New to weight training. Need advice for a weekly routine

[JohnnyO]

I'm 29 years old and have little experience with proper weight training. I'm not looking to start a steroid cycle, rather, I'd like some advice from the pros here of what a weekly routine should look like. I've had gym memberships in the past, but my gains were often canceled out by my heroic intake of beer.

Here's a little about myself:
I'm 29, 5'10", and I weight about 165-170 pounds. I've been riding a bike instead of driving for about 5 years, so I am quite lean. I eat like an average person.

My long term goal would be to put on about 20-25 pounds. The schedule I have these days will allow me to finally get to a gym every day. What I need is a general weekly plan for lifting. I'd like to have a plan of exactly what I'm going to be doing before I start going to the gym again.

If any of you pros would be willing to take the time to link me to a weekly plan, it would be greatly appreciated. I'll be happy to post pictures of my progress.

[|2ogue]

Hi, I'm no pro, but if I were you I'd 1st go to the diet section. Eating like the average person just wont cut it, even with the best workout routine in the world. The best thing you could do for yourself to get yourself started is to swat up as much as poss. Just asking for a routine to be written out for you wont help you that much. You need to know what each exercise is going to be doing for you. Just blindly following what someone else is telling you will only lead to problems for you. Also most people are just going to tell you to use the search button etc. This is your 1st post on here, and your expecting someone to spend half an hr of their time working out a routine for you when they have never met you. I don't mind helping you out all I can, but 1st off you need to learn more about what you are going to be doing. When I started back when I was 19 I used to buy the bb mags and read from cover to cover.
The 1st thing you need to get sorted is diet, as this is the most important. Without proper intake of protien etc, you'll be wasting your time. You'll find lots of examples and posts in the diet thread.
Then have a good read through this thread to get an idea of a routine for yourself.
Then if you have any more questions put them up and myself and other members will help you out.
Good luck.

[JohnnyO]

Thanks for the response.

Diet is something I am actually well studied in. I have two friends who are nutritionalists, and I have what I feel to be a solid plan of action set up for my daily meals. My title is a little misleading. I'm not completely new to weight training, but I haven't done it proper for about 5 years now. For the last couple of months I've been reading up on sites like these, and noting mistakes I made in the past, such as not allowing myself enough rest time, overworking certain muscle groups, focusing too much on things like crunches instead of squats, or thinking two protein shakes will make up for not eating lunch.

These are mistakes I'll be correcting, obviously.

[Windex]

We don't spoon feed here so nobody is going to give you a "weekly plan". Moreover, everyone has different preferences for exercises, and even within exercises people have different preferences (ie - Machine vs. Free Weight and Dumbbell vs. Barbell) so short of copying someone elses exact workout routine there is no one size fit all training. You can pretty much youtube any exercise or lift and there will be a personal trainer showing you how to do it. In addition, beyond there being 101 possibilities for training, there is different schools of thought. Some people train large muscle groups once a week, twice a week, etc. Maybe you're interested in a 5x5 for strength training then build mass later. If you say you eat like an average person, the average person these days is actually relatively unhealthy. Obesity is a huge problem in North America. Given your stats, I don't think you meet this criteria. However, in order to gain weight, your going to have to get your diet in line. In addition nutrition =/= bodybuilding. Don't get me wrong. nutritionists are very intelligent people and some offer great bodybuilding advice but the bulk of them will direct you more of a "healthy lifestyle" mentality. A personal trainer may be more beneficial in terms of dieting paired with muscle mass.

Basically, everything starts with your eating. If you can't eat properly you will inevitably plateau in a short period of time because your inadequately supplying your body with nutrients. I strongly recommend to visit the diet section of this forum and post what a typical day would look like for you in terms of eating. Most people who come on the forums saying the eat clean end up having a rather poor diet from a bodybuilding perspective (myself included when I first started). It may be a rude awakening for you. Conversely, it may be as simple as changing a few food choices.

Once your diet is overlooked and analyzed, spend some time coming up with a workout routine you think may be successful towards your goals. If you can put the time in to creating something, people will be more than happy tweaking and improving it for you.

[BoxerTricks07]

Also depends on what your trying to achieve mate.

[JohnnyO]

We don't spoon feed here so nobody is going to give you a "weekly plan". Moreover, everyone has different preferences for exercises, and even within exercises people have different preferences (ie - Machine vs. Free Weight and Dumbbell vs. Barbell) so short of copying someone elses exact workout routine there is no one size fit all training. You can pretty much youtube any exercise or lift and there will be a personal trainer showing you how to do it. In addition, beyond there being 101 possibilities for training, there is different schools of thought. Some people train large muscle groups once a week, twice a week, etc. Maybe you're interested in a 5x5 for strength training then build mass later. If you say you eat like an average person, the average person these days is actually relatively unhealthy. Obesity is a huge problem in North America. Given your stats, I don't think you meet this criteria. However, in order to gain weight, your going to have to get your diet in line. In addition nutrition =/= bodybuilding. Don't get me wrong. nutritionists are very intelligent people and some offer great bodybuilding advice but the bulk of them will direct you more of a "healthy lifestyle" mentality. A personal trainer may be more beneficial in terms of dieting paired with muscle mass.

Basically, everything starts with your eating. If you can't eat properly you will inevitably plateau in a short period of time because your inadequately supplying your body with nutrients. I strongly recommend to visit the diet section of this forum and post what a typical day would look like for you in terms of eating. Most people who come on the forums saying the eat clean end up having a rather poor diet from a bodybuilding perspective (myself included when I first started). It may be a rude awakening for you. Conversely, it may be as simple as changing a few food choices.

Once your diet is overlooked and analyzed, spend some time coming up with a workout routine you think may be successful towards your goals. If you can put the time in to creating something, people will be more than happy tweaking and improving it for you.

Solid advice mate. I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

[JohnnyO]

Also depends on what your trying to achieve mate.

My goal is to put on 20 to 25 pounds over the next year or two. I'm not in any rush. I've been up around 190 before, but my eating habits during that time were not as clean as they could have been.

[SlimmerMe]

Welcome Johnny.....come on over to the Diet question forum! See ya there~

[Jonesyy]

You can probably put on the 20-25lbs of muscle easily and in a relatively short space of time without touching steroids and just jacking up your diet. Especially if you are new to weight training.