Finnaly dragged myself to the gym. New here, my story so far.

 
Hi folks, my names Richie.... after 10 years of partying like a rockstar i have decided to change my ways. Mainly due to the fact my self esstem has been ruined by chemicals and i have had other problems because of over indulging in substances.
 
I was recently very depressed and dug myself deeper and deeper into a hole. I litteraly felt like i was loosing my mind. Not a great time in my life. I heard over and over again that going to the gym can really help lift your mood etc so i decided to give it a try. The first time i went was the first time i forgot my worries in months, it felt amazing. After a few sessions i am hooked, im not going their to forget my worries anymore, im going their because i enjoy it and now i want results. Im lucky to have a bunch of mates who have been doing this a while and are all in good shape, they have almost been acting as my personal trainers!
 
Now for the questions, im a pretty slim guy, i guess id be classed as an endomorph right? These lads know what their doing, so if i follow their routines but lift smaller weights will i be on the right path? Im not very strong at all at the minute and they are pushing me quite hard. On the bench i can only press about 40k (and thats only one rep), when we do sets i lift 30k but by the third set my form is awfull and i cant finish the reps, is this ok? Or should i be doing a smaller weight? They tell me its fine and eventualy il get stronger by training to fail this way.
 
Im not on a strict diet but i am eating allot more and allot healthier... lots of protien and a decent amount of carbs. A typical day will involve eggs for breakfast and porrige, tuna for a snack, pasta for dinner and chicken or somthing for lunch. I have recently started drinking 2 protein shakes a day aswell. Its not untill i started this i realised how little i was actually eating, ive always blamed my size on metabolism but i dont belive that anymore. Ive been training for about 2 weeks now and have put on about quater of a stone so i am happy with my progress. I can even see a bit of shape coming on my pigeon chest haha.
 
So what do you guys recon... carry on the way im going and see how it goes. Or am i going to have to be more strict with dieting etc? Il post some pictures of my current shape soon. Thanks for reading, i know this was a bit long winded but if im gonna be sticking about you might aswell get to know me :)
 

Weldone mate for making a change , thts the biggest step , I would personally stay as u are as ur body should adjust accordingly and u should let it do this , once uve gained naturally which u will , then maybe some creatine , but not yet , lifting heavy isn't important but quality is , I suggest getting ur stays uploaded , I.e weight/ age/ and so on! There are guys a lot more educated thn I am I'm a newbie myself, have started a journal , have a read of it , just click on my name then my journal let me know ur thoughts

thanks for the reply mate. Ive took a look through your journal... fair play to you man, inspiring stuff! Im 26 and about 5 foot 10, i just weighed myself again tonight and im 10.5 stone. Ive put on half a stone pretty quickly :).

Welcome Richie, I train cos I find it a great stress reliever...no matter what stuff I go through in life, I find hitting the weights gives me time for introspection.
"To exercise at or near capacity is the best way I know of reaching a true introspective state. If you do it right, it can open all kinds of inner doors." -Al Oerter

hey rakim, yea its a brilliant stress reliever it really is. Im enjoying my new hobby (if i can call it that) loads.
 

hey thought id update this thread with a couple of pics so you can see how im getting along.....


 
appologies for the crotch grab... its not intentional haha!
 
So yea, this is only 2 weeks in now and im happy with the progress, i dont have any before pictures but ive deffo put on a little bit of muscle. One question, i have a little bit of belly fat as you can probly see.... should this drop off with weight training? I dont want to do cardio and risk loosing weight elsewhere. I might start a journal actually, il do it when i get in from work :)
 

Have you heard about Intermittent fasting? Its something I am doing at the moment. Here's a link if you would like to read up further on it...
http://www.leangains.com/

ive had a look at that site mate, i can see lots of pictures of success storys but no actual info or diet plan?? Interesting stuff tho...

no need to complicate things with fasting yet.  just eat 4 big meals a day.  high carbs high protein low fat.  you will gain for a year on this.  then later on u will have to get complicated to keep improving.  you've got a goldern year ahead
 
learn off ya mates.  but i wd train x 3 per week concentrate on doing bench, squat, deadlift, pull up, military do those for a year nothing else u wont need to..  get as strong on those as poss, with good form..  job done, report back in one year a big lump ;-)

Welcome Richie.

Welcome to MT!