New person help!

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Mattb22

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Hi, i'm 17, I weigh 172lb/78.18 kg . I am 180cm/5'11" tall. I plan on building some lean muscle and also want to define it. However at the minute my body looks a bit... well flabby but that is just my opinion.

My question is should I be aiming to gaining muscle weight or losing weight. I have read that you should aim to either build muscle mass, or lose body fat% but I am unsure which I should be doing.

Please help!

Thanks mattb22
 
You are still young, that is to your advantage. At 5'11'' and 172lbs you probably don't need to be cutting. Just start a good GPP weight lifting cycle with some good stretching and possibly swimming on your off days. Since you are just starting, if you put in the effort you will see great results after 6 weeks.
 
Thanks so I should be looking for a slight surplus in calories?. I love swimming so thats in my favour. By the way what do you mean by GPP, sorry unfamiliar with the terminology. Going to start my diet of 5 small meals a day tomorrow as opposed to the regular 3 meals I have been eating.

I know I should be looking for a lot of protein in my meals soo... were talking about, tuna sandwiches, beans, eggs and meats? sounds good to me.

Thanks so more help though please.
 
GPP = General physical preparedness. This simply means that you need to first develop a general level of fitness in order for your body to be able to fully adapt to future (possibly harder) more specific oriented training sessions. For you, this means that you should be working to develop your core stength and stability before moving to strict athletic or bodybuilding training sessions.

Target exercises which develop your core like : Deadlifts, push ups, pull ups, side press, cleans, snatches, clean and jerk etc..

You are definately going to want to keep your meals well balanced and have an appropriate amount of protein for your bodytype/weight/activity level. 5 meals should be good. Your list of proteins is good, but don't forget about your post workout meal. The easiest way is to have a protein shake with simple and complex carbs immediately after your training session. You don't necessarily need an excess of calories unless you are looking to bulk more. With the proper diet, you will still bulk and burn fat.
 
So I to build a core, does this mean to build enough strength to allow me too do heavier lifting? Just a bit confused by it. At the moment I only have a couple of dumbells at home. I used to go the gym and will start it up soon, however I don't want to bulk up HUGE but I don't want thin either. What I do want to bulk up is my pecs and abs mainly, my legs are already like tree trunks and just need the def. But I guess like you say first I need a core?
 
You should be lifting heavy to build your core. Of course 'heavy' is a subjective term for each individual. Keep your reps and sets low and you won't get 'huge' as you put it. Lifting heavy does not mean you will get huge. Back in the 50s a world class deadlifter was a farmer who only weighed 160lbs wet.

Here is the simplest workout for you.

Take your dumbbells,
-Do lunges with them in your hands, do a shoulder shrug after each lunge (like every time you do your left leg).
-Do clean and jerks with them.
Put them on the floor and use them as handholds while you do push ups with your feet up on a chair.
-Do pull ups where you can.
-There are many other variations you can do. I recommend the clean and jerk especially though.
-Find some other calisthenics and plyos to do on non lifting days with your cardio.

Then, after a couple weeks, hopefully you will be in the gym doing deadlifts and other full body lifts with heavy weight. A good weight for you would something you can do 10times before you fail. Then, just do 5 sets of 5 reps of that weight with good form.
 
Tomorrow my brother-in-law is giving me his barbell and dumbell set so at least I will have more to work with than just a couple of 30lb dumbells, haha.
So for my core strength I should try maybe some dead lifts, clean and jerks, lunges, push-ups, pull-ups, crunches? Do you think this would be good to build up some core strength?

Thanks again.
 
So for my core strength I should try maybe some dead lifts, clean and jerks, lunges, push-ups, pull-ups, crunches? Do you think this would be good to build up some core strength?
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Absolutely. And now you have the barbell to do deadlifts and side press with !:D

I would do that this way. (If it were me)

Day 1
-Warmup-
Deadlift
Clean and jerk
Ab work (not just crunches)
Stretch

Day 2
Off or cardio, stretch

Day 3
Calisthenics, abs, stretch

Day 4
Off or cardio, stretch

Day 5
Off or (start over)

In that order exactly. This way you have recoverry days built in when you need them. Don't train if you are too sore, take the day off and do stretches. Don't (seriously) stretch before working out. Do a warmup, then a light stretch, the train, then the good stretching (don't bounce). Remeber you are building stength, so high reps is not the goal while you lift. Save the reps for cals. Even then, if you are doing high rep cals - try adding a small weight in the exercises you can.
 
So i'm only actually doing one day of weight training, the rest is just basically cals and abs, is this usually a good way to start johnny?
 
So i'm only actually doing one day of weight training, the rest is just basically cals and abs, is this usually a good way to start johnny?
Click to expand...

That is what I recommend for the first week or two. Then compress the cycle until you hit a load that pushes you.
What you can do is take out one of the days off if you feel strong, and continue the cycle. If you started over on day 5, that would still make 2 lifting days and 2 cals days in one week > Pretty good.
 
Right thanks mate, the barbell and weights, are coming tonight so it looks like my weights are a no-go for today, because I work till 10 tonight and don't get home till around 10:30.
Meaning I will me a bit to exhausted to start training. So tomorrow it is, I suppose its cals today!
 
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