General advice about training for a newbie!

[Simon.]

Well, first of all i'd like to say hi to everyone, i'm new around here [img]smile.gif[/img]
I found this site by a google search and was overwhelmed by the amount of information I can get here, which is good on the one hand, but on the other I'm completely lost
I'm a very skinny guy, 177cm tall at 64kg, and I've started lifting weights some 5 months ago..
At the beginning I was given a general program that every "gym newbie" gets there, and it worked perfectly for me, I progressed very fast..
It was a "2 day split", I think that's the way you call it around here (sorry, I'm very unfamiliar with the terms), where one workout was on the hands and legs, and the other was shoulders, chest and back.
Everything was going really great for about 3 months, I gained 4kgs i think (starting from 58kg) and I got much stronger, relatively ofcourse [img]tongue.gif[/img]
After that, everything seemed to stop, I spent an entire month doing the same work I've been doing for the previous 3 months, but with literally zero results. I decided to go to a dietician, who told me exactly what I need to do with my nutrition, and I've gained another 2kg in about a month, but surprisingly the weights that I can lift have not increased a bit. Also during that month i switched to a 4 times a week program, with more excercises for each muscule. Basically every muscule group now worked twice a week.
Now according to the little material I've gotten the chance to read around here, this is totally wrong for my body type, and yet the work you guys DO reccomend for me proved to be just as useless
Regardless, people got me extremely confused because everyone says I need to do something else, and to be honest i just don't know who to trust.
I was just wondering if any of you guys could tell me what I'm doing wrong exactly, and what could help me continue progressing
Also it would be nice if you could link me to a page where all the "proffessional terms" are explained because I hardly understand anything of what's being said here because of all the big words [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Thanks in advance, and sorry for writing such a huge scroll, it's my first post here :<

[Keith S.]

Simon welcome to the forum, nice to have you. I would just ask what does your program look like now? If you culd it would be really helpful to type it in here, this way we can give you better advice. Just knowing what body parts you're working isn't helping us really. And about the "professional terms" thing, I would just say if you see something you don't get just ask a ? and people will be more than happy to answer you...

[Simon.]

Yes well the thing is I have absolutely no idea on how any of the excersices(i'm not a native, spell?:/) are called, so i guess i'll just have to describe them, gonna sound kinda funny but here we go [img]tongue.gif[/img]
chest : benchpress, upper chest push thingy :/, the thingy where you push your hands to the center from both directions
back : pulling that bar thingy behind my back with a wide grip, pulling the same bar thingy in front of my with a really narrow grip, and the thing where you pull weight towards yourself
amrs : single weights both for the forward and back muscule (again, no idea what it's called), same as singles on forward hand only with elbow support and a bar insteaod of 2 weights, practically the same only in reverse on the backhand, and the one where you push yourself up from 2 parralel bars..
shoulders: single weights to the sides, single weights to the front, and single weights pushed up
legs: well a bending and a straightning (?!) movement, i can't do squat because of a back problem..

I know I must sound like a complete idiot but I don't know any other way to describe this ;[
Some tell me this is too much, others say it's just right but I'm not getting any progress :/
And by the way, the old program was the same except it had only 1 excersice on the back hand thingy and one on the front, only the weights pushing up movement for shoulders, and without the upper chest thing.
Sorry for my ignorance and horrible phrasing, this is the best I can do, but do hope you manage to understand this and help me out :>

[Simon.]

Oh and one last thing, the first program was 15x3 for everything, the new one is a warmup set of 15, and then 2 sets when in the second I'm supposed to increase the weight some, I was told that in both of these sets I'm not supposed to be maxing myself out, and a final set with the highest weight, to try and do something like 7 reps..

[OldGuy]

Welcome, Simon.

Here's a good sight for you to learn what the exercises are called, and what muscles they will work. www.exrx.net Check it out so you learn what all the "thingys" are.

For chest I think you are talking about flys. For back you are describing lat pulldowns and seated rows. Arms are curls and dips, and for shoulders you are describing raises and presses.

Don't worry about the questions you have. We all started somewhere.

[Simon.]

Cool oldGuy thanks, that help alot
Now what about the actualy PROGRAM, any suggestions so I start making progress instead of killing myself in the gym for nothing?

[OldGuy]

First you have to define what your goal is. Then you can pick a program.

If you go over to the fitness faq forum there is a thread there with many professionally designed programs. Pick one that suits your goal. Here's the link. http://forums.jpfitness.com/cgi-bin/.../t/000056.html

You have probably stalleed in your progress because you are doing the same routine. It's recommended that you change your routine every 8-12 weeks.

[Simon.]

Well my objective is basically to reach a weight of about 70-72kg with low fat percentages, then I'll be at a good weight relatively to my height and hopefully will look better aswell [img]tongue.gif[/img] .. If that required me to gain alot of weight and fat all together, and once I've reached my objective burn the fat by making the tredmill my best friend I'm fine with it..
Thing is I'm not sure which of these programs is meant for people with my bodytype, because from what I've had a chance to read around here training programs for people like me should be designed very carefully

[OldGuy]

Diet will be key to the weight gain. www.johnberardi.com is s good site for learning about proper nutrition while training.

Take a look at this program. It's called Homegrown Muscle. There have been a lot of forum members who have completed this program with great results. It gives you a years worth of routines and you'll learn a lot of exercises with it (there are video demonstrations of the exercises so you can see how they go). There is a lot of variety in this program so I doubt you'll lose interest.

http://www.menshealth.com/cda/articl...-0-199,00.html

[diamondpete]

Hi Simon

Welcome to the list. I am a newbie, too. I am doing the Homegrown Muscle program that OldGuy recommended. I don't know about him, but I am actually an old guy . I hadn't trained in over 10 years. It is a good course (so far) and it is not so hard that you will get discouraged. If you do it you will notice that the first 8 weeks is only twice a week. ( You MUST rest to grow muscle, if you over train you will not get good results)
Follow the program rather than being tempted to do more (since you are at 4 times a week now), and stick with the two per week and work on form. Most of the exercises are "free weights" which means no machines. These (I think) are better because you have to control and balance the weight as well as push or pull the weight.

Also EAT EAT EAT EAT! and eat healthy!

By coincidence, I am an ESL trainer (for you native speakers of English ESL means English as a Second Language)- and your English is fine! I agree with you the terms are a bit tricky.

If you look at that program that OldGuy recommended, it has videos so you can see what to do. There are 3 or 2 ways to do each exercise. If it is originally a machine exercise then 3 ways.
1. withe the machine 2. with a barbell (the long bar) 3. with dumbbells ( the short ones , one for each hand) . If it is a not a machine exercise, then 2 ways, barbell, dumbell.

OTHER KEY WORDS

TRIADS
group of three ( think triangle) This means you the first exercise for one set, then the second then the third, then start again.

REPS
repititions- how many times you do an exercise
the program for the fiorst 4 weeks is 12 - 15 reps ,

SETS a group of reps
this program is 2 or 3

SO it looks like this:

Triad A
Barbell-Bench Press
12 - 15 times

Dumbbell/Barbell Dead lift
12- 15 times

Lat Pulldown/B.B./D.B. Pullover
12- 15 times

This is 1 triad, then rest 90 secs and start again (2 or 3 times)

The do the same procedure for triad B (2-3 times)

Then the same procedure for triad C (2-3 times)

I hope this helps you to understand how to do the program.

Good luck

Peter

BTW what is your native language?

[Simon.]

Alright well thanks everybody, I think i understand what I'm supposed to do now.
plutes, that helps a bunch, but since I'm a little more advanced (working for about 5 months) I think I'm gonna stick to the basics and modify the amounts of sets and reps [img]smile.gif[/img]
By the way, my native language is Russian..