This page serves as an easy reference guide to lifting. It's basically a condensed form of The Sticky. Check that page for more in depth info.
The basic principle with lifting is that consistency will beat efficiency every time. Your program doesn't have to be the best or most efficient, you just have to be consistent with it. Here's what I recommend as a good basic routine, based on 5/3/1 by Jim Wendler. His book is optional reading; It's not the clearest writing, and some concepts are explained poorly. The basics of 5/3/1 are available in many places online.
Monday | Tuesday | Thursday | Friday |
---|---|---|---|
OHP (Main) | Deadlift (Main) | Bench (Main) | Squat (Main) |
Bench (Secondary) | Squat (Secondary) | OHP (Secondary) | Deadlift (Secondary) |
Lower Accessory | Upper Accessory | Lower Accessory | Upper Accessory |
Cardio sucks and everyone hates it. It's still good to do it. Pick the least boring form that you have access to, and stick with it. Like with lifting, consistency is key over everything else. Work up to at least 30 minutes a day, but work up to it. You should be breathing hard and sweating. After that, you can either increase intensity or increase duration. If a (legitimate) martial art is on the table, go for that. They're great.
Food is also pretty important, and there's more room to experiment here.
You probably already know the basics;
Don't eat slop, cook your meals as often as possible.
Don't fall for stupid memes like carnivore or vegan.
There might be something good with keto, and vegetarian might be okay if you eat plenty of eggs and drink milk.
You should be aiming for around 1 gram of protein per 1 pound of lean body mass.
To calculate lean body mass, See this link.
The "Lean Mass" is the number that you want.
More protein is almost always better, and excess won't go to waste, but there are diminishing returns past that point.
For recipes, check out Based.cooking.
You'll probably find something that sounds good, and you can find the macronutrient profiles just by googling "(Ingredient) macros".
A food scale is very helpful, I recommend buying one.
Meal prep can also be helpful; cook stuff in batches and reheat it throughout the week.
There's plenty of guides on the internet for that kind of thing.
One note is that fasting is something that people should do far more often.
Even at healthy weights, fasting promotes health via autophagy.
If you aren't on medications, then definitely give it a go.
If you are, talk to your doctor.
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