Weight training

Alex Flint

I'm looking for resources on effective weight training for the purpose of physique building. It's an area with a particularly poor signal to noise ratio so I would value pointers from other rationalists. The kinds of questions I would like to answer are:

How to structure work-outs. Should I lift as much weight as possible or do more repetitions at lower weights?
How should I trade off frequency of gym visits against length of those visits?
What supplements should I take?

Edit: I'm vegetarian, and I now realise this is rather important to answers to point three. So far the only supplement I've been taking is soy protein.

How to structure work-outs. Should I lift as much weight as possible or do more repetitions at lower weights?
How should I trade off frequency of gym visits against length of those visits?
What supplements should I take?

Edit: I'm vegetarian, and I now realise this is rather important to answers to point three. So far the only supplement I've been taking is soy protein.

My advice is get the book Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe. He:

introduces 6 major lifts
explains why these are the lifts you should be doing
explains in detail the proper way to perform the lifts with common mistakes, how to spot them, and how to fix them
explains why, biomechanically, the suggested form is the proper form
explains how to put these lifts together into a fitness program, and when to stop that program and move on to something else

I was skeptical of the proposed program because I had already been lifting for a couple years, and I found a lot of the suggestions unintuitive. However, after two independent sources told me it was a good program, I started doing it. After 8 weeks I was able to bench press 77.5kg, whereas before I had been stuck for a long time around 70kg. All of the lifts also felt more comfortable / safer than they had before (due to changing my form to match the guidelines in the book).

There is also a Starting Strength Wiki that has lots of good videos / summaries of the information in the book (but the book is way more details / useful, at least for having proper lifting form).

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