What works good for beginners that are serious!

[Power Pup]

I am a beginner. But I really want to get bigger. I am a smaller made person. What supplements should I consider? And should I consider protein? Or what.

[Go Stars]

No, beginners should not consider supps. You should just learn the basics about dieting, exercise. This will take you a very long way. Do make sure that you consume at least 1g of prot per body weight.

[Go Stars]

The reason I say this is because we all need to know how our bodies react to diet and exercise without any other influences. When you become more advanced you can try some supps.

[Daniel Clough]

Go Stars is right..

I wish someone had of told me to learn dieting and ignore supps when I was starting,, It would have saved me a lot of time and money..

Save your money , plan your diet and go buy a load of food evey week and eat properly... I was naturally a small guy weigting 150ish lb's at 5,11 at the age of 20.. OUCH..

Now I am 22 and weigh in at 187 and am going for 200 by summer... Most of these gains are quite recent due to a good eating plan..

If you must buy supps stick to a multi vitmain, some vit C and perhaps some protein to be used if you are in a rush. I.e after your workout.. But not neccessary..

Hope that helps you bro..

[Go Stars]

What would I do without you Hulk? Sorry, I get used to people referring to creatine and others when they say supps. I think it is a good idea to stick to multi-vit and Vit C to help in recovery and make sure that your body has enough of what it needs since your body is about to go through some big changes.

[Wizard]

In my experience,the best supplement is 8hours of sleep per night.I agree with the others about the multivitamin,and vit c.

[Anthony]

Food.

[gino]

Vitamins and food...lots of it. Try eating a meal every 3 hours. This works well for me. Every three hours I'll consume a meal with about 450-500 calories - 35g protein, 40g carbs, and some fat(varies). Pre and post workout meals are usually higher in each. Again, as I mentioned, these are "about" measurements of the contents of my meals - give or take 10g of anything.

[Shadowman]

hell just eat boy, at least every three hours (I prefer two). I'm sure these lovely people will tell you exactly what you want to be eating if you ask.

[Albert]

If I can get just one young guy to hold off doing isolation curls and cable chest flyes for a few years and stick to compound movements, I will know my existance had some purpose.
PowerPup, forget about size & supplements for now and think about making strength gains. Get stronger on the bench, squats, deadlifts, military presses, etc. and you may exceed what you now think is big, you certainly will expand your personal potential. Remember, strength=size, massive strength=massive size. In order to get stonger you have to eat a lot, sleep, drink lots of water, and make a commitment. Make sure you get your protein & vitamins and mix up your routines. Please stay away from isolation curls and tank tops until your reppin' 225 on the bench 8-10x.
Now, go out there and make me proud trooper. Good luck.

[Daniel Clough]

good post Albert :)

[Go Stars]

I like that advice....."stay away from tank tops".

[seyone]

Albert has said it the best. the tank tops part is so true hehe. as a beginner you will find that now is the time that you will make some of your best gains and later on it will become more difficult. stick with the basics, eat, sleep and train hard. don't be afraid to ask questions that you might feel are dumb because its better to ask a "dumb" question that make a "dumb" mistake.

[Mystic Eric]

Originally posted by Hulk


I was naturally a small guy weigting 150ish lb's at 5,11 at the age of 20.. OUCH..



yes hulk, yes that is "OUCH" HAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH:D just joking with ya "slim shady" ;). yeah, power pup, you have been giving good advice. stay away from supps until you have been training for at least over like 8 months or so. supps such as creatine won't do much for you if you don't have a strength base. as far as your routine goes, if you are a total newbie and haven't lifted weights before, you should start off with a month or two of light simple movements based upon a 2 day split. the reason to do this is to help get your body adjusted to the stresses of working out, so you don't hurt yourself. after you have done about 2 months of that, make a good split consisting of exercises such as deads, bench, squats, over head presses, barbell row and etc. remember, you grow when you are out of the gym, so don't get too happy and train everyday, and do endless sets. if you do everything right, you should be able to see noticable results in 8 weeks. good luck

[the doc]

man i wish i would have learned this 9 months ago. I wasted 5 or six good months on isolation curls, ab work, and the like. I was way overtrained-working out with high volume 4 or 5 times a week. I made some progress, but i attribute that to the gains every newbie gets. The past 3 i've spent totally on heavy compound movements (thanks to advice of people who post here) and gains have been steady (slowed down some lately as i am trying to cut fat). I haven't done any curls or tricep work in almost a month. Its funny though-after my chest shoulders day my tri's were trashed and are still somewhat sore even though i did no direct arm work! crazy huh? Do some deads and watch yourself in the mirror- every muscle in your body will be flexed-its really cool!

[Edited by the doc on 01-27-2001 at 12:01 PM]

[Go Stars]

I know what you mean doc. I was training each muscle twice a week, 20 sets for major muscles and about 15 for small. I lifted 6 days a week and could not understand why I was so tired and not growing.

If I only knew.......