Muscular fitness

Also remember that skin adjusts more slowly to body changes. You will get stretch marks all over. Much worse if you really had high body fat percentage that it might require surgery. So take care of your skin & drink lots of water while on your toning/cutting/ripping phases.

Pre workouts are great. I started with N.O. Explode. Now I use C4. Way better taste, dissolve ability, no foam when u mix

Lose 20 lbs of fat? Easy. Gain 40 lbs of muscle? Oh boy. If you've never lifted weights in your life, you might be able to expect half of that muscle gain within a year of decent training (ballpark estimate). Unless, of course, you use steroids. A few things to remember: -Start off doing compound lifts that work many muscles at once. (Squats, overhead press, deadlifts, pull ups) Be sure to check your form and mobility before lifting heavy weight, plenty of online resources for this. -Don't lift for what girls "want" or "like". You're never going to get a reasonable answer of how to catch the fish when asking the fish itself. Lift for the kind of body YOU want most, nothing else matters. -The ripped physique you typically see is a result of low bodyfat percentage. Nothing more, nothing less. It's not an indicator of cardiovascular health, it isn't the greatest indicator for strength, and certainly not the best indicator of endurance. It simply means that person shed a lot of body fat- they could've done so eating a cheeseburger a day instead of a balanced diet throughout the day. My personal recommendation is training for strength gains, low reps, high weight. You will look better, but you'll be doing a different training type from "bodybuilding" workouts which have the primary purpose of increasing muscle mass, NOT functional strength. It comes down to: Vanity vs Utility.

Hi mate, so second time of me writing this! Damn picture function! Not much to add following everyone elses comments but try just learn what's right for you, work hard, take care of your body and try to not get stuck on checking yourself out everyday, after a few months the results will catch you by surprise :D I'll share my experience of the past year or so. In Sept 15 after going through probably the toughest part of my life so far, i made a decision to improve myself, for short term and long term. This was a lifestyle change, for life, not just Christmas as they say. So i saw mentally and physically being the two areas, the first of which i tackled fairly easily as I immedaitely took on hobbies etc and lifestyle changes which helped dramatically. Physically then would be the one which would take some time to reflect my efforts. Here is a picture of me from some time ago (the one on the right), but shows the size i was roughly back then, which was between 13.5st-14st. I'm 6ft in height. http://a.nime.me/0080/9626/old_large.jpg

After drinking/eating whatever i wanted for years, i immediately cut out fizzy drinks and alcohol (alcohol just for a few months to get me started) and stuck to just water and maybe a black coffee once a day. Remember coffee dehydrates you, so drink a pint of water for that cup of coffee! In terms of food i stopped having copious amounts of takeaways and if i did, i managed my portions a hell of a lot better rather than just eating two large pizzas to myself haha. Ensure you eat breakfast, always. I'd have a salad or just some meat and veg for lunch and then a dinner consisting of meat, veg and a bit of rice or a few new potatoes. I avoided any chocolate/sweets or general dessert/sweet items for probably the same period as any alcohol. I used to run a lot when i was younger, running for my school while at the same time playing for a football team (that's soccer to any Americans) and also training in Karate for approx 8 hours a week. Disgusted with myself at 26 i thought i could easily get back to that fitness, what a joke that was!! I started running, only started at 1.5miles approx 5 times a week this helped destress and clear my mind as well as tire me out physically which helped me sleep. I remembered why i love running so much and it became such an important part of my day again. As good as the running was, i wanted to get some shape to my upper body too. I began doing 5 sets each day of 20 press ups, 20 sit ups and 20 tricep dips using a chair (moving on to two chairs opposite each other after a while). This was all body weight, no actual weights. I built up to the point i was running approx 5km each time, 5/6 times a week by approx January 2016. At the same time my workout routine hadn't really changed, i often did a 6th set but no real difference in the exercises. The next pic was me in January 2016. http://a.nime.me/0080/9635/me_jan16.jpg

I joined a running club in January, which helped me improve my training methods, give me the social aspect of the club as well as help give me further goals. I began racing for the club in 10km races often and also trained to do a 100km ultra marathon in August 2016. This is the extreme, i pushed myself to join my brother doing it for such a great charity and passed out for the second time at 80km, unfortunately this was the time i couldn't stand back up. There really is no need to push this far and i've learnt my lesson, but just to show you a lot of improvements can be made quickly! There's a pic at the bottom of me in June 2016 (stupid action running face XD). I didn't adjust my diet well and i was consuming far too few calories for what i was burning, so if drinking plenty of water was rule 1, rule 2 is manage your diet to then in turn look after your body! I truly believe this had a huge impact on my condition during the 100km attempt. I've changed this since then and learnt my lesson, i'm no longer as lean after an 8 week recovery (no running, still eating haha) but i'll begin to burn it all off again soon. Don't get obsessed with your body fat percentage. I've also improved my workouts, introducing HIIT workouts and also mixing up the exercises etc. I still have only been doing body weight workouts, no gym work. I figure i want to be in shape, but running tends to burn some off my excess muscle so i never would get very big anyway. I take pride though it looking good and lean, knowing that i'm healthy gives me a lot of satisfaction. http://a.nime.me/0080/9638/me_june16.jpg