3 Main tips for beginners

Nick500

I hope this helps some people in trying to understand why they aren't gaining on their current routine...

Its good your going to the gym, but i can tell you exactly why you aren't seeing any gains.

Your situation is similar to some people I train at my gym, they can't get it into their heads why after doing hundreds of sets of bicep curls and side lateral raises over months and months of training they aren't suddenly massive.

3 main reasons here which are KEY:

- As a beginner, avoid isolation exercises like the plague. - This is one of the hardest concepts that beginners have to grasp when I tell them this. What I mean by this is, do NO: bicep curls, tricep extensions, calf raises, lateral raises. WHY? Because to get big, you have to see the bigger picture. Biceps are a TINY muscle, why doing countless bicep curls, do you really think your body, as a unified mass, is going to grow significantly? NO. Three or perhaps four exercises are all you need as a beginner. SQUAT (the most important exercise of them all - entire lower body and back), DEADLIFT (a close second - entire back, and lower body), BENCH PRESS (entire upper body, and back). I guaruntee, if you concentrate on these exercises, with an optional CLEAN + PRESS day (perhaps when your more confident), you will blow up in mass.

- Overtraining: Don't do more than (at the absolute maximum) 12 sets on a certain body part per week..., and you don't grow IN the gym, you grow OUT of the gym When you intensely work out a muscle group, you are causing micro-tears to the muscle (hypertrophy). So essentially, in the gym, you cause damage to your muscles, they are inferior as you leave the gym than when they were when you got there. The important thing to note here is that you grow outside the gym, in the reparation of these tears. In my opinion, keep volume low (i.e keep the number of sets for major muscle groups to 12 sets per week), and keep intensity high (this means busting your gut SO HARD, in EVERY set except warmups), for a maximum of 8 reps. Remember, we are going for a dramatic transformation of the body here, we aim to shock the body and really kick it hard into a muscle building and mass building state.

- Nutrition, particularly AFTER the workout: Most people finish their workout, have a chat with their mates, maybe shower and sauna, drive home, perhaps stop in on the supermarket, then think about cooking some food about 1 1/2 hrs after working out. NO!! You have a window of opportunity here, where your muscles are so depleted of energy and nutrients, that they are craving some nutrition. Cortisol (the enemy catabolic hormone - which burns muscle) is high, so as you leave the gym feeling pumped and you feel like you have done loads of good, you are literally burning away in your skin. You are getting smaller. You need to exit this catabolic state ASAP, how do you do it? Post workout nutrition. You need to inject your muscles super quickly with amino acids and carbohydrate to refeed the depleted glycogen stores and kill cortisol that has just been created by the workout. Most people do this by having a protein shake, which is 25 - 50 grams of 'whey' protein (a fast protein fraction of milk), ideally with some HIGH GI (think sugar) carbohydrate. Personally, i go for 50 grams of pure dextrose powder, with 2 scoops of whey protein mix (Optimum nutrition chocolate protein), within 15 minutes of finishing my workout. THIS IS CRUCIAL. If you aren't willing to have a protein shake, have some lean chicken already cooked in your gym bag, and some white bread, eat it immediately after working out.


I hope this proves useful to some people beginning training, try and see the big picture. To get big, you have to train big, eat big and think of the overall condition. Don't get caught up on minor fat gain, or do these little irrelevant exercises like bicep curls. Lift strong, with legs being your focus (maximising your natural hormone release and therefore muscle gain), and don't neglect them.

Nick

JayCee2

should make this a sticky very informative

nice one nick

GALTONATOR

As always good stuff

davidjparfitt

Thanks for the info nick!

PW2006

thanks for the info nick,

i've been going to gym now for last 4 months and have gone from 11.5 stone up to 13 but have concentrated on specific parts doing a routine a friend put together

would i be better off switching to the 3 exercises now or carry on where i am?

cheers

Nick500

A combination I think, because you're not a total beginner. Make sure deadlift, squat and bench press (+ optionally clean and press) are a basis to your routine (in my opinion...), but add in some of the exercises you are currently doing.

Poom

yea good advice especially on the emphasizing the core exercise,

Bench squat dead etc.

Shame at my gym i cant do even one of these exercises