Starting My Journey to Getting in Shape

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

Hello all, my name is Andrew. I am new to this forum and a beginner at weight lifting and dieting although I have been lifting on an off for the last few 3 years or so(very on and off…like 3 months on 6 months off)

My backround, I am 22 years old I am a self employed home improvement contractor and work a lot!!! I am an athlete, and have studied the martial art for about half my life, but have not done much in terms of martial arts or sport for the last year or more. I have been featured on ESPN 2 breaking concrete blocks competitively in the US Open world championships for karate. (2006) and hold a few small titles in the martial arts breaking world. As of right now I have gained weight, stopped lifting due to work and all, and my diet is terrible. I am 5’ 11" 208lbs and in my opinion should be about 185 or so.

Here are my current lifting #'s

weight: 208
bench: 300 1 rep max
squat: 225 for reps (5x5)
dead lift: 465 1 rep max

I am trying to loose about 20lbs of fat and also increase my strength. Like I said before my diet is very bad (too much fast food,soda etc) but I am willing to change it all!!!

Any advice on diet, workout plans or anything is much appreciated. I have been reading around on this great site and think i have a good idea what needs to be done DIET DIET DIET. I will reluctantly post some current pictures so I have a before picture to base my progress off of.

Thanks so much for a great forum with crazy amount of info and training tools!!!

2

Welcome aboard. Read the stickies- the top three or four threads in the beginner forum. Those should give you an idea as to what diets are out there, and what works, as well as some ideas on training and some ideas you’ve likely never heard before.

Good to have you.

3

I think an OVT (I think that’s what I based it on) program will work great with your goals. What I did was choose a major lift for the first set of exercises (bench, squat, dl) and then use ancillary exercises for the others. Lifts went up, and got bigger so I was happy with it.

4

Your lifts are pretty solid, apart from maybe squatting in relation to your bench.

I know that you are an eager beaver however rather than plummeting straight into DIET DIET DIET DIET just think simple, clean up your diet and do a good program like OVT although there are many more etc. By two those two simple things you will get more results long term than if you went V-Diet and burned.

5

thanks for the advice guys! I am reading all the stickies in the beginners forum and all over the forums trying to learn as much as I can.

I know my squat is lacking, I have never tried my max, although a few months ago I was able to do 285 3 or 4 times.

6

I think if you clean up your diet, train hard you won’t have to diet too much, if at all. Lifts are pretty good so you gotta have some muscle.