Just starting
Hey just starting this today. Been going to a gum for the past month and was reading a lifting mag and seen this website. So figured id check it out and love it.
Ive been watching the beginner video's trying to memerize them before i go to the gym tonight and hope to do them. I also heard on one fo the video's taht there is a work out sheet or something like that and been searching but cant not find it. So i wanted to know after i do all these stepes should i go on to the circuit of lifting at the gym or does this work everything and i dont need to do those now? Also want to loose weight before i starting building a lot of muscle so any food tips or program or something to follow would be cool if that is possible.
If you've got a lot of body
If you've got a lot of body fat, I'd focus on your diet and cardio more than weight training for just right now until you get the fat off. Once you lean down, you'll get a real boost in confidence and you'll really see what you're working with as far as your body proportions.
You look like a pretty big guy, so for cardio I'd hit the excercise bike or an elliptical to shed the pounds. Running on the treadmill can be killer for overweight people, not to mention how bad it is on the joints. That's one thing that bugged me about that show "Biggest Loser", they had the people doing all sorts of crazy and unnecessary exercises just for tv drama, ones that could cause injuries.
After your bodyfat is down to 12% or so, which you can measure with calipers, I'd start weight training and doing a combination of that and cardio on the days that you're not weight training. Everyone will have different recommendations, but I'd do something like this -
Monday: Chest, Triceps
Tuesday: Cardio (1 hour or more..fast pace, slow pace, fast pace)
Wednesday: Biceps, Back
Thursday: Cardio (same)
Friday: Shoulders/Legs
Saturday: off
Sunday: Cardio
This way, you'll be building muscle and losing your remaining fat at the same time. Too much cardio will put your body in a catabolic state, which can burn muscle along with it, so doing cardio on days you hit the weights wouldn't be a good idea. I'd do cardio first thing in the mornings too, before even eating anything. Just have some water, then after your workout have some carbs and protein. On the days you weight train, really up the carbs and make sure your protein intake is about 1- 1.5 grams per pound of bodyweight.
Proportions will be important to consider once you start putting on muscle mass. I'm kind of odd in that I naturally started out with 16" calves, but had 12 1/2 inch biceps. Ideally they should be the same. So for my routine, I don't even include calves since the last thing I want to do is for them to get bigger. Too many body builders pay no attention to aesthetics and just go for crazy mass... I think proportions are key to having that extra edge over the average meat-head out there.
A lot of the excercises here are good ones, but stick to the basics when you're starting out. Lots of compound excercises will improve your overall strength, then after that focus more on isolation excercises to really define what parts of your muscles you want to focus on.