17 and new to lifting

[Road2Alpha]

17 year old here looking to start hitting the gym every week. My goal is to ultimately build muscle mass through full body workouts. How are your routines and how often do you lift every week? What diet or supplements do you guys recommend, etc

 

[Eternal_water]

I would recommend subscribing to Athlean X on youtube. Seriously good information every week.

I would say to do a week or 2 of core strengthening exercises before you begin on the main compound movements, just to give your core a little headstart as this will be useful for injury prevention.

Watch videos on how to do exercises before you do them so that you can do them with good form and avoid injuries. Ask a gym instructor to help correct your form as you begin.

You can train your core with hanging leg raises, twisting hanging leg raises (for obliques), ab rope crunches, high to low woodchoppers, side planks, regular planks (body weight or weighted) and supermans. Youtube these if you are unsure.

After you have given your core a bit of strength your main exercises as a beginer will be

Squats and calf raises for legs
Deadlifts and pull ups for back
flat barbell bench press and incline dumbell bench press for chest.
Overhead press and face pulls for shoulders
standing barbell curls for biceps
tricep pull downs and skull crushers for triceps.

You can combine body parts on days so say

Chest and biceps
back and triceps
legs and shoulders

That way you have rest days in between each workout which is very helpful.

Cut out junk food, eat lots of protein, get enough sleep.

 

[ImTheDoubleGreatest!]

I don't do full body workouts, simply because swimming is a full body workout, plus splitting it up some is better in my opinion. My exercise schedule is swimming every morning minus Sunday, then weights Mon, Wed, Fri in the afternoon, then dryland Tues and Thurs. I train thru the university so we don't have a set routine. If I do lift on my own like how I did during high school, I lifted 3 times a week (Mon, Wed, Fri) in a legs, push, pull split. I used to do pyramid sets (a pyramid set is when you start out with a lower weight but do more reps, then increase the weight per set, but do less reps), but I realized I want solely strength and power because I'm a sprinter, and being big and bulky is more surface area for the water resistance. Here's a rule of thumb to remember:
Higher weight, lower reps = more strength gain than size gain (myofibrillar hypertrophy).
Lower weight, higher reps = more size gain than strength (sarcoplasmic hypertrophy).
Now this rule of thumb is not for beginners, only for intermediate or advanced. If you are still a novice, you will get just as big training for strength as you would training for size, at least for like the first year or so. In other words, train for strength for your first year.

Next: compound movements. What does that mean? It means movements that require more than one muscle to do such as (but not limited to): Bench press, squatting, power cleans, deadlifts, pullups, and others. Isolated movements are the opposite, such as (but also not limited to): bicep curls, skullcrushers, shrugs, and more. Compound movements do tend to be better for building strength, and especially if you just started lifting, they make you grow SO much more muscle than you otherwise would doing isolation exercises alone. I myself never ever do bicep curls, I think they're pointless in my sport. The only exercises that I do that use my biceps are pullups, split squats (when holding the dumbbells I use my biceps for stability), and holding myself during hamstring curls. The last two aren't even real exercises for biceps yet they have been growing bigger. So yeah, compound movements > isolation. From what I have read and heard of, most people make more gains doing compound movements over isolation for around 2 years. Now this isn't to say not to ever do isolation, I mean say that you feel your biceps are lacking, go ahead and do curls by all means. But isolation should not be the focus. The Big 3 Lifts (Bench, Squat, and Deadlift) are the compound exercises most people do to gain strength. A lot of people swear by these 3, but it's important to know that these lifts aren't best for everyone. It's just a GENERAL consensus. For example, bench is good for me and I feel like it builds the frontal portion of my upper body best. Squatting is good too, but I notice that it while the weight MAY go up, I don't notice a difference in strength or power or stability outside of the weightroom, meaning that the strength I am making is not translating to swimming or anything else in the real world. It just makes my legs bigger. So in addition to squatting, I do split squats because (unlike regular squats), I notice an increase in my strength, power, and stability outside of the weightroom when doing split squats.

As for diet supplements, the only ones you really need are fish oil for the omega 3 fatty acids and a liquigel multivitamin. Don't get the tablets of multivitamins; your body absorbs less then 10% of what's in there. Liquigels are SO much more easily absorbed into your body. Also, be sure to check how many milligrams of omega 3 is in the fish oil, sometimes you can get a 1200 mg fish oil capsule that only has 100 mg of omega 3 in it. Take around 500 - 600 mg of omega 3 a day (not 500 - 600 of fish oil, it needs to be specifically omega 3 so check the labels and nutrition info to be sure). I personally take 720 mg a day, mostly because I forget to take the last capsule (I try to get around 1000 mg of omega 3 fatty-acids a day, but I usually don't lol).

So yeah that's all I can say for right now. I'll try to post my personal routine if I remember but right now I'm out of time.

 

[EyeBRollin]

Do Stronglifts 5X5 or Starting Strength. They are pretty much the same program. They'll explain everything you need to know.

Me, I gained 15 lbs of muscle in 18 months, while maintaining <10% body fat.

Don't lift more than three times per week.

 

[marmel75]

Focus on compound movements and don't waste time with these isolation movements you see the majority of guys doing...those are for once you have a solid foundation in place.

I'd recommend following Stronglifts 5x5 as a beginner...you can gain size and strength fairly quickly if you do it properly.

 

[Krueg]

Whatever program you choose, make sure it consists of basic compound movements. Learn the proper technique and form so you dont injure yourself... AND stick with the program, your not gonna transform into some tan and jacked looking guy over-night or within 12 weeks. Nor can you tell if a program is working for you, if you switching it up every 2 months. As the saying goes; its a marathon, not a sprint! As you progress and gain more experience you can start to tweak things or try out new programs. But if you switch things up too often/soon, especially as a beginner; your just gonna spin your wheels and go nowhere! Slow and steady is the key, make slow steady progress so you dont burn out too quick. This could be adding an extra 5-10 pounds, doing extra sets or more reps over a period of time.

Also what you do outside the gym will affect your results. Such as Hydration, sleep, diet and rest days, drugs/alcohol/tobacco...

Remember this,

Keep
It
Simple
Stupid

Good Luck!

 

[marmel75]

There are a million and one programs that are legit but I feel like there's a bigger point here. In my opinion being consistent is key. The simplest workouts done with intensity are effective. No need to reinvent the wheel or complicate things. No need to be the guy who lifts the most. Instead be the guy who never misses workouts and meals.

Full-body workouts are great in my opinion. I've done them 3xs a week, starting with a squat and pullup superset. That superset alone gets me sweating profusely. Deads and bench press is another killer superset that will work nearly every muscle in your body. Then maybe lying leg curls and military presses. This is just one example sequence.

The basics are all I need: Squats, bench, pullups, shoulder presses, lunges, leg extensions, calf machine. In my mind 3 intense focused supersets work extremely well toward a physique-changing workout. I like to take about an hour per workout, minimal breaks in between. I end my workouts with 500 ropes and 150 pushups, done over several intervals. This is my cardio session.

Diet is crucial. It is in my opinion the most significant factor for adding muscle. I eat a small staple of foods and it never changes during the week. 25-30 meals per week: eggs, oatmeal, protein shakes, chicken, green leafy vegetables, brown rice, protein bars, almonds. I consume green veggies at every meal.

Beer and liquor and a reward meal every Friday night. Sometimes I'll indulge again on Sat or Sun but rarely ever is it alcohol. I find it much more challenging adding lean muscle when I drink alcohol.

Avoid pitfalls like sugary drinks.I fill a gallon jug of water every morning and drink directly from it throughout the day, though I loosen up a bit on weekends and reduce water consumption sometimes up to 1/2.

I currently take a lot of supplements:

Men's multi
coconut oil
cruciferous vegetable capsules
vitamin d3
turmeric
wild sockeye salmon oil
vitamin c
calcium magnesium potassium
Green Superfood by Amazing Grass ( expensive but very good)
Labrada Lean Body whey protein mix

testosterone cypionate injection 200 mg once per week
vitamin b12 injection once per week

I didn't realize my injections could be considered supplements now!!

 

[Filter]

StrongLifts 5x5 or Greyskull LP.

Squat as much as possible. I compete in Oly lifting... I squat like 3-5 times a week. My legs and ass are huge, but I have never had a woman complain. Squatting will also toughen you up due to how it's activating your Central Nervous System.

If the program isn't centered around the back squat, a heavy pull from the floor, and a heavy upper body lift, it is trash. You need to squat, press, row, and pull.

 

[imported]

If I was in your shoes, knowing what I know now, I would try out a personal trainer 1 session a week.

He'll teach you everything, and answer all your questions once a week, and the 2-3 times you go on your own just follow & repeat what you learned.

You wouldn't want to learn to play the piano without a teacher, so why is fitness different?