Where to start???

So if your reading this page, the chances are you have not much of an idea at all as to where to start. Let me list the 8 key points in order as to how get going.  

1. Know what you want
2. Reseach
3. Create small, short term goals
4. Create a plan
5. Buy equipment necessary
6. Get motivated
7. Create a solid routine
8. Keep a journal/photo album

Know What You Want

Before anything, you must "know what you want." Knowing what you want and having this one focus is a major key in determining the outcome. In other words choose a goal.....Are you looking to BULK UP, LOOSE WEIGHT, AQUIRE THE 'RIPPED' LOOK or just GET FIT?

Most likely you will already have the ideal image in your head. Have a look around at others. Look at images of athletes, body builders, dancers, sports players, footy players or whoever you can find, and if you look at their physique and think to yourself, "That is how I wish I could look," YOU CAN! 
Print photo's off, save photo's and look at them, stick them on your wall if you want but in the end you must know what you want.

Research

If your reading this page it is highly likely you know what you want and are in the research stage. Before you start training seriously, it is a MUST, to research every aspect possible of fitness and your specific goal. Hopefully this website i've set up can give you a general idea of different aspects of fitness. All that will be here, I have researched myself, gained through experiences and by talking to others, I have learnt some great information and tips. Through my video, I am getting message after message and comment after comment of not only advice for myself, but questions on all topics from a wide variety of goal oriented people. So if you are looking to gain muscle, as I still am, things to research are equipment, routines, excercises, techniques, muscle groups, supplements, body builders and their independant styles of training and much more including diets!  So again hopefully your research journey can start here or you can pick up a few tips I have found useful in my ongoing journey! My e-book is basically aeverything I have done. My main diet, my routines I started on and ones I use now and all the tips I have used to gain muscle mass and to continue to do so. I have spend hours and hours collating good information so check it out if you want and I would say it would be of much help!

Create Small, Short Term Goals

Although you know what type of physique you want to achieve, there is no 1 step from beginning to end. In order for you to achieve your ultimate goal, there must be small achievable goals in place. Without there, you will get tired, frustrated, discouraged and end up loosing sight of the journey. Through small goals, anything can be achieved. If you want to gain weight and bulk up, then, depending on your bodytype, aim to gain 1kg per 3 weeks and if you find you achieve that no worries, make it 2.5kg in 1 month and see how you go. But don't make the mistake...unless your a genetic freak, of aiming to gain 10kg per month, or 60kg by the end of the year, because for the most of us that just won't happen. On the other hand, loosing weight, don't have it in mind that loosing 4 kilo's a week will be easy, it may be, but just start small.

Create a Plan

So you've got a broad idea of the areas of fitness through research, you've atleast though about short term goals if you haven't made some already and next???...next is to creat a plan. How am I going to reach both my ultimate goal, and my small short term goals? Where am I going to start? At home? At my mates house? At the gym? - I'll tell you now, home is the way to learn all you can about training. Through planning things out, your not going to hit deadends and realise that suddenly you can't train at all because of school work/assesments or uni work..and just to clarify, never let training consume your life that everything else goes down the drain, there must be a balance and if you can balance work, school studies, and training, then they will complement each other and you can train to give yourself some time out from work, and you can study knowing that you will have been able to get some good excercise into you that day and your ready to focus on the academic side of things/work.

Buy Equipment Necessary

So you have 2 options. Train at home? or Train at the gym? My personal experience has been if you can train at home, you get a good bassis on technique, what to do.....what NOT to do, how to get stuck bench pressing and then how not to get stuck and being able to know the 'pull push theory' of what excercises target what muscles.

So assuming you are starting of at home and you know what you want, you need to determine the equipment you need. You can find this through your research. If you are bulking up, think about buying some dumbells and a bench press with a barbell and weight plates. Look around the internet for good deals and remember not to go too cheap and flimsy, but also not to go the most expensive. Regardless of the price it is going to do the same thing, you just don't want it collapsing on you half way through a set. On the other hand, if you are looking to get fit, you might think about buying a tradmill, (or save money and take a run at your nearest oval) a skipping rope, perfect pushup handlesm, a medicine ball and some dumbells. Equipment can be expensive so look around and buy only equipment that is necessary, and that can preferably be used in more than one way.

Get Motivated

Without motivation, every workout will be pointless. You'll have no up and go. There are certain tricks you can use to get motivated as have the most well known bodybuilders today and 'yesterday.' Here are some examples:

• Buy fitness magazines/bodybuilding magazines
• Look on the internet at bodybuilders/fitness models
• Go onto certain websites that are packed with info on your goals
• Take on going photo's so you can track progress, especially if slow
• Train with a friend who has same goals as yourself
• Watch others train to be inspired and also learn new techniques

Create a Solid Routine

So your set up, you know what you want, you know how your going to achieve this and now you need a good solid routine in place. If you going to just make it up as you go as alot of people do, you'll honestly make next to no progress. So i'll explain the routines i've gone through and in what order but the two types of routines I'll talk about is a full body workout and split workouts.

Remember that just because the routine Jay Cutler follows works for him and his level, don't be fooled into thinking it will work for you too. Simple is  better when starting. So you can find many routines on the internet and in magazines and after you understand the basics of muscle groupings and how one routine differs from the other you can make your own, which is a great thing to eventually do as you've made it according to how your body responds. It's kind of like choosing and fitting a suit. Just because a specific suit looks good on someone else, it may not suit you and your body type. So by researching, using other routines for a while, you will be able to modify any routine you find to fit to your training style, body type and what ultimately works best for you. I have a variety of routines on my e-book that would suit someone beginning to train and my current routine so if you have been training for a year or more this would be of great use.

Keep a journal/photo album

So broken up into 2 parts - Journal and photo album

JOURNAL - Strength Progress

Tracking progress is crucial to suceeding. Whether your training at home or at the gym. I have written up a recording chart in my ebook which you can copy into your own training record book. This will ensure your constantly gaining strength and most importantly size.

PHOTO ALBUM - Size Progress

Being very much on the thin size myself, the photo ablum has been the biggest motivator and progress tracker. Taking a photo once a month in the same place means that a year down the track you can look back and see if the progress is good or not. You are also able to look to see what needs improving. For example as many of you would have seen, my back and shoulders responded really well! But on the other hand my biceps and triceps and chest to a certain extent did not. So I know I either have to train heavier (which I can't physically do) Train with more reps (which I can do but with less weight) or change my workout routine or target these areas more than back and shoudlers. So by talking photo's and having myself and others look at them, I am able to get feedback as to where I need to improve.