Drowning in a sea of bad lifting advice

deadwoodcylon · 2017-09-17T20:48:36+00:00

Athlean X knows his shit. Physical therapist + bodybuilder.

Perfect form is crucial to longevity in weighlifting.

vandaalen · 2017-09-17T20:00:29+00:00

Fucking just start.

Compound lifts and 5x5 programs have been repeatedly endorsed here. www.stronglifts.com

Most personal trainers are shit and can't even squat properly.

https://www.youtube.com/user/athrall7

Watch that guy's videos on squats, deadlifts, etc.

Westernhagen · 2017-09-17T19:41:02+00:00

Before I hit the gym I wanted to do the 30 day/100 push-ups challenge just to give me some initial strength so I won't be completely humiliated on day 1.

Couple of things. In the gym, it is ALWAYS day 1. You are always trying to make yourself better than you were. You will always be thinking "man it will be great when I can finally bench X" but as soon as you get there, you'll think that's no big deal and you start looking forward to being able to bench Y. If you start out barely being able to lift the bar by itself, so what. Literally nobody else cares. Everyone has been there in that "just starting out" place, and everyone is focused on what they're doing, not you. Finally, even when you've been lifting for years, there is always someone stronger than you. So don't get hung up on "where to start" or how weak you are now -- just get started.

As for where to start, I suggest some combination of the "compound" lifts: bench, deadlift, squat, overhead press. There are lots of simple programs to do. Pick one and do it. If you lift consistently, you will get results.

Whisper · 2017-09-18T01:24:48+00:00

Most bad lifting advice comes in the form of the over-specific. People wish to seem knowledgeable, so they repeat what someone told them, or what worked for them, or what didn't work for them, but they believe in it anyway.

Good lifting practices consist of two things:

A common set of core practices that work for everyone.
All that little refinements that you develop by yourself, for yourself, as you gain experience with what your body responds to.

I'll give you the first in a nutshell:

Do a program based on compound lifts, with low repetitions and high weight...close to the maximum you can handle. There are plenty of popular ones (Starting Strength, Stronglifts 5x5, 5/3/1, etc.). All of the well-known ones are pretty good, and will do you just fine.
Get a lot of sleep and recovery.
Eat a lot of healthy food, and make sure you get plenty of protein. That means meat.
Be consistent with your workouts. The discipline that helps you is not the kind that makes you work out like a beast until you puke on the floor, but the kind that makes you do your workout every scheduled day like clockwork for years on end.

That's it. By the time you need more advice than that, you will have enough experience to be able to find it, and know the good advice from the bad.

iiKarambit · 2017-09-17T19:16:26+00:00

try the Icecream 5x5

Link Here: https://www.muscleandstrength.com/workouts/jason-blaha-ice-cream-fitness-5x5-novice-workout

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAuARgqS6aQ

Its a simple novice program tested by a bunch of people

wracky272 · 2017-09-17T19:20:43+00:00

In the lifting world, you cannot listen to everybody. You must separate people who are trying to arm you with facts, versus people who are fact-unaware, and lazy. Discouraging others is how weak men feel better about themselves.

Some basic, universally agreed upon facts about building muscle:
Calories in versus Calories out-- If your calorie intake does not exceed the amount that you're burning per day, you will not get bigger. The inverse is true for losing weight.

Muscle growth occurs during the body's recovery from stimuli (weights). The keep the muscles growing, the stimuli must increase accordingly. If you lift the same dumbells for the same reps every day, your muscles will only respond with as much growth as is necessary. To continue growth, you must increase the weight or the reps. This is referred to as progressive overload.

You're never too old to start hitting the gym. Whoever said that needs to be out of your life immediately.

Red_Sun_ · 2017-09-17T19:18:38+00:00

r/fitness or r/weightlifting are good places to start for your questions about lifting or exercise. I personally don't take much advice on lifting from TRP. Not that some of the guys here dont know their stuff. I just find that I get more out of apecific subreddits.

LordThunderbolt · 2017-09-17T22:19:48+00:00

Never take any advice from someone who isn't jacked all around (legs included) or super crazy strong. Don't listen to worms, gym bros with no legs, fat people, and holiday lifters. Lifting isn't all that complicated. Its 3 things that matter when lifting: Diet, exercise, and rest.

Diet is important because you need to be eating nutrient dense natural foods, and you need to be eating enough calories to support your goals. Eat more than what your body burns in a day if you want to grow. Eat less than what your body burns in a day if you want to cut weight.

Exercise is important because that is where you put all those good nutrient from your diet to work.

Rest is to recuperate, restore full muscular strength, and produce hormones.

Get on a good bodyweight program at first. Go to the Bar Brothers on youtube and look at their transformation videos. You will see what ectomorphs can do by just training with their bodyweight.

After you've run their program for a a month or two, switch over to the gym and get on a strength building program. Spend one year doing nothing but strength training. 5x5 programs are good for that, and I personally recommend the Reg Park beginner 5x5. Run the program exactly how it's written, don't try to get fancy and remove shit from it. You're a lifting noob. Then after that 1 year or more, you can start doing more bodybuilding style workouts to really bring out the pump from your muscles.

But none of that will have any effect on you if you're not truly determined and if you don't eat like you're supposed to. Never hire a gym trainer, they're a bunch of crooks. Most of them don't even lift, and they will have you doing a bunch of nonsense that won't be beneficial to you. Just go on youtube, and watch how to videos so you can learn how to properly perform the lifts. Here are some channels for you to start with: Alan Thrall, Buff Dudes, Jonnie Candito, Elliot Hulse, Omar Isuf, Barbell Brigade.

[deleted] · 2017-09-17T23:33:04+00:00

Believe it or not there's a lot of terrible advice from internet strangers

naturaldemigod · 2017-09-17T20:19:32+00:00

that's bullshit, you can get big as an ectomorph, you just gotta eat a lot. I'm talking about devouring anything you can. There are plenty of ecto bodybuilders as well. The main problem is going to be your height as shorter guys usually get shorter muscles and you'll have to put in more effort to look actually buffed. If you got no time to invest in cooking or making food buy a gainer and just get on a course, dianabol for example for starters and then tell me that you can't get big. I don't recommend steroids to beginners though since it's better to take em when you actually hit your natural ceiling but if a time is an issue it won't make your dick limp as most of the uneducated fucks tell everyone around.

[deleted] · 2017-09-17T21:05:44+00:00

Ugh, too much info. Simple fact picking up heavy things makes your muscles grow so they can keep picking up heavy things. You also need to take in more calories then you use to grow muscle. Other then that pick any workout routine and stick with it for six months. I don't care what it is just be consistent. Come back at that point and you'll know what questions to ask.

mrHappyPotatoe · 2017-09-18T00:28:38+00:00

Jim wendler 5/3/1. I started with beginner workout where main focus is on deadlift, benchpress, press and squats. And each workout i finish with complementary exercises. His site has calculator where u can see wich plates u should use each set. Pretty much dumbs it downs for novices.

rashnull · 2017-09-18T00:46:10+00:00

You aren't working the muscle till failure. Hypertrophy is critical to growth.
You're not eating right. Figure out your macros and hit them consistently.

Tweak till you are able to see and feel a difference on a monthly basis.

Nitsujsith · 2017-09-18T01:17:43+00:00

start with starting strength -by mark rippletoe

Herdsengineers · 2017-09-18T03:01:16+00:00

Your post is paralysis by over-analysis. I do the same thing - it's usually really rooted in fear of something, lack of confidence regarding the subject at hand, etc.

For weight lifting - I started at 41 years old. I'm addicted to it now and wish I'd started much younger. I'm basically doing StrongLifts 5x5. I found a gym with a trainer who was built, did 3 personal sessions with him for instruction in proper form, and now I go and do my lifts every other day, or after every 2 days, depending on how recovered I feel.

Start with basics - bench press, back squat, overhead press, row, and deadlift. I also do kettlebell swings, and sometimes front squats with kettlebells, and fireman's carry. It's super simple to follow.

As for all the various comments you describe in the original post - you're listening to too many people and just need to stop and do your own thing. It's fairly obvious you don't know how to start, so I will say a few session with the right trainer would be great.

Oh - I see all body types lifting now. I've seen ectomorph's lifting, their muscle is well developed and while not as bulked up, they're still pulling significant weight. The looks are secondary, they're still strong as hell. Stronger than me after my 6 months of lifting so far.

Quit over-analyzing, if you want to hire a trainer for a few sessions, then the cost is really pretty minimal anyway, so go do it and get started. And quit worrying about everyone else's opinions so much.

-HeartOfDark- · 2017-09-18T03:25:14+00:00

First of all, you provide very little info regarding your goals with lifting or the equipment you have available. You want to get "big"? Ok. You need to go to the gym consistently, eat protein, and get some rest so you can continue gaining strength. Before I get into things, I have no idea what an ectomorph is and I'm not going to look it up so I hope that's not crucial... it sounds like something out of Alien or Predator though and that's pretty fucking tight. Anyway, I'm just going to respond to a few of the responses you posted...

"At 35 you're too old to start, don't bother as you'll waste time and not get big like you want to"

Bullshit. It's never too late to start lifting.

"You have high blood pressure so there's a lot of lifts you shouldn't be doing unless you want to give yourself a stroke"

Bullshit. Do cardio and eat cleaner to lower your blood pressure. Lifestyle changes dude. Less salt. Reduce stress. Drink less. Quit smoking if you do. Overall, your risk of having a stroke is extremely low at 35.

"Lifting reduces high blood pressure"

Not true. Lifestyle changes do. Cardio does. Lifting gives you bigger muscles. It's not going to improve your cardiovascular system that much. A little? Yeah. But not that much.

"You can't get bigger and lose your belly fat at the same time"

Not true. It's called a body recomp (recomposition). Your belly fat is just that... fat. If you work out, consume enough protein and eat at a slight calorie deficit you will lose fat. If you eat at an extreme calorie deficit you will lose fat and a bit of muscle. If you're a newbie you could lose a ton of fat and gain muscle. The main point is that fat is fat. You can't target which areas of your body will lose it. It's going to stick around your belly until you get a low BF%. So get it low if you want abs. They don't come quickly. It takes a lot of work both in the gym and with your diet.

"Buy the insanity workout programme, you will build muscle"

The best program is the one you stick to. No program is going to get you ripped unless you actually follow through.

"For bigger arms buy some dumbells and lift them every other day"

You can get bigger arms with just dumbbells. But you shouldn't just be focused on your arms. The biceps and triceps recover extremely quickly so you don't even need to wait to workout. You could do curls every day if you want. It all depends on your level of training.

"Dumbells won't get your arms much bigger, as you'll plateau really quickly - you need to get to the gym where you can pile on more weight"

Slightly true. If you only have access to 50 lb dumbbells then you're not going to have much room to improve your bench and other similar compound lifts. Barbells provide much more room for growth. With that said, you can supplement your workout with other exercises like Dips, or increase your reps with lower weight dumbbells until you have access to proper equipment.

"You will get bigger doing body weight exercises, look how ripped blokes in prison get"

Bodyweight exercises can be useful. But you're not going to look like the Rock without some actual weights. Guys in prison have weights. You can't do chinups for days and get biceps like Arnold. You need some weights.

"Body weight is not enough, you will get stronger endurance wise but not bigger"

Not true. You gain muscle by tearing down your muscles and feeding them protein. If you're a beginner you can absolutely get bigger with bodyweight exercises. Still, some weights will speed up the process.

"You need to hire a personal trainer who can show you the way"

Not true at all. If you're worried about your form then you could do one or two sessions with a trainer and have them show you how to do stuff safely but it's not necessary. Use youtube. Lookup proper form for the compound lifts (bench, deadlift, squat, bent over rows, OHP).

"Don't hire a personal trainer they are a waste of money"

Some of them are. Some of them aren't. IMO you would get more value from asking the jacked guys at your gym how to do certain exercises. Most people are nice and willing to help. If they aren't, go ask the next biggest guy and be sure to thank them when you're done.

Good luck with your lifting bro. Stick with it and you'll see results. Also, do some cardio for your blood pressure, even if it's a mile on the treadmill 3 times a week. It'll take you 30 minutes total out of the 168 hours you have in a week. That's not much to improve your overall health.

[deleted] · 2017-09-18T11:45:24+00:00

I'm guilty of not following advice i should have, and ended up getting into some bad training habits in the past.

The best no-bullshit advice i've received from really good trainers if you are a newbie is:

Compound exercises should be your focus. Otherwise you'll favour certain isolation exercises, overtrain, end up unbalanced, get injured and give up.
Perfect form over weight should be your focus as a beginner. Even if you have to start with just the bar to get something such as your squat form right. Start underweight with everything - you should be able to do 12 reps with precision perfect form otherwise you are going too heavy. Otherwise you'll get injured and give up.
Consistency - even if you only have time for 2 workouts a week, nail them into your schedule and do them no matter what (unless you are physically sick). Otherwise, you'll keep making excuses the next week, then the next week, then the next week until you never go anymore.
Diet - No matter if you are training for size, strength, endurance or weight loss, this has to be in order to maximise the gains to match the effort you are putting in + having enough energy for your routine. Otherwise, you might lose enthusiasm and give up.
If you can get a top gym buddy at a similar level who isn't a 'bro' or a 'wanker', that's the icing on the cake.

Any other advice is superfluous for a beginner IMO.

waylonw · 2017-09-18T15:19:05+00:00

First off you're 35 not 90. You have plenty of time to workout and grow. I'm 40 and I started hitting the gym earlier this year (6 months ago). I've dropped three pant sizes and gained a lot more muscle mass so don't by into the "you're too old" bullshit!

80% of getting into shape is what you eat... if you eat like shit guess what? Yep, you're gonna look like shit! You may never be "body builder" status, but you can make gains by eating right and working out regularly. Limited or cut all sugars (sodas and candies are terrible) and limit bread intake. Stop listening to stupid people and set goals for yourself and then tackle those goals!

menial_optimist · 2017-09-18T20:11:59+00:00

scooby1961 I find awesome

TheElite3740 · 2017-09-17T22:19:42+00:00

Monday: Flat chest. Incline chest. Overheard tricep pulls downs (skullcrushers)

Wednesday: lat pull down, cable rows, bicep curls. (Deadlifts if you can, I dislike them).

Friday: shoulder press, upright rows, squats, leg extensions.

Simple. That's all you need as a beginner.

Title	Drowning in a sea of bad lifting advice
Author	[deleted]
Upvotes	20
Comments	38
Date	September 17, 2017 7:08 PM UTC (8 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/askTRP
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/asktrp/comments/70pi96/drowning_in_a_sea_of_bad_lifting_advice/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/askTRP/drowning-in-a-sea-of-bad-lifting-advice.114540 https://theredarchive.com/post/114540

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