For me the key to not quitting was going there with a friend - peer pressure if you will, but it helps finding the motivation to go to the gym on those lazy days.
My advise for anyone considering amateur body building and workouts (I'm not pro, take it with a grain of salt and see what works best for you):
* find a training partner, you need someone to spot bench presses anyway
* find a 4 day workout program, going to the gym everyday is damaging as your muscles need time to recover. 3 day weekly workout should be a bare minimum if you want results.
* stay there for an hour on average, including your warmup. I recommend 10-15 mins of steady pace on treadmill for your warmup, some stretching afterwards. Running will control your fat growth and cardio in general will increase your stamina and overall good feel. 30-50s breaks between repetitions - stay in the zone, don't let the muscles to cool down and don't waste time chatting with training buddies.
* Start with small weights, lots of newbies feel ashamed to put too little weight but nobody really cares. Too much weight will damage you at worst, slow your progress at best.
* The only supplements you should buy are whey protein, creatine and vitamins - that's all you need and that's all that worked for me or my friends, everything else is money wasting.
Keep on doing that and you will see results after 2-3 months, then results itself will be enough to motivate you not to quit.
When I was lifting weights, going 6 days a week worked best for me. But I would make sure to only exercise two muscle groups at a time.
This works out so each muscle group has a full 7 days to rest. And the whole body gets Sunday off.
The results were pretty good too, I reached my peak healthy BMI within a few months (24.9) then just kept getting stronger without gaining much weight.
Bench pressing 1.5x and "squatting" ~2x your body weight is fun. It's really hard to explain just how fun to people who haven't been there.
I think you're excited to share your experiences and want to encourage others in the hopes they will enjoy similar benefits, but I think you've gone into too much detail in what's a complicated area. You've told people to take your advice with a grain of salt but you haven't identified the qualifiers which unfortunately makes your post bad advice. For instance:
* 4 days vs 3 days: for hard gainers, this can be very bad advice. 3 days is the limit for me or I lose weight.
* 10-15min warmup: again for hard gainers, you don't want to do too much cardio and you're better off splitting your training into muscle gain months and fat loss months because trying to do both at the same time is nearly impossible.
* 30-50s breaks between reps: all depends on your rep scheme; if you're doing 8-6-4-2 you need much longer rests (I've tried 90s vs 180s and my level of performance is radically different); if you're doing 10x10 to break through a plateau then a short rest makes sense
* weights: it's not random, you shouldn't even need to think about this: you simply need to pick the weight that matches your rep scheme... if you're doing 8-6-4-2 you need weights YOU can ONLY lift 7-8 times, 5-6 times, etc.; it amazes me how many guys wander around gym randomly picking stuff up
Point is most of this depends on the body type of the individual AND their goals. I'm naturally skinny and struggle to eat a lot. So I found a guy like me (literally, physically) who achieved the goals I want and worked through his book and so far that works for me.
There's nothing wrong with finding a role model you just need to be clear on the variables; Arnold may be a good role model if you want to become a pro bodybuilder and you have a similar body type, he's not if that's not your goal or your starting point.
Thanks, you're definitely right on the points you make and surely this area is too complicated to provide "works for everyone" advise though I've tried to slap a disclaimer for it.
Bulking vs cutting is too much for someone amateur/starting out, I just moderate my fat with cardio and proceed with normal workouts. There are guys doing it for 4 years in my gym, if someone asked if they weight lift or are just fat I'd have a 50% chance to pick the right answer - I think most guys just bulk all the time ignoring cardio whatsoever, minority (pro/competition ready) do it right with cut/bulk phases, but I choose this middle ground for now.
I'll refrain from giving fitness advise in the future as there are indeed too many unknowns for someone reading it at the other end of the cable.
My advise for anyone considering amateur body building and workouts (I'm not pro, take it with a grain of salt and see what works best for you):
* find a training partner, you need someone to spot bench presses anyway
* find a 4 day workout program, going to the gym everyday is damaging as your muscles need time to recover. 3 day weekly workout should be a bare minimum if you want results.
* stay there for an hour on average, including your warmup. I recommend 10-15 mins of steady pace on treadmill for your warmup, some stretching afterwards. Running will control your fat growth and cardio in general will increase your stamina and overall good feel. 30-50s breaks between repetitions - stay in the zone, don't let the muscles to cool down and don't waste time chatting with training buddies.
* Start with small weights, lots of newbies feel ashamed to put too little weight but nobody really cares. Too much weight will damage you at worst, slow your progress at best.
* The only supplements you should buy are whey protein, creatine and vitamins - that's all you need and that's all that worked for me or my friends, everything else is money wasting.
Keep on doing that and you will see results after 2-3 months, then results itself will be enough to motivate you not to quit.