Am I lifting enough to see a difference?

alleyag

OP,

What are your goals? Are you trying to gain muscle and bulk right now or are you trying to cut down bodyfat first while retaining as much lean mass as possible?

Also when you are starting out with weight training, you should start by doing compound lifts moreso than isolation exercises. Niner and a few others in this thread have it correct.

In my opinion, you would do well to start off with full body routines 3x a week (Mon, Wed, Fri) with these exercises:

Barbell Flat Bench
Overhead Military Press
Barbell Curls
Bent over Barbell Rows
Full body Squats
Deadlifts
Calf Raises

Done. You should probably do this kind of workout 3 times a week for ATLEAST 6 months to a year before you even start thinking about anything else.

Dude you're like my twin.

Sound advice Joe. Agreed. 100%

Acg67

what is your bf %, you're not going to be able to really get cut and defined if you have no lean mass to cut down to.

alleyag

what is your bf %, you're not going to be able to really get cut and defined if you have no lean mass to cut down to.

Unfortunately I had to find this out the hard way. Looking like a skinny rat is no fun either.

MinnesotaManimal

what is your bf %, you're not going to be able to really get cut and defined if you have no lean mass to cut down to.

"supposedly" 19% done by the Personal trainer that the gym hires to give one hour tutorial to all new members. It was completed using a digital device on which the trainer swears she has compared numerous times to caliper tests and the most she has had it vary was 1.5%

so could be as high as 20.5% ? and this was measured 6 lbs of body weight ago just before I started lifting.

can a person ACCURATELY measure their own bf with calipers?

ninerbuff

what is your bf %, you're not going to be able to really get cut and defined if you have no lean mass to cut down to.

Lol, I had a client who was 160lbs at 5'10" and he was dieting to be lean, cut and defined with 29% body fat at the time. I told him that he would end up being about 130lbs and more skin and bones at that weight. He nixed the idea and went on to just gain some muscle. Today he's at 170lbs at 18% BF and looking good.

rileysowner

While it should work, I see a lot of isolation exercises in that routine. I would suggest sticking with compound exercises like squat, bench press, overhead press, dead lift, and bent-over rows. The stronglifts 5x5 is a great routine to build strength using those exercises. Isolation exercises have their place, but you would be better served by building a strong foundation first. You can find the stronglifts report which will explain it more completely here http://stronglifts.com/free-stronglifts-5x5-report/

I also suggest doing the weights before the cardio. You want to have as much energy as you can to do the weights, not to mention the mental clarity.

Is this really legit? it feels like a scam. http://stronglifts.com/free-stronglifts-5x5-report/

I entered my email, and then I get a notice saying I need to follow another set of instructions in order to get my free report........

it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and now I want to know.... does it quack like a duck.....

Yes it is legit. You need to download the PDF file. I downloaded it no problem following the instructions. The e-mail is to verify you are human and that you actually want it. You end up on Mendhi's mailing list, but there are very few e-mails and you can unsubscribe. Just so you know for thing like this I use an e-mail address (gmail.com) that I can easily mark spam if I decided to unsubscribe and they don't unsubscribe me. As I said, so far I have not had excessive e-mails due to this.

AlsDonkBoxSquat

what is your bf %, you're not going to be able to really get cut and defined if you have no lean mass to cut down to.

"supposedly" 19% done by the Personal trainer that the gym hires to give one hour tutorial to all new members. It was completed using a digital device on which the trainer swears she has compared numerous times to caliper tests and the most she has had it vary was 1.5%

so could be as high as 20.5% ? and this was measured 6 lbs of body weight ago just before I started lifting.

can a person ACCURATELY measure their own bf with calipers?

I don't know if you can accurately measure on your own with calipers, but you can certainly bug a friend or loved one to help you out instead of paying someone to do it. For the look you want you have to get the bf% down. You're probably not going to start seeing those moobs go down to what you think is acceptable until 12% - 15%, so you might as well put a little sexy bulk behind it. There surely is a difference between moobs and pecks.

ninerbuff

"supposedly" 19% done by the Personal trainer that the gym hires to give one hour tutorial to all new members. It was completed using a digital device on which the trainer swears she has compared numerous times to caliper tests and the most she has had it vary was 1.5%

so could be as high as 20.5% ? and this was measured 6 lbs of body weight ago just before I started lifting.

can a person ACCURATELY measure their own bf with calipers?

Meh. Any hand held device can be off just by how much water is in your body. Calipers are okay too. IMO the best way to tell bodyfat% is to look at your abs. If you can't see them, you're 20% and over. At 15% you should be able to see a good outline of all 6-8 of them.

MinnesotaManimal

Thank you everybody for your advice. Now Im trying to digest it.
Top things I have learned that will change the course of what I am doing before today?

1. Lift, then Run

2. do more multi muscle exercises

3. Learn to lift free weights (goes in line with #2)

if there is a dire point I missed please comment

I think that I will stay the course on my weightloss for another 5 lbs, and then rather than pushing down further till I get skinny, I will switch to maintenance calorie plan and concentrate on lifting for 6 months, then if Im still not happy with my body fat% I will revert to weightloss again.