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Best way to start me off

well dude here is the thing - its all based on form, and i lack the prowess of language to explain it in words. it takes only a few seconds to show someone in real life, but even watching a video sometimes misses a few minor nuances. personal trainers are usually great resources when youre brand spanking new to fitness science, but like i said above most trainers dont know much about form or real bodybuilding, they just know how to diet well and burn calories effectively. find someone who is very successful with their workouts to ask about proper form, read fitness magazines, and consult internet sources. combining different sources for your information will get a more rounded idea of what im referring to.

(for example - the guy thats pretty ripped while having very low body fat and doesnt strain himself while lifting probably knows how to maintain good form. the guy who grunts so loud the whole gym hears him, slams his weights down like a 10 year old, is huge and strong but has a lot of body fat, probably has no idea what good form is and just has great genetics and will power)

it requires concentration and active meditation. unless your mind is 100% fully aware of what the body is doing, its incredibly easy to let your posture slip while lifting. i have relatives who work in traumatic rehabilitation (like, a car ran you over, shotgun blew your leg off, lost a bicep to industrial accident, etc). an EXCELLENT tip i learned from them is to picture the muscle youre working deep inside your mind - imagine it growing, tell it to grow with your mind. picture your tricep flexing and imagine it getting bigger. over time, it will increase your gains. active meditation is quite powerful. you have to become the action you are taking. body building can be just as mentally rewarding as it is physically rewarding. quick, fast, and easy are not words in this science, if youre really into it long term. it will take more than 6 months for real body transformation, but about 2 years into it you will need a whole new wardrobe.

the foundation is good breathing, perfectly straight spine, and slightly bent elbows and knees - never locked (unless doing a specialized exercise that requires it). and again, i cant repeat this enough, if you feel youre sacrificing form/posture to get the final 2 reps or so out, try 5lbs less!

Wow thank you for this, I have had about 4-6 personal trainers who taught me all wrong, and same for my friends who work out.
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tell me about it! the other day i was watching this trainer tell this young woman how to do military press w freeweights. the poor girl had her hands spread unevenly, one arm was easily going higher and lower than the other (uneven effort), she wasnt really even breathing, and her posture was horrid. not her fault, TRAINERS FAULT. of course he stood there going, "good! nice job!" if youre going to go the trainer route, always examine his clientele first lol. i really wanted to go tell teh trainer how to do it properly, purely as a scientist and nothing more, but i felt it woulda been rude. :-/

at the same time, ive seen huge dudes (like 220+lb regular guys) lifting really high amounts of weight. and then, 12 months later, theyre doing the same exact weight (im an oddball scientist, i observe everything). same issue - bad form, bad posture, bad breath control, bad control of the weight, etc, and i wonder - why spend so much money on a gym and time working out when you do zero progress? wouldnt that drive you to seek new information and figure out what is going wrong?

well that was my motivation hah. i lifted for like 3 solid years and it had no real effect on my body besides better endurance and bone density, etc. i think in my first 3 years of lifting i gained a whopping 5 lbs. i almost gave up and though "meh, i guess im not genetically cut out for this." then, friends of mine shared good information with me, i observed better gains over time, and realized there is a real scientific process to mass gaining. i still possess an amateur level of knowledge, as there is nearly infinite knowledge to be had in this field.

gotta tweak, refine, and experiment a little bit and figure out what works best.
 
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another good tip: if you arent real sore in your target muscle group of the prior day, you probably diddnt hit the right weight/right posture.

for instance, after a chest workout, the next day your chest should be real sore when you push into the flesh, but not so sore that it impedes on life in any way.

no other muscles, except maybe complimentary muscles (in this case, triceps) should be sore. if other muscles (in this case, legs or lower back, for instance) are sore, you had bad posture.

within a day, you shouldnt be sore in the area you were sore in 2 days ago, or at least, only marginally sore. this means youre healing good and getting enough rest. so for this instance, if you did chest on monday, it should be sore tuesday, either not sore or just barely sore on wednesday, and not really sore at all by thurs-friday. else, get more rest so you can heal. this goes the same for each muscle group, so youre going to have overlapping soreness. muscle soreness is a good thing! learn to love the sensation.

note: if your body is not used to weightlifting, everything is going to be sore the first couple of weeks. the above is mainly for a body that has been into lifting for a few weeks/months.

also, every body responds marginally different.


joints should never be very sore, unless youre brand new to weightlifting. joints should always be marginally sore to not sore. i recommend making glucosamine, chrondroitin, and calcium + vitamin d very heavy in your diet to get the most out of bone density and joint strength that will result from solid bodybuilding.

if you feel your wrists or knees for example are really sore in the joints but not sore in the muscles, you should pay a lot more attention to your posture. if you continuously have achy joints from lifting, you may want to talk to your physician. torn ligaments are a great way to throw a months worth of progress away.
 
I agree with most everything rm-rf has said (very great posts btw) aside from the muscle and joint soreness bits. I don't experience much of any muscle soreness anymore. I do not think it is an indicator of either strength or size gains in an experienced lifter. Sore joints come and go. You lift hundreds of pounds long enough and it will wear and tear at your joints. Taking care to switch lifts and not genuinely injuring yourself are different then simply having achy joints. Remember that you're not only spending years in the gym but you're also getting older and joint pain is inevitable. I've also found that there is essentially a hard cap on how far your body is willing to go before you start seriously risking injury and its important to be careful with your health. We are not all meant to bench 500 lbs. Our body structure may not be able to do it even though some guy on youtube can. Remember you're doing this to better yourself, not end up with health problems in old age. Lifting beyond your body's means for a long time CAN and WILL cause damage to your body. Be aware of your limitations.

Some things I have found:

I tend to make excellent progress on a particular exercise and then my gains diminish. I find it best to switch to a similar exercise at this point. A good system is to do 1 series of lifts for 2 or 3 weeks of workouts and then switch to new lifts for the following 2 or 3 weeks. Or switch every time. An example is bar bench vs. dumbbell bench or flat vs. incline vs. decline. They are all similar lifts but I will make steady gains on one up until a point where I need to switch to another for awhile and work up on that one.

There is also a lot of things you can do with specific lifts. You see people do bands, boards, slow negatives, etc. etc. Those things all work but the mental engagement rm-rf talked about is critical. If you're working negatives make sure you're 100% focused on that. This can be like relearning an entire exercise and learning anything takes mental focus!

The last thing I would mention is that super setting and allowing little rest between sets can go a long way. A lot of people put in a lot of effort on a set but then cooldown for 1-5 minutes afterward (if not longer). This is fine but it has its time and place. It is also beneficial to do crossfit training where you're working with light weight, lots of sets, lots of reps, in quick succession, to increase muscular endurance.


I find the biggest challenge of all is mental, not physical. Overcoming the pain threshold and reaching true failure is VERY hard to learn and do properly and most of all, consistently. A big failing I have is going in and throwing stuff around and just trying to get through the workout. I have great genetics and lift heavy, eat right, and such, so I can get by doing that, but if I truly wanted to put my head into it like I did 2 years ago, I would have to exert so much more mental energy and life at this point prohibits me from doing that. I simply do not have the mental energy right now between my other responsibilities to put my heart in it.

Getting solid long term results from weight training in many ways is like a battle against yourself and it is as much mental as it is physical. It is an amazing feeling though. When I go in and look in the mirror and I have no pump and I just feel kind of whatever, and then I put my headphones on and get into the state of mind where I'm ready to destroy my muscles and push myself to my mental and physical limits.. where I'm seeing red, hands are shaking, sweat is pouring off my body, and I have such a ridiculous pump that my skin is tight, veins are popping off of nearly every square inch of my body, and I feel incredibly powerful and alive.. man.. I love it. =)
 
yeah great info man, i read every word :D definitely gonna put this shit to use, i used to hit the gym with a friend who puts on noticeable weight by the month doing a lot of these things
 
oh yah i love them super sets... thats more advanced i think tho, once one has a solid year of mass gaining behind them and really understands how to feel their body responding to load bearing. i totally get what youre saying aanallein, iw as trying to really come off from a perspective that someone really new to mass gaining, but not new to weightlifting would have.

yea, everyone is gonna get sore joints. what id hope someone doesnt do is confuse a really sore ligament with sore muscle, go back to lift, and really damage a part of themselves. youre going to get injured at some point, its really a matter of when (actually no, thats a terrible attitude to have).

really tho, it only takes one injury to nock you out of the gym for a month and make you careful enough to never do it again. one time i tore my back (left lat) so bad doing shoulder shrugs i couldnt even breathe right for a week. that never happened twice. it happened because i was lifting too much weight, i wasnt breathing right, and i leaned forward while performing a rep. i lost my balance, tried to compensate, and then WHAM it felt like a baseball bat hit me in the backside. again, mind you, i was doing shrugs, not my lats lol.

but yah, hes right. its really more mental than physical. ive found myself many times going into a gym like a lion, ready to tear shit apart, and then getting tired, rushing through sets, doing it half assed, and not even realizing my mind is wandering around all over the place until ive just wasted an entire workout burning calories and not really doing any muscle sculpting. focus, focus, focus. become the action you are performing.
 
fish, bread, chicken, and veg.

buy some organic supplements n shit.
you look more beefed up relaxed than you did in pic #1

good luck man
 
For the muscle pain thing- I get pretty bad DOMS especially in my legs (and especially if I havent gone heavy in a while). I can still feel the workout up to 3 days afterwards and still get good growth (as long as I eat enough). I never get joint pain unless I've screwed up my form (done my knee for a couple of days from bad foot position on squats). I get far more injuries playing any sports than from lifting weights.
 
all good rm-rf! you're bench (considering your body weight) is damn impressive lol. I weigh so much more and have never been great at lifting heavy on certain lifts (especially bench). i'll destroy incline dumbbells though! :D
 
yah dude that was like my claim to fame, "bro, yer 40lbs heavier than me and i can bench 50lbs more than you!"

my best friend was a state champion wrestler like 2 years running, he weighed 119lbs and bench pressed 215. course he destroyed his body's insides trying to maintain that exact weight but still goes to show that lifting isnt all just about the size of your muscles, its also the strength of their fibers and the efficiency of your nervous system.
 
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