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Old 09-04-2007, 11:22 AM
Snafu'd Snafu'd is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 1,013
Default Starting Rippetoe Today: A Few Questions Before I Start

Alright, I've finally joined a gym and I'm going for the first time after work today. There are a couple of things that I'm still a little confused about, despite having read the FAQ. My plan is to start the Rippetoe program and here are my questions.

1. I understand that the arms are going to be worked during the compound lifts, but I have the problem of my left arm being significantly weaker than my right arm in both the bicep and the tricep. I would imagine that this is exaggerated somewhat because I used to play tennis competitively and my left arm was used very little. So the question is, when I do some arm specific exercises, is there anything different I should do in order to get the left arm to catch up? More reps, more weight, etc for my left arm? Or will it catch up on its own?

2. My next question is about preworkout nutrition. Right now, I've got Surge for my post workout drink and I'm trying to eat a Zone diet. What should I be eating prior to working out and how long before my workout should I eat (30 minutes, an hour, etc)?

3. Also, I'd like to know what you guys think about doing cardio right after my weightlifting. I'm in a fat loss prop bet so burning fat is a high priority for me. When I joined the gym, they required that I get a stress test and general assessment done - which was basically a physical. The guy that was administering the tests told me that for fat burning purposes, doing cardio right after a weightlifting session was the way to go. His reasoning was that your body has to dip into its fat reserves at this point because you've already consumed your carbohydrate reserves during the weightlifting session. Thoughts?
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