New to weights...

Pookie Bear

Pookie Bear

Pookie Bear

Soldato
Joined
28 Jun 2006
Posts
5,248
Location
Newcastle upon Tyne
I'll admit, I'm a total newb when it comes to shifting weights around. I did a lot of gym work in my mid-teens (because a friend of mine at school was a competitive body-builder) but nothing much since. I don't know what all the different exercises are even called!

Perhaps a little background would be approriate:

Around a year ago I decided that I was sick of being a bloater. I’ve always been fairly big (in January last year I was a 50 inch chest, 42 inch waist, 19st 7lb – on a broad 6 foot 2 frame) but over the last year I’ve made some changes to my lifestyle and I’m currently a 44 inch chest, 38 inch waist and at last count was 16st 9lb – I expect that may have risen a little over the festive period, but I’m confident it will come back off as I get back into a healthier regime. For the record, I have very low visible fat on my legs, shoulders and arms (all of which are quite large – but I do have skinny wrists – not sure how that works!) – it’s just a small bit of fat around the gut, but I’m ok with that.

However, just before Christmas I began having doubts about the exercise I was doing.

I have an exercise bike which I use 5 times a week at present – Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday – between 18 and 25 minutes on a simple, yet very sweat-inducing HIIT routine. I have 20kg of York weights on two dumbbells – I do a selection of the exercises I got on the poster with those weights – it usually takes me around 20 to get through the routine which has 3x10 of most exercises in it. I have no bench, but can improvise dips between the sofa and coffee table ;) I also do a number of stomach exercises at the same time. I do the weights straight after the bike workout. I have bad knees – hence the relatively low joint impact stuff for the lower body.

On weekdays I walk to and from work (or the train station, depending on the weather) and this means a walk either way of between 15 and 35 minutes) – long strides mean I’m knackered at either end, usually.

Should I be splitting these up? Such as using the bike Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs and the weights on Sat, Sun, Tues an Thurs? I find that using the bike on the weekend, when I’ve not been walking so much, can be quite uncomfortable on the thighs (even with a lengthy warm-up), but during the week it not only feels like it’s having more impact, but I sweat a lot more.

My diet could use more work (but this isn’t about my diet!), but I like a night out with my friends once a week (beer and pizza), and it hasn’t had a major impact on my weight loss or muscle work.

I guess I’m really just wondering if anyone has any comments or thoughts on the exercise I’m doing. I’m not looking for some kind of Spartan regime designed to turn me into a monster (let’s face it, it ain’t happening even if I wanted it to!) – but I would appreciate any comments anyone might have – if you’ve read this far :)
 
hi there,

I would stick with the cardio work in fact i might even increase it a little depending on what you want out of it all maybe 35 minutes. Keep with your current excersize bike routine but try just adding things like when your board running up and down the stairs.

Your weights you should really be focusing on the core excersizes so even if you dont have a bench what i would do is, place a few pillows under your back with your head against the sofa and do a few dumbbell presses.

Also try increasing the weight but doing fewer reps i.e 3 sets of 6. Im not really sure about this im sure someone else can advise you.
 
For a bit of hands on reading you could by this months Mens health magazine. There is a small handbook in it that shows pictures of almost all weightlifting techniques. Very useful if you are unsure about things. And less hard to navigate than exrs or whatever its called site :)
 
Hedge said:
For a bit of hands on reading you could by this months Mens health magazine. There is a small handbook in it that shows pictures of almost all weightlifting techniques. Very useful if you are unsure about things. And less hard to navigate than exrs or whatever its called site :)
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I'll grab a copy tomorrow :)

Killa_ken said:
Also try increasing the weight but doing fewer reps i.e 3 sets of 6. Im not really sure about this im sure someone else can advise you.
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If anyone else could comment on that, that would be great :)

Thanks for replying, fellas.
 
do you have the 20kg split over two dumbbells? thats not that much really is it? or am i just lifting too much (im like 9 stone 12 and I have 15 kilos on each dumbbell at the moment)
 
Rich1988 said:
do you have the 20kg split over two dumbbells? thats not that much really is it? or am i just lifting too much (im like 9 stone 12 and I have 15 kilos on each dumbbell at the moment)
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It doesn't matter. If he has 20KG split over two dumbbells and this is hard, then this is exactly what he should be doing. Building muscle IS NOT about the weight you lift, it's about the percentage of weight you lift of your maximum, for a certain number of reps, and sets, with strict form.

Often, weight doesn't have a bearing on strength either. I've seen videos of small, 11-12 stone chaps deadlifting 700odd lbs. Now that's a serious amount of weight for someone who weighs no more than 170lbs.

If you're lifting 15KG on each dumbell, then well done that's not bad going for someone under 10 stone. But if you're lifting 15KGs with bad form (I am not saying you are this is an example) and this other chap is lifting 10KG with perfect form, then his results are going to far surpass the dude lifting the heavier weights.

Be careful, don't go down the road of believing you are lifting too much, or that you are too strong for your own size. This is a slippery slope and leads to 'ego lifts' which in turn lead to all sorts of injuries and absoloutly no progress what-so-ever.
 
Yea your obviously right about form its something i spent along time trying to get right (tbh I'm probably still fairly sloppy) Im new to weights as well and I just assumed that a heavier weight would help you build muscle quickly (I didnt start on 15kg I started on 8 and worked my way up so I it would help me get the tecnique as good as I could) and my aim really is just to build muscle up and keep it there and lose the fat around it rather than keep building up muscle as im not going to try and be super buff or anything :p I obvously have a lot left to learn :)
 
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Form and range of motion are the most important things when it comes to weightlifting. No one is interested in what you lift, so dont try to push yourself to sound cool.

Get the form down 100%. You want slow steady motions. Moving your arm smoothly on the downward stroke, and slowly and steadily on the upward. I have seen 16yr olds in the gym benching good weights, yet they bounce em up and down real fast. If they were to slow down and use good form, the weight would sure as hell drop.

Just take it steady. As long as you are feeling a pump and burn in ya muscle, then you are doing it good. :)
 
Rich1988 said:
my aim really is just to build muscle up and keep it there and lose the fat around it rather than keep building up muscle as im not going to try and be super buff or anything :p I obvously have a lot left to learn :)
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You've basically just described the bulking and cutting cycle in it's most simplest form right there. You'll need to work hard to build, work hard in the cut and work hard to maintain. It's hard, but my god it's worth it.
 
That website is pretty cool, actually. I got the magazines anyway, and they seem ok (but unrealistic if they think I'll ever look like anyone in there - except the "before" picture of a success story ;)).

My final question (in this paragraph anyway) is what kind of routine should I be looking at? At present I do any combination of about 6 or 7 exercises, 3 days a week. Each workout follows my HIIT workout on the bike. At present I also do Abs work three times a week.

Would I be better off only doings arms and shoulders one day, back exercises a couple days later and legs/abs a couple days after that? For me that would currently mean Monday, Wednesday and Saturday (the easiest days for me at this time). If so, should I be resting on the days in-between, or should I get some cardio in there somewhere? I ask as I kind of enjoy my HIIT stuff when I get in :) If not, I walk a lot anyway :cool:

Big thanks to everyone who has responded so far.
 
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