Getting back into lifting

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thecoffeeguy

New Member
After a 5 year layoff of lifting weights, I have rediscovered my desire (and its been great) to bodybuild/strength/cut and I'm looking for some pointers on getting back into the swing of things.
Stats:
31 year old Male
6'3"
225 lbs (need to shed some fat here
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Goals:
Drop 20-25 pounds of fat.
Ideal weight, between 200-210 with 8-9% bodyfat.
I've been working on my diet, getting this in order. It will take time, but its always a work in progress.
The routine is my biggest question at this point. I'm trying to determine what is the right amount of work to do; sets, reps, frequency etc.
I was hoping someone might be able to get me some suggestions on a routine that will help me on the following:
-build backup my old strength (my best becnh was 325 1RM)
-lose fat (which really bugs me right now)
-bring some muscle size back
There is a lot of bodybuilding stuff on the internet now and a ton of theories. So many it makes your head spin and even worse, confuses you.
With that, i was hoping someone might suggest a routine to get me on track and accomplish my goals.
I'll be honest, the first thing I want to do, is drop this excess fat. After that, I can adjust things.
I'm excited to be back. I am even more excited to hear responses and suggestions.
Cheers,
thecoffeeguy
 
hi,

awesome welcome back to lifting... great stuff!!!

every question you've asked is answered in the faq's a few boards above this one. it'll also probably answer a few other questions you'll have as well. it's a wealth of info in there for exactly what you're trying to do. it's a great read, i still go back to it every so often.

thanks for the bandwidth,
ephman
 
My suggestion - tackle each goal one at a time. Decide which is more important and do that one first. For instance, you may want to run a cutter for a while to drop some weight, after that you may want to eat at maintenance for a while and work on strength. Then, once you are lean again and feeling strong, run a bulker to build some quality muscles.
That's the order I would suggest anyway.

Your maintenance is probably around 2500 calories or so, so I'd start counting your calories, eat probably around maintenance, maybe a little under. Start lifting some heavy weights three days a week - I suggest fullbody, 5 rep range, focus on compounds. The purpose at this point is not to build muscle so much as to spare muscle, so I think a good routine would be squats or deadlifts, bench or dips, chins, bentover rows, then military press or whichever press you prefer. A couple sets of each should be sufficient. You'll want to do cardio on the days you don't lift.
Follow a plan like that and you should see the fat start to come off at a decent rate. I don't know your bodyfat percentage, but if you are at 25% bodyfat, then you could probably shoot for 190 lbs. which would probably bring you down to 10-12% or so... assuming 25% is close to what you really are at. I'm just pulling a number out of the air for that. But 190 lbs would give you 35 lbs to lose, so you may want to spend a good few months cutting. You could go faster, but you risk losing more lean mass that way...

For gaining strength, I'd suggest checking out some of the 5x5 threads in the strength specific forum here. That would be great to build up strength. If you do that, you may want to eat over maintenance a bit (but not too much) for a couple cycles.

After that, a few basic cycles of HST would be great for packing on some quality mass.
 
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[b said:
Quote[/b] (Totentanz @ Sep. 22 2005,4
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6)]Start lifting some heavy weights three days a week - I suggest fullbody, 5 rep range, focus on compounds. The purpose at this point is not to build muscle so much as to spare muscle, so I think a good routine would be squats or deadlifts, bench or dips, chins, bentover rows, then military press or whichever press you prefer. A couple sets of each should be sufficient. You'll want to do cardio on the days you don't lift.
Click to expand...
Great points for Totentanz but I`ve to disagree in some matters. If you have been out of the gym over 5 years you should take it easy and get your muscles used to the work. Start with high reps like 12-15 and try to find your muscles. Stick to those movements in the beginning which are familiar with you.
So start with high reps with longer pauses between sets and gradually lower the pause time and rep count as your nervous system is back on the track
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Good to have you back ;)
 
Coffeeguy

Welcome back to the weight lifting, scene.

I think you have hit the right website, if you are interested in getting real, suing science based training programs and information and no bullshit at all.

HST in my opinion is the best there is out there at the moment, there are some copies out there, but few and none of them get as scientific as we do here! That is besides the point because we are all growing, that is proof enough.

Secondly, you will get help, and sometimes even the boss himself drops in for an opinion or two or to curb some eager beaver from getting too excited or going beyond the accepted behaviour
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My suggestion for what its worth!
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Take up the main HST popinter and use that program for starters keeping the program basic and simple, but going through the basic rep range 15/10/5/5.

Take time to work out your rep maximums, 1 RM/5/10 and 15.

I like to keep to the big six and recommend people to start HST using these too:

Bench press/Dips/Squats/Deadlifts/Military press/Chin ups. Alternate dips and squats for different workout days and train 3 x per week, if you can twice/day thrice/week works like a bomb so I hear, but most of us can't afford the luxury!

As for the fat, on rest days do cardio, moderate to heavy for at least 30 minutes.

You are already working on the diet so I'll leave that one up to you!

Hope this helps some! Totsiens!
 
From the department of redundancy I will agree with Fausto.

I came back from a 9 year layoff using HST and it worked beautifully. ---> That was 3 years ago.

I did vanilla HST (the one Bryan sugests) I ran on the off days. I did the running for about 4 months -- dropped weight then dropped the running to bulk.

Just don't over do it for your first 2 cycles. Get a good feeling for your RMs and don't push it. Underestimate them -- You are so deconditioned that you will grow. There are no bonus points for lifting heavyer. And you want to avoid injury..... You want to avoid injury

I would not do negs the first 2 cycles just more heavy 5s. But it comes back quickly....it is sort of magic.
;) Bob
 
I liked Fausto's exercise group, But at 6'3" deadlifts might not be a feasible/safe one. At least for me, my long @$$ legs get in the way. I do this:
Squats,
Pull ups (medium'ish/wide'ish grip, palms away),
Prone leg curls,
Dips,
Cable Rows,
Dumbell Over Head Press,
Barbell Curls,
Over Head Tricep Extension,
and finish with Calf Raise.
I like this because its mostly compounds but I still like to hit arms, cause Ive found they can lag.
Take it really easy the first week or two...I would only hit one set of each because you will get sore! LOL
You might consider doing two weeks at one set each then the next two weeks with two sets of each. Like has been mentioned 12-15 reps.
After doing this find your 15, 10, and 5 rep maxes. Take a week or two off and start a HST cycle. You'll love it! LOL
All while your doing this or what ever you decide,,,Read, Read, READ! LOL There is so much info on this site that it will keep you busy for a good long time...
Feel free to ask questions, just search first, most of them have been asked and answered.
Peace, safe training, Sphinx.
 
Thanks guys, I really appreciate the feedback! It motivates me that much more! I can't wait for my next workout.

Good points from everyone.

I do need to figure out my goals and Totentanz laid it out perfectly.

1.) drop fat and BF%
2.) Work on strength
3.) Start adding muscle

That's ideally the direction I want to head. I stress the desire to lose the fat quickly because, mentally it bothers me a lot. It bothers me because I let my body go and to be completely 100% honest, it really pisses me off. More fuel for my motivation though. :D

In the past, I focused a lot on big compound movements; bench, squats, deadlifts, rows, presses etc. I would also mix in stuff like skull crushers, bicep curls, abs and calves.

I really look forward to trying out HST. As suggested, would the vanilla routine help me get started on my goals? Fat loss, rebuild muscle and strength etc.

Lastly, I still have to read all the info on HST so I can fully grasp all the concepts. At the same time, I remember when I was lifting, there were/are a TON of theories out there. So many it made my head spin.

Anyway, I guess my underlying question here is, through using HST, can I achieve my goals of losing fat (Ideal bodyfat % is 8%), build muscle and definition?

I know diet is very key to all this and I am constantly working on that.

Lastly, anyone like to recommend supplements? I have some whey, essential fatty acid (fish oils) and multi-vitamin.

Thanks guys!

Cheers,

thecoffeeguy
 
coffeeguy

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Anyway, I guess my underlying question here is, through using HST, can I achieve my goals of losing fat (Ideal bodyfat % is 8%), build muscle and definition?
Click to expand...

Yep, just pay attention to your diet and apply yourself with the weights, lift as heavy as you can mange within the set parameters and....you'll see!

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Lastly, anyone like to recommend supplements? I have some whey, essential fatty acid (fish oils) and multi-vitamin.
Click to expand...

Only creatine (5 g per day with your protein) and maybe glutamine (not absolutelly essential though!).
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Hey...don't forget to let us know how your gains went
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[b said:
Quote[/b] (thecoffeeguy @ Sep. 22 2005,1:28)]Lastly, anyone like to recommend supplements? I have some whey, essential fatty acid (fish oils) and multi-vitamin.
Click to expand...
I saw that Fausto recommended creatine, which is a good supplement, although I would wait until I got into the groove of things before starting to take it. Creatine will give you the most effect after you have ironed out some of the initial problems typically related to starting out, even though you've lifted before. So my humble suggestion is to give yourself a month to gain some stability exercise-wise, and then start with creatine to push you into next gear.

Regards and good luck,
/ R
 
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