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Beginners program

Hey hey. Been doing this for about 10 weeks I think - just wondering..... What is the advice re staying on or changing it up?

I recall old school wisdom saying body gets used to same exercises so should change up.

What do experts reckon? Just stick with for 6 months (?) or a year or should I look at changing number of sets, or reps, or exercises etc sometime soon?

Thanks
 
Jimmy, its broscience that says ya need to change it up.

What are your lifts up to? Are they still progressing?

Do everything you can to progress. Eat more, sleep more, mobility more, learn technique more, motivate yourself more.

THEN, if your lifts have stopped moving, try a new program.
 
Quoth the author:
You are a beginner if you cant bench 100kg, squat 140kg and deadlift 180kg. I dont care what your bodyweight is, get bigger, its why your lifting. Bodyweight is not an excuse.
Click to expand...

Have you hit those numbers in 10 weeks? No? Keep going
 
What he said.

Keep going till you at least hit the above numbers, then if you are still improving keep going. If you get bored, or stop gaining change it up a bit.

You will always be doing those exercises though in one form or another.
 
Hey, I've been hovering around this forum for a while gathering bits a peices of info to help me. But I have finaly decided what my goals are which is to reach the goals listed on page one and also get my body weight up to 100kg.
So you all know I'm 24 and 6'3" work 5 days a week and train 4-5days, I started out 72kg of lanky haha, since I started eating better with protein shakes only after workouts I have gained 7kg. btw im what people would consider an extomorph, i dont like the word hard gainer as it just sounds like an excuse to me. My former trainer put me onto the classic split routine doing 12-15reps x4 for the main exercises eg squat,bench and deads then after that suppersets. I've been doing this about 4months. I'm not terribly concerned about size, I just want to be strong and I feel that the high rep range is tiring me out before I really get to push myself and I'm not able to push the weight up as often as I think I should be able to.
Would these exersizes still be as benifitial splitting them into two groups? As I have tried a similar full body routine but by the last few exersizes I'm rooted and can't put 100% into it.

My end goal is to be some where around Matt Atwood, who is a personal trainer/model etc found him surfing the net.
 
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Try drinking a gainer shake mid workout. I always snack and eat mid workout or I'm too screwed by the end, usually on a shake made from WPC, bannana, and a little bit of sugar.

You could split your workout, but I think people do this only once they're fairly advanced and are doing a whole lot of exercises per bodypart (e.g. bench x5 sets + dips + incline press + tricep extensions for assistance) and they only do this once they're hitting above the figures in the OP. I would try the shake, some shorter breaks between sets, and make sure you are eating well before you workout before changing the OPs guide. Get it all done in an hour. The exception to this would be if you are feeling sore and think you might be on the verge of injuring yourself cause u need more time to recover.
 
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Thanks guys, I certainly haven't been gaining much in lifts but I also am certain that I haven't been eating enough, prob only eating 2,000 calories per day max.

Started eating more as of last week and noticed some improvement already.

Just now thinking how much I want to eat over summer whilst the shirts still off.......

How goods the term "broscience". Love it.
 

Sounds like a plan unfortunately though I can't stomach "gainer shakes" it overloads my system and it either comes back up or I hafto go sleep it off, which sucks as I know how benifial something like that would be for me.
I have heard of a supplement called virtago? Which is supposedly good for keeping energy levels up and isn't loaded with sugar.
Eating well I can do, basic meal plan is this:
Meal 1: bowl of muesli
2 & 3: rice and either chicken or fish
4: protein shake
5: dinner varies, carbs and meat
Some snacks also in there like fruit, yogurt tubs, coffee etc. haven't counted calories but just trying to eat lots and clean.
May have another shake before bed if I start getting hungry. Also I use full cream milk for shakes.
 
A shake made from WPC is just like a Breaka, if a little less sweet tasting. And maybe have a bannana on the side. If you're lifting heavy and not doing serious aerobic stuff I can't really see you throwing it up. Failing that have 1 mars bar, I did this yesterday and it helped me get through a 2 hour workout.

If your workouts are getting really really long.... maybe consider a split I guess. I currently do:
Monday: Bench/Military press + Tricep work
Tuesday: Chin ups + rows + bicep work
Wednesday: Squats. Not doing deadlifts till I build up my squat.

I repeat it all after a 1 day break or 2 days if I'm especially stuffed. This means Bench day may land on Tuesday next week or something but that's fine by me. It's working OK so far, but I think I'm probably a little ahead of you in lifts.... Remember nothing advances you faster than a beginner routine if you're a beginner.

It's good you're documenting your diet. I've noticed the strongest guys on here all pay heaps of attention to their diet. Take Sticky for example, he plans his out pretty methodically (read his log the other day). He's benching 170, and squatting/deadlifting around 300kg. I need to be less lazy and pay more attention to my own (and buy some damn scales so I stop guessing with amounts).
 
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I think you will find if you plugged your cals into an app, like my fitness pal or daily burn, that they are quite low as the only fat you are eating is minimal incidental fat plus fat from your full cream milk. If you are in a decent calorie deficit, you will lack energy.
 

So you say I'm not eating enough fats, how would you sugest I remedy this, short of smothering mayo on everything haha. Shoud I use more cream based sauces for my chicken and rice or maybe swapping out a rice meal for something else completely, the reason I eat rice so much is cause I baught a rice cooker, which is sooo awesome.
 

add a tablespoon of olive oil to your vegies/salads or a tablespoon of cocounut oil to your shakes
 

Nuts, avocado, shotty of olive oil
 

Haha I wouldn't necessarily swap out the rice meal. I'd try one of the above suggestions. Otherwise, if you ever blend any shakes, try adding natural peanut butter (I mix mine with things like honey, banana, cinnamon + other things). And don't forget your fish oil (either a tea spoon of the good stuff or 6-9 capsules). No need to go crazy, you get 9 calories per gram of fat (especially don't go too crazy on the saturated fat)
 
2000 Calories is not enough... you should be eating double or triple that depending on how skinny you are.

Here is the Dave Tate diet taken from this article. Makes me laugh every time I read it.
T NATION | 37 Tips and Tales from Dave Tate


There was this dude who trained there who could just put on weight like fucking magic. He'd go from 198 to 308 and then to 275 and back down to 198. And he was never fat. It was amazing.

I finally asked him one day how he did it.

"You mean I never told you the secret to gaining weight? Come outside and I'll fill you in."

Now remember, we're at Westside Barbell. And this guy wants to go outside to talk so no one else can hear. Think about that for a minute. What the hell is he going to tell me? This must be some serious shit if we have to go outside, I thought.

So we get outside and he starts talking.

"For breakfast you need to eat four of those breakfast sandwiches from McDonalds. I don't care which ones you get, but make sure to get four. Order four hash browns, too. Now grab two packs of mayonnaise and put them on the hash browns and then slip them into the sandwiches. Squish that shit down and eat. That's your breakfast."

At this point I'm thinking this guy is nuts. But he's completely serious.

"For lunch you're gonna eat Chinese food. Now I don't want you eating that crappy stuff. You wanna get the stuff with MSG. None of that non-MSG bullshit. I don't care what you eat but you have to sit down and eat for at least 45 minutes straight. You can't let go of the fork. Eat until your eyes swell up and become slits and you start to look like the woman behind the counter."

"For dinner you're gonna order an extra-large pizza with everything on it. Literally everything. If you don't like sardines, don't put 'em on, but anything else that you like you have to load it on there. After you pay the delivery guy, I want you to take the pie to your coffee table, open that fucker up, and grab a bottle of oil. It can be olive oil, canola oil, whatever. Anything but motor oil. And I want you to pour that shit over the pie until half of the bottle is gone. Just soak the shit out of it."

"Now before you lay into it, I want you to sit on your couch and just stare at that fucker. I want you to understand that that pizza right there is keeping you from your goals."

This guy is in a zen-like state when he's talking about this.

"Now you're on the clock," he continues. "After 20 minutes your brain is going to tell you you're full. Don't listen to that shit. You have to try and eat as much of the pizza as you can before that 20-minute mark. Double up pieces if you have to. I'm telling you now, you're going to get three or four pieces in and you're gonna want to quit. You fucking can't quit. You have to sit on that couch until every piece is done.

And if you can't finish it, don't you ever come back to me and tell me you can't gain weight. 'Cause I'm gonna tell you that you don't give a fuck about getting bigger and you don't care how much you lift!"

Did I do it? Hell yeah. Started the next day and did it for two months. Went from 260 pounds to 297 pounds. And I didn't get much fatter. One of the hardest things I've ever done in my life, though.
 
.eating untill you feel like throwing up. after every mouthful, you are gagging. i think everyone shoukd experience it a few times in their life.
 
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