GordyR's Beginners Guide to Bodybuilding

Steedie said:
Oh I was hoping you popped in as I saw your pics after you cut a lot of water :)

Wow, really drinking a lot of water is the way to cut water weight? I really thought that would be the opposite

Someone said lowering protein would help massively, as well as said above, lowering carbs. Dont really want to cut my protein shakes but will if I need too
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Lowering protein wont do much. What you need to do is convince the body that iit doesn't need to retain water. The best way to do that is to stay hydrated and the two best ways to do that are to increase water intake and lower salt.

As mentioned cutting carbs will help reduce the bloated look and cutting sugar has the same effect as cutting salt. If your retaining water however and its not because of any 'substances' then you should analyze your diet, its not normal to retain water weight. Oh and dont fall into the misconception that cutting water will massivley impact your physique, cutting fat does that, cutting water helps uncover definition and expose muscle.
 
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The best thing to do is to combine weights with cardio and a sub-maintenance calorie intake of "good" food. This will get you fit, reduce your bodyfat and get you ready to build muscle later.
 
anant_shah94 said:
little question:
Following the general principals of this guide, would it be possible to lose all the fat and then do the weight training (ie reverse the order of weight training)?
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I may not be 100% correct so get somebody else to confirm this.

I don't see why it isn't possible. But seems to shoot yourself in the foot, as by loosing weight you'll also loose muscle mass with it too. It'd be easier to build more mass whilst you still have the extra weight from what I understand. Otherwise you'll get thin and lean which is all good, but then putting mass on to begin with will be harder. Hence it's done the other way round to the way you are enquiring about.
 
I'm having difficulty coming to a decision regarding a routine. Just to re-iterate, I've been out of the gym for 2 years and lost all my gains. Currently back at 145lbs at 5'9", 14%BF, looking to stack on mass.

I've been reading as much as possible and been getting different viewpoints across the board regarding routines, i.e. Rippetoe's Starting Strength, McRoberts' abbreviated approach, Bill Star 5x5, Chad Waterbury's programs etc etc.

I still think I'd be best starting again with a basic 3 day split.

Opinions?
 
My opinion:

Just choose a routine and get on with it. Monitor your progress and if its not working as well as it could or should be for you, change it :]

People can sit around looking at all the info they want before making a decision on what to do, when really what matters most is getting in the gym!
 
like morba says, most people sit on their fat, muscleless asses, at the PC, wondering whether to opt for the 5x5, the 3x10, the 10x3 the HST the HIIT...... What you need to do is start hitting the gym and see what works, no one ever dun gotten nowheres by readings!
 
i've just read through gordy r's guide now i think i know why ive been finding it so difficult to bulk up only do the uppper body. But anyway to bulk up i understand the method but for me i want to get from how i am now lean 10st to 12st so do i want to get to 13 stone to be a 12 stone lean muscle man :P so as to lose the excess fat when u do the diet ? and then after that go back to eating only high protein no carb foods?
 
LeoN88 said:
i've just read through gordy r's guide now i think i know why ive been finding it so difficult to bulk up only do the uppper body. But anyway to bulk up i understand the method but for me i want to get from how i am now lean 10st to 12st so do i want to get to 13 stone to be a 12 stone lean muscle man :P so as to lose the excess fat when u do the diet ? and then after that go back to eating only high protein no carb foods?
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Go away and put that in english that we can understand, then maybe you'll get help.
 
whats so difficult to understand for me to want to be a lean 12stone coming from 10st do i need to get to say 13st doing the bulk method and then take the diet mentioned in his guide to lose the excess fat and keep the bf% down to a min by eating protein foods there after
 
only reason thought this is because in the guide it says along the lines of once you've being eating all the extra calories to bulk etc u will put on excess fat im obviously talking utter crap so gonna stop while im ahead!
 
LeoN88 said:
whats so difficult to understand for me to want to be a lean 12stone coming from 10st do i need to get to say 13st doing the bulk method and then take the diet mentioned in his guide to lose the excess fat and keep the bf% down to a min by eating protein foods there after
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yep, im just not following, there isnt a single full stop, comma nor any other puctuation in that last one, and only a few question marks in the first. If you dont put the effort into writing the post why should anyone bother giving you a reply? The internet has enough barely legible drivel as it is.

I'll cut you some slack and TRY to understand what your on about. English 101, translation of your post -

"Hi Guys, I was hoping that someone could help me out, im currently around 10st and pretty lean. Having some trouble bulking up, Which after reading GordyR's wonderful sticky i now realise my mistake is doing too much upper body work. My aim is to get to a lean 12 stone. Would you think this means i might need to aim to hit 13st in order to attain 12st of lean body mass, then i could cut down bodyfat and reach my goal? How would you suggest i go about this?"

There we go, fair summary?

Well in answer to your question, yes doing upper body work will not add much muscle mass, thus weight. Also you have not highlighted your eating habits, roughly speaking at your weight you need to eat about twice as much as anyone you know, perhaps more, about 3000kcal is a good starting point. From an exercise point of view you need to focus on the big lifts squatting and deadlifting in the main. If you work on tour deadlift and squat until you can lift 20stone in each discipline for 10 reps (20st = 127.5kg) when you can you WILL have a much bigger chest and arms and you will weight near enough 12st.

This relies on you eating lots and working out EVERY session without failure or excuse, at least a 3 day per week split and focus almost entirely on

incline bench
Shoulder press
Bent Over Row
Deadlift
Squat
Chin
Dip

with a few extras if you really want.
 
LeoN88 said:
only reason thought this is because in the guide it says along the lines of once you've being eating all the extra calories to bulk etc u will put on excess fat im obviously talking utter crap so gonna stop while im ahead!
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bulking will put on fat, but if what you gain is 33% fat, then your diet is very very wrong :p
work, monitor, amend :]
 
no need to be condescending but fair comment being tired is my reason lol.

diet is:
7:00 6 scrambled eggs in 3 without yolk

8:30 weetabix 3 of

1030 ham or chicken sandwich

1300 2 chicken fillets and a sandwich

1500 ham or chicken sandwich

1830 dinner depends on whatever is cooked usually meat or fish with rice or veg or sometimes pasta

2030 gym

2230 back from gym 6 scrambled eggs 3 without yolk and protein shake

1230 bed still not put any weight on this week either seems impossible
 
lacking a pre bed meal for a start.
most of the food sounds crap. you want clean protein sources, not chicken fillets.

start weighing out your food, get it into a spreadsheet and break it down, you are probably well under the kcals needed to start adding mass.
 
Thats not a bad diet, first thing you need to ask yourself is do you get that EVERY DAY WITHOUT FAIL? i couldnt care less if you say yes or no but unless your SURE you do that EVERY day you eat that amount then you cant be helped. If you are SURE in your deepest darkest insides, that you honestly eat that every day then you need to increase calories further still. Double the sandwiches at mid morning, eat bigger chicken dinners and add a lot of red meat as its higher in calories.

Personally i dont believe you eat all that anyway, maybe on a good day, because if you ate that every day and didnt gain weight you would have an incredible metabolism for someone who is 10stone. But the fact remains, if your not gaining, eat more, thats all there is too it. Make sure your gym sessions dont go over an hour either, you dont want to burn unneccessary calories, dont run places walk slowly (im being deadly serious) cut out as much sport as you can.

Oh and leave the yolks in the other eggs, they contain most of the nutrients and 90% of the calories, whites only is for dieting not bulking (and please dont bring up cholesterol or im gonna stop helping altogether, dietary cholesterol does not affect blood cholesterol PERIOD)

And morba, i agree about pre bed meal but not about clean meals per sey, this guy needs to gain and he's struggling as it is to gain any mass (lean or otherwise) his diet is not really dirty (he could mean chicken breats fillet, a lean food) and he should find calories wherever he can while he gets a foothold
 
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