Blah Blah Beginner Thread - Too Much Time, Not Enough Muscle

The workout in your OP has entirely too much bullshit and five days is probably too much. Ab exercises are a total waste of time for you especially considering a good barbell workout will build those muscles (among others). Cardio defeats the purpose of trying to gain weight. Strip it down to the basics, make sure your form is right, eat a lot and sleep well. If you're 130 right now and want to be 150 you'd better ******* eat for 175. Your battleground, the kitchen; your weapon, the fork; your enemy, food.

^ Agree with some of the things you are saying, but disagree on the abs exercise. You are not going to get your core strong by just standard barbell exercises, and I guarantee that strong chest and back muscles without a strong core is a recipe for injury. I would recommend a core circuit like this:

Back hyperextensions, hanging leg raises, weighted ab crunches on Swiss ball, etc. Pick 3 or 4 exercises and do them as a circuit without rest. It will take 15 minutes or less. End with a plank or two held for time.

Originally Posted by jarude

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I'm going to recommend against doing a 5 day split for reasons described by APK. Everyone does it - they go through a "I don't care how much I lift, just how I look" phase, they spin their tires doing bodybuilder workouts, and go nowhere.

You will get bigger by getting stronger. This means a 3 day/week program like Starting Strength, or IA's simple power-based routine like APK recommended. Once you've built up a base level of strength, you can do as you please, but you don't really need an arm day if you cannot squat at least 1.5 times your bodyweight. Considering your first goal is overall fitness and conditioning, blasting your gunzzz is the last thing you need. It sounds dogmatic, but I'm really just trying to save you from making mistakes that took me years and years to figure out.

Countless people have gotten awesome physiques by doing 3 day/week programs. Break out of the mindset that 5 day split is necessary for nice aesthetics and 3 day split = strength. Either way, at your level, strength will be size.

Also, I really really really hate to say this because I'm becoming a self-parody of a broken record, but...
www.ironaddicts.com

I promise you, if you educate yourself there, and keep it simple, you'll find success. Don't overcomplicate, be consistent, log your progress, and you'll be a dapper motherfucker in no time.

+1

If it worked for Arnold it will work for you. Stick to heavy lifting, building strength, and working major muscle groups. Remember Arnold was the guy who would squat in the woods, drink beer, and hook up with hot chicks.......sounds perfect for college life.

Originally Posted by Scrumhalf

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^ Agree with some of the things you are saying, but disagree on the abs exercise. You are not going to get your core strong by just standard barbell exercises, and I guarantee that strong chest and back muscles without a strong core is a recipe for injury. I would recommend a core circuit like this:

Back hyperextensions, hanging leg raises, weighted ab crunches on Swiss ball, etc. Pick 3 or 4 exercises and do them as a circuit without rest. It will take 15 minutes or less. End with a plank or two held for time.

If your core isn't getting stronger as a result of squats and presses then you have serious leaks in your form.

Originally Posted by Superfluous Man

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If your core isn't getting stronger as a result of squats and presses then you have serious leaks in your form.

I think there is a big difference in the core strength one can develop through squats and presses and the gymnast-level core strength that can be developed through dedicated core work and gymnastic progressions.

Sort of. Guys who press heavy and guys who do gymnastics tend to have large midsections all around. They get development on both abs and obliques. Gymbros who just do ab work for size tend not to be as wide, it helps maintain V taper too. And guys who squat just don't get as big because the muscles are for stabilization and not really worked directly.

Originally Posted by Hartmann

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Sort of. Guys who press heavy and guys who do gymnastics tend to have large midsections all around. They get development on both abs and obliques. Gymbros who just do ab work for size tend not to be as wide, it helps maintain V taper too. And guys who squat just don't get as big because the muscles are for stabilization and not really worked directly.

yep.

mix is neccessary.

good article on lesser known ab work on tnation

This thread is filled with the dumbest advice I've ever seen.

:Why:

enlighten us

There are plenty of programs out there done by people who know what they are doing, even if they philosophically disagree.

Starting Strength is a solid way to begin.
Wendler 5/3/1 works for me because i like how stripped down the program is.
Westside for Skinny Bastards is also pretty solid.

But whichever program you do, just do the program the way it is written - at least for a while. Don't **** around with it and don't start adding in extra or substituting - you definitely don't know as much about programming as Wendler or Rippetoe, and, frankly, I doubt anyone else here does either.

Skip the splits, the self-programming, etc. You will end up with a lot of inefficiency in your workout. As far as squats and deadlifts go, spend a ton of time reading the chapters in Starting Strength to make sure you understand the form, watch a bunch of Youtube tutorials, and, if you have some money, get a bit of coaching, since you can mess yourself up doing them wrong.

Originally Posted by Superfluous Man

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Cardio defeats the purpose of trying to gain weight.
Alternatively, run once a week for 30 km and make sure you eat an extra 500 calories that day. Running doesn't murder weight gain that badly. Edit: 30 minutes, or 4 km easy. not 30km obvs

I believe this may be exactly what you are looking for in a workout:
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