Post: #1

I am very new to weightlifting, just started in March, doing one of the Starting Strength variations. Prior to that I felt so weak and feeble and LOW ENERGY that I had to start doing something.

In general, I have only positive things to say. I've gotten way stronger, gained some obvious muscle (especially on my shoulders and back) and overall feel so much better. Im glad its a habitual thing now and a part of my life. But now I want to get more serious.

Despite the benefits, I havent been putting on THAT much mass, especially my arms and chest seem to have no difference at all. I have always been a "hard gainer" when it came to weight gain.

additionally, I have been getting more and more fat around my thighs, waist, ass, lower belly. Much more than I would want. I've long suspected i anyways had low T, and ive been reading that fat around this section especially is terrible for testosterone and aids in estrogen production.

My question is this: since I now really want to get jacked, would it be better to:

A) do a huge cut and drop all the excess fat first, to improve my hormone profile, and then get back on the bulking/heavy lifting (ive been reading this in a few places)

or B) just keep doing what im doing, lifting heavy, eating a LOT, and take care of the fat later.

My fear is the fat is damaging my hormones, and thus preventing any gains from taking place. Ive been reading a lot of contradictory info, there is simply too much out there, and I trust this forum for better answers.

Any help or tips is very much appreciated

Post: #2

You say you are new to weightlifting, that you started in March, but that you've always been a hardgainer. One of these statements must be incorrect, or at least uncertain.

It is good that you are getting stronger, and can see some mass gain. If that is the case, that is good progress for 2 months.

However, you seem surprised that a program like SS, which is lower body heavy, is not building a rounded and balanced physique. Contrary to what all the internet nerds say, you do not build 20" arms just by squatting 3x per week.

As a beginner lifter, you are unlikely to be lifting the kind of weight that needs you to eat a lot to gain muscle. I am 190lbs and can gain muscle (albeit slowly) on about 2400 calories per day averaged over a week, given an otherwise relatively sedentary lifestyle. At your stage of lifting you are unlikely to need to eat all that much to make steady strength and mass gains.

What you do need to do, and what takes time, is to learn how to lift with intensity - if you are looking to build your physique rather than to train for general fitness. The biggest thing most 'hardgainers' have in common is that they do not train hard enough to elicit a response. Your body is a pretty clever thing. If you're training hard and demanding that it grow, it will do so. You do not need to force feed yourself. Your body will help you regulate. Eat until you are full but not stuffed 3x per day. Eat your vegetables, there's much less info out there on micronutrients for weightlifting, but I think the value of eating good, natural foods cannot be overstated.

A lot of your success, or lack thereof, in weightlifting will come down to your ability to set defined, achievable goals that keep you progressing. Lose a bunch of fat is not a goal, nor is 'get jacked'.

As a natural trainee, you will not go wrong placing your primary emphasis on getting stronger in a few key lifts, whilst also balancing them out with a couple of bodybuilding/isolation exercises to balance out your musculature. If you concentrate on getting stronger, the other gains will follow, but they will take much longer than you think.

Post: #3

In addition to H1N1's great advice, I'd say add in either pullups/chinups and dips into your routine. They'll build muscle and have the added benefit of keeping the fat off. I know it sounds like broscience, but bodyweight movements have you moving your own body and fat gain is counterproductive to that. So the body seems to try it's best to keep the fat off.
I've seen it work that way many times.

Post: #4

You should also get a hormone panel done. It may not tell you much (at this stage) but it's good to know where you stand with this stuff.

Sometimes you meet guys who are doing everything they need to do in the gym, but they have the testosterone levels of a 10 year old girl.

Post: #5

Don't even bother with Starting Strength. There are many criticisms of it, but the biggest one would have to be the fact that you hit legs 3 times a week and you hit bench half as much. That ratio is way, way off.

SS
squat : 3
bench and press : 3
deadlift : 1.5

It should be more like

bench and press: 3
squat : 2
deadlift : 1

Do Greyskull instead. It is much closer to that ratio.

Not only will you build more muscle, but you'll have a more balanced physique. SS hits legs very hard, your upper body will lag behind quite a lot.



To explain the lifting protocol, I would say this.

Those "plus" sets are an all out set to failure. To take an example.

You start your first workout with 100 lbs on the bench press. You do two sets of 5 easy enough. The last set you rep that shit out 15 times. The next time you go to the gym, you do 105 on the bench, the last set you rep out 10 times. Great.

You keep going until you hit 125 and you only get 4 reps. Your goal is 5. Once you can't hit 5, you take off 10% of the total and "start over".

This reset is great though, because you're building muscle on your reset instead of doing weights you've already conquered. Life is good. You're not doing the same thing over and over and over again.

The program covers it's own ass with a variable rep range to get you stronger and bigger.

You're not going to hit a 315 squat as fast as you would with SS, but you're going to get a better, more well rounded physique if you do Greyskull with a sensible diet for a year.

On every forum I've ever been on where SS was aggressively pushed on newbies, we would invariably get a spate of "How do I get V taper" threads a couple months after they started the program. SS builds blocky, fat farmboy refrigerator type physiques. For most trainees (myself included), it did not have enough stimulus to build arms and shoulders or even a bench over 165 lbs.

Don't be an idiot, don't listen to those morons on the SS forums and do your chins and curls if you want bigger arms and shoulders (the first, second, and third goal of every new lifter).

You can get a hormonal profile test done, but don't open it until after you get your second one done in 6 months. Consider it a present.

You don't want to look at it and be like "Oh, look at that, I only have so and such a level of testosterone so I'll never get big! Everyone else bigger than me must be on the juice after all! I am enlightened." Look at it after you've been lifting for a while. Lifting and having muscle mass increases testosterone. Looking like and being as strong as a bitch leads to bitch levels of testosterone. It's science.

Post: #6

As far as dieting advice, get an idea of how much you're eating in a day.

If you're too fat, eat less. If you can't handle that, do something like Intermittent Fasting to get your weight under control.

There's an 80 page book on it, but I'll give you the sparknotes version.

1) Don't eat anything for 24 hours straight one day out of the week. I usually start it at 5 at night so I'm not going to bed on an empty stomach.

2) You can drink water, diet drinks (it no calorie), and chew gum.

3) Continue to lift weights throughout the week. I don't recommend fasting on a lifting day but some people do it and it works fine for them.

Alternatively, you could bulk until you hit some goal (let's say it's a 225 lb bench), then do the rapid fat loss program to quickly burn the fat off once or twice a year.

Post: #7

How old are you and what is your current weight?

Post: #8

(05-20-2016 04:58 PM)Cosmonaut Wrote:  I am very new to weightlifting, just started in March, doing one of the Starting Strength variations. Prior to that I felt so weak and feeble and LOW ENERGY that I had to start doing something.

In general, I have only positive things to say. I've gotten way stronger, gained some obvious muscle (especially on my shoulders and back) and overall feel so much better. Im glad its a habitual thing now and a part of my life. But now I want to get more serious.

Despite the benefits, I havent been putting on THAT much mass, especially my arms and chest seem to have no difference at all. I have always been a "hard gainer" when it came to weight gain.

additionally, I have been getting more and more fat around my thighs, waist, ass, lower belly. Much more than I would want. I've long suspected i anyways had low T, and ive been reading that fat around this section especially is terrible for testosterone and aids in estrogen production.

My question is this: since I now really want to get jacked, would it be better to:

A) do a huge cut and drop all the excess fat first, to improve my hormone profile, and then get back on the bulking/heavy lifting (ive been reading this in a few places)

or B) just keep doing what im doing, lifting heavy, eating a LOT, and take care of the fat later.

My fear is the fat is damaging my hormones, and thus preventing any gains from taking place. Ive been reading a lot of contradictory info, there is simply too much out there, and I trust this forum for better answers.

Any help or tips is very much appreciated

Fat around waist and thigh is due to inactivity I would suggest you to exercise regularly and eat healthy and more importantly drink plenty of water.