Advice for beginners!

[Duncan]

please don't post replies as yet- i'll be making a few posts in succession

[Duncan]

I’ve come to think that a lot of people starting out in the exercise world enter into it for the wrong reasons and in a lot of cases end up frustrated and deterred, which is a shame really. I’ll address this to anyone in their first year of training with a mind to hopefully change a few attitudes and perhaps challenge some preconceptions.

Note that while it would be nice if I could write a well-structured article, this is really more of a ramble loosely grouped into sub-headings... but I’ll do my best to keep this coherent!

Supplements

Supplements might play a part in helping you achieve your goals. For some people, regularly taking a protein supplement could eliminate a rate-limiting factor on protein synthesis and allow them to develop much faster than they would otherwise. For some people, taking a protein supplement could be a complete waste of time and money because their protein needs are being met by a solid diet. I’ve put a lot of money into well advertised and well presented supplements endorsed by sports people who look like Mr Hyde and felt silly and embarrassed about it afterwards. There’s a company with a name that sounds a bit like ‘LA Hustle’ and they sold some tablets that were supposed to put a stone on you in a month for something like £50 at the time… You wouldn’t believe how stupid I felt when I finished the bottle and I suppose some of us have to learn the hard way. Do you?

Creatine, methoxy, HMB etc… They’re all well and good and they help a lot of people, but I think there’s a lot of unfounded expectation placed on these things which ultimately disappoints the user. I’ve tried ceatine ethyl ester and cissus and whenever I’ve taken them I’ve been quite pleased to find that I’ve consistently put 2.5kg on the major compound movements week on week. Saying that, I’ve almost always made similar progression after stopping taking the supplements for a good few weeks. After making the same observations a number of times I concluded that the main benefit of taking these tablets etc is the psychological advantage of believing you have an edge for that period or placebo effect. Perhaps there’s a less expensive way to achieve that.

Green tea extract, raspberry ketones, guarana… Perhaps they do help people lose weight. Take these supplements and they might account for something like 1-3% of your total weight loss. Anyone who thinks that taking a tablet will do more for their weight management than stopping eating chocolate or putting sugar in their tea has an expensive lesson to learn, though.

I don’t want to come across as ‘anti-supplements.’ Currently, I’m taking L-Glutamine and vitamin C in the mornings and a nootropic supplement twice a day. I’d advise people to take multivitamins and minerals. Take fish oils. Take protein if it will help you. I’ve used cissus to help a whip-lash injury to good effect. Just don’t fall into the trap of believing you can buy fast results, particularly if other life-style factors aren’t up to scratch. Anyone on the orange diet (potato waffles, chicken nuggets, fish fingers… anything from the freezer section) will not be able to buy good health through a green tea extract supp, nor will they buy a developed physique with a creatine supp, nor will they buy fat reduction with a raspberry ketones supp. Look at the big picture before you decide if you need that last advantage.

Anyway, I think I’ve said my piece on supplements- potentially helpful but possibly not to the extent that newbies would assume. Just be prudent, if you’ve got more money than sense there’s always someone happy to do an exchange.

[Duncan]

Attitude

Exercise and physique is one of the easiest things to become obsessional about that I know of. Part of it’s about the conjured idea of instant results proffered by the marketing departments of organisations whose sole purpose is to make you believe a fiction in order to part you from your money and part of it is the inherently addictive nature of the game. It’s good to be motivated, it’s bad to be obsessional and it’s hard to know the difference when you’re doing it. There are some clues that can help you to identify when you’ve strayed from the healthy path though so here are three things to look out for:

1)
If you find yourself willing to sacrifice or risk your long-term health for a short-term boost then it’s probably time to take a step back and have a think about what you’re doing. There have been a couple of occasions when I’ve been tempted by the idea of steroids over the past few years and in retrospect I couldn’t be more glad that I never dabbled in that kind of thing. Aside from the fact that you’re not an endocrinologist and you can’t possibly predict the exact effect that these substances will have on you, they are addictive, their effects are normally short-lived and for most people they are dangerous.

Even putting aside the specific physiological effects of anabolic androgenic steroids, you need to acknowledge that no matter what your outlook is today you can’t know what might happen next week. You could get injured and need to temporarily stop working out completely, you might need to de-prioritise your training to focus on your career or studies or an illness might set you back. I got glandular fever in my final year of university and dropped more than a stone of muscle as a result, it could happen to anyone at any time. In short, life is unpredictable and your long-term health is your most valuable asset. It’s probably not worth risking your health for short-term gains.

2)
Another clue is your training frequency. If you’re going to the gym more than four times a week then the chances are you’re doing yourself more harm than good. I’m referring to the physical effects of over-training as well as the psychological detriment of dedicating that much time to a pursuit that can easily turn into an obsession. I can imagine others disputing this point, arguing the benefits of 5 day split routines etc, so let’s just say for the sake of argument that I would recommend that anyone training more than four times a week just ask themselves whether what they’re doing is a healthy route toward long-term self improvement or if they have actually fallen into the trap of thinking they can achieve a beach body in three weeks if they flog themselves to death in the gym in that time.

I’ll also add that I think that training 2-4 times a week can be good depending on a myriad of other lifestyle factors. Are you eating and sleeping well? Are you doing shift work? What sort of routine are you on, full body or split? My intention here is not to make specific recommendations about the most effective training approach with regard to routine, workout frequency and duration, diet and lifestyle... I just want to highlight that if you are going to the gym more than four times a week it’s a good idea to ask yourself if you might be sacrificing other areas of your life pursuing goals that might take years to achieve.

3)
My third and most objective indication of whether or not you are approaching your fitness goals in a healthy sustainable way is how much money you’re actually parting with. Everyone’s got their own budget and will draw the line in different places, but I’ve heard of people spending well in excess of £200 on supplements etc in a month. I’m not going to say what I think is the right amount, but what I will say is that if exercising and gambling are both addictive pass-times it’s worth recognising their shared ability to spiral out of control financially.

Now I realise some of those points sound pretty dismal, but for-warned is for-armed and motivation and enthusiasm are fantastic attributes that will serve you well. Enjoy the lifestyle change that comes with exercise, diet and personal improvement- it will do you no end of good. The only point I’m trying to make is that can be easy do end up dedicating too much of your time and energy to something that should be done healthily and for a long time, possibly the rest of your life.

[Duncan]

Training

For training and workouts it’s important to follow a structured routine. You don’t want to stumble into a gym and blindly do dumb-bell curls and sit-ups until you get so frustrated at not achieving your goals that you quit. There are a lot of excellent routines to try and while it is beyond the scope of this piece to describe any of them in detail I would suggest that as a starting point beginners should look up Stronglifts 5X5, Push-pull-legs and Upper-lower splits.

Recognise and accept that results take a long time to achieve. I once set myself the goal of increasing my squat by 20kg in one month. By the end of the month I was delighted at having smashed my target and squatted 22.5kg more than I had the month before. That was until the strength and conditioning coach pointed out that I was going down about 2” less because I’d piled on more weight than I could sensibly handle with good form in too short a time. After that, dropping the weight back down and re-training myself to squat all the way down was a real blow to the ego.

You’ve got to go slowly and sustainably, making sure you’re not cheating yourself with partial reps or poor technique. If you can’t deadlift without bending your back, bite the bullet and lower the weight a bit and build up your strength knowing that you’re performing the exercise properly. Take pride in using correct technique, it will help you avoid injuries and will enable you to keep making progress long after the show-off chavs in the gym have given up and cancelled their membership.

Learn to perform exercises with good form and proper technique. I was squatting for a couple of years before I complained to a strength and conditioning coach that it felt like I was working my back more than my legs. Turns out poor technique had led to my entire body sort of folding up in the downward phase of the movement, ending up in a kind of squat-good-morning hybrid. A bit of work and a few hours practise with hardly any weight paid dividends in improving my technique and overall progression and since that time my thighs have really taken off. For what it’s worth, having gone through that process I would now advise anyone questioning their squat technique to learn how to overhead squat before going back to back-squats because it’s an excellent means to learning how to keep your back and hips in the correct position, but the principal applies to all exercises. Do it properly, work the muscles you intend to work, avoid injury and get results.

Always be willing to question your preconceptions about what is effective and what isn’t. When I first started out I said some pretty stupid things like, “clean and snatch isn’t much good for progressing, it’s really just for showing off the strength you got from other exercises.” I might feel a bit of a tit for having said that sort of thing now, but when we’re starting out it’s easy to let slip a few ignorant opinions and hopefully once we’ve been corrected we can hold on to the idea that there’s always more to learn.

Similarly, stay open minded about general training approaches. Low reps high intensity. Volume training. High frequency training. Strength or size goals. Flexibility work. Cardiovascular or aerobic work. Compound or isolation movements. Pyramid up or pyramid down. Forced reps. Training to failure. There’s lots to choose from and there could be real advantages to swapping and changing from time to time.

Focus primarily on the big central muscle groups- your back, abs, core, obliques, chest, shoulders and thighs. That’s where your strength comes from. It’s all very well and good starting weight training because you want big biceps but if you focus on small muscle groups you’ll be small for a long time. Ever see a tiny skinny guy wandering around sporting a pair of the world’s biggest most enviable biceps? No, your body grows proportionally- you’ll have big biceps when you’ve also got a big back, big chest and big shoulders to support them. Aside from the physical impossibility of growing massive biceps independent of the rest of your body, imagine how ridiculous you’d look if you somehow managed be become a tiny skinny guy wondering around between impossibly big arms! Work the bigger muscle groups and remember to dedicate some time to core strength- you’ll be glad you did.

[Duncan]

Diet

Diet is a bit like training in that it should be a long-term consideration and there are so many different approaches that no one will ever agree on one ‘best’ approach. Here on the MP forum there are, broadly speaking, two schools of thought: ‘high fat, moderate protein, low carb’ or ‘moderate-high protein and carb with low fat.’ It’s well beyond the scope of this piece to detail the advantages and disadvantages of each approach, but in case it is of interest I personally favour the high fat approach.

Regardless of your overall dietary approach, there are principals that unerringly hold true:

Keep processed food to a minimum. Processed food producers are entirely uninterested in your health and profit margins on these products are widened through the use of poor quality ingredients. Production processes tend to diminish the flavour profile of foods and so salt, sugar and flavourings are added in to make the products acceptable to consumers. What you may not realise is that processed or convenience food might not bear any resemblance to what you believe you’re eating. The cheese on pizzas isn’t actually cheese, but artificial or ‘pizza cheese’ made of protein powders, rancid vegetable fats, fibre and cheese flavourings, for instance. Don’t believe it, check the ingredients list.

Keep food choices nutritious. Peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, courgettes, garlic, onions, lettuce… the sort of stuff everyone knows they really ought to be eating! Eat oily fish like mackerel, sardines or salmon a couple of times a week. Cut down on refined sugars and soft drinks.

Some of these points are fairly indisputable, but the subject gets a bit murky when you raise controversial items like bread and pasta or red meat and eggs. Are low glycemic index ‘complex’ carbohydrates good for you or do they place unnecessary oxidative stress on the body while provoking an undesirable insulin response? Are unsaturated vegetable oils good for cardiovascular health or do they inevitably oxidise and disrupt intercellular communication? Who knows, you’re not going to get a definitive answer or if you do it will not fall within much of a consensus. Through reading I’ve formed my own opinion on these subjects and my best advise to a beginner would be to do the same. I hope it is obvious that it would be meaningless for me to simply provide my own conclusions to anyone reading this because I have no authority to impose my own views in the absence of any real consensus, though I do hope to highlight the need for beginners to look in to the subject.

Whatever dietary approach you adopt, you have to be consistent and disciplined. Part of this means that the way in which you implement your dietary strategy has to be enjoyable and appetising. You want to be eating healthily week in, week out… year on year. This is not a short-term stint and there’s no way in hell you’re going to stick to it if you’re choking down unpleasant tasteless meal plans and sensible snacks. Find a way to prepare and cook healthy food so that you want to eat it. I love food, as many people on the forum know and there’s a world of flavour waiting for you when you get creative. People hear ‘healthy eating’ and think ‘rabbit food’ but it’s absolutely not the case that you shouldn’t enjoy food that promotes your good health. Check out the recipes section of the forum for ideas.

There are extreme short-term approaches where you might do nothing but drink protein shakes for a month or eat plates and plates of dry white fish. We call these ‘crash diets’ and as attractive as they may appear for quick results, I really have to recommend you steer clear.

It’s generally the case that physically active sports people of typical bodyweight should aim to be taking on about 130g-200g of protein a day. This rule of thumb is probably a better or simpler guide than the 2g/kg bodyweight advise that gets thrown around and can be achieved through diet alone though many people choose to supplement their dietary protein intake with shakes, protein bars etc. Where possible, I would recommend whole foods over supplements for protein, but shakes and so on are clearly useful for a lot of people.

Whether you turn to carbohydrates or fats for the bulk of your calories, try to ensure that the overall amount of food you’re eating is appropriate to your targets. If your aim is weight gain, don’t over do it or your body composition will suffer. If your aim is weight loss, don’t be too restrictive or you will end up sacrificing muscle mass to lose a little extra fat. Think long-term and recognise that these things take time.

[Duncan]

Recovery

You make your gains recovering from workouts, so muscle gain and progression is a response to exercise rather than something that actually happens in the gym. It’s ironic then, that so many people overlook rest and recovery in their fitness lifestyle.

The importance of sleep is obvious, so make it a priority to adopt a healthy and regular sleep pattern. Exclude light from your bedroom at nighttime and limit the number of electronic devices in the room.

Going beyond the obvious, anything you can do to relax and recuperate between workouts will aid your advancement. You shouldn’t dismiss any relaxation techniques that could help you. Consider a guided meditation MP3 (there are some excellent relaxation and stress management tracks available by Paul Mckenna), read fiction rather than spending too much time at the computer and try to keep a positive attitude to whatever is happening in your life.

Don’t binge drink but have a nice glass of red wine every now and again. As mentioned in my points on attitude, it’s good to approach things with a balanced perspective and not go to extremes.

To sum up…
The purpose of this piece was to address a few preconceptions and perhaps help out some people starting out. If you’ve started at the gym intending to do a few curls and pop the old biceps out or get a six pack going in time to run around shirtless in the sun then I hope I’ve succeeded in showing there’s more to it. If you thought eating healthily meant making sure you got your government approved ‘5-a-day’ then please check out some recipes and look into some more possibilities. Above all, be prepared to be working toward your health, fitness and physique goals for a long time instead of looking for quick fixes.

If any of this has been useful to you please use my referral code MP4498 on your first order for 5% off.

[dope540]

looks good dude. will have a good read of it when i have a bit more time. i feel a sticky coming soon....

[Tauren]

Supplement section is good. I do think lumping Creatine in with HMB and all that other rubbish is massively unfair.

Have to say I personally disagree with a lot of the diet section, although obviously if its just intended as personal view on what works for you, fair enough.

[Wotan]

I agree with you Dope - this makes a useful pointer for any beginner and might save a lot of unnecessary questions later on. A very balanced overview in my opinion.

[NutCrazy]

A good read, generally pretty balanced.