Take the total amount of food you eat in those 3 meals and divvy it up into 5 separate meals that you can eat throughout the day.
Comparing bodybuilders to the common folk here that want to lose weight in order to get a six-pack is 2 different stories. Do you... eat, train, bulk, cut, lift, diet, and have the discipline and or interest among many other things to be a professional bodybuilder? Maybe, maybe no. But I'm gonna go out on a limb and say 99% of the posters on this board don't for one reason or another. And on a sidenote I know plenty of Pro bodybuilders who are Cardio freaks especially when it comes time to shredding and competition time.
The point is that cardio isn't as necessary as you may think. You've made quite a few contentions that have been proven invalid.
You know a bunch of pro bodybuilders? Who for instance? And he never said anything about pro bodybuilders did he?
Guys dont want to hijack the thread but its kinda on topic anyway... Was after some tips about weight training and the likes. Note - I'm going to blabber on a bit here so bare with me. I'm 19, about 5ft 10' and weigh 66-67kg. I have a pretty skinny/lanky build (long arms etc) but I wouldn't say I'm overly skinny/lanky. I started weight training about 3 months ago and since have put on a little muscle but not as much as i would have hoped for. ATM I'm just using free weights at home. I know they aren't nearly as good as hitting up the gym, but i decided to start on that, get a feel for it etc before committing to a gym membership. I'm also really only concerned on upper body ATM, plus, with free weights my options are limited with my legs. Anyway, I started doing 3 sessions a week at home. I did biceps/back, triceps/chest and then a shorter workout on my shoulders. Recently though, because work 8-5 every day, plus have a fair bit of sporting commitments (I am doing a fair bit of cardio work so this may be impacting my muscle gain??) as well as wanting a decent social life, i decided to change my routine to much shorter sessions, working just one muscle group a day. So I'm spending roughly 25-30 Min's (including warm up) a day on one muscle group. This allows me to get in and out quick if i need to without missing a session. ATM my program is as follows. Mon - Biceps: Dumbell curls, Preacher curls Tues - Back: Kneeling dumbell Rows, (need another exercise here, I'm not really a fan of dead lifts) Wed - Chest: Bench press, Dumbell press Thurs - Triceps: Narrow grip bench press, Overhead two handed dumbell raises Fri - Shoulder: Seated shoulder press, Shrugs. With that program I do 3-4 sets on each exercise, 10,8,6,(6) reps respectively. On the last set i up the weight depending on how I'm feeling. With my diet. I still live at home so i dont get much choice of what i eat for dinner. Usually though i would eat at least 5 meals of meat a week. I eat breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner everyday. breakfast and lunch are mostly always white bread though. I eat a fair bit of fruit too. I'm thinking I'm not putting on much weight because of my diet, but as i said its not easy because mum cooks for me So now, few questions. 1. Is my new program alright or should i be doing more/different exercises? 2. My Diet isn't great. I never put on fat but I'm thinking this is holding me back ATM because I'm not enough protein? 3. Is there anything else i should be doing? 4. Protein shakes. How effective are they? Are they worth my while considering I'm only lifting for 25-30 Min's a day? Cheers for your help guys. Any info would be good. Add any suggestions as well ill defs take them on bored. Matty101.
Hey OP, I'd have to agree with Asian Sensation and Hamza. They seem to make the most sense (at least for me). Like many others, I agree that you lose most of your weight from watching what you eat. I LOVE carbs, and for the last 7 weeks, I cut out carbs. I stay away from pastas, rice (I'm Asian so that's FML moment there) and bread on WEEKDAYS. When I eat pho, I substitute the noodles for...yeah...BEAN SPROUTS. On weekends I allow a little bit of starch intake, but not so much. Actually, I do have a bowl of cheerios in the morning (the multi grain kind) and thats all the grains I allow myself to have. If you work, doing a 5 mini meal schedule is kinda easy. Eat at 7am, 10am, 12:30pm lunch, 3:30pm, 6:30-7pm dinner and you're set. I always have 2 servings (though I should have more) of fruit. I normally do those in between breakfast and lunch. For lunch and dinner I'll have my fiber/protein, so its pretty balanced. I also snack on raw almonds throughout the day to curb my hunger, but I eat it ONE BY ONE, to limit myself from gorging. I know this may not mean much, but since I started 7 weeks ago, I've lost 15 lbs. I don't work out as much as I like, but when I do (2 week days and sat morning), it's only 10 mins of interval cardio (light, tough, light, balls out) running every other minute, 50 minutes of basic lifting. Goodluck with your 6 pack ab adventure. I will be frequenting this thread for tips too.
Abs are made in the kitchen. I have a 4 pack right now (because I eat like CRAP lol), but I work out like a mad man at least 3 times a week. I'd guess my body fat is somewhere around 10%. My work out is kinda long and complicated to post.......but I'm gonna get my diet in order and start seeing some results. If your diet is right, you'll see the result your looking for.
Diet - Increase your overall intake. Eat more. Pretty simple. If your mum cooks for you that is awesome. Eat more of what she cooks. You can throw in some protein shakes if you want. Since you are trying to gain the liquid will be easier to digest (faster) and let you get more calories and protein in. For weight routine I have suggestion to lift harder. Don't limit yourself to some specific number of 10 8 6, just work hard. If you can easily do 10 then put on more weight next time. Also combine your bicep back days into one day. Same with chest and tricep. For bicep back day add pullups, for chest tricep add dips. Also add in a legs day. Do some squats and lunges.
The two most important things for "skinny" guys to put on weight are calories and rest. Right off the bat I can tell you're not eating enough and you're working out too much, and by too much, too many days. Unless you're on roids, weight training 5 days a week is going to be counter-productive because you're not giving your muscles time to recover and grow. This is especially essential for skinny people. While you may only be working out a particular muscle on each day, you're body is a cohesive functional unit, so you're never just working out one body part. When you're doing these chest workouts you're also hitting those triceps, those back days are also going to blast your biceps, even if you don't touch a curl. You can consolidate all those things you're doing into 3 days at an hour a day and see plenty of results, provided you're eating. Choose compound exercises that work multiple muscle groups at one time. Squats, Deadlifts, Bench Press, Dips, Pull-ups. Work around those exercises and you'll be golden. You'd be surprised the amount of leg exercises you can do at home with just dumbbells. Squats, Deadlifts, Cleans, etc. An option among many you can decide to do would be to do your legs on a day by themselves, backs and bi's another, and chest, shoulder, and tris for the third. Or do back and chest together and come back a couple days later and hit your arms and your shoulders. If you're that pressed for time, don't even worry about your arms. As you get stronger on your bigger lifts, your arms will take care of themselves. Most importantly, look at what you eat and find a way to cram more calories into your day. Spread it out over 5 to 6 meals a day. If you don't eat more calories than you burn, and if you're playing a lot of sports you're burning a lot, then you're not gonna grow no matter what you do in the gym. I can't tell you the number of people who have told me they eat so much and they can't grow, but yet when they recall their meals over the previous week it comes up woefully short of what they really need. Eat what your mom cooks and supplement it with something you make it, or a quick MRP. Protein shakes work as a meal supplement. All it is is food, there's no magic in them that makes you bigger. If you're going to drink them, mix in some carbs as well or get a shake that gets you both.
Yee i gotta eat more. Agree with you on that. Also, i used to combine back and biceps and chest and triceps but i changed that to what im doing now just to shorten up my workouts. I like the idea of getting in there for just 25-30 mins rather than being stuck there for an hour. Im not sure if this hinders or helps though??
30 minutes is plenty of time for that. doing compound exercises like pullups and dips will increase time savings. Plus if you are doing bench you are already working out triceps on "chest day". seated row close grip chinups wide grip pullups barbell curls bench shoulder press dips close grip bench press squat deadlift calf raise lunges 4 exercise, 3 sets each, 30 minutes should be no problem.
Thanks CaseyH and BigM. Really appreciate your help. Just so i can get an idea of how im eating, a normal day for me would be... - 3 slices of toast for brekki with a juice or coffee. - 2-3 pieces of fruit and maybe a snack size packet of chips between 10-12 - A sandwich for lunch - usually only with spreads or maybe some shaved meats on it. - 2-3 pieces of fruit and maybe a small chocolate bar/muslie bar between 1-3 - Then i usally wont eat untill dinner which is about 6. - After that i might snack on some stuff or if im out maybe a maccas run or something similar. Looking back actually, Im not eating all that much. What sorts of food should i be eating more of? Maybe some muslie? Another sandwich? Pastas?
For Abs, it is simple. AB work, and jogging. That is all it takes really. Throw in 250 push-ups and you are good to go...
You definitely need more protein. If you want to build muscle, eat maybe 130-150 grams per day (divide it amongst your meals). Good, clean sources of protein are egg whites, tuna, chicken breast, lean beef, and protein bars. What time are you eating your meals in relation to your workouts?
Im working out of a night so usually around 530 or 6. I then have dinner after. In regards to protein, i do need to eat more of it. I usally eat meats for dinner so i get some there and my regular maccas/kebabs/kfc runs are another source of protein although they defs arent 100% clean.
There's a good chance you need to double if not triple your calorie intake based on that sample. You're eating nearly all carbs before you get to dinner. Get some lean proteins in your body at every meal, even if that's only through protein shakes or bars. Don't neglect the fat either, at least 20% of your calories should come from healthy fats. Do some research on bulking diets and what people are generally eating to gain size. If you want to bulk up there is no more important thing you can do than to change your eating habits. It'll take some getting used to initially but it'll be second nature before you know it.
