Reposted from my blog... Apologies for all the stronglifts plugging, but I'm really a big fan of the site. FYI, I don't have any commercial relationship with them.

In the past six months, I have completely changed my workout and fitness routine and achieved amazing results. I’m now back to my ideal weight of 170 lbs, and my bodyfat is down to 11%. At 28 years old, I’m in the best shape of my life. But I’ve also struggled with injuries, lack of motivation and lack of time – but I didn’t let that hold me back.

Working out is about discipline, it’s about pushing yourself. To truly get in shape, you need to change your attitudes and beliefs. This is not just about being better looking, it’s about building the confidence and discipline you need to be a good Pick up Artist and an attractive man. Here are the tips that most other websites won’t tell you – I had to learn this myself.

1 – Play a sport. If you’re a typical guy with a competitive instinct, you’ll find that sports are much more motivating than exercise for it’s own sake or bodybuilding. They get your testosterone flowing, and help build functional strength. And if you suck at first – now you have a good reason to practice more. At the gym, work out with your sport in mind – it’s motivating.

2 – Screw bodybuilding. Most of the workout advice on the internet comes from a bodybuilding perspective, ignore it. Bodybuilding doesn’t build functional strength, it’s motivated by narcissism, it’s not healthy, and it doesn’t even make women attracted to you. Ask you female friends whether they’d rather date a 220lb bodybuilder or a 180lb soccer player. Women like strength, not muscle.

3 – Work out a lot. Bodybuilders are the only “athletes” that only train three times a week. For every other sport, 5-6 workouts a week is the standard. If you’re not competing at a high level, you don’t NEED to work out 6 days a week – but try. That way, if you miss a few workouts a week (as we all do) you’ve still worked out 4 times. Once you start feeling the changes to your body and your energy levels, you will want to work out every day.

4 – Stop making excuses. I just worked out yesterday. I’ll work out tomorrow. I haven’t eaten recently. I just ate. My joint hurts. My muscles are sore. I used to have all these excuses. JUST GO. If you haven’t eaten properly, chomp down something quick on your way out, if you just ate, walk slowly to the gym. Things don’t have to be perfect.

5 – Lift weights for strength. Weight training and bodybuilding aren’t the same thing. Lifting weights can help build functional strength for sport and is good for your joints and bones. Bodybuilding is focused on cosmetics, and can lead to muscle imbalances and joint pain. Embrace weight training, forget about bodybuilding. Stronglifts 5×5 has a great program for beginners to weight training. I try to lift weights 3x a week, and play sports 3x a week. This is what I do instead of watching TV.

6 – Weight lift with form to strengthen your joints. I used to have a sore back and knees that kept me from working out properly. I would baby them and avoid working them out too hard. But that just weakened the muscles around the joints, caused muscle imbalances and made my pain worse. Now I do weightlifting with proper form, and I’m strengthening my joints safely. Machine exercises don’t build strong joints. My sore knees feel 100x better since I started doing squats regularly. Stronglifts has great advice on how to lift weights with proper form.

7 – Forget gimmicks. There are a lot of gimmicky workout routines out there. Some are total crap, some work but are for pro bodybuilders. If you’re new, you don’t need gimmicks, you need a conservative, hard, kick your ass workout to give you basic fitness and to get used to the idea of pushing yourself. Most gimmicky workout routines tell you that you can get fit without pushing yourself or working hard, but you want to work hard; that’s how you grow mentally and physically.

8 – Stop making excuses. I’m saying this twice because it needs to be said. Don’t have enough money? Don’t have enough time? Take your plasma TV or your Xbox 360 and pawn them on Craigslist. Now you have the time and the money. I’ve found that a good ½ hour workout makes me more focused and productive all day giving me more productive time. Workout regularly for a few weeks and see how much more time it creates for you.

9 – Eat healthy. No workout regime is complete without a healthy diet. Especially if your goal is to lose weight, you’re going to need to watch your diet. Lots of protein, watch your carbs, eat whole grains and veggies. There are a lot of good diet plans out there on the internet. Avoid gimmicks.

10 – Exercise your willpower. The best part of working out for me is the way it strengthens my willpower as it strengthens my body. Growth requires pain and discomfort, growth is exhausting. When you push through a tough workout or give your all in a big game, you’re training your mind to push through the troubles and the pain of everyday life. You get stronger, more confident and the slings and arrows of everyday life hurt less. It changes your life.

I’m currently following the Stronglifts workout program, which I reccomend. Crossfit is workout program that is also highly reccomended.

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Tenmagnet - Lovesystems Instructor
www.lovesystems.com
www.tenmagnet.com

11- Disregard mostly everything above. He has no fuckin clue what he is talking about. "Workout everyday" bullshit.

I didn't say "lift heavy weights every day", I said you should TRY to exercise 6x a week. Obviously you don't want to be doing deadlifts every day of the week.

_________________
Tenmagnet - Lovesystems Instructor
www.lovesystems.com
www.tenmagnet.com

You guys are forgetting about intensity and recoverabilty. I looked at P90x a hour and 15 min (w/abs) or a hour and a half for yoga six days a week youll be overtrained 1/2 way the first week. You also need to progress or the body will not adapt ie. if you utilize the same weights everytime youll look the same or worse everytime.

Its not majic look at my posts on Mike Mentzer, Max Contraction, Body By Science or some other form of high intensity low duration like heavy nagatives, rest pause or something do some indepentant research on muscle physiology. I try to do my part to direct everyone in the right direction. I just get pissed when I see some of the younger guys being guided in the wrong direction.

http://ep.physoc.org/content/38/4/205.full.pdf


http://www.the21convention.com/2009/09/ ... nutrition/

http://www.the21convention.com/2009/09/ ... t21c-2009/

Sorry dude read around stuff on over training, recovery etc.
I'm a student in sports science and what you've told people to do goes against most of the basic principles of training.

My advice to people if you want functional strength kettlebell is one of the best methods to get it.

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This here is my reality.
Welcome.

Kettleball I hope your joking

Trust me your wrong.

Show me your sources on recovery, overtraining and whatever else you got.

show me the science

I did say KB for functional strength I use it for my martial arts training and it works a treat. KBs train your whole body at once using massive compound and ballistic movements, they can be used to increase muscular endurance, strength as well as having cardio benefits.
Have you tried KB mate?

_________________
This here is my reality.
Welcome.

Also RVAIS this wasn't aimed at you mate. Was for the OP should've made that clearer

_________________
This here is my reality.
Welcome.

Ok let me explain this you can overtrain with out actually training. Training is a stress on the body so is other forms of stressfull activties house work, aerobics carpentry whatever. If you train with a low intensity (low weights) it is harder to overtrain its also hard to get your body to adapt to the work as well.

If your spending the time to "workout" you obviuosly want some kind of benefit. You misewell work to the highest intensity otherwise your just spinning your wheels in my opininon.

Kettleballs, yoga, calostenics, high reps, "cardio" are on the low end of the intensity scale for me. But to answer the statement about training for martial arts I think the best way to "train" for a sport is to do that sport. Chopping wood, pushup whatever to me have nothing to do with martial arts, hockey, baseball ect.

Training for body building should be no different for a bodybuilder as it is a house wife just looking to get a "better body". just the end results and where they want to take it.

I'm not going to comment on the whole post, only those two suggestions.
Firstly, you're opinion on body building doesn't constitute it as fact, there are plenty of people who would disagree with what you are saying regarding your first point.
I also believe (although I'm not too sure of your intentions) that you are confusing 'body building' with 'heavy weight lifting'. Body building can be anything, including cardio. If you are doing a certain activity for the purpose of getting 'in shape' that would constitute as "BODY BUILDING".
So you contradict yourself. If you play sport for the purpose of running around and getting in shape, you ARE body building to an extent, therefore you ARE a body builder on the technicality.
As for what women want, and what they don't...are you kidding? I've met women who like muscular guys, I've met woman who prefer less muscular, hell, I've met a few who like "chubby" guys because they found it cute, and a turn on.

As for your second point which I'm addressing. I suggest you read some facts, talk to some people who are "body builders" (or what you meant to say was "heavy weight lifters"). If not, don't post random opinions (or incorrect findings) which you try to make out as a fact, or believe to be fact. Because in my experience, I KNOW what you wrote is not true. I have friends who are into "body building" and they work out EVERY DAY. At one point I did so too, I would weight lift maybe 3-4 times a week, and leave the rest to cardio.

I like that you are trying to help people, and good for you. I must say there are certain aspects of the list which are helpful.

See, this is the kind of advice I'm taking issue with.

You say that P90X "overtrains" people according to the books you've read, but I know a half-dozen people who have used it, and have gotten great results. Most people I know who have tried it are pretty impressed.

Yet you quote "Body by Science", which quotes a lot of research (of questionable quality), yet I challenge you to mention a single elite athlete, sports team, or other high-achieving non-bodybuilder who follows that training system.

In the end, I prefer to follow the advice of coaches, and people with practical experience, over scientists who can prove things in a laboratory but have limited experience with the way real bodies react in the real world.

And in any case, Body by Science is a bodybuilding program. Philosophically, I think the bodybuilding philosophy (appearance/size is the measure of success) is flawed. Some of the stuff you say may be true from a "lets get big" perspective, but is still bad advice for the average guy.

_________________
Tenmagnet - Lovesystems Instructor
www.lovesystems.com
www.tenmagnet.com

To the OP

You say you love Stronglifts, but you advice working out 6x a week?
Oxymoron right there.

I advice everyone to look into Stronglifts 5 x 5 or Starting Strength 3 x 5 (trust me it's a lot different than what this guy's suggesting). It focuses on high intensity, high frequency, and moderate volume. You only do the most basic but best exercises for you (squats, deadlifts, bench press, rows, etc)

OP your an idiot!

Everybody else, don't listen to this nonsense, this fool has absolutely NO idea what the hell he is talking about.

i have stopped reading from the third tip. this is bullshit. bodybilding is healthy, if you do it right ofcurse. Im working out just for 10 months and in the first day of the summer, when i puted a picture of me without a shirt in the MSN, girls started to talk with me more often, and my self-esteem got very strong. Yap, they like muscels
Starting Stregth rocks =]

Starting Strength is one of the best programs to utilize for beginners and intermediates.

To OP, a 180 pound soccer player or a 220 pound bodybuilder;

6'0"+ ~10% bf and 220 pounds,

most women may fall for.

I only say ~10% bodyfat because you said bodybuilder.

That's honestly not that big.