Hey all, I have been into lifting weights for about 3 months now, and already addicted to it! I am looking for some help setting goals for the next year if anyone has any advice...
I was 'fit' when I started out, but have added some much needed muscle over the last few months, and while the progress has been slow, I have noticed a difference and added about 5kg.
This is all pretty new to me, and the past 3 months has been alot about getting familiar with equipment, exercises, and the gym... the weights I am using are pretty low compared to alot of the stuff I see in the forums here, but I am 100% disciplined and dedicated to growth.
Help with goals:
1. What time frames should I shoot for with goals? Most programs seem to run in 3 month cycles... would it be good to do 3, 6 and 12 month goals?
2. What kind of weight gain should I shoot for? I am tall and lean, classic ectomorph - hardgainer/recovering undereatter (its tough, but get down 3500-4000cals a day). I am 6'5", 183lbs.
3. What kind of weight increases should I set goals for?
Currently my 2RM are:
Benchpress 133lbs
Squat 182lbs
Deadlift 138lbs
(I know, brutal, but this is my first crack at weightlifting ever!)
If you made it this far, thanks for reading, and if you reply, thanks for your time, much appreciated! I live in an isolated area, and don't have any friends into weight training, so this site is an amazing resource for me! Thanks!!!
Considering I have no trouble gaining fat and usually have all my focus on losing it, not gaining weight, I won't be of terribly much help. Just wanted to say welcome.
Welcome to the best fitness site on the web hands down!! Congrats on making a lifestyle change and on the muscle grow. The main thing about goal is that they have to be measurable. You need to know how much by when. In my case I set weekly goals say to workout three times per week with three interval sessions and a game of basketball. Sometimes I break it down to daily goals like I am going to take this one meal and one lift at a time.
Three month, six month, yearly goals are great. Write them out on a piece of paper and look at them each day close your eyes a vizualize yourself as already completing them and that will keep you motivated to keep on pushing towards them. I will let somebody else answer the question about weight gain because I too seem to focus on fat loss most of the time. Good luck and welcome aboard!!
Hey all, I have been into lifting weights for about 3 months now, and already addicted to it! I am looking for some help setting goals for the next year if anyone has any advice...
I was 'fit' when I started out, but have added some much needed muscle over the last few months, and while the progress has been slow, I have noticed a difference and added about 5kg.
This is all pretty new to me, and the past 3 months has been alot about getting familiar with equipment, exercises, and the gym... the weights I am using are pretty low compared to alot of the stuff I see in the forums here, but I am 100% disciplined and dedicated to growth.
Help with goals:
1. What time frames should I shoot for with goals? Most programs seem to run in 3 month cycles... would it be good to do 3, 6 and 12 month goals?
2. What kind of weight gain should I shoot for? I am tall and lean, classic ectomorph - hardgainer/recovering undereatter (its tough, but get down 3500-4000cals a day). I am 6'5", 183lbs.
3. What kind of weight increases should I set goals for?
Currently my 2RM are:
Benchpress 133lbs
Squat 182lbs
Deadlift 138lbs
(I know, brutal, but this is my first crack at weightlifting ever!)
Depends on what the goal is. Fat loss can actually be as minimal as 1 week partitions. You stated some good ones, but I tend to go by periods, rather than absolute demarcations. An example to illustrate, you have 3, 6 and 12, but if you went by 3 month periods, it would be 3, 6, 9 and 12. As a new lifter, you'll see improvements pretty rapidly.
The range you state is a standard range on a questionaire. Do you track precisley what you eat? A five hundred calorie difference is a pretty big discepency if it's not 4-5 tbsp of pure fat. What is the breakdown, that is protein, carbs, fat? Where are you getting your protein, carbs and fat from?
On a good 3x/wk program, you could see 5-10lbs increases per week for quite a while, at least until you start approaching your maximal ability for the amont of muscle you have. On NROL's fat loss programs, I was increasing 5lbs/wk on average for all lifts, except the BSS, which I completely suck at.
Consider googling SMART goals.
Specific
Measurable
Attainable/Acheivable
Realistic/Relevant
Timely
I believe the Attainable differs from realistic in that Attainable means within the time frame set, whereas Realisic means just that. IOW, you can't aspire to be a starship captain until we find a way around the FTL problem and invent starships.
I tend to go with Attainable and Relevant because of the overlap in Attainable and Realistic.
Do you track precisley what you eat? A five hundred calorie difference is a pretty big discepency if it's not 4-5 tbsp of pure fat. What is the breakdown, that is protein, carbs, fat? Where are you getting your protein, carbs and fat from?
I eat pretty clean food, about 30/40/30 carbs/protein/fat. I track my calorie intake a every couple days, and am more on the 3500 side, but would like to be eatting towards 4000. This is with a couple protein shakes a day. I would rather gain lean mass than bulk and cut as well.
Well, keep in mind that bulk and cut is easier and your results will come faster. Trying to maintain your calories within such a limited range to make it all lean gain will be a test in precision and accuracy everyday.
However, once you make the minimums for a healthy diet, nothing wrong with using fats to boost the calories in an easy way.
One other thing, a clarification on Relevant, it should be relevant to your main goal. If you goal is fat loss, don't plan on gaining a lot of strength. Anything you do is a side consequence. That's not to say you won't gain strength on a fat loss program, but your goal is fat loss, so your SMART goal should be Relevent to that.
Not interested in fat loss, I have none as it is! I need to gain weight, I'd like to add 10-15lbs... but not sure how to do it realistically and what time line I should shoot for. Also, having never lifted before, I don't know how much I should expect to add on my weights - its tough not having someone to work out with, I am pretty cautious about adding more weight without setting myself up for failure.
Check out ParanoidAndroid's log in the Training Log subforum. He's packed on a good deal of weight while really upping his lifts. I really recommend checking out Joe DeFranco's West Side for Skinny Bastards, either Part I or Part III. Good stuff there, easy to follow, allows for some creativity and flexibility in your training and will get you moving more weight and putting on some muscle. Then, all you gotta do is eat!
__________________
"Rust on a nail builds tetanus. Rust on a barbell builds character, strength, and attitude." -EC
"Don't spend your life wishing. Spend it doing." -FishrCutB8
"You're a mutant, like a snake with two heads or a cat shy one nipple. Be thankful that your mutation is helpful." - LD
Cool, thanks - it looks good! Confused by the "Work up to a max set of 5 reps" on some of the exercises... what does that mean? How many sets do you do? I am just about finished S2B and pretty stoked on the results. Do you think WS4SB would be worth moving onto? I am reading NROL right now and would like to do that sometime too.
p.s. I had the BEST workout EVER yesterday - just had to tell someone, I don't have any friends that would care!
For WS4SB: Work up to a max set of 5 depends on how heavy your max is. You want to push yourself as hard as you can, hence the max effort. So, start off light with a warm-up then progressively add more weight to the bar until you're just finishing your set of 5. You should be nearing failure by that last rep. It takes some experimenting to figure it out.
Either of the two will produce results if you put the effort into it. Flip a coin?
__________________
"Rust on a nail builds tetanus. Rust on a barbell builds character, strength, and attitude." -EC
"Don't spend your life wishing. Spend it doing." -FishrCutB8
"You're a mutant, like a snake with two heads or a cat shy one nipple. Be thankful that your mutation is helpful." - LD
Need Help Setting Goals - New to Lifting
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