OK so most of you don't know me at all, and thats fine. I browse a lot and do my own thing here and there. Let me get this out of the way: I am NOT a personal trainer, or medically trained (to an extent that makes me an expert). However, I have been working out for the majority of my life, and been professionally trained in many forms, through many different methods.

My conclusion: nothing works. ever. Why? Because everything you see, is tailored for the average person, or the beyond average person. What do I mean? Most work outs work great, but lack something. That something is different for everyone, and this has no exception. What I have found is you need to experiment with many different work outs to see how your body reacts.

Here is a list of things I use to help me get to where I am (which technically is still beginner, but Ill explain why this helps me and why Im not a beginner by standards)

1. Examine yourself. To fat? To thin? To weak? To out of shape (do stairs wind you?) What don't you like about yourself?

2. Make a budget. I mean a real budget. How much money do you have to work with? This is important because of many changes that will come to your wallet, both good and bad. I actually found that with all the changes to my budget I am saving MORE money than before. It all depends on what you do with what you put into your body, and how it pays off.

3. You MUST realize there is NOT a get big/strong/lose weight quick route. Anyone telling you there is, is a fucking moron. Any quick program will hurt you, even losing weight. Ideally you shouldnt lose more than 5lbs a month. Anything else can throw your body and metabolism out of whack, and that can lead to getting sick, injured, or long term problems with body chemistry. Same for the get big/strong quick things. You can easily pull a muscle, break a bone, or fuck up your organs through them.

4. STAY AWAY FROM WEIGHT LOSS PILLS/DRINKS. They put wayyyyy to much stress on your heart, lungs (indirectly), liver, and kidneys. Just dont do it. Remember one thing for all of this: Anything worth doing is NOT going to be easy.

5. You must be consistent. You cant take a month off and expect to be in the same shape as you were before. Even if you go to the gym/run once a week, youre doing something.

6. Forget motivation. One thing I learned in the USMC is that you need to forget about the idea of Motivation. You dont need it. What you need is discipline, and you need to be able to force yourself to do what you KNOW needs doing. Not just say; "I feel great! Lets go hit the gym!" It doesnt work that way. If you need motivation to do something beneficial for yourself, than go hang out with Richard Simmons and sweat to the oldies with the fatties.

7. Find music that gets you pumped. Not angry, or happy, but music that gets you energetic. Personally I love industrial, rock, and metal. But, for whatever reason Hip-hop and rap get me going the best. Find out what works for you.

8. Practice never makes perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. Dont do something half-assed. Do it the right way, and if you can't, lower the weight till you can. Anything else is a waste of time. I hate seeing these "monster" dudes in the gym "squatting" 500lbs +, but they only go about 1/4 of the way down. Watch pro videos, hit up the forums. I HIGHLY recommend ironaddicts.com. They are by far the best resource for everything you need, and I've gone through a good 30 of them so far.

9. Ask people to help you. You DONT need a gym partner. Most anyone in the gym will spot you when you need it. Plus, its a good way to network. I've actually hooked a few friends up with jobs because of who I've met and helped.

10. You DONT need to spend a crazy amount on supplements for gains. You DO need to eat food. Lots of it. Mainly chicken, steak, fish, and eggs. Veggies and fruits are a must to, you need amino acids to help synthesize proteins for gains. Get good calories, not twinkies and donuts. Avoid nasty ass (that means tastey) junk food and fast food at all costs. Get a hoagie (ie: sub), anything that isnt processed (microwaved shit), and whatever else. DO cheat and get something you love, like Ben&Jerry's or a snickers. I eat both all the time, and I am STILL losing weight, but gaining strength and muscle.

And finally: You need to go at your own pace. Get a goal. Go with it. Change it up every 3 months. You need to let your body adapt and evolve, and thats the only way to keep getting gains. If you do the same shit over and over again, your body adapts to do JUST that, and wont grow. You change it up every 3 months or so, and it has to continually adapt, and grow. Think of it as an ecosystem dealing with different weather patterns, and then think about how your area changes throughout the seasons and years. Your body is the same way.

Testosterone: For guys this is a must. You don't typically need a supp for it, unless youre 35+ years old. Anyone under 25 shouldn't even need to consider it, as you have way to much as it is.

Hard Gainers: Stop working out so much (as in length of time, multiple exercises in one day). Any work out should consist of only about 5 or 6 actual work outs. If you do more, you wont gain, you will cut. Eat a LOT. If you are barely clearing 2000 calories a day, your basically giving a GT-R the lowest octane fuel you can, which makes it run like shit. You should be clearing 5-6000 calories a day, and eating 5-7 times a day instead of 2 or 3.

Fatties: You need to do the opposite. Get out, do a lot of cardio, but dont forget to build muscle as well. The more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn, even while doing nothing. Also, the more you work out, the more energy you will have. Stop drinking soda, instead go for Arizona tea or water. Dont go for Gatorade, as it has a lot of sugar, instead go for Powerade. Eat healthier foods and cheat once in a while (I drink *maybe* one soda a day.)

Flat liners (plateaued people): Is what you're doing not working? CHANGE it. Do research, look at what you aren't doing. the 5-3-1 workout is great for busting out of those.

Gym etiquette: Biggest idiots in the gym do this shit:

1. Scream because they are lifting something heavy. Dont do it. You're not cool if you do it. You're a tool. If you need to scream, its to heavy. Always remember to breath in, breath out. NEVER hold your breath. That can cause a lot of problems with brain cells and blood vessels popping (ever seen a blood red eye? yeah.)

2. Throw weights around or dropping them. If you can't control the weights, they are too heavy for you. Loud noises don't make you cool, they make you look like a tool.

3. Dont think you're too cool or strong that you don't need safety springs (those springs that stop weights from falling off of the bar.) All you're doing is asking for a horrible permanent injury because of a freak accident or complete failure that wasn't expected. If you still think you don't need them, check. Its easy, but the safety springs/clips on, but a few inches off of the weights. If the weights move, you are not balanced enough for that weight. If they dont, then just keep them there as a fail safe.

4. Dont leave weights on the bar when you're done unless asked to. Some people are not as strong as you, and may not be able to safely remove them. You are not the only person at the gym. This goes double for height, if you leave them too high, how is a midget supposed to get them? A ladder?

5. Clean up after yourself. MRSA is spread because of nasties that dont do that.

6. Go for you. If you go there to talk to people and hit on chicks, more then working out, you're doing it wrong. Stop wasting your time and theirs.

7. WASH YOUR FUCKING HANDS. No explanation should be needed. If one is needed, find a telephone pole and introduce your car to it.



More to come later. Feel free to add if I missed anything.
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LOL at point 7. But yeh spot on with all them points. I used to feel intimidated by people who did majority of them points, until I actually researched into the fitness world and how these people are actually frowned upon.

It helps when training with less confident people as they always come out of their shell when I say "pfft whats that guy screaming for / dropping the weight. Fuckin idiot"

Alot of this stuff is very true, namely the diet. Too many people put too much emphasis on what they're doing in the gym, but the truth is that as long as you are going hard and switching it up every once in a while, you will see results with a PROPER HIGH-PROTEIN diet. this means eating protein every few hours in small meals so your body does not turn to its muscles for nutrients.

Patience is key, and this is a very good point. Rather than make a goal for this summer (although short-term goals do help), make a long-term goal for next summer. If you stick to it, and have the right diet, you WILL make massive improvement. My first year of working out, I gained 40 lbs, very little fat and a huge amount of muscle. This was when I was in my teens, so don't expect these kind of results. But you will definitley see mindblowing improvement if you're consistent.

As for the supplements, this is very true. Anything aside from a post-workout why protein shake and 5g creatine daily if you like is unnessecary. You will benefit most from steak, tuna, chicken, etc.

The one thing i have to disagree with is the motivation factor. I often felt reluctant to go to the gym for lazy reasons, and you are completely right that you canot just 'go because you feel like it'. If you do not do anything for motivation, i feel that you will likely end up going altogether. Rather than making it something you 'do' a few times a week, make it part of your lifestyle. Make it NOT optional to skimp out on gym sessions. If this means a w/o partner to pressure you, so be it (but just because he doesn't want to go, doesn't mean you're not going). Take pictures of your progress and store them in hard-copy somewhere. Wheather on your wall or in a journal, take pics at least every month so you can see the progress you made, or know when it's time to work harder/change something. LOG YOUR WORKOUTS! Make sure you're making progress in the form of weight/reps (although means nothing with bad form). After lifting for 3 months consecutively, you'll see the amazing beginner gains you've accomplished and will be hooked.

edit: one last note: do not feel initimidated at the gym. this is one of the reasons many people stop going. They are ashamed of their lifts, and feel too embarassed. This is the stupidest reason for not going. NOBODY cares how much you lift, and they are a guaranteed wife-beater-gell-haired-gucci-sweatpants douchebag if they are; EVERYBODY starts at the bottom, and the guys who you feel intimidated by are simply the alphas who didn't care what others thought and stuck to the routine. Don't skip the free weights section and go to machines because everyone in free weights is huge--how do you think they got there?


great post dev

Good post man. I just thought I'd post this link to a great exercise bank... Can't post links yet though lol, so yeah =)

exrx. net/Lists/Directory.html

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DISCLAIMER: The author of this post does not take responsibility for any form of vomiting, headache, or any other illness caused by the stupid vocabulary and/or the opinions expressed and used throughout the post.

I forgot to mention this, didn't I? Logging your workouts is extremely important, this way you can find your own pace and see where you need to work more to get the gains you're looking for.

Also, one thing of note, when you are first starting you will get some great gains in size and strength, but after a while it's going to be harder to make those gains, especially if you're older. Keep that in mind, because when you take long breaks, you will lose muscle mass and accordingly strength as well.

Finally, the bench press is not the "end all be all." It's more of a joke, really. If you want to measure strength, find out what your reps are and use a 1RM (1 rep max) calculator for your squat, deadlift, and Olympic press. Anyone who is strong there is the real deal.

Prime example: I can only flat press (not incline/decline) 205lbs about 5-8 times. Not very strong, for the most part. However, I am only 164-168lbs depending on the day. Here is what I logged last week as far as my lifts go:

Bench press= 165 x 5 | 185 x 5 | 205 x 8 | 1RM = 266.5 | lift to body ratio of 1.60 and a strength level of 4.42
Bench-squat* = 225 x 5 | 265 x 5 | 285lbs x 12 | 1RM = 387. 6 | lift to body ratio of 2.32 and a strength level of 4.63
Deadlift = 225 x 5 | 245 x 5 | 255 x 8 | 1RM = 316.2 | lift to body ratio of 1.89 and a strength level of 3.08
Olympic press = 95 x 5 | 115 x 5 | 135 x 5 | 1RM = 155.25 | lift to body ratio of 0.93 and a strength level of 4.05
DB Alternating Curl = 35 x 8 | 45 x 8 | 50 x 8
Pull Ups = 20, 20, 15 OR one max set, got up to 30 the other day
Weighted dips = +45 x 10 | +45 x 10 | +45 x 10 (I say +45 because its your body weight, which fluctuates + added weight)

Based on the big 4 (bench, squat, deadlift, Olympic press) I have an average lift to body ratio of 1.685 (average man is .70) and an average calculated strength level of 4.045 (puts me in the advanced area overall).

Go here to figure it out for yourself where you stand:
Strength level calculator: http://strengthlevel.com/index.php
1RM calculator: http://www.timinvermont.com/fitness/orm.htm

So if you judge by my bench, I'm not really all that strong as far as the average guy of any size. But if you look at my over all numbers, I'm a lot stronger than most people my age and size.


* (slightly lower than a box, because Im 5'7, it's a 90 degree angle for me, so whatever your height is, you would use something that would give you a 90 degree angle)