Alright guys, I don't do a lot of forum posting, but I noticed there wasn't much information here under the Health/Fitness section so I figure I'd contribute. Apologies for links not being embedded. I'm not sure how to do that just yet.

Before I get started let me give you my qualifications. I was an out of shape kid growing up. I didn’t do a damn thing but play videogames and eat cookies/Doritos, etc. In high school, I decided I it was time for a lifestyle change so I started hitting the gym, running, and eventually doing research to achieve better results. Fast forward 15 years and I haven’t stopped working out EVER (save a week here and there during times of serious injury/surgery). I’ve been studying and trying different workouts the entire time and I’m looking forward to passing that along.

If you're just starting out looking to get fit, there's one thing that you should first consider:

What's your goal?

Do you want to be big, a beast that can squat 350+, and to hell with what it takes to get there?

Do you want to be on the LGN workout plan (look good naked), where you don't particularly care about your bench numbers; it's all about how awesome you look in front of the mirror?

Are you simply trying to lose weight, and don't mind looking "slender"?

The reason these goals are important is because these are destinations that require VERY DIFFERENT journeys.

Remember that your body is a complex biological machine and that working out is simply providing your body with a stress stimulus to elicit a hormonal response. Natural bodybuilding is the idea of using these hormonal responses to shape the body.

NOTE: Steroids are used to artificially control the hormonal responses of your body and are NOT in the scope of this post. If you are looking for a pharmaceutical physique, seek information elsewhere.

The workout provides a stimulus, and recovering from that stimulus is your body’s response. In other words, we don’t get stronger from working out; we get stronger from RECOVERING from working out.

The following are some basic examples of workouts that will give you different responses:

1. Goal: Be a Beast. Lift heavy weights and get big. Prescription: The 5x5 routine.
I will forego the science talk with this, and also descriptions of how to do the exercises. If you want to get more information you should read Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore. They will break down a basic strength training plan and give you a very, very detailed explanation of how to do the lifts.

It boils down to this: to get larger and build muscle mass, you will want to do large muscle group (compound) exercises that allow you to move the most amount of weight over the largest distance. These exercises include:

Squat

Deadlift

Bench Press

Bent Over Barbell Rows

Military Press

Your goal is to lift heavy weights, and if you are new to this you will need to work up to it. The first step is to learn the exercises with low weights and slowly, over weeks, progressively add resistance (weight) until your progression slows and you get close to your potential.

The principle behind this workout is that your body MUST get bigger to move the heavier weight around, and it takes more work and you have to recruit more muscles to move a heavy weight over a large distance. Your body must respond by improving your neural muscle fiber recruitment, it must add/enlarge muscle fibers, it must build bone density, joint strength, and improve blood flow.

Since the goal is to get big and gain strength, cardio is not done in this workout, and if it is, it’s limited to less than 30 minutes. Cardio training has been correlated with strength loss and production of cortisol, a catabolic (or anti-growth) steroid. Similarly, you must give yourself a day in between workouts. The body needs extra time to repair after each of these sessions.

Also, using this workout to achieve the goal of getting big, you want to eat a LOT of food, consume a LOT of calories, and the stress response should be so great that your body uses those calories to build muscle mass at a greater rate than fat. As long as you’re not only eating junk food, you should see progress. FOR SKINNY GUYS LOOKING TO GET BIG, THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART. You’ll need to eat when you’re not hungry, eat until you’re uncomfortable, and keep it up over a period of time, or you will see your results slow or stop.

My experience with this workout was that I worked out actively, trying many, many different workout plans over 6-7 years, and during that time I remained around 155 lbs. When I changed up my eating habits (ate and ate and ate) and strictly stuck to the 5x5 routine working out only 3 days a week, I gained 35 lbs in about 6 months and went from looking like a soccer player to looking like a football player. It works. But it must be your goal.

Sample workout:

Monday:

Squat: 5 sets of 5 repetitions with 2 minutes between sets
Bench Press: 5 sets of 5 repetitions with 2 minutes in between sets
Bent-Over Rows: 5 sets of 5 repetitions with 2 minutes in between sets

Wednesday:

Squat: 3 sets of 5 repetitions with 2 minutes between sets, at 70% of Monday’s weight
Deadlift: 1 set of 3 repetitions with 2 minutes in between ramp sets (work up to the weight you can do no more than 3 times over 4-5 sets of 3 at lower weight)
Military Press: 5 sets of 5 repetitions with 2 minutes between sets


Friday:

Squat: 1 set of 5 repetitions with 2 minutes between ramp sets (work up to the weight you can do no more than 5 times over 4-5 sets of 5 at lower weight)
Bench Press: 1 set of 5 repetitions with 2 minutes between ramp sets
Bent-Over Rows: 1 set of 5 repetitions with 2 minutes between ramp sets

Days not listed are off days. One benefit of this workout is that you won't have to drag yourself into a gym on the weekend.


2. Goal: Look Good Naked. Prescription: Volume training with cardio.

There is no substitute for large muscle group strength training with barbells and dumbells. For this reason I highly suggest learning all of the basic freeweight lifting techniques.

Look Good Naked requires a higher investment of time than the Be a Beast goal. The reason is that you’re coupling an anabolic muscle building response with cardio and at the same time trying to balance calorie intake so that you can lose fat while keeping the muscle that you’ve worked so hard to build.

A couple good ideas for this goal:

Eat often. Break your food up into smaller meals and eat every 3 hours. If you keep the engine burning, your body is less likely to try to store fat for a “caloric drought”. Your blood-sugar levels will remain more consistent, and you’ll have more energy. The overall result will be a higher metabolism that burns more calories naturally.

Go for a mix of volume and heavy weight. You still need a stress stimulus to create muscle, so I recommend keeping your repetitions around 6-8 in your workouts, and 3-5 sets to keep the volume up.

You will want to also throw in 2-3 sessions of cardio, per week. If you’re into sports such as soccer, racquetball, mountain biking, or any other sport that requires a huge caloric expenditure, you can do that. If not, try running. If you have trouble running, get on a treadmill at maximum incline, and walk at 3mph uphill for 30 minutes or so.

Don’t try to diet or reduce your caloric expenditure if you’re just picking up this routine. Your body will need the calories to rebuild itself. At the same time, try not to add too many extra calories into your diet.

Sample Workout:
Aim for 6-8 reps per set, with 1.5-2 minutes between sets

Monday:

10 minutes of cardio
3 sets of Squats
3 sets of Deadlifts
3 sets of Weighted Lunges
3 sets of Standing Dumbell Military Press
3 sets of Lateral and side raises, superset (back to back without pause)

Tuesday:

Run or incline walk for 30+ minutes or play some highly aerobic sport

Wednesday:

10 minutes of cardio
3 sets of bench press
3 sets of lawnmowers
3 sets of dumbbell flye
3 sets of pullups
3 giant sets (back to back to back without pause) of weighted crunches, side crunches, and back extensions

Friday:

30+ minutes of cardio

Saturday:

3 sets of barbell biceps curls
3 sets of close grip bench
3 sets of upright rows
3 sets of chinups
3 sets of weighted dips
3 sets of dumbbell hammer curls
3 sets of triceps cable pushdown


3. Goal: Simply Lose Weight. Prescription: Emphasis on cardio.

This is another goal that won’t take quite as much involvement from a “time in the gym” standpoint. Generally speaking, the simplest way to lose weight is to expend more energy than you take in, and there is no easier way to do this than by doing cardio. Specifically, running. And the time investment is lower than going to the gym because there generally is no travel time to and from the gym, and many of your runs will take less than an hour.

If you don’t care about muscle definition and simply want to be a smaller or less-fat version of yourself, then you can forego the gym and just start putting one foot in front of the other. But set a goal. Planning on getting in shape for a 5k is a good place to start. Hal Higdon has some great training resources for the aspiring marathon runner and he has training schedules for beginners seeking to run 5ks, 10ks, half marathons, and marathons.

http://www.halhigdon.com/training/50933 ... ng-Program

Even without these routines, if you work up to running a mile, then two and then three or more, your body will have to adapt in order to keep up, and you’ll lose weight. The key is to keep it up, make it a routine and eventually a habit, get out there 3 or 4 days a week, and leave your frustrations and worries on the pavement behind you, and you’ll get where you want to be.

Thanks for reading. This has been a VERY brief rundown of a couple of different workout routines and for the sake of time a lot of it was summarized or written in short-hand. If you’d like me to elaborate on anything, please let me know. I’m also happy to answer questions for you.

All the best,

Mildlygifted