Hey gang, first off I absolutely love the new look of the site - perhaps that tells you how long it’s been since I’ve checked out T-Nation.
Anyway, I’m finally at a point to start a working out seriously again and wondering where to begin. There are so many workouts and advice columns, it’s hard to figure out where the best place to start is for my situation.
So, I’m a former wrestler and judo player (all through HS & college), and had a desk job for the past five years during which I tended to neglect much physical training. I ended up going back to school and am a medical student now, with a much more flexible schedule. The bad news? I’ve gained over seventy :^( pounds over the past five years and feel (and look) like a complete slug! So where to start?!?
Any advice would be MOST appreciated. I figure it will take a few weeks to ease my body back into training, and for some of you that perhaps neglected training for a few years, please let me know how you got back into it - pitfalls to avoid, things to do, etc etc. My wife is very willing to help prepare and pack meals for me, which is going to be a big help.
Thanks in advance!
Maybe you’d like CT’s Mutation Series. Check it out in the archives, he’s got some killer ideas.
If it has been 5 years since you have done any serious weight lifting, you might want to look into a beginner program(Just to get your body acclimated to the exercises).
Also a good diet to shed the poundage is the T-dawg 2.0. Once you get back on track with your training then you could move on to something else.
Do a search for the t-dawg diet and a beginner program. That should get you started on the right foot.
It comes down to goal setting…the more specific the goal then the more specific the plan. Do you just want to loose weight? Do you want to be pretty like a body builder, strong like a power lifter or powerful like a weight lifter? Does competition motivate you like Strongman, Highland games etc.? Do you want to return to some form of martail arts?
Any program will work for a while and do something for you, but a vague plan or cookie cutter routine does little for long term motivation (a necessity for sucess) and potentially sets you up for failure.
Not an attack, just food for thought.
Good lifting and good health,
Evan
Awesome - thanks guys! There’s just so much info on this site it’s hard to know where to start.
I’ll definitely start reading that diet program this afternoon. As for the workouts, another friend suggested getting started with the Total Triple Training, then progressing to the ABBH series - does that sound like a good plan?
As for my goals - no, not interested in strongman competitions, and definitely don’t want to be throwing weights through the roof of my gym… nor do I think I’ll have the time in the future to go back to martial arts. I’m amused by that pretty bodybuilder idea. Though I don’t think I’ll ever compete, the image fits what I had envisioned for myself down the road - even back when I was lifting seriously. So there you have it, I want to be a “pretty” bodybuilder type. Heh.
studybreak - I forgot to mention I had posted a topic awhile back about a nutrition spreadsheet I made for MS excel.
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=495216
There is a link in there where you can download it.
good luck bro
-Dave