new to the workout scene

[NOFX]

so I have been working out for about 2.5 weeks now, hitting the gym every other day. Im 25 and never worked out in my life. Im tall and skinny, 6'0 about 150 lbs.

 

I did tons of research on the net when I started and different people tell you different things, but out of all the research I've done, I know that it is safe to work the same muscle groups out 48 hours after the last workout and that is what I have been doing. Im currently doing about 7-8 of the same exercises every workout, two sets.. I will mix it up once I get nice and comfortable with these. And right now, Im only doing upper body. I put on enough weight to where I can barely do 10 reps, but I actually shoot for enough weight tfor around 6 reps.

 

I also have an excel spreadsheet of the weight and reps I can do with each exercise, it helps me stay motivated and keeps track of my progress.

 

I don't know if I was just underestimating my ability or what, but within two and a half weeks here is the progress I have made with 10 reps of each. Yes its quite embarrassing what I bench, so Ill just list my progress, maybe one day when I can put up some decent numbers, Ill post the whole thing. Having zero fat on myself and just a little bit of muscle, I can actually see changes already, plus I feel very healthy and I already feel stronger.

 

I've been taking in as much calories as I can and been drinking protein shakes like they are milkshakes..

 

+15lbs to the bench

+15lbs to inclined press

+30lbs bicep curls

+10lbs tricep extension

 

if anyone has any advice for me, please share. Im up for anything..

[mohawk]

so I have been working out for about 2.5 weeks now, hitting the gym every other day. Im 25 and never worked out in my life. Im tall and skinny, 6'0 about 150 lbs.

 

I did tons of research on the net when I started and different people tell you different things, but out of all the research I've done, I know that it is safe to work the same muscle groups out 48 hours after the last workout and that is what I have been doing. Im currently doing about 7-8 of the same exercises every workout, two sets.. I will mix it up once I get nice and comfortable with these. And right now, Im only doing upper body. I put on enough weight to where I can barely do 10 reps, but I actually shoot for enough weight tfor around 6 reps.

 

I also have an excel spreadsheet of the weight and reps I can do with each exercise, it helps me stay motivated and keeps track of my progress.

 

I don't know if I was just underestimating my ability or what, but within two and a half weeks here is the progress I have made with 10 reps of each. Yes its quite embarrassing what I bench, so Ill just list my progress, maybe one day when I can put up some decent numbers, Ill post the whole thing. Having zero fat on myself and just a little bit of muscle, I can actually see changes already, plus I feel very healthy and I already feel stronger.

 

I've been taking in as much calories as I can and been drinking protein shakes like they are milkshakes..

 

+15lbs to the bench

+15lbs to inclined press

+30lbs bicep curls

+10lbs tricep extension

 

if anyone has any advice for me, please share. Im up for anything..

 

Why are you lifting? Get stronger? Bigger? Healthier?.. i'm assuming all of the above.. but you sould curtail your exercises depending on your goals..

 

 

Just some general things to keep in mind:

-mix up the 7 or so exercises that you do per body part after every 4 weeks or so

-If you're lifting the same body part every 72 hours and you're performing the same exercises, mix up your weights and reps.. for instance... chest on tuesday - bench 150 10 reps x 3 sets, chest again on Friday - bench 175 4-6 reps x 2 sets.. Mixing up your weights and reps will work different parts of a muscel in different ways

-Start lifting legs!!! or atleast incorporate some squants, lunges, cleans.. they may seem intimidating at start.. and you may feel like an idiot for using low weights at first just to get technique.. but they can be the most important exercises of your workout!

-mix in some cardio.. even if you dislike running? Adding 20-30 minutes of intense ( sprints are great) cardio workout a couple times a week is going to give you significant more return on your 4-5 lifting workouts a week

[Unclean]

To add to Mohawk's excellent list, here are a few more.

 

- ANY weight you're lifting is not embarassing. We all had to start somewhere. Stop comparing yourself to other people, and continue to compare yourself to your prior bests.

- Set goals for yourself. "I want to be able to lift X amount of weight by day Y." or "I want to weigh X lbs by day Y"

- Do not "over-lift". If you're really straining, you can feel your forehead veins popping out, or are shaking like crazy, you're lifting more than you can handle. Odds are that if you're working out like that, your form is terrible too, and you're either wasting your time, developing the wrong muscles at the wrong time, or potentially hurting yourself.

- Spend time stretching before and after EVERY workout.

[stutters]

get an iPhone. Makes Cardio time fly by.

[NOFX]

thanks for some of the tips guys..

 

My goal is to gain mass and get stronger. Im 100% perfectly healthy by any doctors standard.. but I am about 15-20 lbs underweight. I should weight somewhere in the neighborhood of 170. After going all these years of thinking Id pick up weight one day, I dont think its going to happen.

 

mohawk, now that you know my goal, do you still think cardio is a good idea? I've read I want to save as many calories as I should.

[mohawk]

thanks for some of the tips guys..

 

My goal is to gain mass and get stronger. Im 100% perfectly healthy by any doctors standard.. but I am about 15-20 lbs underweight. I should weight somewhere in the neighborhood of 170. After going all these years of thinking Id pick up weight one day, I dont think its going to happen.

 

mohawk, now that you know my goal, do you still think cardio is a good idea? I've read I want to save as many calories as I should.

 

yes, without a doubt. besides the obvious health reasons (heart and lung).. it helps with injury prevention and it will create a contrasting stress to your lifting workouts, that will allow your body to recover quicker..

 

It's really the hard-core professional body builders who should do absolutely no cardio. A short run (30 minutes or so) isn't going to break down any muscel mass.. especially if you're eating a ton of carbs already...

 

my suggestion - keep crushing carbs during your meals.. and get a 20-30 minute light run in before you lift.. It will warm up your cardiovascular system and help you get better gains and more muscel mass from your lifting work out.

[appalachian_fox]

What's your motivation for gaining mass and getting stronger? You're going to have to keep working to maintain, and though you won't have to work as hard, you may lose your gains if you don't keep it up long enough to get your body to shift, and there's only so much you can change your natural body situation. Do you just want to be bigger, or is there another brass ring you're chasing?

 

The only reason I ask is because motivation will be your biggest foe, as you will need a reason to keep going for years if you want to maintain.

 

Good work so far, and just like others have said, compare yourself to your past self. Different people have different body structures, metabolisms, etc., so it's not fair to yourself in many cases to compare against others.

[NOFX]

well my motivation is simply just to get bigger. I don't really have much more than that. Haven't been dumped or anything like that. I would really like to hit 170 lbs and just stay at that level from there out.

 

In the past, I know I havent had the greatest diet, so this weekend, I started counting my calorie and protein intake, in a spreadsheet. I've been eating alot better and I think I've been taking in alot more calories than normal, so I'm going to try it out this calorie counting for a week to make sure that I am getting what I think I'm getting.

 

so I gotta question for you guys. How much weight do you normally lose at night when sleeping. When I weight myself, I seem to weigh less in the mornings.

 

I weight myself last night and it was 150. I wake up and I weight 146.5. 3.5 lbs seems like alot. Btw, I normally stay around 144, but never under 142.

[Fairweather]

i'd say my best advise is to stay away from the scale, sure take a step on it every once in a while but constantly monitoring it make any gains seem very little and un-noticable

just keep going through with your plan and be concerned with sticking with it more than what the scale says

 

gains do take a long time so dont be discouraged if you dont start packing on the pounds within a few weeks

[NOFX]

your right, I guess I will stay away from the scale from here on out.. but I do know I have picked up a solid 4 lbs since I have started.. I now no longer go below 146, but Im usually around 148-149. Is that a pretty decent gain for just a month of hitting the gym?

 

Im just gonna hop on the scale every 2 weeks or a month or something. Now that I have gotten somewhat used to my routine, I am breaking away and doing different stuff.. Im really weak on bench press and my arms gets tired before my chest. I just found a killer way to exercise the chest without so much strain on the arms by using the pully's. I also found the pully is great for working the tricep so I don't have to hold a heavy dumbbell over my heard...heard... heard... head

Edited October 12, 2007 by NOFX

[mohawk]

reading this thread depresses me.. I am so fat and out of shape atm

[NOFX]

Im now somewhere around 150-152 and have added +35 lbs to my bench reps, compared to when i started

Edited October 29, 2007 by NOFX

[TheGeek]

Don't feel bad about benching. When I started out I could only do 120? 130? Sad thing is, I weighed 190 pounds. It took me about 6 months to get it up to 190 pounds. The begining of the workout process is the best! Enjoy it

And when you hit the brick wall (not everybody does) where the LAST thing you want to do is work out, push through it. I barely made it through the wall.

 

People say that the best time to work out is in the morning. Ive been going at 11pm to 1am. Its a lot more fun when there is nobody there lol.

 

good luck! your making better progress than me when i started

[NOFX]

well if anyone is even reading this thread im still keeping up with my routine. I ran into a few things though. The past few weeks have been off, I still have been at least 3 times a week, but i missed about 5 days for thanksgiving. Also, my left elbow is constantly staying sore. I think I strained it a while back. It has been for Id say at least 3 weeks now. Those 5 days off made it feel better, but it is still a little sore. I hope its nothing major, but I am alot stronger in my right arm compared to my left. So recently Ive been trying to take it easy on that arm.

 

Stepped on the scale just before I hit the bed tonight and Im up to 157. I would say I have put on at least a solid 10-12 lbs in about 10 weeks. Im pushing for the 160 mark by christmas.

 

picked up a few new exercises and have been rotating works outs. Chest, back, shoulders one day. Arms the next.

 

have picked up doing things like flys, working lower back, lots of situps, pushups everday and dips. Feeling alot more comfortable in the gym.

Edited November 27, 2007 by NOFX

[NOFX]

ok, I hit my first goal yesterday and I decided I will go ahead and announce how weak I really am. The very first day I hit the gym I was only able to put up 90lbs 10 times and it about killed my arms. So I dropped down to 80-85 and went up from there. My log shows that on September 18th, I did

85x7 and 90x5. Yesterday I went in and haven't done bench in a while. I put two 45's on and was able to put up 135x8. A solid 45 lbs increase!

goal 1 of benching 135- check!.

goal of gaining 10 lbs- check!

 

My next goals are to hit

160 lbs. just 2-3 lbs shy of it

and to bench 150 within 2 months.

[NOFX]

I got 150 up twice about a week or so ago. Where I went to florida for a week for work, it threw off my diet and my routine. Now I'm going home for a week or so next week. Come back for 2 weeks, then back to florida for a week. This traveling really messes up my schedule and is putting me behind, but as long as I can stay where I am now until I get back from that florida trip, I'll be happy. With all that is going on Im stuck at about 156-157lbs. Hopefully I can pick back up where I left off once I get back into my routine.

 

today, I was doing 65lb curls, up from 45lbs, Also 65lb skullcrushers, up from 55lb. Starting focusing alot more on low reps and more weight. Also cut back to working out certain parts 2x a week at the most.

 

 

I know Im talking to myself now, but don't worry. Im writing this for myself to come back and read down the road. My offical my workout log. It will be a sad day when Im fat and lazy and come back and read this. Maybe it will give me motivation.

[Fairweather]

wow your really gettin up their fast, definentally keep it up

[NOFX]

Haven't been to the gym in a week, thanks to the holidays. December wasn't all that great of a month, I was very inconsistent with travel and such. Im looking at it as a month to maintain the gains I made. Tonight will be my first night back. Gonna take it a little easy for a week to get back into the swing of things, then Im gonna hit it hard for another 3 months straight and start my new years resolution(goals listed below).

 

It looks like my weight has settled around 156-157. This is without my normal diet and no gym for a week. Last time I was benching, I was doing 135 around 5 or 6 reps.

 

New goals to reach by end of March/Mid April.

 

weight 170

10 reps of 150lbs on bench.

 

I'm setting reasonable goals that I know I can accomplish and then I'll work up from there. Judging by my first 3 months, hopefully, I'll be able to surpass my bench goals

Edited January 3, 2008 by NOFX

[shep48]

big jumps can be made with a good partner and negative reps way past failure. remember the reason your body is building bigger muscles is to deal with what u r putting it through.

[NOFX]

Well, it looks like i took my time and wasn't able to get back into it so quickly. I finally made it back from florida and ready to go I started back my routine this week and got back to trying to take in 3500+ calories a day.

 

I haven't lost any strength, Im just not used to the intensity. I got a feeling it will be a week or so more before I'll feel like Im picking up where I left off.

 

Jan 17th - start weight 155.

[NOFX]

its been about two weeks and it took about a week and a half to feel like I am picking up where I left off. Don't have my workout partner, so that sucks. Benching about the same as I did when I stopped for a month.

 

on october 1st I said

 

I normally stay around 144, but never under 142.

 

weight this morning was 160, I'm getting close to hitting the 20 lbs mark. I really don't feel like I've gained anything though...

[Fairweather]

20lbs?? impressive

[All Kill3r]

How much you weight now Sam ? Nice gains you were having. never thought i would see the day you were in a gym, haha !

[NOFX]

Well, I went from 142 and in february I got up to about 163.... I have been busy with work here lately going to florida and stuff, so I have only been going off and on since early February... Here soon when things settle down and I can stay on schedule Im gonna get back into routine..... I think my weight settled somewhere around 156.

Edited March 19, 2008 by NOFX

[NOFX]

wow, I just went back and read this for some motivation.. Last time I post was 16 months ago. I pretty stopped going to the gym and stopped eating like I was. I lost everything I had gained and last friday I weighted 144 again... I have nothing on my plate anymore now that my townhouse is finally sold and I'm getting back into this...

 

I started up my diet last week and have been eating 3000+ calories every day. Went to the gym for the first day this weekend and I was worse than I was the very first time I went a couple years ago. I had absolutely no energy and it was very demotivating actually.. I almost just wanted to go home and never come back. I could barely bench what I was doing when I went in the first time.

 

But, I have done this before and I know exactly what I have to do it again. I'm not going to burn myself out this time either. Last time I got demotivated because my gains in strength started slowing down. This time, I'm not going to make it a goal to bench X. I'm just trying to pick up weight again and feel as healthy and as strong as I did when I was into it. My arms are still a little sore from my first day a couple days ago, but I'm heading back to the gym tonight for day 2.