List of weight training programs--and a question for Melkor

Hello,

I've been reading through a bunch of posts about weight training and have come across several different programs endorsed by different people.  For example, Rippetoe, Real Fast Fat Loss, etc.

Would it be possible for someone knowledgeable to gather all these links in one post?

Or if this already exists, can you point me in the right direction?

 

Also, Melkor, I read something you wrote in another post and was wondering if you could clarify for me:

 "Anyway - if you're lifting weights while in a calorie deficit you most likekly won't be gaining much of anything in the way of muscle, only preserving what you've already got. Since your legs and gluteus are the largest muscles in your body you want to hang on to those; they burn a lot of calories for you. Even if your body doesn't want to touch the fat stored there before it's used up everything else ;)"

I have a deficit because I would like to lose weight...but I have also just started weight training and want to gain muscle.  Is this not possible?

My problem with only preserving what I have is that I don't really have much! ;)

my trainer says losing weight and gaining muscle is hard becaue they are two opposite things.  most body builders go through stages of gaining weight and lifting without a calorie deficite for a few months and then go through a phase of 'cutting' is losing the fat and showing the muscle.  obviously when you are gaining muscle though you're bound to lose fat as well (just from my own experience).  also when you have a calorie defecit your muscles don't get the building blocks they need to grow.  that's just what i've been told and hopefully someone else can explain a little better.

Yes, that would be a great pinned post for the top of the fitness forum.

it's going to be very hard for you to put on muscle 1)because you are a female and 2) because you have a calorie deficit. the general rule for muscle building (for me anyways) is to eat 500 calories over maintanence, but again that is me. my advice would be to experiment and see what works. for example i am eating 3,000-3,500 calories a day with a macro ratio of 40% carbs, 40% protein, and 20% healthy fats. i believe there is a female section over at bodybuilding.com. you might want to head over there and see what some people are doing.

 Beginners to weight training frequently do add a few pounds of muscle even in a calorie deficit in the first few weeks/months of working out since it's such an unfamiliar stimuli to your body.

 And certain people with very good muscle building genes can do that sort of thing on a regular basis even when their newbie days are long behind them - Duke and Jasontarin, for example - so if you're lucky you can keep on making gains that other people can only dream of.

 But for the rest of us, all the literature does show that your body only goes into positive nitrogen balance (i.e. build muscle) in a calorie surplus. Doesn't have to be a huge one since muscle gain is a long, slow process, but people who aren't Jasontarin do need a calorie surplus to build appreciable muscle. If you're in a calorie balance you will also gain some, but at a much slower rate than a mild surplus will give you - depending on your goals this can be a good or a bad thing.

 Oh, and let's see:
Exrx.net - demonstrations of pretty much all of the common ways to train specific muscles. And their instructions for developing your own workout helps immensely when writing your own programs, to make sure you haven't left anything out.

 For pre-written programs, there's Sean10mm's "stripped" 5x5 routine - personally I lean more in the Mark Rippetoe Starting Strength direction for beginners to lifting, but there's only minor differences between them.

 There's also a whole host of programs by Paige Waehner, About.com's exercise guide - check out Total Body for Beginners as one place to start with bodyweight-based resistance if you're new to working out; though I recommend graduating to at least Total Body for Beginners 2 in about 4 weeks of following the basic program.

 Alternately, there's 20 for 12: Back to Basics by Olesya Novik which is also a very good beginner program though constructed around slightly different principles than the others.

 And of course there's Krista's kompleat kompendium of workout routines from Stumptuous.com.

 (Edited to add: Also, a lot of posters here really like The New Rules of Lifting for Women - and if Kethnaab's interpretation isn't enough, check out the actual Starting Strength book while you're at it. Neither of them are more than 'useful', it's handy to have a book but it's nothing you can't learn from reading the web sites I've linked to.)

 Real Fast Fat Loss worked pretty well for the recommended 6-8 weeks, and is an interesting change of pace from any of the other programs; it's fairly brutal though and unneccesarily harsh for a beginner to strength training, so I would not start off with this routine if you've never trained with weights before.

 Spend some time looking at your options and thinking about what will suit your goals - each of these programs have different specific dimensions of strength and fitness they're better suited for.

 Theyll all do something - but that something may not be what's important to you right now; so think about how each would fit into your personal goals.

huh, interesting, I guess I've always been way off track trying to lose fat.   Time to start eating more! :)

Thanks so much for all the links, it's definitely very helpful to have them all together. 

@ melkor: I am doing the 2 day split workout [upper/lower] and was wondering if there's any of those exercises you would recommend I use a barbell as opposed to dumbbells. Right now I only use dumbbells--is that OK, or no?

Dumbbells will in fact engage more stabilizer muscles than a barbell, and you will train both sides of your body equally; something you're not assured of with a barbell.

 The reson Rippetoe and the others emphasise barbell training over dumbbell training for beginners is that dumbells may be too difficult for someone just starting out - it's hard enough to control the barbell without adding the challenge of simultaneously moving two weights in a coordinated manner.

 Due to the 'wobble factor' and where the strain is placed on your body there's a limit to how much weight you can safely load on dumbbells for squats or the like, but aside from training lower-body maximal strength dumbbell training with a weight that's challenging to you is potentially of greater benefit than barbell training assuming you aren't having trouble with controlling the movement. Certainly, using dumbbells for bench presses is much safer than using the barbell if you don't have a power cage or squat rack available.

Thank you for listing all those sites... 

I've been trying to get a weight training program going, but I really had no clue what to do, and that was exactly what I needed.

Also, I'm really glad I kept lurking around the fitness forum; I was one of the folks who was worried about weight training because in the past I've gotten kinda bulky (I know what people say about women not being able to, yadda, yadda... but I did!), and I figured out (through my lurking) that it was because I was eating waaaay too many calories at the time. (It was my "I can eat what I want so long as I work out" phase.)  I'm hoping that with a deficit and a good strength training program, I'll be able to amp up my weight loss.

Thanks again! :-)

Going back to my other question about gaining muscle with a calorie deficit:

Would it work to have a minor calorie surplus just on the days I lift?  And have a small deficit on other days when I do a short cardio workout?

If I'm only lifting two days a week, surely I wouldn't have to eat a surplus everyday. or would I? 

Original Post by melkor:

Dumbbells will in fact engage more stabilizer muscles than a barbell, and you will train both sides of your body equally; something you're not assured of with a barbell.

 The reson Rippetoe and the others emphasise barbell training over dumbbell training for beginners is that dumbells may be too difficult for someone just starting out - it's hard enough to control the barbell without adding the challenge of simultaneously moving two weights in a coordinated manner.

 Due to the 'wobble factor' and where the strain is placed on your body there's a limit to how much weight you can safely load on dumbbells for squats or the like, but aside from training lower-body maximal strength dumbbell training with a weight that's challenging to you is potentially of greater benefit than barbell training assuming you aren't having trouble with controlling the movement. Certainly, using dumbbells for bench presses is much safer than using the barbell if you don't have a power cage or squat rack available.

 I agree with Melkor on this one. For the last two weeks I switched the barbell portions of my routines with their dumbbell equivalents and now since switching back to barbell this week I've increased the load by about 20% from the start for most exercises. It's pretty good to shake things up once in awhile.

I definitely believe the main emphasis for dumbbell training is "the challenge of simultaneously moving two weights in a coordinated manner". Meaning, training yourself and your body to really start focusing on engaging your various muscles in the right order at the right time aka Form. Learning to carry over the training from using those stabilizers in dumbbell exercises to the barbell can really help!

We need a sticky thread for all these good links and insight from melkor and others. Kind of like a Starter Sticky Guide of where to find good beginner, intermediate, and advanced info for research.

Original Post by jenniferfreeman1:

Going back to my other question about gaining muscle with a calorie deficit:

Would it work to have a minor calorie surplus just on the days I lift?  And have a small deficit on other days when I do a short cardio workout?

If I'm only lifting two days a week, surely I wouldn't have to eat a surplus everyday. or would I? 

The muscle is actually build when your resting, not when your lifting, so unfortunalty yes, you need a calorie surplus pretty much every day. 

Also, here are a couple of good lifting routines in addition to what Melkor already posted.

Home Grown Muscle: http://www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do?site =MensHealth&channel=fitness&category= workout.plans&conitem=9bd999edbbbd201099e dbbbd2010cfe793cd____

Chad Waterbury's Total Body Training: http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=50803 1

I try to keep a calorie deficit because I want to lose some fat - but when I first started doing weights I lost inches rather quickly.  I didn't lose any weight but I guess I just firmed/ built up what muscle I did have under that fat. 

I guess I need to start looking into the "cutting" phase of weight lifting to show off my muscles I'm sure I have but just can't see just yet!!