Design a Program for a Beginner

[quote]flipcollar wrote:

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:

[quote]flipcollar wrote:
In what sport is it a benefit for a 6’1 guy to weigh 145? I can’t think of any outside long distance running, or maybe some other track/field events.[/quote]

Soccer? [/quote]

David Beckham’s 6’0, 165, and he’s about as skinny as I’ve seen. I can’t imagine being 1 inch taller and 20 lbs lighter being advantageous.[/quote]

I think the only sport, and I say this lightly, would be horse racing. Where the goal is literally have a jockey be as small as possible.

In Amateur boxing it would be pretty incredible, assuming you could work with your limb length. I was always more of a slugger, and hated fighting guys like this.

[quote]Steez wrote:

[quote]flipcollar wrote:

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:

[quote]flipcollar wrote:
In what sport is it a benefit for a 6’1 guy to weigh 145? I can’t think of any outside long distance running, or maybe some other track/field events.[/quote]

Soccer? [/quote]

David Beckham’s 6’0, 165, and he’s about as skinny as I’ve seen. I can’t imagine being 1 inch taller and 20 lbs lighter being advantageous.[/quote]

I think the only sport, and I say this lightly, would be horse racing. Where the goal is literally have a jockey be as small as possible.

[/quote]

He’s to tall to be a jockey.

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:

[quote]Steez wrote:

[quote]flipcollar wrote:

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:

[quote]flipcollar wrote:
In what sport is it a benefit for a 6’1 guy to weigh 145? I can’t think of any outside long distance running, or maybe some other track/field events.[/quote]

Soccer? [/quote]

David Beckham’s 6’0, 165, and he’s about as skinny as I’ve seen. I can’t imagine being 1 inch taller and 20 lbs lighter being advantageous.[/quote]

I think the only sport, and I say this lightly, would be horse racing. Where the goal is literally have a jockey be as small as possible.

[/quote]

He’s to tall to be a jockey. [/quote]

And too tall to be an open wheel race car driver. Although, might do ok in other race types.

He could probably make a good climber though.

[quote]flipcollar wrote:
In what sport is it a benefit for a 6’1 guy to weigh 145? I can’t think of any outside long distance running, or maybe some other track/field events.[/quote]
This kid is supposedly some kind of basketball prodigy, coaching athletes above his own level and walking on to a university team without ever playing high school ball.

But still, yeah, I wouldn’t call it a benefit to be frail.

[quote]a2_z wrote:
… I compete in sports that require that I stay lean[/quote]
No sport, outside of competitive bodybuilding, requires you to stay lean (and even then, it could be argued that it’s just about temporarily getting lean). Bodyfat may not be particularly useful or necessary, but there is totally such thing as being “too lean” in almost every sport. And certainly no sports, other than jockeying like Steez said or some weight class-specific sports, require you to be as underweight as you currently are and have been.

A “pretty good” basketball player who’s 6’1" and 140 pounds will be an even better basketball player when he’s 6’1" and 190 pounds, as long as he builds that increased strength and muscle intelligently with a good plan.

[quote]Chris Colucci wrote:

[quote]flipcollar wrote:
In what sport is it a benefit for a 6’1 guy to weigh 145? I can’t think of any outside long distance running, or maybe some other track/field events.[/quote]
This kid is supposedly some kind of basketball prodigy, coaching athletes above his own level and walking on to a university team without ever playing high school ball.

But still, yeah, I wouldn’t call it a benefit to be frail.

[quote]a2_z wrote:
… I compete in sports that require that I stay lean[/quote]
No sport, outside of competitive bodybuilding, requires you to stay lean (and even then, it could be argued that it’s just about temporarily getting lean). Bodyfat may not be particularly useful or necessary, but there is totally such thing as being “too lean” in almost every sport. And certainly no sports, other than jockeying like Steez said or some weight class-specific sports, require you to be as underweight as you currently are and have been.

A “pretty good” basketball player who’s 6’1" and 140 pounds will be an even better basketball player when he’s 6’1" and 190 pounds, as long as he builds that increased strength and muscle intelligently with a good plan.[/quote]

UNREAL. I hope this kid understands that there is not a single player in the NBA who weighs less than 150 lbs. I’ve met a number of pros in person, and they are so much bigger (thicker/heavier) than I think most people would assume. I remember seeing Jason Kidd a few years ago and thinking how I’d love to have arms his size. Dude looked like a monster in street clothes. Chauncy Billups is another guy I saw who totally looked jacked. Those are guys who aren’t much over 6 feet, and both have to be over 200 lbs.

[quote]flipcollar wrote:
UNREAL. I hope this kid understands that there is not a single player in the NBA who weighs less than 150 lbs. I’ve met a number of pros in person, and they are so much bigger (thicker/heavier) than I think most people would assume. I remember seeing Jason Kidd a few years ago and thinking how I’d love to have arms his size. Dude looked like a monster in street clothes. Chauncy Billups is another guy I saw who totally looked jacked. Those are guys who aren’t much over 6 feet, and both have to be over 200 lbs. [/quote]

Leaving the gym at Pitt once, I stopped at the smoothie bar and found myself standing next to DeJuan Blair. Or maybe I should say “standing beneath” him. He was enormous. And he’s too small to play power forward in the NBA.

As you said, flip, even the point guards are much bigger than people realize (because we see them on TV walking around next to those human-elephant-giraffes like LeBron, Giannis, Dirk, etc). Chris Paul, James Harden…those guys are slapped together.

OP, I am curious: can you tell us the name of the high school that you were head coach of? Or perhaps the college team you’re planning to walk on to, if that’s still in the offing?

Spud Webb and Earl Boykins might be the only NBA players ever to weigh in under 150 lbs. Even Allen Iverson, who looked like a tiny twig out there on the court, was around 170 or so.

OP, here are a few questions you should answer:

  1. What is a realistic goal you want to attain?
  2. How bad do you want it?
  3. Are you willing to put your biases aside to listen to advice and stick with it?

Thank you everyone for your advice and criticism. I’d like to add I have a 6’5" wingspan, a disadvantage to most of my pressing. Check my profile, I have decent body weight to strength ratios. I’m not strongest athlete to any extent, but I pour a lot of my focus into the integrity of my body. I have excellent posture and I focus on form a lot more than max attempts.

I’ve been the type of kid that prioritizes the essential over the nonsense. I understood at the beginning of my strength training career that excellent athletes had excellent posture. I also noticed that the strongest men in the world squat and deadlift. I wanted to have solid foundation to build upon; I did not want to have to back track and develop and reconstruct my body.

That being said I have the tendency to emphasize specific lifts for three to four weeks and rotate the exercises. Last cycle, I trained box squatting three to four times per week for three weeks. I usually begin to experience overtraining or mental burnout within this time and switch exercises. I am now utilizing the front squat. I’ve front squatted five different sessions within the last eight days.

Alternating heavy and light days. I attempt to add weight to each session, light and heavy. I’m impatient to an extent and if I desire to improve at something, I usually attack it wholeheartedly. I also like to add, I don’t take offense to anything, I enjoy criticism. I always ask my friends for criticism; I tell my friends to hold nothing back, because you cannot hurt my confidence.

I’ve poured too much time into my athletic abilities to allow criticism to affect me negatively. I do take offense if someone insults my intelligence. The reason is, I’ve had not one person mentor me, not one person throughout my basketball and strength career. I have developed my self. I have one year experience. I have achieved little, but I have earned every single achievement I have.

You can be a “online bragger,” or accuse me of such, but people that know who I am, respect me. On top of that, I respect everyone’s opinion, but I am not on here to argue with boys. I might be only 20 years old; however, I only travel and conjugate with the lions, I’m not a sheep. I’m not typing this to sound “hard” or whatever. I want this forum to understand who I am as a man. I love this site, I’ve read hundreds of articles. I’m not perfect. I like listening and learning how other athletes train. Once again, thank you.

I will be more willing to believe the above after you have achieved more.

So:

  1. name of the high school you coached as an 18 year old
  2. name of the college team you’re planning to walk on to

Still waiting.

You’re also STILL conflating the idea of “squatting frequently” with “getting results”

So you squatted five times in eight days. Great. I can squat every day for eight days, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

Stop thinking about what sounds the hardest and start thinking about what will be effective.

I want to increase my front squat and box squat.
Box squat to 225. Front squat to 175.

I want to become thicker, but it not affect my athleticism.

And I want a double body weight deadlift, but it fries my cns.

I’m curious, from your experiences, how does increasing bench press have on your overall strength and its correlation with athleticism and increasing squat and deadlift strength. I understand that if I’m stronger in my bench press I will most likely be stronger in other lifts; however, is the increases in bench press strength important to improving squatting strength? I also understand if you want to be good at something, do it often–that’s te reason I emphasize squatting. I applied this to certain aspects of basketball as I was younger and I gathered the understanding and power behind this idea.

[quote]ActivitiesGuy wrote:
So:

  1. name of the high school you coached as an 18 year old
  2. name of the college team you’re planning to walk on to

Once again, sheep. I don’t explain myself to someone who has nothing to offer in exchange. I emphasize certain lifts and improve upon each exercise, quickly. I then rotate the exercises and cycle in new exercises. I read somewhere that cycling exercises often is important because the body adapts quickly and must be stimulated from different angles, often. I understand that I do not have high totals, but I do have many different totals.

I do not feel like you will get the help you desire by calling other members of the forum “sheep” as a beginner. It’s honestly very rude.

Jarvan’s gonna burst a blood vessel when he reads this.

I apologize to the ones attempting to assist me in my journey, but this site doesn’t encourage people to become more, it seems as if people are unhappy with themselves and their inability to achieve their dreams and discourages others from achieving theirs. I understand that’s part of the journey, I know that from many years of experience, especially my coaching career; however, I have learned to avoid these types of people, because they’re not along for the journey to assist, more to destroy. The men I respect are the ones who use themselves as a fertilizer to which all others grow when they are in the presence of these men. I love to squat, that’s what this spawn from. It’s like Facebook on here, bunch of bitches.

Get over yourself.

I mean that with all sincerity, not as an insult.

Your biggest obstacle right now is yourself, and you’re basically getting in your own way to achieve your goals.

If you want to squat frequently, and you want to improve your chest/arms/shoulders, go find the book Power to the People. Read it. Then do the linear progression in it with squats instead of deadlifts, and some press (bench, or overhead variation) instead of the side press. Run the linear progression as long as you can, then reset to 70-75% and keep repeating that, then adjust the jumps, and add in rest days as necessary. Then play with the wave cycles.

Once you get a feel for that, add in some dips and chins, and just work on those concurrently. The Squats and Presses are going to be the core of the program, so make sure you don’t stuff that interferes with progress there.

A million different ways to approach this, but that’s the simplest “here’s a program where you can squat frequently and get stronger” answer I can come up with.

By the way, that Dave Tate video was amusing. That shits fucking crazy, Hersey bar every hour on the hour. Fuck…

[quote]LoRez wrote:
Get over yourself.

I mean that with all sincerity, not as an insult.

Your biggest obstacle right now is yourself, and you’re basically getting in your own way to achieve your goals.

If you want to squat frequently, and you want to improve your chest/arms/shoulders, go find the book Power to the People. Read it. Then do the linear progression in it with squats instead of deadlifts, and some press (bench, or overhead variation) instead of the side press. Run the linear progression as long as you can, then reset to 70-75% and keep repeating that, then adjust the jumps, and add in rest days as necessary. Then play with the wave cycles.

Once you get a feel for that, add in some dips and chins, and just work on those concurrently. The Squats and Presses are going to be the core of the program, so make sure you don’t stuff that interferes with progress there.

A million different ways to approach this, but that’s the simplest “here’s a program where you can squat frequently and get stronger” answer I can come up with.[/quote]