A brief backstory.

For a skinny fat guy of 165ish lbs at 5’10, what is the best way to start? I occasionally do calisthenics to pass the fitness tests at my job but other than that I sit on my butt in front of a screen eating junk food. The only tangible asset to my “diet” is that I frequently drink water instead of carbonated drinks. A few years ago I used to work out three days a week adhering to Rippletoe’s Starting Strength plan but I frequently plateaued due to a poor diet. After my workout partner got hospitalized, I lost motivation and everything fell by the wayside.

At this point in my life, my primary goal is to exercise for strength and health, with aesthetics as a secondary consideration. What programs do you recommend? Any books on nutrition you swear by? I have considered trying intermminent fasting. Would it be possible for me to implement jogging, at the very least once a week? I hope for this to be a new hobby with tangible returns.

Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated.

You just need the ‘f~~~ it’ moment …. then all will fall in place.

I would recommend you incorporating free weights in your new routine.

Diet and sleep are just as important.

You just go and start doing.

Eat Stop Eat- I’d say this was one of the very first books (at least as far as I’m aware of) that delved into intermittent fasting. Very straight-forward in both his explanation of the research and his recommendations. The ultimate take-away here is that one only really needs one or two 24 hour fasts a week.

How Much Protein?- Tackling the infamous question in fitness. Also a good read; I’ll save you the time and say the appropriate range is about 60-120g a day based on level of experience (beginners need more, then taper off a bit), height (taller you are, the more you’ll need), weight (interestingly, the more muscle you have/the closer you are to your genetic potential, the less you need), age (younger trainers need more), amount of training (more training means more protein) and gender (men consume more than women).

Flat Belly Forever- Don’t care for the name of this one, but it’s about the importance of healthy gut bacteria and how to cultivate it. Basically, the key guidelines here are to have a more plant-heavy diet incorporating the protein recommendations from How Much Protein? and to fast intermittently.

As for working out, I’m the opposite of you (aesthetics are my first priority with strength being a close second), so I don’t know what to tell you other than to stick with the compound lifts (rows, pullups/downs, dips, bench, shoulder press, deadlifts, squats) with maybe 1 or 2 isolation lifts to round out your physique. I will say this, though: The two biggest mistakes I see working at the gym are people who put too much on their plate and don’t give themselves enough time to rest (3-4 hours a night, 5-7 times a week) and people who injure themselves by not learning and executing proper form. If you can, find a proper teacher because the powerlifts are very technical. Hope that helped in some way, shape, or form. Experienced has a lot of gym knowledge, so hopefully he’ll chip in here as well.

EDIT: Oh, yeah! As ILiveAgain said, make sure you are getting enough rest! I see people abusing pre-workout supplements all the time to try to make up for lack of sleep, but there is no substitute for the real thing!

As for programs i do 2 days of chin-ups and pull-ups a week and 2 days of dips a week.If you want strength keep the reps between 5-12 (or maybe even 10) if it gets too easy add more weight.Rinse and repeat.You should also know that if you do this ,your body won’t really look all that impressive but you’ll get strong as f~~~.

Also with the exercise just start light, if you push it too hard to begin with you will wreck yourself and be too sore or even sick the next day and end up losing momentum before it even picks up. I had this happen to me a few years back, did a session with a personal trainer who just flogged me, I wasn’t used to it and ended up with the flu which stayed with me for the next 2 weeks.

So work up to it slowly, just 20-30 mins a day of even brisk walking and some weight training.

Key here is at the gym, between sets, relax, clear your brain, then visualize getting all the reps ahead of time and then when the time comes to push, push, as though your very life depended on it. As Karolyi said, “the body is a reluctant medium.” But it is a medium. At the gym, you must convince it to grow in no uncertain terms.  You know the next set is going to kill you, but you blank that out of your mind. You have carefully stretched, you have thoroughly warmed up with lighter weights on this movement, you know to never hitch your breath…… you can do this many reps, you will do this many reps, and you do them. Rest, wind up, execute. Say to yourself mentally that you have gotten the rest, you’ve eaten the nourishment, you’ve paid the gym dues, you came here today, all this stuff!!!To Get One more rep minimum compared to last workout, in this movement in this set. Start bringing a log and writing down every rep. So you can refer to this.

One resource that’s priceless is the shear quality and quantity of videos about all this on youtube. STUDY what the expert information is out there. Beware that not all are experts, you should take what I’m saying here with a grain or bag of salt. Ask men[a guy’s shredded, ask how. A guy’s got freaky calves, ask how.]at the gym specific questions respectfully and 10 out of 10 will be more than happy to help you, after the set, and sometimes after that particular bodypart. If YOU write down the points. or even listen earnestly.

When shopping for food, “is this exactly what should be bought considering all the effing pain you put yourself through at the gym?”

DO limit the volume of your workout. IT’s been said that overtraining is the scourge,  it’s true. Don’t add and add exercises. And don’t swap around exercises too often.

Ironically, think of specific exercises the way gold diggers think o’ men,  use the eff out of them for all the gains you can extract and then dump them once you’ve got a better one lined up as the replacement.

At gym…focus on your workout.  At grocers focus on the right food.  At career, focus on career. At times between, focus on relaxing and enjoying life.

Study what you want, different workouts give different results, bulky, cut, strength, endurance, do you want to train towards something specific?

Have you made a goal? Have you identified your weaknesses so that you can fix them? Do you have any injuries to consider? Are you mentally ready?

Bodybuilding.com’s MFT28 made a definite change in my life, it is free, and it is quite advanced. I modified it a bit, skipping the high rep night routines in favour of more cardio and cutting wood.

I failed many many times before I succeeded, it was hard, punishing. Failure is the path to success. Best of luck in your physical goals brother.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/greg-plitts-mft28-day-28-trust-yourself.html