For a person who weighs 59kg, 170 cm and is completely new to weight training and have never lifted weights before, is it a good idea to straightaway begin on the Starting Strength program?

The main goal is to gain weight till 80kg or more and to get bigger in body size.

This post has been edited by BestCurryLaksa: Jun 4 2016, 10:55 AM

https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/371250
to gain weight, you just need to eat more than you need, read this one
https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/3942164

This post has been edited by helven: May 29 2016, 05:02 AM

Short answer yes

Long answer, any beginner program is good for beginner, the basic foundation for mass is increase calorie and protein intake(rule no 1), lift compound movements (rule no2), progressive overload (rule no 3), and adequete rest ( rule no 4).

You can do starting strength, 5/3/1, 5x5 any program out there that you fancy.

Im speaking from experience, that you should probably start lower.
I mean you can, but you will probably get overwhelmed and burn out. (most people, including me )

Start small with 10kg dumbbells first.
Dont rush, give it time.

Make sure your form is perfect, and when you drop sets (cant do perfect form), do lighter weights.
This way is slower, but it is more manageable especially if you have a busy schedule.

For Starting Strength, it's divided into three phases. If start on phase 1, how many weeks should I do Phase 1 before moving on to phase 2?

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/novice-lif...start-here.html

Yeah I've read that already from the link you posted, and also there's a same article from the Starting Strength official website, but it doesn't say when to move on to the next phase. Or is it implied through here: ''At the end of this phase, if you're in that 18-35 healthy male demographic, your squat should have increased by 40-50 pounds, your deadlift by 50-70 pounds, and your press and bench press by 15-20 pounds''?

And also, the official website of Starting Strength doesn't say what weight to begin with. I had to Google it and then found a few websites that told me how to determine the starting weight.

I think the Starting Strength book would have all these info. I would like to buy the book but does any bookshop sell it? I've taken a look at Popular but I couldn't find it.

starting weight is by trial and error.
basically is the heaviest weight that u can comfortably do 10-12 reps without struggling.
of cos if u have time u can start with anything and just progress.
in the end, doesnt really matter as long as u start.

Just do all three compound exercise. Don't complicate things. You'll know when to move on the next phase.

5reps x 5sets is the best for beginners. Don't do so many reps as you will lose your form and leaves you with severe DOMS.

For Starting Strength, how much weight to add after each workout? Let's say Monday I do 50kg squats, then Wednesday how much to add to the squats weight? For Stronglifts it's specified that 2.5lbs is added after each workout, but for Starting Strength it's up to me?

Alright. How about 5x3 like in Starting Strength? 5x3 or 5x5 would be better?

provided u can progress properly, 2.5lbs / 1.25kg is normal.
again, doesn't matter what as long as u start.

I do 5x3 instead of 5x5, after I feel my squat started to get heavy after reading ppl change 5x5 to 5x3. I am still progressing. Due to I'm struggling on last 2 reps on last set recently, I put in some 8x3(8x3 on workout B) and it helps on my stability and form, I don't know the theory, I just play around with it and it works for me. Same thing I did on bench.

LOL you're thinking too much. Stronglifts is a crappy routine and Starting Strength is ok but lacking too many exercises even for a beginner.

You can do this novice routine which is much more balanced and well rounded:
http://hardset.meshsolutions.tech/program/36

Rest 2-5minutes between sets. Decide a fixed time. I personally rest 2 minute between all my sets for all exercises. For a newbie you can rest 2 mins for isolations and 5 minutes for compounds.
Resting longer is better for str/size.
For 3x6 pick a weight you can do 8 Reps Max with. You'll probably get 6,6,4 reps on your 1st,2nd,3rd set if you rest 2min between sets. Keep training till you get 6 reps on all 3 sets then increase by the smallest increment once you get 3x6 easily. After increase you'll probably be back to getting 6,6,4 or 6,6,5. Repeat til you get 3x6 and increment again.
For 3x8 use something you can do 11 Reps Max with. Same goes for others.
Keep all sets short 1 or 2 reps of failure, the gains are same as going to failure.

Feel free to add calve work or swap exercises as long they hit the same muscle groups.

This post has been edited by Armesh: Jun 2 2016, 03:03 PM

Alternatively:

https://content.tigerfitness.com/jason-blah...orkout-program/

I already tried the workout. Easy to do, easy to learn.

If you at the early stage, feel free to add more extra workout.

5x5 is designed until you find the wall of your progress and work around that.

Simple math, if u increase weight each time, you will eventually reach your max point. If u cant progress beyond that, then it is back to the kitchen.

We novice can benefit from novice gain for a long period of time.

No matter what we do, if we eat and rest properly, we always get result, and the pace is real fast. So TS, don't worry / think so much. Just do any program with Squat, Deadlift and Bench Press. It will take a lot of your time to learn the technique, really a lot of fine tuning needed. If needed, shoot your workout video and watch it over and over again. Then watch Alan Thrall videos. Enjoy your journey.

p/s
The weight you lift isn't a most important number to benchmark yourself, you are mostly able to lift more than you can now, right after you get your technique right, and it takes time for your central nervous system to adapt to these 3 exercise technique and movement. I always have the feel that I can squat more, just need to work on the form/breathing/muscle group engagement technique.

TRAIN UNTAMEDD!

1 big mistake newbies always do with those 5x5 programs is they use 5RM weight, going balls to the wall for all 5 sets, and rest 5 minutes between sets.
Especially the the last set where they try to get the 5th rep with shit form so they can add weight next time. It's like the worst system ever.

Any low-moderate volume 4 DAW BB program using double progression is much better and mentally healthy.

This post has been edited by Armesh: Jun 3 2016, 12:58 PM

That's why we always say this, this should be stick at every gym entrance. Knowing when to pull backup is the best way to progress.

It's useless, a newbie won't understand how to apply it to his program. He'll almost certainly think the straining last set reps were acceptable and well done since he didn't round his back or did any serious errors.
Let alone that, you can actually do 5x5 with 5RM resting 5 minutes between with decent form. Just that it's very straining and a big waste of time.

It's better to explain like in my Post #13 where the newbie is auto constrained by the rules i stated when running the provided program.

Thanks for the suggestion Armesh, but I would prefer starting a popular program that is proven to have worked for many people, such as Starting Strength.

From all of your post, I understand, so I shall focus more on technique and increase weights slowly.