Laying the Foundations - Preparing for the lift

[Megadrink]

Hey everyone at EF

I need some guidelines on how i should approach going to the gym to gain mass, and muscle.

My body at the moment is weak, thin and pale. Lifting weights is something ive never really gotten into before so its something completly new for my body.

My Endurance is quite good. Because i like to ride my bike quite often, but i understand cardio workouts will thin me out.

My Story goes a little like this.
-Looks myself in mirror
-Finds EF
-Starts at gym
-Lots and lots of effort... to get there.
-Hurts shoulder doing squats.
-Stops going to gym
-Few months of denial
-Back at EF

Yep, i dont know what i did to my shoulder muscle, but i had more then a moderate weight attached and as i was coming back up on my final rep, as i was pulling down on the bar pressing up into it with my neck.

Its difficult because i have no muscle on my upper back. And when i get to the gym. My body feels cold, and i find it so hard to lift weights. Even when the weights moderate, i quake when i put the pressure on. Im really weak and slow.

So. Should i develop some kind of a foundation, so my body has something to start with, something to build on. Does anyone know what i should do to do this. Please discuss if you dont know what im talking about.

 

[ExtraMile]

first off LOL at your avi

second, if your getting to the gym feeling cold I would suggest riding the stationary bike for 5-10 minutes with a hoody or sweatshirt on, not real fast or anything just to get your body temperature up a little and warmup your lower body. Staying warm will help prevent injury. If your tight then you could do some light stretching too.

If your shoulder is fully healed you should just get straight back into it, I would suggest doing some sort of program were you progress in strength on big multijoint lifts that allow you to move alot of weight such as benchpress dips chinups squats deadlifts etc

Popular programs like this are the 5x5, 5/3/1, squats and milk and a whole bunch of others. Right now the routine you choose isnt so important aslong as it does the job. Training doesnt neccessarily have to be perfect at this point it just needs to get done.

If you want I could find or write you a program but Im not sure your after that and since you injured yourself squatting it sounds like you already had a basic idea of what sort of lifts you need to do.

Your diet needs to step up if your skinny and frail. Aim to eat 4-6 meals a day, try to eat about once every 3 hours, each meal should have a quality protein source, big dose of carbs and preferably a portion of fruit or vegetables. In between meals drink milk, whole milk is fine if the rest of your diet is quite low in fat. Try to get 4 pints of milk a day. By the sounds of it your an ecto morph and a hardgainer, naturally skinny and (no offence) weak. If this is so then dont obsess so much about how strict your diet is just make sure to get through alot of calories each day.

 

[JDid23]

Hey everyone at EF

I need some guidelines on how i should approach going to the gym to gain mass, and muscle.

My body at the moment is weak, thin and pale. Lifting weights is something ive never really gotten into before so its something completly new for my body.

My Endurance is quite good. Because i like to ride my bike quite often, but i understand cardio workouts will thin me out.

My Story goes a little like this.
-Looks myself in mirror
-Finds EF
-Starts at gym
-Lots and lots of effort... to get there.
-Hurts shoulder doing squats.
-Stops going to gym
-Few months of denial
-Back at EF

Yep, i dont know what i did to my shoulder muscle, but i had more then a moderate weight attached and as i was coming back up on my final rep, as i was pulling down on the bar pressing up into it with my neck.

Its difficult because i have no muscle on my upper back. And when i get to the gym. My body feels cold, and i find it so hard to lift weights. Even when the weights moderate, i quake when i put the pressure on. Im really weak and slow.

So. Should i develop some kind of a foundation, so my body has something to start with, something to build on. Does anyone know what i should do to do this. Please discuss if you dont know what im talking about.

I'm not as experienced as most guys on here, so I'm sure they can help you further but would you mind letting us know what you were able to do before your injury? I think that the quaking goes away once your body adapts to the lifts unless there is some sort of underlying problem. For your upper back, pullups/chinups and dumbbell/barbell rows should help. Maybe start them light and work your way up? if squatting/deadlifting hurts and you aren't able to really do much, i would venture to say you should develop some sort of foundation before delving into them. Doing posterior chain work would help- some exercises i think might benefit you if this is the case are hyerextensions, pullthroughs, leg curls, lunges, and leg press to name a few.

Again, please take this with a grain of salt and good luck!

Oh, and i almost forgot to say that you should be doing dynamic stretching before you lift. Let me know if you have any questions about that- Andalite, a member on here turned a lot of people onto them including myself and i think they have only enhanced my workouts.

 

[Megadrink]

Thanks, good info.

Bike ride to start sounds like a good idea. Warming up and sorts. Thats the other thing im having trouble with. And cant understand how you guys do it. Is getting the diet right. I have a protein/carb powder which i feel is wasted. Because its practillly all gone and i havent used it right. And to buy all these foods seems so expensive. Plus how to know the amount of calories and protein. What should i be buying?

Before injury, i was doing this routine where you do squats, and fnish with 3 sets of 10 reps in chins, dips and sit ups. Sit ups where easy, but the chins and dips. Upper arm strength left me ruined after one set.

The dynamic stretching sounds interesting. Please tell.

Thank you.

 

[miked8c]

Stats bro, height and weight.

What kind of numbers did you put up on the big lifts before your break.

 

[lweaver]

Its cool that you're trying to be brutally honest with yourself, but damn you need a self esteem boost if you wanna brutalize the weights!

I'm sure once you get a good routine going, you'll start feeling like more of a badass. However, if you keep telling yourself that you are "weak", then from a physical and psychological standpoint, thats what you're gonna be. That shaky feeling is probably because your muscles just arent trained properly in those respective motions with those respective loads, its nothing to worry about and its nothing that wont go away with training.

Id say run through the forums, and build your foundation on moderate to heavy compound movements and a shit-ton of calories. I could type away on nutrition, but youd be better off reading through the nutrition forums. Personally, I'd read everything that JoeD posts that applies to you, and follow it.

 

[ghettostudmuffin]

Agree with lweaver.

Stop saying your weak. You can admit to yourself that you are in indeed weak atm, but that it won't stay that way. Don't say that about yourself to others.

If you are going into the gym feeling cold and the weather is decent then you may have very low bodyfat/low muscle mass, low natural test levels.

To me it sounds like you need to learn how to squat properly and do the classic breathing squats program and eat alot and drink alot of milk.

That program was tailor made for the classic skinny guy/hardgainer guy yet it works great for everyone since it is so basic and result producing.

That or a 5x5 program.

I would lurk here on the forums, check the training vault at the top of this forum and learn how to do all the lifts properly.

 

[V-Opolis]

considering your skinny, just slam food down. read labels and eat. eat spoonfuls of peanut butter, turkey sandwiches, entire cows etc.

also i know how you feel. i was a runner in HS so my bench max was about 85 and squat 185 5x5. Im now at a bench max of 200(few months ago, should try again.) and squatting 260 5x5. You just have to go in there throw a middle finger to everyone and lift. IF people are laughing cuz your so skinny and lift light weight or your self conscious, just tell yourself, fuck them noobs. you have to workout like your THE man to get the weight.

Also you just have to make SMALL goals. Im fuckin ecstatic right now because about 4 weeks ago i could only get 85 on Mil press 3 times for some reason. Now im repping 90 for 10 reps 4 weeks later and just realized this this week and im really excited. Just take those 5 lbs increases and find the joy in em. if you look to big youll get discouraged.

I think i wouldj ust suggest you doin squat, bench, deadlift, dips, pullups, mil press, split up over 3 days.