Newbie to workout! Help me!

M

mojo420

0
Hello my names joe I have been pathetically attempting to workout for near a year now. I'm either not doing enough, not doing it right, or I just plain suck. I'm finally going to devise a workout plan and stick to it. Heres a link to my picture thread to see where im at http://www.fitness.com/forum/showthread.php?p=72809#post72809.

I'm 5'10 180 lbs been a small lil bitch my whole life (fatty fat now from quitting smoking cigarettes) . Im hoping to change that.

This is what I was planning to do. I have 3 days to workout with weights at my house, only one of those days of which Ill have a spotter. I want to work as many muscle groups as I can, with as few seperate exercises that i can. Ill do cardio (running/jogging 2 miles for 20 mins) on the alternating days.
I want to do it something like this
Sun: bench + incline bench +? + ? (only day my roommate can spot me)
mon: run 2 miles
tues: bicep barbell curl, dumbell curl, con curl? + ? + ?
wed: run 2 miles
thurs: ? ? ? ? no idea ( want shoulders and back, maybe military press/ rows?)
fri: run 2 miles
sat: rest

What excercises are the best to do (at home no spotter only free weights)? How should I split up my days, what muscle groups? What excercises best suit the most muscle groups at once? I only want to do at most 4 seperate excercises a day, and preferably no more than 1 hour per day.

Also on a seperate note... how should i progress my weight? This one huge dude I was talking to told me to do something like this and I was considering it. He said a 3 week cycle of toning, mid range, and power was what he did.
he did it like this
week 1: all exercises 65-75% of max weight 3 x 20reps
week 2: all exercises 75-85% of max weight 3 x 8-12 reps
week 3: all exercises 85-95% of max weight 3 x 3-5 reps

Then he came back to week 1 with 5-10lbs more on each exercise. Sound good?


Also how long should you rest between sets? Is going from one exercise into another right away with no rest a good idea to save time? What exercises can you do it with?

And last question= is what you eat really that important? Should I get protein shakes or can I just eat my usual ****?

I thank you so much in advance and for taking the time to read my lil blurb. Please help me and suggest what you can, Im too much of a weakling to go to a gym and be shamed by huge dudes and im too poor to hire a personal trainer (and i dont know where to get one anyway). I searched for fitness forums on internet and found this one... please help!!!! THANKS :D

Joe
 
by the way i can max bench ~170 lbs and barbell curl ~ 90 lbs. thats all i have been doing really regularly up to this point, and even that not so much.
 
mojo420 said:
And last question= is what you eat really that important? Should I get protein shakes or can I just eat my usual ****?
Click to expand...

Yes, in fact diet is the most important part. I'm guessing you want to focus on building muscle and losing fat. 3-5 reps, around 8-12 reps, about 2min rest between exercises.

A lot of people like to do bodybuilding type workouts where you split each day into like 2 groups (i.e. chest,biceps). I myself don't like doing this, instead I like to do 2days upper/2 days lower

Also, base you workout around compound exercises....rows, bench presses, squat, deadlifts, over-head presses, pull-ups etc. Compounds work more than one muscle at a time and also gets testosterone flowing more than, for example, a curl or tricep kickback.
 
Get your protein intake to around 150+ grams a day, eat all throughout the day. Small meals each with their own protein. Like someone said before, diet is key. As for training, a common 3 day split would be Chest/Tri's/Anterior Delts ---- Legs ---- Back/Bi's/Posterior Delts. Push Upper/Lower/Pull Lower.

Seach this site and you'll find a few like that, and probably some more reccomendations for 3 day workouts.

Good luck, and don't get down on yourself. Believe it or not, a lot of lifting is mental.
 
Don't get too down on yourself. I didn't see your age but you look fairly young yet. Back in my 20s I hit the weights pretty hard. Bought the supplements, weight gainers, etc. I worked my BP up to 254lbs and easily could curl 70lbs with one arm. I never got big. I did manage to go from about 153 to 165. Now I am in my 40s, 5' 10 1/2" and too have gained weight from quitting smoking. I still use an off brand snuff but believe me there is no comparison in nicotine levels. I went from that old 153 to 165 without gaining any muscle except table muscle if you know what I mean. Now I am doing something about that but the one thing I know now that I didn't know then is that I will never be big. At least the Hulk Hogan or Arnold Schwarzenegger big. I just don't have the genetics and that's fine, I just want to be what I can be. If I can be healthy, feel good and do what I want I will be happy.

There is plenty of enjoyment that can be had from strength training and aerobic exercise without letting unrealistic goals ruin the fun for you. Keep doing what you are doing and maybe consider some other forms of exercise. I have taken up inline skating. Not too expensive and something our whole family can participate in. Now I am not saying take up skating but find things you like and do them. Don't let not being the next Mr. Olympia stop your journey to health and fitness.

I just started here but you can take a look at my diary for my progress.
http://www.fitness.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11443
 
Diet is not the most important part. Weight training and cardio is more important.

Look at it this way. If you eat garbage with a lot of calories and workout, you'll still grow and turn into a fat burning machine. If you eat perfect and don't workout, your going practically nowhere, besides losing fat at a very slow rate.
 
If you don't eat you aren't gonna grow, period. As long as you eat, even if you have a sh** routine, you're still gonna grow...some. I'm don't necessarily meaan you have to clean bulk either, even though it's better for you in the long run. Why is this being brought up a month after the last post anyways?
 
Champr23 said:
Diet is not the most important part. Weight training and cardio is more important.

Look at it this way. If you eat garbage with a lot of calories and workout, you'll still grow and turn into a fat burning machine. If you eat perfect and don't workout, your going practically nowhere, besides losing fat at a very slow rate.
Click to expand...

WTF? This the dumbest shyte I've ever heard. Don't post your retarded nonsense. You know the saying, garbage in, garbage out? You're putting too much in.

Diet is absolutely the single most important aspect. It's the foundation of all a person's endeavors.
 
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Mojo, you need to hit the planes of movement:

Upperbody horizontal push (bench press)
Upperbody horizontal pull (bent over rows)
Upperbody vertical push (shoulder press)
Upperbody vertical pull (pull-ups)
quad dominant (squats)
Hip dominant (deadlifts).

That's six moves. Add ab work and calves (you don't want thundering thighs on stilty calves, do you?) and that's eight.

Split this, say a push/pull routine:

Push
A: squats, bench press, standing calf raises, shouler presses
Pull
B: deadlifts, pull-ups, russian twists, bent over rows.

Mon: A@4x6
Tue: B@4x6
Thu: A@5x9
Fri: B@5x9

Or a similar scheme.
 
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