The Gym, enemy number 3

Number three after exercise and diet is the gym, ah! The smell of sweat running down a guy squatting 500lb is something to dream of-oh ah hi there.. well move along now.
The gym as how people see it is mostly false, many believe that it's a place filled with testosterone spewing 250lb tanks, which well there are but not that many. Usually in a gym you will find the "big" inhabitants which are.. well big, and the not so big inhabitants, being a not so big inhabitant doesn't mean that you aren't strong, I've seen guys smaller than me lift more, it just means that they train for different thing, so try not to judge that much when analyzing the population of your gym.
I tried to bring a few "fat" friends to the gym with me, they all said the same thing to me more or less: "I can't go to the gym like this! They'll laugh at me!"
You see now, in a gym nobody really cares how you look like, on the contrary if they see you working hard trying to slap that fat in the face they will acknowledge you in the "family". Also, having friends in the gym is extremely important, not to save face or to not seem lonely, it's just fun to spot a guy you can laugh at for making strange faces, really try it.

.. seriously 

Well, just to clarify, that's a diver if you can't see all that water around him, though generally all their faces are the same when lifting, it's one of the reasons I even go there.

Another reason why the gym is an enemy are the ridiculous membership prices, I mean.. 60$ a month, dude what. I know that you need to make money but 60$? Might as well build my own gym with the money I spend in a year.

So you should always try to find the cheapest gym possible, as an example in my town there's a gym ran by a youth agency which costs almost nothing (80$ a year).

How I started

To be honest, I don't even know how I started lifting, I was young and foolish, all I wanted was to impress girls, hey hey now! I bet some of you (if not most) started lifting to impress girls.
When I was around 16, life wasn't much of a challenge to me, everything was bland and somewhat easy, but the only problem I had were the girls. There were a few somewhat fit guys in my class which were usually on a pedestal of  admiration from the girls, god and I wanted that feeling too. So I started lifting, I went on with SS and GOMAD and in about 6 months I could bench 190lb, squat 400 and deadlift 410, my legs were pretty strong from the start so that's the only way I can explain my squat and deadlift stats.
I got pretty much what I wanted, girls started paying more attention to me, at parties there was always a pack of them trying to touch my muscles. It was fun for a while, until it got annoying and I had to stop wearing tight shirts and all that type of clothing that makes you look "bigger".
After 1 year of lifting I realized that I couldn't care less about the opposite sex, all I thought about was getting stronger and having a tighter body, it's quite a radical change isn't it? Well, right now lifting has become part of my life, just as somebody wakes up and makes a pot of coffee, I wake up and lift, something in the lines of a daily routine.
It sounds pretty narcissistic doesn't it? Well, why shouldn't it? I gave it my all and now I can admire myself. You can't really say that lifters are narcissists (which they usually are) as everybody else is a narcissist in one way or another, everybody loves themselves just that lifters love what they have achieved.

GOMAD - Gallon of Milk a Day

GOMAD stands for gallon of milk a day, yes that means drinking a gallon of milk a day. It is generally aimed towards people who want to bulk or skinny individuals who are in look for some fat to put on their bones.
To be honest, you could drink 1-2L a day, it will still be effective as a weight gain plan.
At first it'll be pretty hard to stuff that much milk down everyday, but if you drink a cup with every meal and sip every now and then, it'll be relatively easy.
I for once kept a bottle of milk next to my computer and managed to chug 2-3 (1L each) bottles that way.
With GOMAD (well, more like 3/4 GOMAD) I gained around 15 pounds in one month, it was a huge difference to be honest, going from 140lb to 155 made a huge impact on silhouette, it made me look bigger, it made me feel better and I stopped looking like a bunch of matches taped together.

Here's a link with more information about GOMAD.

Important Notice: Always drink a lot of water!

Drinking water is extremely important, it helps with muscle recovery and prevents retention, use this to calculate your recommended water intake.

Advanced routines

After a while you'll notice that beginner routines that focus on adding a lot of weight every workout will not be that effective anymore because you keep stalling and you're not gaining that much strength anymore, well that moment is when you should switch to some more advanced routines:

The Texas Method - Excellent after SS

Jim Wendlers 5/3/1 - Typical powerlifter/athleticism program.

Madcow 5x5 - Full body strength program.

Joe DeFrancos Badass - Bodybuilder/athleticism program.

Now whatever you chose depends on what you want to follow, for strength The Texas Method or Madcow, and so on.
Keep the basics in mind, good form, avoid injury and drink a lot of water.
Lifting is usually the easiest part of getting fit, if you have any questions be free to leave a comment.

Also anything after these routines would depend on you, although generally if you can't gain anything anymore on these routines (and that's usually in a lot of time) it means that you've hit your natural muscle mass limit and  if you want to gain more muscle you would have to resort to steroids.

Diet part 6: Supplements

Choosing supplements is complicated if you have no idea what to get as most of them are useless, I'll make a small list about supplements that work save your money.

Fish Oil - Fish oil is great, omega 3 especially, it makes you smarter, stronger and improves your general health. EPA and DHA are the essential omega 3 fatty acids you want, ALA is less effective.

Eat about 1-3g of EPA/DHA per day.

Vitamin D - If you don't get enough you should supplement it, but only if you don't get enough as having too much vitamin D could be dangerous (check with your doctor if you need to supplement it). Vitamin D is one of the most important vitamins out there, is is involved in everything so not getting enough will make it worse for you everywhere.

Protein Powder - If you're not getting enough protein out of your meals, protein powder would be the answer, the type of protein powder doesn't really matter so just get whatever is cheapest.

Magnesium - usually you don't get enough of this, consider supplementing.

Zinc - same story as magnesium same for Vitamin C.

Vitamin C 

Multivitamin/minerals - It would help if you're not getting enough of these from your meals, not much but it would.

Creatine - Contrary to popular belief, creatine is safe and helps with muscle development a little, eating about 5g of it everyday would be recommended, also consider buying it in monohydrate form only, much cheaper and just as effective.

PS: You find creatine in red meat too, in about 2-3 pound you can find 5g of protein, but eating 2-3 pounds of red meats everyday would not be recommended.

That's pretty much it, anything else is garbage and you should avoid it, also the only necessary supplement would be Fish Oil, you should avoid everything else if you can't afford them.

Diet part 5 - What to eat: Grains and Cereal

Nuts - Any nuts are good, high in protein, vitamin E, magnesium etc. Also high in calorie so they're perfect on a bulk.
My favorites are: Almonds and cashews, but you can choose anything.

Oats - Amazing breakfast food, fills you up, full of carbs to power you up.

Quinoa - High in protein and fiber, free of gluten and tastes great.

Lentils - Cheap, tasty and literally booming with protein, probably the cheapest source of protein out there.

Rice - Just like oats, full of carbs and extremely tasty.

Pasta - I know that these are not grains, although they are made out of them so I though of putting it here, delicious high carb/protein food also relatively cheap.

You can basically eat anything, just be careful about it's protein/calorie count if you're cutting, always check the label.

Diet part 4 - Eating enough calorie wise

If you want to gain muscle, you should eat more of everything.

If you want to lose weight, you should eat less of everything.

And you can't choose both, at first you should focus on what's advised (if you're skinny eat more, if you're fat eat less) and then decide whatever you want to do.

Bulking (gaining muscle) : If you want to gain weight, try eating (16-18 x [bodyweight in lbs] ) calories every day, for as long as you can.

Gaining 3-5 pounds per month would be your target, gaining any more than that wouldn't help you much as it's mostly fat.

And if you say that you eat a lot and you don't gain any weight, you're not eating enough, simple as that.

Cutting (losing fat) : If you want to lose fat, try eating (10-12 x [bodyweight in lbs]) calories per day and keep that protein intake as high as you can.

You need to keep exercising while cutting, otherwise it will not be effective, it will be uncomfortable but you need to bare with it for the results.

You should not resort to surgery as it's not safe, there are huge risks compared to exercising where you can lose all the weigh you want with no risks at all.

If you can't gain weight or lose weight, you're most likely not counting well, try to adjust the number of calories the next day.

Gaining more than 1 lbs per week is not recommended as what you gain after that is mostly fat also losing more than 1 lb per week is not recommended either as you'll be starting to lose muscle.

There are many ways of counting calories, there are some great calculators out there on the web, I usually use WolframAlpha or Cron-o-meter.

ALSO DON'T FORGET TO EAT AS MUCH VEGETABLES AS YOU CAN!

Diet part 3 - Protein

Protein is important, probably the most important macronutrient you could need for  healthy muscle development. Now take your bodyweight in lbs and eat 1g  of protein for each pound. (eg: you weigh 180 pound you should eat 180g of protein each day, but if you are 200lb and your ideal weight is 160lb, you should eat 160g of protein each day) I'll list some reasons to eat protein:

• It helps you build muscle.
• It helps you lose fat.
• It supports muscle over fat making you lose more fat and less muscle on a diet.
• It will make you recover better from exercises, it also decreases soreness.
• It keeps off weight loss.

Somebody told you that eating a lot of protein is unhealthy? And if you eat too much you'll get sick? That's all groundless nonsense, you can eat as much protein as you want, you can eat 500g if you'd like, but it won't help eating over the amount needed, you can also eat as much protein in one meal as you'd like, there is no limit.

Protein rich foods: 

• Fish
• Poultry
• Eggs (Also, eating more eggs a day has no effect on health or cholesterol, but that only applies if they are boiled, as scrambled eggs contain oil used to cook them which does increase cholesterol.)
• Red meat
• Milk

If you are on a diet, try eating 5g of protein for each 50 kcal.

PS: Eating enough protein would be advised but it won't kill you if you eat less although it would probably slow muscle development.

Diet part 2 - What to eat: Vegetables and Fruits

Your parents told you to eat vegetables and fruits, not because they're delicious (which they are) but because it's healthy. Here are a few reasons to eat veggies and fruits:

• It protects you against diseases.
• They are rich in every essential micronutrient.
• For the amount of calories it has, it fills you up so it makes you less hungry.

Now about what kind of vegetables/fruit to eat, it's all up to you, although some pretty effective and delicious vegetables and fruits you could eat are:

• Broccoli - It is high in fiber and low in calorie.
• Tomatoes - Prevents cancer and it's delicious.
• Spinach - You know why Popeye eats a ton of spinach? Because it prevents muscle and bone loss AND prevents cancer and heart diseases.
• Carrots - Huge amount of vitamin A.
• Oranges - Vitamin C and magnesium help fight diseases, also don't buy orange juice as it's usually mostly sugar, eat them raw or make the juice yourself.
• Apples & Berries - Rich in antioxidants that prevent cancer, heart and eye diseases.

Eat whatever you find as a vegetable/fruit, as they are high in fiber and low in calorie they are the ideal type of food to eat on a cut.

 

Diet part 1

Losing weight and gaining muscle is 80% diet and 20% exercising, so the first thing you should do is set out diet straight.

Your body needs two different things from a diet, "macronutrients" which are fats, carbohydrates and protein, then there are micronutrients which consist in some vitamins, minerals, water, some lipids and amino acids.

First of all if you are fat, you need to eat less, if you're skinny, you have to eat more. So you would have a calorie limit to hit, 1500-2000 if fat and 3000~ if too skinny, but in this calorie limit you should hit the right amount of essential nutrients (macronutrients and micronutrients) that the body needs.
Don't do the wrong thing of eating too many calories while not eating enough protein or carbohydrates.

To start with your diet you should stop eating junk food or anything like that, eating healthy is the best way to get healthy.

Some tips I found useful:

• If you're hungry but you are on a cut (losing weight), drinking water or tea will help cut the hunger.
• If you can't eat enough all at once, eat smaller meals through out the day. eg: instead of eating 3 big meals you can't finish a day, split it up into 3 big meals you can finish and 3 snack periods.
• At first it will be difficult, but with time you'll get accustomed to it.
• Use this as a calculator for your cuts, detract 200-300 calories.
• Use this on a bulk (gaining weight).

Routines

As a beginner, starting off will be pretty easy but it will keep getting harder as long as you keep adding weight.

For the first 5-6 months you should do Starting Strength, a simple program that has worked many times.
If you do not like it or whoever knows what problems you might have with it, there are always other beginner programs such as:

Reg Park’s Beginner Routine:

 Workout A:

Back Squats 5×5

Chin-Ups or Pull-Ups 5×5

Dips or Bench Press 5×5

Barbell Curls 2×10

Wrist Work 2×10

Calves 2×15-20

Workout B:

Front Squats 5×5

Rows 5×5

Standing Press 5×5

Deadlifts 3×5 (2 warm-up sets and 1 “stabilizer set”)

Wrist Work 2×10

Calves 2×15-20

Training Schedule:

Week 1: A, B, A

Week 2: B, A, B

Week 3: A, B, A and so forth.

Arthur Jones' beginner program

Kristas beginner program (for girls)

Try to keep good form while doing any of these exercises, and when you stop gaining anything from the beginner routines, you should switch to something more advanced.

Lifting Heavy Weights

Everybody should lift weights, for the people who think that lifting weights are dangerous, they're not as dangerous as not doing any physical activity at all.
If your muscles get stronger from lifting weights, it will only aid you in your life.

Here are a few reasons why to lift heavy weights.

• Helps with building muscle.
• Helps with losing fat.
• It keeps your metabolism higher even when resting.
• If you do it correctly, it will improve strength, health, posture.
• It prevents injuries by strengthening your muscle and bones.

Even if you are fat, you still want to lift weights, and no, lifting will not make you look like a bodybuilder, it will build muscle and burn fat which will make you look better.
If your goal body is the body of a dancer, swimmer, Olympic athlete etc. then lifting is seriously the answer to all that, if you do not think so, it'd be advised to start reading another guide, one that spreads false information.

Weight lifting has 3 key components. 

Keeping it balanced: Arms, legs, core, chest and the back, these are the parts you need to work out, try to do compound workouts (workouts that work more muscles at a time) instead of focusing on specific body-parts, a healthy body is one that progresses naturally, a balanced body.

Avoiding Injury: Learn more about proper form, watch videos, take videos of yourself and compare. Lifting without proper form is bad lifting, lifting that can hurt you.

Train progressively: As a beginner, you should add weight to your exercises every week. If you don’t add weight over time, your body is not going to change. It is an adaption process. You lift heavy, your body adapts to the stress. Try to keep track of your lifts.


You should lift about 3 times a week, try to do as many compound exercises as you can, keep good form and doing about 3 sets of 5-8 repetitions each.

Exercising

You may think that exercising means sit-ups, push-ups, squats and all that gibberish they teach you in elementary school, but you can't really build muscle or lose weight effectively with basic body-weight exercises (I'll talk about body-weight exercises in my following posts).

What we'll use for building muscle is lifting heavy weights, free weights, meaning dumbbells and barbells. Free weights are usually more effective than machines so try to use free weights whenever you can instead of machines, but don't hail free weights as the godly given instruments to tone up, if free weights are inaccessible or hard to find, you can always dance with the machines.

At the beginning it's best advised to build your strength first before mass, as strength will make it easier to gain mass in the future, and don't worry about getting too big as gaining muscle is not an easy task and it's basically impossible to gain mass without noticing.

PS: I heard some females talking a while ago how they don't want to go to the gym because it'll make them look bulky and ugly, which is complete nonsense, if you do NOT want to become bulky it is physically impossible to become bulky.

To achieve this:

(source)

You would need years of training and a carefully followed diet, male hormones and sometimes even steroids.

In this blog you will learn how to achieve bodies such as these (for girls):

(source)

And these for guys:

Now if you would like to look like Ronnie Coleman or Zyzz, you would have to start looking for some steroid dealers.

Getting Started - Part 2

Now, how do we actually start with all this, up until now I've only talked about the mental aspects of fitness.

Well first of all you need a place where you can work out, a gym would be the best answer but if it is too expensive there's always the possibility of buying the equipment you need and setting up a small gym at home but if that's not possible either, don't give up, body-weight exercises exist for the exact same reason.

There are two things you'd want to follow: 

• Muscle development and maintenance. You want this. You will look more athletic, more active, more defined, and healthier. Humans are built to appreciate athletic bodies, of both genders. Muscle mass and strength also makes you less prone to injury, makes daily physical activities easier, and helps prevent many conditions like obesity, metabolic syndrome, and many of the effects of aging. If you are a skinny guy or girl wanting to have that tight butt, defined shoulders and a firm chest, muscle buildup will be your prime concern. If you are a fat guy or girl it is more about muscle maintenance.

• Fat loss. Too much fat is unhealthy and it also looks bad. If you want to look better, want a six pack you need to lose fat whether you are overweight or not. Fat makes you look flabby. If you are fat or female, fat loss is your prime concern. But you always need worry about muscle maintenance. Unlike exercising for muscle development, you cannot "aim" with fat loss; it is not possible to target specific areas). By losing fat, you will get tighter and more defined all over. 80% of fat loss is diet. If you cannot eat less, you cannot lose fat, it's as simple as that.

Basically it all depends on your diet and exercising, if you're fat it'd be advised to work out and do cardio exercises while eating at a calorie deficit. But if you're skinny and want to gain weight and muscle, the best thing you can do is eat a lot (300-500 calorie surplus  and exercise (lifting weights), I wouldn't start cardio if skinny, as it would make it harder to gain weight.

 Exercising

There are many types of exercises such as jogging, swimming, lifting weights, yoga, dancing, rowing and so on. But if you only want to put on muscle and/or lose that weight, cardio and lifting are the most important aspects of your future body.

Getting Started - Part 1

First of all we need to make it clear that this is not a walk in the park, but it won't kill you either.
To achieve a healthier life and body you need two things:

• Persistence. You can't do without it. You don’t have to stick to it 100% of the time; but every bit you slip up detracts from your results. The time and effort you put into developing and maintaining your physical fitness is proportional to what you will get out of it and the results you will see. If you follow this advice only some of the time, you will only get some of the results. Pick something and stick to it, and start right now. 

• Patience. It takes time. You can lose around 1-2lbs of fat a week, or build up to .5lbs of muscle as a male, and less as a female. That's 25lbs In a year. In a year you’ll look way better than you do now. We know how the body works, we know what can be done, and we know how long it takes. This is not a couple of month process or something you do for a little bit to get fit then abandon completely expecting to stay at that level of fitness. There is no easy-way-out, a miracle, or the fitness secret someone wants to sell you. You want results not false promises.

Don't worry, it's not that difficult as it seems, and not only will you get stronger, leaner and healthier but also you will start having fun while exercising, we call this an exercising "high", It's an interesting feeling to live with. But seriously, don't worry about it being too hard to keep up with, take your time as it is not the end of the world if you miss one workout.

A slight introduction

Well now, you're probably here because boredom or an interest in fitness. If it's the latter, you are in.. well the "right" place. You may wonder why I put the word right in quotation marks, that's because it all depends on the reader to judge wether To fit or not to fit has the right content or not. Don't worry, I'll do my best to meet your standards and explain what FITNESS actually is.
This guide will tell you everything you need to know on how to lose fat, gain muscle, get 'toned', increase your endurance, become stronger, become faster, and eat healthier.

FITNESS

What is fitness? Physical fitness is a state of good health and well-being, there are more types of fitness, such as general fitness which aims to better the whole body as opposed to specific fitness which aims to better the body for different tasks (eg: sports, aesthetics etc..). Sounds complicated? Well it doesn't and it isn't.

The basics of fitness are easy learned and are mostly logical answers.

PS: This blog will be centered around lifting weights, as it is the easiest form of fitness out there.