Hey everyone, i am new here so i am not to sure if this is where i should be asking stuff but anyway...

Well i am 18, and i am wanting to start gym. Get nice and toned and increase my fitness.

I have read up on most topics, and it appears that diet plays a VERY important part in training.

Now it seems i need to do these exercises acording to "mreik" awesome post

* Quad/Glute Push Movement
* Ham Pull Exercise
* A Horizontal Press (Upper)
* A Horizontal Pull (Upper)
* Vertical Pull (Upper)
* Vertical Press (Upper)
* Abdominal/Forearm/Calf Movements

I have no idea what the verticle and horizontal moves are. Are they for my chest? Like a chest press or something?
I will be at a gym which is fully equipted, can i do all my exercises on machines that will be there?

So basicly im asking
what sort of exercises/diet should i be looking at to get into shape, nice and toned
Should i Cut or Bulk?
And what is "HIIT"

At the moment i am 160lbs at 5"7 (174cm)

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated, i hope to start going to gym within this week.

Thanks in advance

Welcome, you'll find a ton of useful information here.

A horizontal push is a bench press or a variation of the bench press like incline or decline bench. A horizontal pull is a back exercise such as a cable row or bent over row.

Vertical means up, over your head. A vertical push such as dumbbell shoulder presses or military press works the shoulders. Vertical pull = lat pull downs, chin-ups and pullups.

Personally, I think a good routine following this guideline is Squat, Deadlift, Bench Press, Bent over row, Military Press, and Pullups. And, if you have time, you can do some isolation exercises (like curls, tricep work, and calves) but the main focus should be those 6 compound movements. Do this 3 times a week with a day of rest inbetween (mon. wed. fri. for example).

You'll be better off using freeweights that you would with machines because freeweights will also help to develop stronger joints and smaller stabilizing muscles. However, considering that your just getting started, it might help you to get comfortable with the movements.

Whether you should cut or bulk first depends on your goals. Most likely, you'd want to bulk first but let us know what your goals are and we'll be able to give a better answer.

HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. Basically, you'll sprint flat out for a minute, then rest a bit, then sprint again, and so on... The reason for this is that by running intensely, you'll burn more fat in a shorter amount of time than you would by jogging several miles.

Hope this answers some of your questions. Don't hesitate to post more questions, this forum is full of people that know what they are doing and are happy to help others.

Thanks for the warm welcome evan, appreciate it!
Thanks again for clearing up those questions about HIIT and about the exercises to!

What did you mean by the free weights?

Well my goals would be to have a "nice" body, like toned and muscular i guess. (not trying to be vain, just dont know any other terms on how to explain it!) And for that i guess i would need to lower my body fat?

Strength is not overly important but would be a nice addition.

Doing those exercises 3 times a week, what sort of gains should i be seeing?
My mind is very secluded because generally most guys have the big biceps, chest and abs, and that is what i want.
I am sort of ignoring other factors ya know.

EDIT: I also have creatine, should i use it? Also what is "deadlift"?
Also when people say 3x12x70% what does that mean to?
Also should i incorporate alot of cardio into my exercises? or should i do one thing at a time, ie Bulk then Cut. or Bulk AND cut.

Cheers!

Bump.
Btw i did the navy calculation for my body fat %

BBLex - Calculator: Bodyfat calculation by US Navy formula

I ended up with 20%, which to me does sound about right.

I am hoping to drop to about 10% body fat with some extra muscle

So do i bulk up first?
Some tips and help would be great as i wanna hit the gym properley on monday.

Free weights are dumbbells and barbells for the most part. Basically anything where you need to pick up the weight and do the movement yourself.

Whatever you do, do not ignore muscle groups for 2 reasons: 1- your body grows better as a whole and 2- you'd create imbalaces which would make you more likely to be injured.

Are you completely new to weight lifting? In that case, you may be able to add some muscle while cutting bodyfat. For the most part, you cannot bulk and cut at the same time as bulking requires that you eat a lot of calories and cutting requires the opposite. However, in your case, your muscles will respond and build up a little even while your cutting. From what you said, I think your primary goal is to lose weight. In that case, a cut might be the way to go. If your BF% is around 20%, you don't want to make that higher.

Go to the nutrition forum and read the nutrition 101 sticky. That will give you a better idea as to how much you should be eating.

As far as creatine goes, I don't know how effective it is, maybe someone else on the forum can answer that.

If you have any questions about how to do a particular exercise, do a google search and you should be able to find videos that will show you how to do the exercise.

3x12x70% means 3 sets of 12 repetitions at 70% of your 1 repetition maximum weight.

Cheers for all that info mate!!

I am basicly new to weight lifting, i did go to gym for a month or two back when i was 16... 2 years ago, i havn't really done any "proper" exercise for a while so i guess you can assume it will be all new to me.

So you think i should cutt and not bulk?

What should i cut down to?

Bah so confused!

How far you want to cut depends on your goals. This is more of a I'll know it when I see it type thing. Just keep cutting until your satisfied.

If at that point you want to build some more muscle, start bulking.

What are your plans regarding cardio and HIIT?

Plans to do with cardio and HIIT i havn't made any

Can you give me some suggestions maybe?

So you definatley think i should start to cut, alright.

Should i do any Full body work outs at all then?

Judging by your photo I would suggest that you BULK. Cutting from where you are will get you a skinnier version of yourself. You need to start building some muscle, and considering you are a beginner you will probably lose fat anyway.

I would recommend a FBW 3xper week consisting of compound exercises only. Try to have 5-6 compounds per session.

5-6 compounds per session? what does that mean?

Ive got the exercises in mind what i need to do..just need to get all the terminology right and get a good diet.

I did gym a while back when i was around 16, and it was great, i felt awesome and all the other stuff you get out of it. And id id put on muscle, strength and started to tone up.

All i really did was dumb bells, chest press, lat, crunchs, leg press and cardio for around 40minutes. I wouldn't say light cardio but it wasn't full intensity.

Do you think i should have a similar program or just do a Full body work out?
should i incorperate cardio into my routine?

Cheers!

Compounds are types of exercise that require the use of more than one joint movement. I.e. squats, deadliftfs, bench press, military press, and the list goes on. Isolation exercises only require one joint i.e. bicep curl etc.

Have a read through the weightlifting 101 thread....I am sure this and more is all explained there.

You may have lifted before but you are still considered new. You body has not done this type of exercise in a long time.

If you want to add cardio then go for your life. Just make sure you are eating enough to compensate for it.

Try to put together two different workouts that you can alternate between going off the guidlines set by mreik. Do squats and deadlifts on different days as they are extremely taxing on the body. Also, try to partner up opposing movements i.e. bench press with bent over row, miltary press with lat pulldown etc etc

Hope this isnt too confusing.

Just a update on how im going.

Ive been to the gym 3x this week doing FBW's.

I go in, do my warm up cardio.
do these exercises

3x10 Lat pulldown
3x10 Barbell Millitary Press
3x10 Chest/Bench Press
3x10 Shoulder Press
3x10 Leg Press
3x10 Barbell Curl
3x10 Lunges

I am worried about my diet, i stick to mainly fruits/veg/tuna/chicken/bread but on the odd occasion do sneak the odd choccy or chips.
I need substitutes for these snacks.

But yea how is my workout looking?

i dont know whether you can get geo bars in Au, but they are made by tradecraft and the chocolate and raisin ones have 1.9g fat, 28.6g carbs and 1.6g protein making them reasonably low fat. however, they are a cereal based bar and dont give you the same texture as a real choc. if you crave crisp crunch things, try air popped pop corn, flavoured with whatever... i dunno... or if its sweet and crispy then i always go straight for the Frosties- youd be amazed how large a 100kcal portion is.

i know what u mean tho, those protein this and no carb that snacks aren't really good nuf- nothing can replace the real thing!

sorry i didn't give u much help

I would swap out the shoulder press with a row of some kind.

Also, I would swap leg press for sqauts and get rid of barbell curls alltogether. You may also want to swap squats and deadlifts each workout.

Mix up your rep/set/rest schemes each workout as well. I.e. 5x5 with 90 sec's rest, 3x10 60 secs rest etc

Other than that it looks pretty good.

Where are your deadlifts? JTM is right, you may want to alternate Squats and Deadlifts, but that will depend on how you respond to the routine.

Also, don't forget to start your workout with your biggest lifts like Squats and Deadlifts, then go on to your smaller lifts.