thurs : Legs & Calves
Fri : Shoulders & Traps
Sat : Rest
Sun : Cardio

Quite simple really??...

If you want to take this seriously, I suggest you get a personalised diet plan. Also stock up on supplements. (creatine & vits & protein)..

I am not nutritionist and no one can give you advise about what to eat because we basically don't have your stats... (everything comes in to play when creating a diet, age, height, bf%)

 

When you start working out and do it properly youll definitely get some nice "nobo gains" , remember to get enough nutrition / sleep and train hard and youll see gains, bodybuilding forum is a great place to ask for help, during the first year youll learn a lot about your body which is good

 

NO need to waste your money on vitamins, just eat a few apples / oranges every day and youll be fine

 

I'd honestly just advise to go with what I mentioned above: either Push Pull Legs or Upper/Lower. I'm currently on Push, Pull, Legs and I like it. Push involves Shoulders, Chest, Tris. Pull involves bi's and back. Legs involves, you guessed it; legs. I've tacked Abs onto the end of Leg day though since it isn't hit normally. Since you are a beginner you should probably just start out with a pre-set routine and go from there. After a little while feel free to customize it. For example, I think I may add calf raises onto the Push day too since I want bigger calves. If what I hear is right then Arny trained Abs everyday as well as his normal routine which would definitely be over training.

Yes your diet would change as you gain weight since there is more muscle to be sustained, etc. By how much I do not know yet, likely it is subjective to the individual considering each persons metabolism is different and there are too many factors to accurately guess one's maintenance calories. As a result you'll find that most online calculators will be off and are only a baseline to go from. You truly have to test it and find it yourself which is a long and tedious process.

If you want further information regarding my split I'll hook you up via PM/skype with the routine and substitute exercises and any general queries you have.

Exercising body parts twice a week has been proven to be the most effective way of training for beginners. Several people such as the Hodgetwins claim it to be the best way to train period but it seems some find brosplits once to be more beneficial when they are more advanced (i.e. after 1 yr of lifting). The consensus seems to be the majority however benefit from training each body part 2 times per week however.

I don't think a personalized diet plan is necessary. Let's face it, the vast majority of us that lift aren't going to stand up on a podium in front of a crowd only in speedo's in any time of our lives. Definitely don't use this as an excuse to only make a cursory effort to conform to a good lifestyle change but it's not worth completely re-working your diet. Along with your physical health you have your mental health to think about - if all your favorite foods are suddenly unavailable to you I doubt you'd be too happy about that! Not to mention obsessing too much about your diet, etc can end up consuming a lot of your time.

I personally use IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros). This is likely the most popular diet plan by bodybuilders since it still allows you to have some of your favorite foods as long as you hit your macro-nutrient requirements. reddogwwa is going to hate me for recommending this to you since he isn't a fan of it despite not trying it but it is what it is haha. mmm_Donuts uses IIFYM and he has made all kinds of gains. You can find his progress here: http://www.sythe.org/general-discussion/1412049-my-8-month-transformation-pics.html

Yeah I'm not too sure on how useful vitamins are. I've looked into them previously albeit only briefly and I am skeptical on their results. Another thing I took a glance at was Fish Oil. It seems most don't really notice a difference and with the high cost of vitamins and the like, to quote Sheldon Cooper, "you are just paying for expensive urine" as your body is unable to absorb a lot of the micro nutrients within the tablets anyways and simply flushes it out in your piss. Definitely look into them further before completely discounting them however. Creatine and Whey Protein are definitely worth purchasing though.

 

A lot of them are, but there are definitely whey protein's out there that have in excess of 600 calories per shake...I mean its 4 scoops so you're definitely going to have a hard time slugging it down and eating a meal haha. Me personally I drink Optimum Nutrition's Egg White Protein, 130 calories/23g protein a scoop.

I'm the same way, I TRY and take a lot of my protein in through actual food. I can comfortably say I get about 180 grams of protein in a day through food. What I like about the egg white protein is it doesn't fill me up or make me feel bloated so I can essentially drink it at any time. 3 or 4 shakes a day maybe? I took a more unscientific approach to how many shakes I drink lol. Kind of disgusting but hey I have no shame lol. Anyway I can tell if I'm taking in too much because I'll end up shitting it out...you'll just know.
As far as Hodgetwins those guys are crazy and I love watching their video's haha. I'd love to try intermittent fasting but I feel like my body would shut down, I have to eat something throughout the day otherwise I'll get shaky and shit.

Haha yes of course man, its definitely broscience...broscience and lifting go hand and hand haha! But I can kinda back it up, what burns fat? Accelerated heart rate, I kinda do the high weight low rep/low weight/high rep thing. EX:

Monday - Chest/tri (high weight, low rep)
Tuesday - Back/bi (high weight, low rep)
Wednesday - Shoulders/legs (High weight/low rep)
Thursday - Off day abs/cardio
Friday - Chest/tri (low weight, high rep) etc. . .

I love high rep days because I give myself a 10 second break or so and get back at it, my heart rate is up and I'm sweating like a pig...helping burn fat, which we both agree low fat = more definition =)

I can't really say I'm skeptical of what you say about low weight/high rep building endurance. Its hard to explain, but the more you do the better you can do them. For me this is applicable to dips/pull ups, I could barely do 1 dip when I first started now I can bang them out no problem with weight hanging from me. But you're right 8-12 reps is definitely a good middle ground and a safe bet for lifting in general!

This ^^, I obsessed watching youtube videos for a long time about people working out, just to see how its done!

I like where you're heads at, 3 days on 1 day off...all body parts get hit 2 a week!

Umm, I'd say you should try and stay somewhat static with your workouts/diet...Only for right now simply because you're new and diving into a big big world of gimmicks and the new craze. You gotta figure out what works for your body and what you like, because if you don't like it you'll most like just not do it which is never good! But when you stick with it and start seeing results it'll turn from a chore to a stress reliever in a heartbeat =). If you like I could write up some form of workout routine that you could use as a template to play off of! Don't forget google is definitely you're friend in that aspect as well!

You're on the sauce right? And that's not necessarily true! If you practice it, your body will become acclimated to it...within reason of course, if you lift the same body part 5 times a week you'll probably just break yourself down....but lifting body parts twice a week is more than manageable!

 

God I don't want to imagine trying to slug one of them down. My current Whey Protein is already very thick so I have to put more than the recommended 200ml's of milk in otherwise I hate the consistency too much.

That's a liberty I don't have unfortunately and I'm envious. Perhaps my stomach isn't accustomed to the Whey Protein just yet but if I don't stretch it out over 15 minutes at least then I'll end up feeling slightly ill.

God I love the Hodgetwins haha. Yeah I saw that channel of theirs, I'd love to discuss intermittent fasting with you at some point on skype (so as to not completely de-rail the thread).

Broscience: 50% science, 50% magic, 100% results haha

Do you alter your diet during the low weight days or anything?

Gotta love the definition.

I can't wait to get some pull ups in my life. Managed to snag a brand new pull up bar for $1 + shipping. Arrived yesterday, I just have no idea whereabouts in my garage I'll be able to install it and how haha. Will be a welcomed addition to my pull day.

 

Fuck... All this quoting is doing my head in haha...

But anyways... Everyone can give advise, no one is right and no one is wrong.. (unless you come out with some stupid shit like mcdonalds chicken nuggets diet)..

Training is simple.. You have to train your muscles and they will then grow. How you train them is up to you. Push & pull or splits. Each will do the job.
I personally find splits work best for me as I train with high intensity completely mashing each muscle. I have tried push & pull but found to not be able to completely "work" the muscles in that group.

Diet: I would go with a set diet because if you work/ school you can eat your macros with no fuss... I like the idea of eating what ever to get your macros but would you really want to sit there and figure out what to eat each meal?

Supplements: Read reviews, make your own stacks.

Steroids: Magic.. But you need to research and plan, if you don't have your training and diet 100% then do not attempt AAS.


Try lots of things. Confuse your muscles!

This is me about 3 weeks ago.

 

Another one of these threads, just lol.

You began your journey of bodybuilding by initially browsing bb.com, nek minit you post a thread on Sythe?

Stick to bb.com if you want actual advice.

 

You don't need literally to do anything specific. You won't be doing any isolations, and all you should be focusing on is compound exercises to build a foundation - deadlifts, sqauts, lunges, weighted lunges, benchpress and hyperextensions.

Eat as much as you can. Doesn't matter what at current, just eat and eat. When you start to gain weight, then focus on a healthy diet with increased calory intake.

Actual advice and what to do when is only necessary when you've actually made progress.

 

Haha yeaaa I feel you, I cant deal with that shit! Try ON Egg White Protein, consistency is incredibly thin, shakes up nice with no chunks, andddd tastes like a good chocolate milkshake when mixed with milk!

Ahh really? Like I said in Mmm Donuts thread, I literally cook up 5 days worth of food and throw it in tupperware bins haha. Not really because I'm I think I'm an npc pro or anything, its just cheaper, healthier and more convenient...did i mention cheaper lol?

Haha, I'm down man...I'll create a skype and let you know!

Lol! Thats what got me through my first year of lifting!!

Nope, My diet stays the same all the way through the heavy/light days. They come and go quick, 3 days of each body part lifting heavy, 1 day off, then 3 days of lifting light and repeat!

Ahh nice bro! You gotta get on that, nothing says in shape dude like having functional muscle! Ie: pulling yourself up "x" amount of times etc. . .I'm big on function muscle....like strength to size to endurance ratio, pretty sure its something I made up haha. But I don't find a 300lb boulder benching 400lbs for a 1rm as impressive as a dude pulling or dipping with weight on him for reps and sets. Thats just me though!

Lol, did you ready anything in the thread? Those dudes gave some pretty good advice, and they're guaranteed "real" people....I say real in the sense they aren't weight training robots, we started out on a gaming website which for me gives a sense of normalcy that lifting and looking good can actually be attainable. Also just because a forum is geared towards something else doesn't mean it can't supply good information about another topic.

J E, what are you running again? I can definitely tell some form of long ester test is in the mix!!

 

Haha you speak sense!!...

Why the 3 days of light lifting though? Why not just hit it with 100% all the time?

And nope no long ester, just low dose of test prop and finishing with some anavar plus the normal pct routine

 

Lol, do you even forum?

There have been many of these 'bodybuilding' threads created where OP seeks the advice of Sythe.org for vivid bodybuilding information.

Obviously there are people who lift on these forums, on any forums in that matter.

However bb.com is targeted at what the website name states, bodybuilding.

The OP of this thread has a link to a sample 12 weeks training program from bb.com, which to me means he has explored parts of bb.com.

Therefore I was stating the fact that he should have stayed there, or even created a thread there (although not necessary as the Search option would suffice), as there is a bountiful of information there rather than here.

Now if you prefer to listen to people with < 1 year of lifting experience on a black market gaming website, you are definitely free to do so.

Good luck OP, stay safe.

Edit: @Jack Goff, if you want more info about intermittent fasting PM me.

However obviously watch most of hodgetwins vid's first, as they give a slight insight about it.

 

Yes bb is dedicated to bodybuilding... But all OP is asking for is advice. We would post the same advise weather replying to a Sythe thread or a BB.com thread.. Advice is advice were ever it comes from.

I am sure some people on bb.com are part of other forums? Does that mean there advice is useless.

Your clearly jumping into this thread on your high horse because you think your some guru selling "fitness" guides.

 

alot of other threads with tips bro

 

Cheers for the help guys. I'm gunna do a bit more research but will take all the information and tips on board!

@Jeff I do get what you mean. I have lurked the bb forums for a while and have picked stuff up from it, but I know some people on sythe have been successful themselves as well so thought why not ask them.