Aftershock

Ok this is my first ever article so go easy. However if it turns out to be good I'm hoping like hell sholiz will decide to publish this in the article archive. Well feel free to point out any typos/flaws in my information... I'm kinda nervous to see if I made any big mistakes in the advice... :o Oh well here it goes

Aftershock

“The Basics: Newbie reading 101”
By Aftershock


If you’ve been on any popular bodybuilding board buzzing with newbie’s lately you will hear the same repetitive questions. Questions that are so general and reflect just how lost that person is that you know nothing you can say will even begin to scratch the surface of what is required, so you humbly advise them to check stickies and articles while all of them go into a degree of detail to a specific area. I will attempt to provide in the most basic way possible an article to get any lost beginner “jump started” by outlining the basics of exercise, routine, nutrition, and the overall lifestyle of a bodybuilder.

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NUTRITION


Ahhh, nutrition. One of the most important factors in bodybuilding. Nutrition is obviously going to vary depending on goals, of course unless your goal is to become a twig or fatass, one of three things come to mind concerning nutrition. These three are bulking, cutting, and maintaining. I will start off by addressing maintenance. Maintenance simply refers to how many Calories it takes to not gain weight nor lose it. If you’re anything like me, one of the most annoying questions is something like “How many Calories do I need to maintain?” After reading that I find it helps to repeatedly bang your head against a hard object, therefore; we will focus on the lesser of the two evils which goes a little something like “I know it’s different for everyone and I need to experiment to find out how many calories I need but, what is a good ballpark range to start at?” Well first off I feel the need to put emphasis on “ballpark range” and “experimenting.” With that being said a good rule of thumb is 18-25 Calories per pound of bodyweight. So simply take your bodyweight (in lbs.) and multiply from any number from 18-25 (pick a lower number for a slow metabolism and a higher number for a faster one.) Maintenance is achieved when Caloric expenditure is equal to Caloric intake. Now for those of you who have the IQ of doorknob, I will explain this. Calories are energy, Energy are Calories. If the amount of Calories you take in is equal to the amount of energy you exert, you will maintain your current weight; now keep that in mind as it will come up in the bulking and cutting phases.

Now let us move onto bulking. Bulking is simply trying to add as much muscle as possible while keeping BF (bodyfat) levels to a minimal. In order to keep BF levels down two things are imperative: No.1- keep Calories only slightly above maintenance level to add weight SLOWLY. No.2-Get all Calories from clean sources (one cheat meal a week is allowed.) It is important to keep bf levels down for two reasons, the first reason being that the less fat you have when it comes time to cut the less mass you will lose. The second reason is so you look good while bulking (obviously.) In order to bulk anabolism must occur. To be anabolic you generally need a positive nitrogen balance. In simpler terms just simply eat more calories than you need. Anabolism is when food is converted into living tissue. Generally to become anabolic you need to eat more food than you need (as stated in the latter) hence the extra food will be converted into tissue therefore; bulking is achieved when Caloric Intake > Calorie/Energy Expenditure.

Finally to finish off the concern of nutrition we will cover “cutting.” Cutting is simply the term used to describe attempting to get bf levels as low as possible while preserving as much muscle mass as humanly possible. This is similar to bulking in the aspect that you want to do it slowly. Keep Calories only slightly below maintenance level as losing the weight slowly will preserve the most muscle mass. To cut you need to obtain a negative nitrogen balance, or in simpler terms eating less Calories than you need (Sound familiar?) Catabolism is when living tissue is converted into food. Therefore, eating fewer Calories than your body needs would cause a lack in Calories and food hence the living tissue will be converted into food. In summary on how to go about cutting lower your Caloric intake and do cardio. You should always separate cardio and lifting however.

Aftershock

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EXERCISE and ROUTINES

Finally we are down to the actual LIFTING! Now take your time to jump up and down with joy and then let’s get on with the article, shall we? The actual training part of this is just so general and so many factors are involved it would be impossible to even summarize. Because of this I will pick only the bare minimum of what you need to know in order to go out there and have yourself an effective workout. My information will contain overtraining, reps and sets, splits, which muscles on what days, and examples of sample training programs. First off let me explain that training is indeed not what makes you grow but instead the recovery from training. Because of this something like “the more training the better” is simply one of the biggest lies out there. If you’re training more than your body is recovering you are actually going backwards, chances are you’d be better off not training at all. So what is overtraining? Overtraining is not lifting to hard or struggling with weight. Something such as struggling for that last rep etc. is simply just not overtraining, however the duration of training is where the secret lies. Training for more than an hour is not good. One reason is because after an hour your testosterone levels will begin to drop, reason number two is because lifting puts stress on your body. Stress will cause your body to release hormones…stress hormones…catabolic hormones. Yup you read that correctly CATABOLIC HORMONES such as cortisol. This will cause your body to lose mass rather than gain it. Another factor is too many sets for a muscle group. Chances are if your doing 50 sets per muscle group your going to be training more than you can recover thus the harmful effects of training outweigh and overpower the benefits. If you are actually following this article then there should be one question just buzzing in your head right about know, and that question may very well be “Then how many frigging sets do I do?!” This is a very good question and can depend. Assuming your after sarcoplasmic hypertrophy which you most likely will be if you are bodybuilding, rather than myofibrillar hypertrophy such as a powerlifter might go after. Sets for this should be around 3-4 sets per exercise and around 5 exercises ROUGHLY. You must also take into accounts that many if not all exercises are at least somewhat of a compound movement thusly while performing something such as a lat pulldown you must also take into consideration how much the biceps brachii (biceps a.k.a. bi’s) are being used. The amount of sets used in sarcoplasmic hypertrophy training is generally between 6-12, you must also experiment to find out what works for you and the rep number will most likely vary from muscle to muscle. Now we will move onto splits. A split is part of a routine, it covers what days you are working out on, which days you are working what muscle groups etc. While designing a split it is imperative to ensure that you are getting an adequate amount of off days in. Breaking it up into leg day, chest day etc. isn’t enough because lifting puts overall stress on the body no matter what you vary so it would make sense it needs off days to recover. When designing a split it is important to keep in mind there are major muscle groups out there that shouldn’t be mixed. Two examples of a major or large muscle group are quads and chest. There should be a day for quads while the other muscles you work out on that day should be smaller muscles such as the rest of your legs hence a leg day, likewise for the chest. Something like mixing quads and chest should not be done. As a beginner full body splits are a good idea. This should only be done as a beginner however. Now that you know how to develop a decent split I will provide names of some sample training programs to embark upon.

HST (hypertrophy specific training)
Max-OT
Westside

There are many others that can easily be found and researched. You may also hear someone tell you about DC (DoggCrap, yes you heard that right) now despite the uhh soemewhat… “odd” name this is one of the best out there however it is recommended by the founder to only consider it after having a solid four years of training under your belt therefore; if anyone suggests DC to you simply ignore them…for now. Also it should be noted that even the other routines posted still shouldn't be attempted before a beginner benefits from a basic split first.

Aftershock

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EVERYTHING ELSE


This area will cover general advice not really belonging above. Bodybuilding has a huge affect on the bodybuilders overall lifestyle. I and almost all others with previous experience in this area will tell you every choice they make in there life they are thinking about the effect it will have on there lifting and almost every choice they make will indeed have an effect. As silly as this may sound to someone who can not relate I will assure you everything we do this is on our minds. For instance every time we are running or burning extra calories we have to worry about our intake/exertion factor. One random piece of advice I will give is to avoid excessive cardio while bulking, you want to keep all your Calories of course. A bodybuilder will make a lot of sacrifices for there goals but just keep the results and progress in mind. You should always try to go to bed early and get plenty of sleep as this is the only time your muscles will actually grow. Also drink TONS of water. The more water you drink the higher levels of hydration your muscle cells will be at…the higher the hydration level the better the environment is suited for anabolism hence, the more heavily hydrated the muscle cells are the more mass you can pack on. Just stay consistent and dedicated and you will grow, do not obsess about having a lack of knowledge in something etc. Consistency is numero uno, no one will ever have a flawless and completely perfect routine and diet. With all that said Lift hard, and Good Luck!

If you liked this article please contact Sholiz and let him know. If you do I promise I will come back with bigger and better articles (I’m sure you can’t wait) Feel free to E-mail me with any questions at Aftershock6249@yahoo.com

Of course the bottom is just incase it actually gets published cough cough sholiz.

Oh, and posting is now open thanks guys,

-AS

Aftershock

Haha, 20 views yet no one cares enough to read the whole thing and/or comment? Oh well, maybe they where all guests nah I know they very well likely could of been but c'mon I want some opinions.

-AS

Master Of Puppets

didn't read the whole thing, but it wasn't boring! like, you actually seemed like you were talking rather typing an article. good job!

Aftershock

Thanks alot. You think it's worthy of being put on the article archive?

Be honest,

-AS

Master Of Puppets

better than mine. lots and lots of specific info...

sure! it could be published!

nomuscle

Very good I ready talk to you on aim What you should add if you want But yes its publish worthy its very good for your first article

Sholiz

I've got 2 comments as I skim that ...

Beginner and West Side Barbell, HST or even Max-OT for that matter ... IMO, those are pretty ADVANCED routines and agian, IMO, a beginner would benefit just as much from a solid split.

Care to elaborate your opinion? I guess I'm too much in the mindset of a DC trainee where you need either 1001% dedication or 1001% intensity every day to even make a nick of a gain ... and, they discredit complete newbies from starting DC right away (as they need to develop strength, intensity, and a feel for their recovery) before even thinking about DC.

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You hear me before you see me, I got King Kong in the trunk

Aftershock

I stated that DC should not be attempted for a while. Gaining experience before trying the other routines I just edited it

-AS

Aftershock

They where just expamples routines to look at. I always told them to get a good split and do full body routine to start out with. Since it was mentioned I also edited it a little bit to focus on not starting out with those as well. Hopes that clears up a few things.

-AS

johnsbod

I agree, and would even recommend a slightly higher rep range, maybe somewhere between 8-12 for newbies so that they use a weight light enough to work on form. If they don't get their form down on squats, deads, etc. when they first start bad things will happen when they up the weight to something more signficant.

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