If you have been working out 3 weeks, don't even bother with that crap. It's like putting on an expensive exhaust pipe on a hyundai. Just eat right and work out consistently. You should improve dramatically for about 12 weeks without plateauing. Someone posted the following website here once and I followed his routine and it works great. http://www.charlespoliquin.net/index.htm
Depends. I agree if you're drinking the 100% whey protien shakes (with very little carbs). Or if you're drinking a so called "weight gainer" shake with a 4-digit number in the title, ie. "Weight Gainer 3000". Those things are worthless. However, the more complete MRP's such as Myoplex, MetRex, or GNC Mega (my personal favorite) are much more balanced. They give you good quality protiens, glutamine, complex carbs and 2.5 grams of creatine. I don't really believe in supplements per se. I don't think there are any 'shortcuts'. I've been training since September and I'm just now starting to see results. Be patient. My step brother is a personal trainer and he says that you have to work out for AT LEAST 6 months before you will start to notice a big difference. As far as muscle recovery, here's what I do: 30 minutes before my workout, I drink a GNC Mega MRP with high protien milk. This provides a steady flow of aminos and slow release carbs to power your workout. After I workout, I drink a shake made with the following: 16 ounces cold 2% milk 1 packet vanilla carnation instant breakfast 1 banana 2 tablespoons peanut butter This is a high carb and protein shake that will feed your muscles, bones and joints the food they need to recover from a tough workout. Those two shakes will provide about 1200 calories and around 100 grams of high quality protein. Workout routines are a dime a dozen, but this one works for me so I'm sticking to it.
Ok, from the replies I got I'm now leaning towards this whey protein whatever it is. I'll just confirm one more time: I dont want to be massive, but i do want my muscles to grow and to look leaner. Very important that I don't bulk up too much in general size, I have a big frame, big bones, big shoulders and a large chest. I want to get mre from my workout, but again, not bulk up too much, that's my worst fear. Whey protein and added cardio is the best solution? Right now, I lift weights 4 times a week, 2 hours each time. I play basketball 3 hours on wednesdays, and generally either play soccer or ride a stationary bike for an hour or so one other day in the week, usually friday. This ISN'T enough? Okay, so I've been going around trying to figure out what chin-ups are. Can anyone help me out? I'm doing everything else suggested, was doing them anyway, but chin-ups I dont know about. Thanks for the advice everyone gave me, I really appreciate it. Rockets03, Sounds fabulous, except that I have a work out partner and our routines are closely linked. If I change mine, I lose my partner. However, I would love the advice on eating, eating habits, and supplements. 6748749, however I'm usually either in class or working out, as you can see I'm going through an intense effort to build my body. Would love to hear from you though, and like I said, any advice is appreciated.
Believe me, you won't get huge by mistake. First of all 2 hours in the gym is TOO long. 1 hour and 15 minutes MAX. I'd suggest doing 3 or even 2 whole body workouts. You don't know what chin-ups are? Seriously? Just go to google and look it up. Hang from a bar with palms facing you and pull your body up until you chin is above the bar. I'm thinking you'll have trouble with these so what you need to do is get a bench under the bar and start at the top position. Do negatives (downward portion) only until you can get sets of 30 seconds. Basketball and soccer are good. You need to do the interval training I mentioned once or twice. And most importantly, none of this matters if your diet sucks. Manny-I understand where you're coming from, but you're making a huge mistake if you're not getting some sort of post-workout shake or meal. Whey protein is optimal for this, but if you don't want to take supplements, then I hope you're at least eating a huge meal right after you workout. I can't emphasize enough how important this is.
Alright, 2 hours is for me and my gym partner. So I guess that's ok right? Ok, I know what chin ups are. But I know them as pull-ups. Is that wrong or are pull-ups something else? Just for the record, I can't even do one of those without help. The problem is, I have trunk like legs (muscle not fat), and I think the percentage of weight I have in my lower body is more than most. Is it normal that I can't even do 1? About my diet, I don't really have a program or anything. Once in a while I try to throw in hard boiled eggs, I watch the carbs very carefully, and have a fair amount of fruits and fruit juice - more than most I would say. So you could say I'm aware but not focused on a super diet I guess. I'm going to look up this interval training, and thanks again for everythign tozai.
Pull-ups are with your palms out. Harder. It's normal, but not good. Have your partner lift your legs to help you get up and do timed negatives. 2 hours is too long. Hormone levels drop after 75 minutes and you're going backwards. If you want to lose weight, you don't need a "super diet" but you need to focus first on that and then the weights and other stuff. Not that complicated though really. Just eat less fast food, junk food, processed food. Get most of your carbs from fruits and vegetables. Eat more fish and chicken than beef. Eggs are good. More smaller meals than 3 large meals.
tozai, are you saying it's better to work out the whole body in 1 workout? I'd always heard that breaking it up (chest, back, abs one day, arms legs next day etc) was the way to go. What is a good way to break it up? I've heard so many different ways to do it. Are there certain muscles you should or shouldn't work out on the same day, or does it matter?
They all have their place. Full body workouts are not necessarily better, but you get more bang for your buck. If you have the time, than bodypart splits are fine. The two most popular ones would be: back & bis, chest & tris, legs...shoulders would either be done w/ chest or you legs or...chest & back, bis&tris&shoulders, legs. It doesn't matter what muscles you workout on a day, but it matters how you organize them over a week. Your triceps are very involved with presses and your biceps are very involved with pulling. So you don't want to do triceps the day before chest or shoulders, or biceps before back. You don't need that much direct work on arms unless you're already huge. All the tricep kickbacks, pushdowns and concentration curls aren't necessary if you're doing heavy compound movements. Here is a very basic 3 day split: Press day Low incline db press dips skullcrushers abs heavy Pull day Chinups BB rows choice of curls abs light Legs & Shoulders military press squats romanian deadlifts rear delt flys Short and to the point.
from personal experience the absolute best way to cut your biceps is to hold the weight at the top of the curl for about 3-4 seconds, you should really feel the burn, before you begin the negative motion. do it with a weight you can get in about 15-20 reps with. after a little plateau i incorporated that and it has seriously paid off.
Do you guys think its better to buy shakes and stuff of the net, or going to a store like GNC or something?
Wow, a lot of scary stuff spewed off around here. As nationally ranked Division 1 athlete, I'll throw out few random comments. You should always rest at least one day between working out a muscle group. Most athletes lift 6 days a week. Upper body even days and lower body odd days. Abbs don't really count. You can always do them within reason...Similar to running. High weight + fewer reps = bulk. (2-3 reps of 8-10) Lower weight + high reps = strength. (3-4 reps of 15) Screwing around w/ suppliments of any kind can get you in deep trouble real fast not to mention it's expensive. If you are 30, you can get the benefits w/out the risk and cost. That crap about not drinking water just flatly defies common sense and can put you in the hospital after one strenious workout. Anybody serious about fitness knows you've got to follow all the basic pricipals. Stetching Diet Arobic Anarobic You can't get around it. If you do all those things (esp. as a man at 30), you'll notice results in a matter of weeks and be able to sustain it. By the way, a medicine ball is a great way to do abbs. Go to Acadamy and get the 10 lbs ball. It even comes w/ a great workout with 10 exercises you can do by yourself...that work. Arobic exercise is how you get tone and definition. You'll never get tone simply by doing weights. Look at some of those defensive lineman. They're huge but they don't look fit. Finally, a lot of it is genetics. I lifted consistently for 8-10 years before graduating and I've never really bulked up. But I could lift as much as guys bigger than man. If you are healthy, be happy. Don't buy into the magazine covers that say you have to look a certain way. Leave that vanity to the woman. If you have a job and any personality, there is a woman out there for you.
I want to look good naked, that's basicaly the aim of all this. The fact of the matter is that I still have a belly and body fat. I'm sure getting rid of that will bring out some cuts, but I have loose skin because when I reach my target weight I'll have lost exactly 20kgs or around 42lbs. So I'm trying to get everything in place: fitness, tone, strength, and to be able to maintain it.
I'm no medical expert but if you have loose skin due to weight loss, it is my understanding that is something that will eventually be naturally corrected if you maintain that weight. Your skin will eventually adjust unless of course you lost like 200 lbs or something. I think your body will recover from 40 a lbs weight shift...over time. Bulking up with muscle weight probably may help your skin somewhat, however. Gaining muscle tone wouldn't do anything to take up that extra skin...in the short term. But bulking up might. Only problem with bulking up is that most people can't keep that bulk over the long haul so it is short to medium term gratification. And if you bulk up using suplements, those suplements can actually cause you to gain significant weight...putting you back to where you started. If your aim is to drop weight, I'd be really really careful using supliments. Unused energy ingested, in any form, turns into what? You guessed it...FAT. Supplements are such an incredibably unnatural way of changing your diet that most people can gain serious weight during or after taking such supplements. You have to be highly regimental to successfully traverse the use of supplements and gain the desired benefits. Be careful w/ suppliments. Balance, moderation and common sense are your friends. There are no shortcuts, silver bullets and magical solutions. Add any other cliche you want in there.
Do interval training. It's not aerobic and you'll lose weight. I already posted alot about this in another thread. Bulk and strength are different. You can have big muscles and be weak. It's a little more complicated than that, but don't need to get into it. There is no formula for bulk, strength, muscle tone. It's not like 3 sets of 8 is muscle and sets of 5 is strength and sets of 15 is tone. That's BS as well.
I looked up interval training and will start tomorrow. Just wanted to know if anyone has actually tried it and, if so, what were the results?
What was the site you looked at? Just want to make sure it's right. Here's a study: http://www.wsu.edu/~strength/hiit.htm
