Gym Newbie

[lord-of-creation]

Basically, I will be joining for the first time. I am naturally in shape in terms of the my chest and abs, although a little too skinny on my arms and legs and therefore looking to put on mass. Thinking of using a protein supplement that my brother has been on and he has bulked up considerably in the last six months.

As I am a newbie to it all, I am just looking for some advice on how you should combine working different muscle groups, i.e chest and back on monday, biceps and triceps tuesday etc. I really have no clue as to what the best way of doing this is so would like a bit of a guide from others who work out regularly with the aim of building mass. I can get to the gym everyday of the week so can fit in to any schedule really.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Dale19]

Theres lots of different opinions on training, to the point where it can be confusing for a new trainer.

My own advice for you, is keep things as simple as possible.

Training, i recomend either, push, pull, legs. Or as i do, squat and deadlift on a monday, wednesday push day, friday back day.

Stick to big compound movements, bench press, overhead press, barbelll and dumbell rows, squats (front and back), deadlifts, and thats pretty much your whole body covered.

5x5 is good for beginers, you get a decent pump from it, and decent strength gains.

I`d urge you to not really bother with isolation work, you dont need lots of sets of bicep curls etc, just throw a couple of pump sets in after rows.

The best thing you can do as a beginer, is get yourself a decent training partner, someone who already knows what they are doing, they are worth their weight in gold.

I wouldnt bother with supplements yet, make sure youve got a solid diet, if you have a busy schedule, then feel free to use them to up the calories and protein.

[Animal]

Ignore the supplements just eat good, wholesome food. Lean meat, tuna, salmon, plenty of green veg, etc, etc. I'd try to cut out bread as much as possible (esp. white bread) and leave out the sugary drinks.

Think of it this way: you've only got 100 units of calorie intake before you get fat (or you have to up your exercise frequency/duration/intensity) so get your money's worth and make the food count.

But make room for pies. Pies are good. With lots of green beans, spinach and gravy.

Seriously, when I was 17 and I started lifting weights I went for 6 months without growing at all and it was all down to diet. When I started increasing my protein intake and getting all those tasty vegetables - obviously without admitting to my Mum that she was right - I started getting bigger and stronger quickly.

Best,

Animal

[lord-of-creation]

With the 5x5 programme, for the bench press and overhead press, is it just as effective using the machines you find in gyms or must it be performed with free weights? The reason I ask is that the gym i joined doesn't really have the correct equipment to follow that programme to the letter.

Also, is it worth adding in some inclined bench presses etc to it or just stick to the programme?

Cheers for the replies

[Dale19]

I`d recomend free weights where possible. If you have no other option though, resistance is resistance, and bearing in mind your bench pressing will be done with free weights, i wouldnt worry about it.

I personally dont feel the need for a beginer to do things like incline press, just focus on normal flat bench pressing, if in say, 6months to a year, you feel the upper portion of your chest is lacking a lot, then start to think about adding them in.

Others will probably disagree, but as ive said before, i think training should be kept as simple as possible, most people needlessly over complicate things.

Your new to training, you`ll grow a treat with simple compounds.