I'm in the health and wellness business and you hear every type of health tip and broscience daily on the gym floor. What you said is a good starting point for many people who just want to start out. I have a bit of supplemental information to help those on the journey as well.
MACROS:
What's a macro? Macro is short for 'macronutrient' and represents carbohydrates, fats, and protein. You mentioned to "eat enough" but you need to eat enough of the RIGHT calories. You do this by determining your macronutrient amounts. Each macro has a set amount of calories associated with it. 1 gram of carbs and 1 gram of protein each have 4 calories associated with them while 1 gram of fat has 9 calories. A good resource to calculate your macros for your fitness goals is Calculate Your Macronutrients Intake!. From there, you multiply your macros by the calories associated with them to get your calorie goal. A good tool to track your macro/calorie intake is MyFitnessPal. It is an app you can put on your smartphone. You can build your recipes for your meal planning inside the app so it is easy to just click your meal and track the calorie intake from it. It also as the option to scan barcodes on food to see the nutritional information per serving and you are able to save it in the app as well. It is an AMAZING tool to tackle the diet portion of reaching your fitness goals.
We also want to make sure we are drinking enough water to hydrate our bodies. You should drink your body weight in oz a day, or about a little less than a gallon a day. It sounds like a lot up front, but if you are drinking periodically throughout the day, it is doable and beneficial. Just be prepared to piss a lot when you are first starting out. Your urine should be clear to slightly yellow. If you are pissing too much, you are pissing away nutrients. Vary your intake so that your urine is clear, and you are using the restroom just a few times a day, and not every hour!
EXERCISE:
When it comes to what or how to exercise, and when it comes to building strength AND mass, the barbell is king! If you are new to weight lifting, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE stay away from isolation machines at first. So many people want to focus on their "beach" muscles (biceps, abs, etc). What this will do is cause muscle imbalances and weaknesses in your body that can lead to injuries down the road and restrict your mobility. The best way to explain why is the Big Rocks, Little Rocks example.
Imagine your body as the mason jar and filling it would represent good health, strength, and muscle mass. We have big rocks, little, rocks, and sand to help us fill this jar. Think of the sand as a well balanced diet that fits your macro/health goals, the little rocks as isolation machines, and big rocks as big compound lifting movements. If we fill the jar with sand first, then the little rocks, then the big rocks, you have gaps left in the jar, BUT if we first fill it with big rocks, then the small rocks to fill the gaps in the big rocks, then the rest of the spaces with sand, we have a nice full jar!
Targeting specific muscle groups like biceps or abs is like filling your jar with little rocks first. You will create imbalances with your triceps, lower back, and lower body because you are targeting one muscle group only. INSTEAD, big, compound lifting movements such as bench, squat (THE KING), deadlift (THE QUEEN), overhead press, rows, and cleans activate and utilize SEVERAL muscle groups together to perform the movement. Not only are you working more muscles, but they are working together with all the smaller muscles and tissues to build a solid machine. The best book I have found for working with barbell exercise is "Starting Strength" by Mark Ripptoe.
When we are starting out, a lot of us are starting from a sedentary lifestyle with a lot of sitting and hunched backs. With this a lot of people will have tightness and weakness in their posterior chain (calfs, hams, glutes) and shoulders. A good way to test for where you have weaknesses and imbalances is to do a FMS or functional Movement Screening. Now, where isolation machines comes into play is just like the example of the rocks above. We use isolation work to FIX our imbalances, and supplement the compound movements.
WARNING! If you are starting to do big compound lifts, such as squat, but have weaknesses in your posterior chain and glutes, your form will be terrible and can lead to injuries in your lower back. So what are we to do then?
Well, I personally am in this boat. I used to be extremely active in the military, got out and sat on my a$$ for a year. I wanted to get my strength and mass back, but found through an FMS that I have several imbalances and weaknesses in my body that would lead to injury if I were to start trying to throw heavy weights. SO, I decided to focus on bodyweight exercises to work my strengthening and stretch my weak muscles, as well as develop all the smaller muscles and connective tissue by working on my FORM with little weight or body weight alone. I do use isolation machines to target weaker muscle groups such as my hamstrings, and do supplemental exercise to strengthen my back and glutes such as bridging and reverse leg raises. Ultimately what all this is doing is working on my imbalances so that I can start with PERFECT FORM when I move to heavy weighted barbell exercise.
FORM FORM FORM! Form is SOOOOOO IMPORTANT! Put your pride aside, don't focus on weight, or looking impressive in front of others. Weight lifting and exercise is an individual journey. You MUST utilize a weight that you can perform exercises with PERFECT form. If that means you are just using a barbell with no weights (45lbs), then you are doing the barbell with no weights. But here is the kicker... when you start out like this, working on improving imbalances and weaknesses first and focusing on form above performance (weight), you will prevent injuries, be stronger overall, and when it comes to actually putting on the heavy weights, you will be WAY ahead of everyone else just jumping in and lifting for vanity. Your smaller muscles and connective tissues will all be working together, your muscle groups will all be working together, and so you will be way more efficient and safe when you get to the heavy weights.
Once we hit a level of building a solid foundation, and our form is good, we are seeing results, and perhaps starting to plateau, THEN we can start to look into supplementing our foundation with specialized isolation exercises for say bodybuilding, or doing a split routine.
TIME:
When it comes to when and how long to exercise, if you are starting out focusing on building mass and strength, stick to about 3-4 times a week with rest days between. If you want to be active every day, then do a stretching or yoga routine, or a light cardio exercise with stretching.
SUPPLEMENTS:
Supplements are a big area of discussion for many on a fitness journey thanks to such good marketing on their part. The name itself says all you need to do, SUPPLEMENTS. They are there to supplement any potential weaknesses or gaps in your diet. A great diet should give you all the nutrients you need, BUT, if you want to make sure your diet is solid, this is what I suggest.
-Protein powder: protein is one of the harder macros to hit, so supplementing with protein powder is a good idea. I typically mix a protein shake after a workout to deliver the nutrients right at a key window of absorbing what my body needs. I also will mix one to hit my macro goal for the day during a gap in the times I eat throughout the day. It isn't so much that YOU NEED TO DRINK PROTEIN POWDER, its more "when do I need to drink protein powder to hit my macro goal."
-Multivitamin: multivitamins are a great idea to help get the body the nutrients it needs that may be missing from your meals.
-Fish Oil: fish oils are a fantastic source of omega-3 fatty acids which have a plethora of benefits
-Pre-workout: Pre-workout isn't about getting cracked out to crush weights. The best approach to thinking about pre-workout is that it deliver nutrients to your body to help it during the workout. Some benefits to pre-workout are nitric oxide with improves blood flow which gives more oxygen to your muscles and carries away more waste, and several amino acids that help in metabolic processes that build muscle and repair tissue.
Everything else you probably don't need if you are getting a proper diet. BCAAs and Glutamine you will get naturally from food and also from the supplements mentioned above. To check the quality of your supplements, check out Supplement Ratings and Reviews, and to learn more about specific supplements, check out Independent Analysis on Supplements & Nutrition | Examine.com.
Hope this helps you guys!
MACROS:
What's a macro? Macro is short for 'macronutrient' and represents carbohydrates, fats, and protein. You mentioned to "eat enough" but you need to eat enough of the RIGHT calories. You do this by determining your macronutrient amounts. Each macro has a set amount of calories associated with it. 1 gram of carbs and 1 gram of protein each have 4 calories associated with them while 1 gram of fat has 9 calories. A good resource to calculate your macros for your fitness goals is Calculate Your Macronutrients Intake!. From there, you multiply your macros by the calories associated with them to get your calorie goal. A good tool to track your macro/calorie intake is MyFitnessPal. It is an app you can put on your smartphone. You can build your recipes for your meal planning inside the app so it is easy to just click your meal and track the calorie intake from it. It also as the option to scan barcodes on food to see the nutritional information per serving and you are able to save it in the app as well. It is an AMAZING tool to tackle the diet portion of reaching your fitness goals.
We also want to make sure we are drinking enough water to hydrate our bodies. You should drink your body weight in oz a day, or about a little less than a gallon a day. It sounds like a lot up front, but if you are drinking periodically throughout the day, it is doable and beneficial. Just be prepared to piss a lot when you are first starting out. Your urine should be clear to slightly yellow. If you are pissing too much, you are pissing away nutrients. Vary your intake so that your urine is clear, and you are using the restroom just a few times a day, and not every hour!
EXERCISE:
When it comes to what or how to exercise, and when it comes to building strength AND mass, the barbell is king! If you are new to weight lifting, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE stay away from isolation machines at first. So many people want to focus on their "beach" muscles (biceps, abs, etc). What this will do is cause muscle imbalances and weaknesses in your body that can lead to injuries down the road and restrict your mobility. The best way to explain why is the Big Rocks, Little Rocks example.
Imagine your body as the mason jar and filling it would represent good health, strength, and muscle mass. We have big rocks, little, rocks, and sand to help us fill this jar. Think of the sand as a well balanced diet that fits your macro/health goals, the little rocks as isolation machines, and big rocks as big compound lifting movements. If we fill the jar with sand first, then the little rocks, then the big rocks, you have gaps left in the jar, BUT if we first fill it with big rocks, then the small rocks to fill the gaps in the big rocks, then the rest of the spaces with sand, we have a nice full jar!
Targeting specific muscle groups like biceps or abs is like filling your jar with little rocks first. You will create imbalances with your triceps, lower back, and lower body because you are targeting one muscle group only. INSTEAD, big, compound lifting movements such as bench, squat (THE KING), deadlift (THE QUEEN), overhead press, rows, and cleans activate and utilize SEVERAL muscle groups together to perform the movement. Not only are you working more muscles, but they are working together with all the smaller muscles and tissues to build a solid machine. The best book I have found for working with barbell exercise is "Starting Strength" by Mark Ripptoe.
When we are starting out, a lot of us are starting from a sedentary lifestyle with a lot of sitting and hunched backs. With this a lot of people will have tightness and weakness in their posterior chain (calfs, hams, glutes) and shoulders. A good way to test for where you have weaknesses and imbalances is to do a FMS or functional Movement Screening. Now, where isolation machines comes into play is just like the example of the rocks above. We use isolation work to FIX our imbalances, and supplement the compound movements.
WARNING! If you are starting to do big compound lifts, such as squat, but have weaknesses in your posterior chain and glutes, your form will be terrible and can lead to injuries in your lower back. So what are we to do then?
Well, I personally am in this boat. I used to be extremely active in the military, got out and sat on my a$$ for a year. I wanted to get my strength and mass back, but found through an FMS that I have several imbalances and weaknesses in my body that would lead to injury if I were to start trying to throw heavy weights. SO, I decided to focus on bodyweight exercises to work my strengthening and stretch my weak muscles, as well as develop all the smaller muscles and connective tissue by working on my FORM with little weight or body weight alone. I do use isolation machines to target weaker muscle groups such as my hamstrings, and do supplemental exercise to strengthen my back and glutes such as bridging and reverse leg raises. Ultimately what all this is doing is working on my imbalances so that I can start with PERFECT FORM when I move to heavy weighted barbell exercise.
FORM FORM FORM! Form is SOOOOOO IMPORTANT! Put your pride aside, don't focus on weight, or looking impressive in front of others. Weight lifting and exercise is an individual journey. You MUST utilize a weight that you can perform exercises with PERFECT form. If that means you are just using a barbell with no weights (45lbs), then you are doing the barbell with no weights. But here is the kicker... when you start out like this, working on improving imbalances and weaknesses first and focusing on form above performance (weight), you will prevent injuries, be stronger overall, and when it comes to actually putting on the heavy weights, you will be WAY ahead of everyone else just jumping in and lifting for vanity. Your smaller muscles and connective tissues will all be working together, your muscle groups will all be working together, and so you will be way more efficient and safe when you get to the heavy weights.
Once we hit a level of building a solid foundation, and our form is good, we are seeing results, and perhaps starting to plateau, THEN we can start to look into supplementing our foundation with specialized isolation exercises for say bodybuilding, or doing a split routine.
TIME:
When it comes to when and how long to exercise, if you are starting out focusing on building mass and strength, stick to about 3-4 times a week with rest days between. If you want to be active every day, then do a stretching or yoga routine, or a light cardio exercise with stretching.
SUPPLEMENTS:
Supplements are a big area of discussion for many on a fitness journey thanks to such good marketing on their part. The name itself says all you need to do, SUPPLEMENTS. They are there to supplement any potential weaknesses or gaps in your diet. A great diet should give you all the nutrients you need, BUT, if you want to make sure your diet is solid, this is what I suggest.
-Protein powder: protein is one of the harder macros to hit, so supplementing with protein powder is a good idea. I typically mix a protein shake after a workout to deliver the nutrients right at a key window of absorbing what my body needs. I also will mix one to hit my macro goal for the day during a gap in the times I eat throughout the day. It isn't so much that YOU NEED TO DRINK PROTEIN POWDER, its more "when do I need to drink protein powder to hit my macro goal."
-Multivitamin: multivitamins are a great idea to help get the body the nutrients it needs that may be missing from your meals.
-Fish Oil: fish oils are a fantastic source of omega-3 fatty acids which have a plethora of benefits
-Pre-workout: Pre-workout isn't about getting cracked out to crush weights. The best approach to thinking about pre-workout is that it deliver nutrients to your body to help it during the workout. Some benefits to pre-workout are nitric oxide with improves blood flow which gives more oxygen to your muscles and carries away more waste, and several amino acids that help in metabolic processes that build muscle and repair tissue.
Everything else you probably don't need if you are getting a proper diet. BCAAs and Glutamine you will get naturally from food and also from the supplements mentioned above. To check the quality of your supplements, check out Supplement Ratings and Reviews, and to learn more about specific supplements, check out Independent Analysis on Supplements & Nutrition | Examine.com.
Hope this helps you guys!