OK, so you're a couple months into lifting. Now what?

Summary:

So you've made a habit of going to the gym, have been lifting for a few months, but either aren't really sure what you're doing, or aren't that happy with your progress. What should you do next? Before we get into that, we really need to break down what it is exactly you're doing, either at a commercial gym, school gym, your home gym, or just around the house. From there, we can decide what you need to change to reach your goals.

Body:

I'll break this down into 3 parts: Lifting, Cardio, and Recovery

 

Lifting

 

Before we get started, take a moment to review these couple of images.

http://fitness-science.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/rep20continuum.jpg

http://www.nutridesk.com.au/picture/upload/reps_strength_hypertrophy_power.jpg

They both show more or less the same thing – to build raw strength, you want to train in sets of 2-5 reps. To train size, you want to train 8-12+ reps. This is why most beginner programs will start you off in the 5-8 rep range – so you get a good mix of strength and size, while doing sets across (as opposed to periodization/different weights-per-set), without completely anihilating your joints in the process.

There's 3 main types of lifting: Powerlifting (to build strength), Bodybuilding (to build size), and Olympic Weightlifting/Strongman (technique-based). All of these forms have significant overlap, especially for beginners. If you've never lifted a weight before, a Powerlifting program will build size, a Bodybuilding program will build strength, etc etc, so don't get too hung up on the details.

Powerlifting (Strength) – If you're doing a 3x5 or 5x5 program like Starting Strength, or Stronglifts, or Greyskull, you're doing a (beginner) Powerlifting program. As you get stronger, your muscles will invariably get larger; but the main thing a Strength program excels at is...well...building strength. Ideally, you'll want to be doing sets of 3-8 reps, at 70-90% of your 1RM, through a full range of motion, and resting for 3-5 minutes between sets. (I've been known to rest 6+ minutes while Deadlifting, and yes, it makes a huge difference). To get stronger, you DO NOT need to kill yourself with volume. Just doing 5 sets of Bench, plus warm-ups, is enough for an entire Chest/Tricep strength workout. With Strength training, it's absolutely IMPERATIVE that you use as near-perfect form as you can. The first rep you have a form breakdown – put the weight down, that set is done. Force-reps, having someone spot you for 2-3+ reps etc is useless while Strength training – save that for your hypertrophy workouts.

Bodybuilding (Hypertrophy) – For our purposes, “Bodybuilding” doesn't mean injecting yourself with test, nandrolone, and stanazolololol, becoming a freakbeast and hitting the stage at a shredded 4.2% BF – it strictly refers to the 1RM%/rest/sets/reps you will be working with. To build size – well above and beyond what you'd expect from merely becoming stronger – you need to be lifting a lot of weight (50-70% of 1RM); for a lot of reps (8-15 is ideal); resting short amounts of time (30s to 2 minutes); and pushing the overall volume to the max (20-40 total sets per workout) through different exercises that hit the muscles from multiple angles. So on back day, you might do one pull from the floor (Deadlift); one pull straight towards your body (T-Bar row); one pull from a downward angle (Barbell row); and one pull from above (Lat pulldown). Remember, the idea is to pull about 50% (or a little higher) of your maximum for a dozen-ish reps. It does you no good to load up the bar with a weight you can only do for 4 good reps before getting sloppy. You won't even get a good pump that way, so don't be stupid.

Olympic/Strongman (Technique) – For beginner purposes, there's little need to do these exercises/activities. The risk for injury outweighs the muscular, cardiovascular, aesthetic, etc gains you'll receive from Powerlifting and Bodybuilding. If that's your thing and you want to go down that path – then by all means. But I wouldn't even begin to do this until you can put up significant numbers (Squat 2-3x bodyweight, below parallel; deadlift 3x bodyweight; etc) - you'll just get injured, fat, and won't win anything. You won't even get a good pump, which is dumb, as previously mentioned.

 

A note about Size vs Strength

So what if you just want to get hyoooge and you don't care about strength? Well, consider the following (homer.jpg) – Which do you think is going to build more size? 3X10 Bicep curls with 50lbs, or 3X10 Bicep curls with 100lbs? Who at the gym usually has bigger arms – the guy curling 50lbs or the guy curling 100? …Exactly. But you're not going to build strength very well if all you do is sets of 10, resting 60 seconds. You'll make most of your bicep gains doing strength exercises like chin-ups, cable row, and T-bar row. THEN, once your biceps are stronger, you can move more weight doing those curls – and high-rep curls at a high weight will build bicep size. Bottom line – pushing more weight means bigger size gains. If you refuse to train in the strength range (2-6 reps, 80-95% 1RM), and only train Hypertrophy, you'll eventually smack into a brick wall and stay the same size--no matter how many additional sets you do. Your pump will always, and forever, be temporary – like when you go to take a monster shit, but you can't unclench your cheeks, then the shit starts coming out, and you freak out and clinch again, and it goes right back into your butthole, etc. Worst feeling ever.

What if you just want to be strong, and you don't care about size? That's a little trickier. It can certainly be done – Google “Powerlifting champion” and take a look around. Lots of flab on guys that are incredibly strong. My question to you is: assuming you don't plan to compete, why would you voluntarily carry around that extra 10-20lbs of flab instead of getting cut? Most of those guys have lifted for a decade or more, and know the exact BF% they need to be at to lift to 99.9% of their physical potential. Most of us would be overjoyed with 90-95% of our potential and being absolutely jacked. Why insist on that extra 5-10% potential for nothing more than bragging rights, if it means you have blurry abs, look bloated, etc? At the point when your lifting total is 1400-1800+lbs, I guarantee you it'd be easier to sub some cardio/conditioning instead of lifting all those heavy ass weights and taking those long rest breaks. You'll be doing your joints a favor while also looking better aesthetically. If your 3-lift total is <1000 and you talmbout "I don't care about looks, I just want to be strong"...Lol just lol. Clean up your diet, start doing cardio and add hypertrophy training, you lazy shit.

When it comes down to it, with Lifting.....you CAN have it both ways – you can be strong as shit, and look great. It's all about programming, willpower, consistency, and just plain knowing what the fuck you're doing. Deadlift is a shit exercise to build size (injury risk); Bicep curls are a shit exercise to build strength (form breakdown). You need to know how to categorize each lift to limit injury risk and maximize strength/size gains. You also need to temper your expectations, use safety equipment where appropriate (knee sleeves, belts, wrist wraps), don't work through injuries (take the time off, use much lighter weights with strict form, etc), and don't try to go up in weight at the expense of proper form. You may feel stupid doing a new exercise with an empty bar - you'll actually look stupid laying on the floor because you did a new exercise wrong and snapped your shit up.

 

Cardio

 

Unless you want to be a flabby fuck, you'll need to be doing some kind of cardio. The main considerations here are 1) what is your HR, and 2) what are you doing (weights or conditioning). If you keep your HR at high levels for long periods of time, your body will switch from primarily burning fat to burning (stored) carbs - and once you run out of carbs/glycogen, it will start burning muscle. This is generally a bad thing. We do not want this.

Another chart to look at

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/69/Exercise_zones_Fox_and_Haskell.svg/2000px-Exercise_zones_Fox_and_Haskell.svg.png

http://vitalvitality.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Fullscreen-capture-4272012-22843-PM1.jpg

“Fat Burn”/Circuit – Whether lifting weights, or bicycling, or Stairmaster, etc, this is when your HR is roughly 100-130bpm for an extended period of time. If you're in excellent shape, this can mean jogging at 7-10+ mph; otherwise, you're looking at something like Elliptical machine, circuit training, or something less intense. The goal here is to build a light sweat, but not to feel your heart beating through your chest. The point of doing “Fat Burn” type stuff is that it doesn't cut much, if at all, into your recovery time, but allows you to burn calories without much effort. This applies whether bulking (control fat gain) or cutting (get to eat more food) - Hypertrophy/Bodybuilding also fits in this zone, sans the part about recovery. If you aren't sore after Leg hypertrophy day, and feel like you could do the whole workout again today, then you likely programmed it wrong. If you do Hypertrophy training multiple days per week, you likely don't need to do additional "Cardio", unless you want to.

Cardio/Conditioning – This is generally going to be steady-state things like jogging, swimming, etc, where you're breaking a significant sweat (130-160HR) and throwing your whole body into the movement. This is also where I'd put Crossfit – where you're much more aggressive in your lifting/calisthenics than someone doing bland circuit training would be. Which is also, consequently, why Crossfitters generally look soft – yes, they're making functional/technique gains, but because they aren't consistently working in that 3-5 rep zone, they aren't building as much strength; and because of a lack of overall volume (no 2 hour sessions), they aren't building much size. Crossfit is essentially a poorly-designed 'Cross' between Strength and Hypertrophy training. If anything, Crossfitters train their muscles to be smaller and more efficient, and train their body to store fat instead of carbs (see: marathon runners). This is also why some NFL players shrink during the year – they get too banged up to lift heavy weights, but they still do conditioning work, leading to muscle wasting.

High Intensity/Intervals – Like Conditioning, but designed to spike your heart rate to unsustainable levels (160-190+ HR) for just a few minutes (or even as few as 15-30 seconds) at a time. This would be something like sprinting 20 seconds, then walking 2 minutes, and repeating this 10 times. Assuming you're actually sprinting and not just fast-jogging, you'll be hating life even if your overall sprinting volume is “only” around 3 minutes. Basically, it's like strength-training for your heart. Properly programmed, you'll become more explosive, have more overall energy, a faster metabolism, joints won't be as sore, etc, because you aren't running yourself into the ground with steady-state/one-speed cardio for 30-60 minutes at a time. You're going balls-out for short burts and getting it over with.

 

Preparation/Recovery

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This is the stuff that's designed to either get you warmed up for today's workout, or to cool down from a work-out. You can also do these things on off-days, along with some low-intensity cardio, just to get the blood pumping to the areas you're trying to recover. Many of these things you don't need to go to the gym to do - you can buy a few bands or foam roller, and just do it at home. But it's important that you take time for Recovery - if all you ever do is show up and get to work, sooner or later, bad things will happen to you.

Active Recovery – This is when you go around and do things like Bench, Squat, etc, with a very very low % of your 1RM. So if you Squat 400lbs, you'd be Squatting something like 135. The idea isn't to get a “workout” or even break a sweat - it's more to get a stretch going, pump some fluids, etc. The benefits are similar to stretching, but I personally find stretching boring as hell. (If you have ego issues, I wouldn't recommend active recovery, as people will see you lifting small weights and you'll get self-conscious about it, and want to load up the bar with your 1RM, etc, defeating the whole purpose)

Stretching/Yoga – I do most of my stretching while doing the exercises themselves, so my squat warm-up is bodyweight squat, bench warm-up is just the bar, etc – but if you have problem areas, previous injuries, are generally untrained, etc, you'll want to stretch early and often. Be careful not to over-stretch before doing exercises like Squat or Deadlift – that can actually make you TOO loose. With some exercises, you need to keep some tightness to get the right bounce/stretch reflex. If you static stretch your legs for 20 minutes, then go squat 400lbs ass to grass, you're going to have a bad time.

Foam rolling/Massage – When stretching isn't enough, grab that foam roller and roll it out. You're basically tenderizing yourself. Or pay someone else to do it. Or pay someone else to do it and then jerk you off when they're done (assuming you're not a dessert-first guy).

Sauna/Hot Tub – mostly for old people, or people with a beach-ready body. Am bulking, so neither of these describe me. But the heat has to be good for something – toxins and whatnot.

Kettlebells – Lmao don't be that guy.

TRX – See above.

Preparation/Recovery is mostly just where you kill time and look at asses. Or wait til a cutie locks eyes with you, then you approach her - if that's your thing. Am bulking, thus I am disgusting, so this doesn't apply to me.

 

Lessons Learned:

 

Just showing up at the gym is a good 1st step. But next, you need to set multiple goals, related to your strength, overall size, and cardio ability – keeping your career, overall health, and future all in mind. With my job (Delivery Driver), size can hurt you. Stepping out of the truck 150 times/day, at 250lbs, is a very bad idea. So I'll always be at/under 200lbs to preserve my knees (as long as I'm working there, at least), and I train cardio/hypertrophy at the expense of unlimited strength gains. If you're on your HS/College Swim team, or Basketball team, etc you'll want to limit your amount of Size/hypertrophy gains – the muscle will look good, but will literally weigh you down and won't help you with your sport. If you work a desk job and just want to get big and deadlift 600lbs, you're probably going to have to give up running 30 miles/week. It's all about balance.

If you're like most of us, and just want to put on 20lbs or so of muscle, and lose 20 or so pounds of fat, you can get there with a program like Wendler 531. You start each workout with Powerlifting, and end it with Bodybuilding/Hypertrophy sets to get more volume in. The idea is that you're building strength and building size – at the same damn time. Bending bars, ripping clothes – at the same damn time. 1-rep max, mov--well, you get the point.

No matter your goals, there's a way to set up your workouts to work towards and achieve them. The only questions are, how much work YOU are willing to put in, and how accountable YOU will hold YOURSELF when you (inevitably) fail. Will you blame your workout partner, lack of steroids, genetics, etc? Or will you realize your failures, reach out to others, do the research, and fix what went wrong? The choice is ultimately yours. And so are the results.

I can't think of much else to say, so if you want to ask questions and shit, fire away.

     

Little background about me, without doxxing myself (I hope?): I drive for UPS, so I'm (in a way) tired all the time. I'm never 100%. My knees/shoulders/ankles are always some level of sore. Still, my 3-lift total (Bench, Squat, Deadlift) is well over 1200lbs, and I weigh under 200lbs. I lift about 4 times a week – 2 heavy days, and 2 lighter days. Am I competition ready? Not nationally, no. But according to EXRX Strength Standards, all of my lifts are Advanced or Higher – my Bench is borderline Elite. I'm still breaking lifetime PRs on a monthly basis – I don't use any steroids/insulin/etc, just your basic bro supplements (PWO, Creatine, Carnitine, Testobooster 2000 with all the herbal dumb shit, etc). I'm not an elite athlete – never played on any HS or College Sports teams. Nobody else in my family did either. I don't have superior genetics. There is nothing about me that is exceptional other than my work ethic, and committment to accepting criticism and learning from my mistakes. I try to be honest with myself 100% of the time (you'll notice me around the forums, scolding people for being intellectually dishonest – my #1 pet peeve). I don't believe in finding excuses - I believe in finding explanations.

I don't watch YouTube videos and think “Look at this guy, he's on roids, he has no real life, all he does is lift, I could do that to if I didn't work full time” etc...I think “What kind of Bench grip is that? Closer or wider? Are his elbows flaring? Is he using leg drive?” etc. Just a few tweaks here and there has taken my Big 3 lifts up over 100lbs in the last year. I couldn't have done that without YouTube, Misc, BodyRecomposition.com (excellent resource) and Fitness subreddit. I won't be a Pro – Bodybuilding or Powerlifting – for a couple years, if ever, but I feel good about where I'm at right now. I'm Top 1-3% strongest in my gym - I'm at a commercial chain, so that at least partly explains it. Still. I get noticed everywhere I go. Women look at me in ways they absolutely NEVER did before, unless I had a stupid haircut or some flashy outfit on. HB8s still gon HB8, and pretend not to notice...but they be noticing. But enough about me, I'm just putting this here for those skeptics among us, who would prefer to question the messenger rather than the message. Feel free to grill me on my story, idc ¯_(ツ)_/¯