Complete Beginner

M

MrMagic

New Member
Hi,

Well, I am completely new to bodybuilding, lifting, and athletics in general. Currently, I'm very out of shape and want to fix that.

My primary goal at the moment is aesthetic; I can worry about physical fitness, strength, etc., later, but want to look good first.

I am 17 years old, weigh 180 lbs, am 5' 9.5" tall. Much of this weight is not muscle, but fat; I don't know my body fat percentage, but I can assure you it is pretty high.

So my two objectives are building muscle mass and burning fat, which I understand may not be possible to achieve concurrently.

Which objective should I focus on first? If it doesn't make a difference, I'd prefer losing fat first.

I know very little about lifting, so I don't know if HST is a good idea for me at this point in time. Is it suitable for someone who doesn't even know how to lift yet?

If not, what type of program would you recomend?

Also, how do I make sure that I am doing exercizes properly and with correct form?

Finally, I had questions about diet. I've been trying the Warrior Diet, an intermittent fasting type diet, since mid June and have lost about ten pounds, mostly fat I think.

Is this type of diet okay for HST techniques or do I really need to eat six meals a day? I enjoy greater energy and focus during the day and there are numerous health benefits to an intermittent fasting lifestyle, so I'd prefer continuing it unless it will seriously impeede my goals.

I know I asked a lot, but I'd appreciate any advice.

Thanks,
Anand
 
Being that you're completely new to working out, you CAN burn fat and lose muscle at the same time.  For a little while at least.  I would recommend following a Starting Strength routine that's made popular by Mark Rippetoe.    You can do pretty much anything and you'll see results at this point, but SS will take advantage of you're newbie status and most likely you'll get better results then following any other program.  

Starting Strength Guide

I too have just started that IF diet and i Love it.   My day is good, i feel better then any other diet/ way of eating i've ever tried before.  I have more energy, more focus, etc.   I know that most places advise on following the 5-8 meals a day thing, but that was aweful for me as well.  It's way to inconvenient to eat that much.  Unless i was a millionaire and was able to just sit on my *** all day and eat every 2 hours on the dot.  

There some guys on here following an 24/24 IF with a PSMF diet that they're experimenting with.  I don't think you really need to worry about it right now since you're young and just starting to work out.   Once you get going and loose enough fat that you're comfortable with the way that you look, you can start bulking up if you want to put on some muscle.  

You can buy the book Starting Strength and learn all of the exercises correctly.  Mark goes in great detail about squats/deadlifts/bench press/shoulder press/ and some others.  It helped me a lot.  Also you can look stuff up on you tube or check that post i linked up, it has links to all those exercises being performed correctly.   Once you start doing it, you can also video tape yourself if possible at the gym and then post it on here for opinions.  

Anyways, do yourself a favor and also read through all the Stickied posts on here as they will answer a lot of youre questions.
 
Hi Anand!

Like Rigs says, this will be one time in your life when you will be able to successfully add muscle and burn fat at the same time. You lucky dog you!  
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Learning good form in several key exercises should be one of your first training goals. I'll second getting a copy of Starting Strength; it'll be one of the best investments you ever make to help you with your training.

Also, if you want to grow more than just get strong, I really think you could just get stuck right into an HST cycle. I wish I had known about this stuff when I was your age; it would have saved me years of frustration.

The thing you will have to watch is your form. HST will have you lifting heavy loads (heavy is relative though) in the 5 rep range part of the cycle but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. (A Starting Strength routine would have you do this too.) If you focus on your form and pay less attention to the load on your first cycle you should get a pretty good grasp of how to do each movement safely and effectively.

Once you feel comfortable with a load, add a bit more to the bar on the next session. Keep doing that until you stall out. Doing this you could keep the 5s going for several more weeks than a typical HST cycle before you reach a plateau or you just need a break (joints take a while to toughen up even when you are young). Then it'll be time for SD and then you can start over again.

Do have a read of the thread linked in my footer. It contains some very useful info that will help you to set up an effective routine.

All the best.
 
Thanks for the replies, and sorry for the long response time.

The IF diet has been working well for me, so I'll continue until/unless it becomes an issue down the road.

I'll check out starting strength; I'm to the exercises portion of the guide so far, and will probably buy the book.

I'm sure I'll soon have more questions, I'll post back soon and update you on my progress.

Thanks,
Anand
 
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