How did you know when to stop?

Ricochet J

Ricochet J

Ricochet J

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Joined
29 Jun 2004
Posts
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I'm new to body building and keeping fit. You must have had a set target to how muscular you wanted to become.

It might sound stupid but I can't imagine myself wanting to have an Arnold Schwarzenegger body, but a Rafael Nadal body is what I'm aiming for. I'm reading, and re-reading Gordy's thread.

So, when you started to body build when did you say "I'm happy with that, I'll stop pushing myself there"?

At the moment I weigh in at 75 Kg and 5' 11" tall.

Also, how much protein intake should my body be taking in after a work out?
Lastly, I usually swim 7 – 10 laps after a workout. Is there anything wrong with this?


Thanks :)
 
how much protein? are you looking to grow or not?
Nadal has an athletic body, not much mass but low fat. shouldnt be too hard to achieve.
 
Ricochet J said:
That's what I meant. :)

By "stop" I meant how did you know not to push yourself further?
Click to expand...

I'll let you know when I get there.

Slightly more seriously, how would anyone else know when you've acheived your goals better than you do? If you're happy with the way you look then you've done whatever you set out to do, then you've just got to maintain it.

//edit is there any reason for 12 stone in particular? It seems a bit of an arbitrary figure.
 
Don't worry you won't accidently wake up and look like Arnold over night I can assure you. Even if you trained harder than most men you'd never get to his size. I know I train my arse off and i'm hardly anywhere near his physique.

To get to Nadal's physique it shouldn't be too hard, he's slim and has low body fat, he hasn't got huge muscles.

You need to aim for what you want - building muscle isn't "easy" so don't worry about
that.
 
Once I can't get clothes sizes in normal shops it's either time to cut down body fat or mantain weight, it'll be a long while before then for me.
 
Semi, I first started off being 10 stone. But then I put on the mass to 11.5 stone but haven't really turned that into muscle. Everything on me at the moment is fat. I want to play with what I have. Once I've achieved muscle mass at 12 stone I'll push further.
 
Ricochet J said:
Semi, I first started off being 10 stone. But then I put on the mass to 11.5 stone but haven't really turned that into muscle. Everything on me at the moment is fat. I want to play with what I have. Once I've achieved muscle mass at 12 stone I'll push further.
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Ok but I wouldn't go by the scales particularly, go by what you see in the mirror. Scales are useful for a comparison in some ways but weight alone isn't always a hugely important metric for a person who has a bit of muscle mass.

What do you do as a routine at the moment and what is your diet like? They're a couple of fairly obvious questions that need answered before much useful advice can be given in terms of what you need to do to achieve your goals.

I'm not an expert but doing a few laps swimming after a workout doesn't sound to me like it will be much of a problem - I'm making the assumption here that you're using a fairly ordinary 25m pool.
 
I suppose when you stop depends wholey on the purpose for which you are building the muscle. Modeling, sports etc all plays a factor, personally I'm never going to stop pushing myself. I want to be the best I can be and some may not agree that this means to be well built, but that is what I would like.
 
I will stop when I stop enjoying myself and it starts to become a chore to workout.

Or in terms of muscle mass, when I find things much more difficult to do day to day outside of the gym then it's time to change.
 
Ricochet J said:
I'm new to body building and keeping fit. You must have had a set target to how muscular you wanted to become.

It might sound stupid but I can't imagine myself wanting to have an Arnold Schwarzenegger body, but a Rafael Nadal body is what I'm aiming for. I'm reading, and re-reading Gordy's thread.

So, when you started to body build when did you say "I'm happy with that, I'll stop pushing myself there"?

At the moment I weigh in at 75 Kg and 5' 11" tall.

Also, how much protein intake should my body be taking in after a work out?
Lastly, I usually swim 7 – 10 laps after a workout. Is there anything wrong with this?


Thanks :)
Click to expand...

The human body reaches an equilibrium state after a while, after which it simply won't do very much more... as such, it is impossible for somebody like me (similar stats to you) to look like Arnie, simply because:

a) We don't take steroids (well, I don't);
b) He has a very different frame and physiology to us both.
c) He was a professional body builder, so took the time to build his body as such.

As already posted, you're not going to suddenly wake up and look like Mr. Universe, and physique takes more maintenance than it does to get there in the first place.
 
mrthingyx said:
The human body reaches an equilibrium state after a while, after which it simply won't do very much more... as such, it is impossible for somebody like me (similar stats to you) to look like Arnie, simply because:

.
Click to expand...

Genetically I'm very skinny, does this mean I should expect less gains than other people? Because I'd be extremely happy if I could get past 10 stone by the time I'm in to my 20's
 
If you get to what you think is an ideal body - just weight and measure yourself and work out to maintain it? If you start becoming too heavy eat less and vice versa I guess? Building muscle is hard losing weight is the easy part I think.
 
I think I'm currently at about the weight my body 'likes' to be at (70kg at 5'8). I made a big push last year and got up to 76kg but it was hard (on my weekly food bills mainly) to maintain. Fairly happy with how I look now, but as the great Dr Cox once said ' Do you understand that the second you look in the mirror and you're happy with what you see, baby you just lost the battle!'
 
Why would I ever want to stop? I love this ****! :D

We all hit a genetic limit though, but as long as I don't get weaker and can maintain what I have in a reasonable manner (i.e. not having to kill myself for it) then I'll be keeping it up. :)
 
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