For anyone who actually reads this and comments I am grateful.
Bit of background so you get where Im coming from. First off here is me: I have studied Martial Arts since I was 3 years old up to about a year ago. I was lucky enough to be landed with Chinese parents (who new Northern Style Shaolin Kung fu) even though I’m European. Long story. Anyway the martial arts has always keep me in shape and most people that have known me always envied my bod. Didn’t REALLY do any weight training.
1 year ago (34 years old) I lost the plot. Call it mid life crisis, I don’t know. But I started drinkin bucket loads of booze and eating fast food every meal almost. This year I have finally managed to crawl out of that hole and start rebuilding my life. It’s all going well. I’m getting back into the martial arts and my flexibility is returning. Great! So I thought I might like to beef up a little and so decided to do some weight training. This is where its gets ugly.
I love to push weights. It gives me a rush and feels great! I was brought up that when you went to the gym and did 12 reps, and then increase the weight for 10 reps and again for 8 and again for 6. This seemed to be the norm for gaining muscle. So using this “OLD” style here I am now using it.
Next step buy some books and join a forum. Searched for forums found bunches of them. I chose this one cause it looked like the best one I had seen. I enthusiastically purchase a couple of books that are mentioned in the threads etc. Basically try to get some knowledge and advice. Most people here seem to be pretty clued up in most areas of weight training and this is all great.
Here is the problem
As I mentioned above there used to be a simple principal. Eat properly and with the right amounts and get your calories right, push weights with more than your body is normally used to and you will see changes, muscles will grow, get harder, become more defined etc. This simple principle seemed to make sense.
After reading some of these threads and reading the 2 books I just purchased, “Book of Muscle” and “Home workout Bible” I realize that weight training has all of a sudden turned into Rocket Science. Now maybe it isn’t rocket science to an intermediate or advanced builder. But to little ol me, its bloody rocket science.
The Lifting: Lift the weight in 1 second, hold it for 2, drop the weight for 3 etc
The eating : Conflicting opinions. BFL Program (Don’t eat before workouts or after),
Other books (Eat before workouts, during workouts, after workouts)
Workout plans : Every flammin day a new workout comes out that swears black and blue that it will get you results faster than any other and it’s a miracle. Which one are you supposed to choose?
The workouts : Subsets, Supersets, trisets, 30 seconds rest between this one and that one. 2.3867 seconds before you do this. Warm up for 3.56 minutes before the workout, during the workout do it again. Ahhhhhh………
All this stuff seems really complex and it seems like by the time you got it right you’d be 80 when its too late . I thought I was reasonably intelligent. Maybe not and I fluked all my grades at school and I’m just thick. Please tell me some other beginner feels the same way or do I need to go and get counseling. Now I’m at the stage where I think I’m wasting time because I go home and do the basic stuff as in the “Old Days”
Is this principal still true???:
Eat properly and with the right ratios and get your calories right, push weights with more than your body is normally used to and you will see changes, muscles will grow, get harder, become more defined etc
Im absolutely positively confused to hell now. Im a programmer and if people don’t understand anything about Visual Basic I think they are stupid? No…Because I know it and have used it for years so its second nature to me. So please don’t think im an idiot, it just looks dammed difficult from here. Maybe I think too much…
I do enjoy this forum and was very enthusiastic about everything. I would like to stick around but just need a good starting point. Maybe even someone to just tell me “ Do this particular workout and stick to it for 3 months, then you will see the light!”
Cheers all.
__________________
I intend to live forever. So far, so good...Steven Wright
Hefty,
I hear ya!
What you need is a good dose of Chad Waterbury. His methods and routines will help simplify your life and change the way you think about lifting.
In Fitness & Friendship,
Mahler
__________________ In Fitness & Friendship, MAHLER
______________________________ __________________________ There is no light at the end of the tunnel. You carry the light with you.
Eat properly and with the right ratios and get your calories right, push weights with more than your body is normally used to and you will see changes, muscles will grow, get harder, become more defined etc...
Lifting and eating can be as detailed and complex as you would like to make it, but that statement you put in there is always going to hold true.
Also, I can't believe it's been almost a decade now, but I studied a Northern Style called Tien Shan Pai for a number of years. I stopped when I graduated college and moved to rural North Carolina. Unfortunately, I never got back into it when I moved back to a more populace area.
Welcome!
In truth, I'm certain most newbs to lifting feel this way. There are endless ways to lift, endless ways people eat, etc. I would also suggest reading up on a particular expert's method of thinking and follow a routine they have set up for beginners. You don't have to make it complicated. In fact, only as complicated as you want to make it. You can still follow the "old style" priciple and you WILL see results. However once you've been at it for awhile like most of us, you get to sticking points and that's where the rest of us are at... trying to find routines that work, different supplements, different eating methods, etc.
Mahler suggested one such expert and to keep things simple I won't throw out anymore names. Do a search on Chad Waterbury and read up on him.
Again, welcome.. and good luck to you. If you have further questions, don't hesitate to ask, we're all really still learning.
Ok Ive done a search on Chad Waterbury and cannot find any "Beginner" workouts. What I did find in my travels was this Beginners Blast off program by Chris Shugart
OR shall I do the workout for beginners in "The book of Muscle"?
OR anyone got any others that they started with?
__________________
I intend to live forever. So far, so good...Steven Wright
There's an often used quote that came to mind while reading your post: "Everything works but nothing works forever." I'm not sure whose that was... Louie Simmons? Not important.
I completely agree that it can be confusing but I have chosen to NOT LET IT CONFUSE ME and I would suggest the same for you. You don't have to know what every person suggests before you can benefit from just doing something! Obviously, there are a lot of people out there and, as you pointed out, there's a lot of OPINIONS, too. If there were only just facts on this topic, we'd have one little (big?) book with all the indisputable facts in it and BFL would be out of business! So, the way I don't let it confuse me is that I do what I enjoy and what seems, at the moment, to work best for me. Period. As I learn more either from watching how I respond to my training or from reading stuff, I incorporate it and use the two criteria above to guide which parts I keep and which parts I throw out.
The two parts of the quote above are (1) that everything works and (2) nothing works forever. Re: #1, just do whatever you know and you'll likely benefit from it. Re: #2, ANYTHING that you do now will eventually require you to change it up in time to continue to make progress so that means what works for you today may not work for you in six months. Just look at all those different perspectives as opportunities to try something new. Try one, keep reading/learning/testing and move on when you're ready. Remember, fitness is not a destination, it's a journey! (you can put my name by that quote! )
Hefty,
One of the best books I have ever seen for a beginner is Lou Shuler's "Testosterone Advantage Plan". Lou is easy to read and the book has a good diet plan and good workouts. Good luck.
My comments were intended to get you to relax about the whole thing but they don't really give you any help getting off square one, I suppose.
After reading nanook's post, I would COMPLETELY agree with his recommendation!!! I bought it when it first came out and I was a fitness newbie at the time but I have to say that, without being too dramatic, it changed my life forever! I don't want Lou to get too swelled a head - it would put more space between the hairs - but it was exactly what I needed to get my start in making sense of the various aspects of fitness, from diet to exercise. I think it would be a great place to start.
Lou Shuler's "Testosterone Advantage Plan?...LOL
Dang! I just bought two Lou Shuler's books and thats the third that I didn;t get. Maybe thats the one I should have purchased in the first place.
Ok Im reading all the replies. Thanks for them by the way! So I was right, I think to dam much and should just continue the way I am with lifting as much weight as possible and eating right. Then just learn slowly and pick no training program just yet!
__________________
I intend to live forever. So far, so good...Steven Wright
) 
- but it was exactly what I needed to get my start in making sense of the various aspects of fitness, from diet to exercise. I think it would be a great place to start.
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