New to the site and lifting too; I’ve been doing bodyweight routines for a little while now,but I want to push myself to make some changes to my body. Hopefully I’ll get there, despite starting rather late in life…
How do you get invited to T-Cell Alpha? I’d love to post there, but I guess it’s only for selected members of this site…
I admire you Vroom.
[quote]gillal wrote:
Hi and Thanks Vroom
thats a lot of information…
But I have a couple of questions…
As a Mature ( Ahum ) over 50 lifter who is trying to make a comeback.
I have always been perplexed re the following…
Am following at the moment Complexes to get cardio fitness for burning up Fat.
Ok Please bear with me just a moment…
I have chosen 8 counpound exercises which I do 1 rep each thats 8 exercises X 1
I do them for a set of 10 sets. takes me 6 mins 30 seconds to perfrm…
Ok what is the most efficient for progession…
A ) do I just increase the sets.
B ) Do I increase the weight
C ) Do I increase the reps.
As I see it at the moment
If I increase the sets with the same weight that I am using until I reach Lets say 15… Do I then drop back to 10 sets and indrease the weight ( lets say 10 Lbs on each movement…
or
would it be more beneficial to increase the reps until I reach lets say 5 reps for each movement, peform them for my 10 sts then increase the weight and drop back down to 1 rep for each X 10 sts …
Appreccioate an anwer
would be most helpful…just trying to be as efficient as I can be with my traing.
Thanks
Gillal[/quote]
Either plan of yours would be good. They both work well. During complexes you are limited by your weakest exercise so increasing weight on a complex is usually not done untill the volume is increased via either reps or sets.
really in your case it comes down to personal preference. You might also consider putting extra reps on specific exerxises in you complex, IE your weak links. For example, many olympic lifters will perform a short complex of clean, front squat, push jerk where they perform 1 clean, 1 squat, and 3 jerks. This may help build volume and work capacity on your weakest exercises.
Hey everyone- Just wanted to introduce myself. I am not a newbie to hardcore training, as its been 15 yrs in the gym. I was a college All-American Baseball player before shoulder surgery and 2 blown disks in my back forced me to hang it up. I still find ways to train hardcore around it, as I am 6’1 275 lbs, hoping to compete in 2012. I am all-natural, just have an easy time putting on mass and harder time getting cut. I am around 12 percent bodyfat now and dieting hard. Id like to get to a lower bodyfat percentage year-round, so when it is time to compete, I wont have to be so drastic.
My weightlifting groups called me Gorilla Warrior, due to size and battling through injuries, etc. While I have been coming to T-Nation for quite some time, I had not registered until a few minutes ago. I am student teaching in the fall to become a special ed teacher and a strength coach/and football/baseball assistant, as I was All-State in both. I cannot state how important weights have been, as I never would have achieved anything without training hardcore. Thanks for putting up this site; it is the best ever, and free! God Bless- GW
Welcome aboard! Just curious, how old are you now?
Brother, i am a beginner, and i am a recreational lifter. I am confused that what i suppose to do, Power-lifting/Weightlifting/Bodybuilding/Strongman??? Could u help me to figure out?
Little about my body:
Height: 5’6’’
Weight: 87kh
west: 36’’
Fat%: 23 (i don’t know that how my brother can calculate that measuring me!)
Arm: 16’5 (Really Hard Muscle!!! 
Quad: 23’’ (Really Hard Muscle!!!
Calf: 17’’
Very Good Traps
Round and hard delts due to lateral raise and front raise
i just Carl, pushup, seat up, and press often a week!!! Coz my parents says weight training at this age is not good.It will stop my growth
I am really inspired by Arnold, Branch warren, Mike Menzer, Ronnie Coleman, Jay Cutler and Nasser via youtube
I Carl with
50kg barbell 5 times
40kg barbell 8 times
30kg barbell 10times
20kg barbell 150 times!!!
I cant go to the gym right now coz the coach says Bodybuilding is so wrong before 18, it will destroy your physical structure , also i will have acne, lost reproductive system(i may cant marry and b a daddy) my Dick will be small if i stop train etc.
But i don’t care, Whatever happens, if i will live and able to walk on the ground, I will train.
I can go to the gym after 30-12-2011 as the coach says. But i cant wait!
Please help me out!
Thought i would introduce myself as a ‘noob’ to the site and to training.
I am a 32 year old male from england and I am extremely slim, so I am wanting to bulk up a little. Nothing major, just to fill out my t-shirts a little.
I have started with some strength training on a home gym that I purchased a month ago and have felt some gains after 4 weeks in terms of the amount of weights i can now lift along with a very noticable lack of pain in certain joints that are problem areas for me. Not seen any major size gains, but I am a little more “toned” than I was. Not bothered about the lack of size gains at the moment as the plan for the first month or so was to help strengthen the problem areas mentioned (brought about by football injuries. ‘Soccer’ to the americans). I feel that is being accomplished.
My diet isnt great at the moment for building and although i have always eaten relatively healthy, that is certainly an area that I want to improve upon and have done a bit of research into some better diets and ways of eating, along with some suppliments to all help with my long term goals and I plan to put these into action over the next month or so.
I understand that I wont be getting to massive sizes, and even getting to my target size will all take lots of time, lots of sacrifice and lots of hard work, but I am motivated to give it a go.
been lurking on the site for a while now, but as I am trying to really get into the training, thought I would sign up and say hi and thanks for all the advice about the place…
Newb to the site. Had been lurking for a while then realised i was missing out on a chance to discuss with like minded people.
Still a newb to training as well. Did a WHOLE lot of dumb stuff for my first 6 months.
Hi all, I’ve been reading a lot of articles on the site and the occasional thread, and decided to register. I’ve been fairly inactive and sedentary for most of my life. I’m 27, turning 28 next month. The only sports I ever played were soccer as a kid and in a community league, lunchtime basketball in highschool, and joined the rugby team in grade 9.
I’ve been a fat guy my whole life and two years ago I had a full physical where the doctor bluntly said to me, “if you don’t lose weight, there’s a good chance you’ll have a heart attack in your 30s.” Those were the words which kickstarted me into fitness training. In one year I dropped 50 lbs from doing nothing but controlling my diet and running. I went from 245 to 195. The transformation was incredible, but it was then that I decided that needed to put on some muscle. I’m now at 215 lbs.
Like most people I started out as your typical gym rat, doing dumbbell curls and bro exercises with very little knowledge of strength and muscle gaining. Early this year I learned about Starting Strength and decided to give it a try. Before that I had never used the barbell, because I thought those exercises were for advanced guys and us newbies needed to earn our stripes with the dumbbells. In the first month I worked a lot on form and getting things right. My bench press form was bad enough that I developed shoulder tendonitis. Thankfully, it’s subsided since and doesn’t bother me anymore.
Currently I’m in my 7th month of barbell strength training and here are my stats for five rep work sets (I’m still technically a novice):
Squat: 315
Deadlift: 380
Bench: 210
Press: 160
Power Clean: 145
My current goals are (for reps):
Squat: 500+
Deadlift: 600+
Bench: 365+
Press: 225+
Power Clean: 265+
I do additional exercises like farmer’s walks (these, I love), dips, pullups and chin-ups, Janda situps, and pushups.
What I hope to gain from this site is more knowledge and information regarding training and programming. Thanks for reading.
After months reading articles, why didn’t I start out the way this thread suggests?! It has all the articles with the best advice.
Everyone needs to bookmark this particular post. Beginner’s need to pick the brains of guys like this.
A good quality cost effective programme for conditioning and gaining lean body mass I have experienced is primalhealthfitness.co.uk/membership. A great value site
Very informative already seems like I found a great site to help me get started again.
This thread is exactly what I needed! New to the site, and to serious training in general. I’ve already spent all morning going through everything posted here!
Thanks putting the time into this!
I was wondering if you have had any articles for sport specfic training?
Hey Vindin,
Check out this article by Erick Minor on 29/6/2011 it’s got what your looking for
WOW great information here well done.
Lots of good articles in OP post! I’m still a beginner though lol.