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Hi,

Think I'm right in saying there are a few health/fitness geeks in the DC crowd. Could any one of you point me in the direction of some good online forums for that sort of thing. One with a decent level of traffic and good content on nutrition and weight training advice is what I'm after.


Thanks

TwoPlusTwo has a Health and Fitness Forum: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/85/health-fitness/

The community is mostly focused on strength, as opposed to aesthetics like bodybuilder stuff. But the people who know what they are talking about really know their stuff and you should get a good amount of help.

Strengthcoach.com is by far the best imo. It costs like 10 bucks a month though.

bodybuilding.com
but be prepared, theres alot of trolls on the forums.
but i have gotten some decent advice.
lots of traffic.

Anabolic Minds is good... lots of great info to bulk up

http://anabolicminds.com/forum/bulking/

I've tried muscletalk.co.uk forums and received great nutrition advice. The members are generally very friendly & helpful.

What are your weight training and nutrition goals?

Biggest forum obv. bodybuilding.com

But in my opinion best articles can be found on leangains.com Just check results and testimonials - If am not mistaken this guy also trains Phil Galfond.

Thanks for the suggestions so far guys.

What are your weight training and nutrition goals?

Aside from obviously just increasing my strength, I'd like to bulk up a fair bit (couple of stone in eventual muscle gains if possible) as I feel I'm a bit underweight for my height (I'm 6'5'' and 190lbs). I've always felt slightly frustrated in the past trying to gain mass given my natural bodytype seems to be towards the ectomorphic end of the spectrum and I just never seem to put on weight but maybe I just haven't been committed enough for long enough.

Nutrition wise - whatever will help me achieve that sort of mass increase. And I'm aiming to eat healthier generally - I'm quite bad at eating a lot of junk food and sugary crap.

Thanks for the suggestions so far guys.




Aside from obviously just increasing my strength, I'd like to bulk up a fair bit (couple of stone in eventual muscle gains if possible) as I feel I'm a bit underweight for my height (I'm 6'5'' and 190lbs). I've always felt slightly frustrated in the past trying to gain mass given my natural bodytype seems to be towards the ectomorphic end of the spectrum and I just never seem to put on weight but maybe I just haven't been committed enough for long enough.

Nutrition wise - whatever will help me achieve that sort of mass increase. And I'm aiming to eat healthier generally - I'm quite bad at eating a lot of junk food and sugary crap.

It's pretty damn hard for a hard gainer ectomorph to put mass on and eat healthy at the same time.

http://www.higher-faster-sports.com/skinnyfatecto2.html

http://www.higher-faster-sports.com/bodybuilding.html

Lol you wont gain a couple of stone in muscle my friend sorry. Think of a pound(lb) of steak (pure flesh) and put one of those on your bicep. That is a lot of muscle. Now imagine putting 28lbs of steak on random bits of your body. Thats huge man, 5lb makes a huge difference.

I would probably not listen to many (any?) people who don't tell you to do something like the Starting Strength program.

Get Mark Rippetoe's "Starting Strength" (edition 3): http://aasgaardco.com/
Also get the DVD. That book/DVD will help you learn how to do all the lifts properly.

Your key lifts are going to be: Squat, Deadlift, Overhead Press, Bench, and Power Cleans. The books/DVDs go into really good detail.

The program calls for 3 days a week (like Monday, Wednesday, Friday). You will have an A day and a B day - week 1 you will do A, B, A, week 2 you will do B, A, B, and so on.

Day A will be: Squat / Bench / Deadlift
Day B will be: Squat / Press / Power Clean

each exercise will be 3 sets of 5 reps, except for power clean and deadlift which are 1 set of 5.

You will increase by 5-10lbs in every lift each time you go to the gym. If you eat enough you will progress very quickly and get to lifting some pretty heavy weights.

In the beginning your lift #s will go up super fast, mostly because you are getting better at form - after a few weeks you'll need to really increase your food intake in order to keep up.



I started SS maybe 1.5 years ago, I'm 5'9" and I weighed ~145lbs. I started squatting 85lbs. Within 4-5 months I was around 180lbs and squatting ~270 3x5. All my other lifts went up a ton as well.
Unfortunately I stopped going to the gym but I'm starting up again and still on SS until I milk the linear progression for all it's worth.

I throw in chin-ups and some pushups/dips some days for accessory stuff.

SS is widely regarded as the best method for a skinny/weak person to get a foundation of weight/strength from which to build on.
Avoid anyone who tells you to start doing some kind of Bodybuilder split routine - don't worry tooooo much about diet, try to eat healty but make sure you get enough calories in even if you have to go shove a few cheeseburgers down your throat.

It's pretty damn hard for a hard gainer ectomorph to put mass on and eat healthy at the same time.

Thanks for the links AGtJ - will give them a read. I was planning to take some weight gain supplements to try and help (not sure how 'healthy' they are, but they've got to be better than cake/big macs) as well as add some pasta meals and whatnot.

Lol you wont gain a couple of stone in muscle my friend sorry. Think of a pound(lb) of steak (pure flesh) and put one of those on your bicep. That is a lot of muscle. Now imagine putting 28lbs of steak on random bits of your body. Thats huge man, 5lb makes a huge difference.

Haha. Well I guess what I had in mind was eventually being nearer 15st and muscular/lean with it, unless that's a distinction without a difference. I'm really not sure what's attainable for me over a 2 year+ period even with a serious regimen, given that I am a naturally skinny guy. This is what I'm going to try and research through forums and the various articles out there.

posting just to bookmark

bodybuilding.com
but be prepared, theres alot of trolls on the forums.
but i have gotten some decent advice.
lots of traffic.

I second this and everything said below the website link is true. Look through the stickies in the forums though there is a ton of extremely good information on that site and many very well know and knowledgeable people. Just got to wade through some BS on occasion.

As for starting strength as previously mentioned in this thread; I am on it now and it is working very well. I would recommend it and it gets results. Bodybuilding has a sticky for an FAQ breakdown of the program.

Try these sites as well, all these people do their homework no BS or "broscience" as it is referred to in some cases

Lyle McDonald: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/
Alan Arragon: http://www.alanaragonblog.com/
Martin Berkhan: http://www.leangains.com/

I am sure there are more but those are the 3 I have discovered so far that I get a lot of good information from.