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I was doing a full body routine when I first started and seen good gains and weight loss. Was on it for around 3 months and loved it
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I was doing a full body routine when I first started and seen good gains and weight loss. Was on it for around 3 months and loved it
Soldato
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I was doing a full body routine when I first started and seen good gains and weight loss. Was on it for around 3 months and loved it
That was probably more due to the fact that you first started, rather than the actual routine
Associate
Yeah I suppose but I don't think I could have really done better in those three months 
So It should benefit disco boy as he is just starting out?
It really depends on what he wants tho, I went with a full body because I wanted fat loss and more mass
So It should benefit disco boy as he is just starting out? It really depends on what he wants tho, I went with a full body because I wanted fat loss and more mass
This. There are so many better exercises out there.
Soldato
I'm looking forward to joining u gaiz. I've set myself a date to enter a proper gym for the first time ever and am just frantically putting the pieces together so I can start having a nice, complete plan of attack.
Have a routine nearly sorted (due to shift work it's been recommended I do a 2 day split, at least at the gym and do some non-gym circuits or something at home another day)
Upper Days:
Flat bench
Chins
Military Press
Rows - BORs seem tricky, for a noob, and my inner keyboard jockey says it looks easy to cheat on, should I man up or go for the one arm db row?
Guns - standard curls?
Lower Days:
Squats
Deadlifts
Single leg work - bb lunges/reverse lunges?
Calves - er... raises? (w/something to stand on so I can get a bigger RoM)
I've been told to give reverse pyramid sets a go for this stuff, just reading up on rep ranges. I thought it seemed too little but having done some reading I've seen excellent results out of people doing 2 days splits but making sure to give it their all in the gym. I don't intend staying in my job for more than 1-2 years due to the health hazards of shift-work (foot in the door job) so hopefully I can spread it out a bit more eventually. You grow bigger when resting though so if I smash it a few days a week then recover a few days... let's hope this works out.
I also need advice on warming up. I intend on buying a foam roller but warm up sets and that kind of thing is something I have little knowledge about.
Diet-wise I'm going to hop on the IF Leangains bandwagon - I've just seen too many good results to not try it and it would work nicely with my shifts. Need to figure out my bf% though so I can get some accurate estimates of calorie intake for gym/rest day, can use a Bod Pod for £30 at a college in London to get a super accurate reading so imma do dat. Think I may need to buy a mini freezer though, as my appeals for kitchen space to store extra food (especially for cleaning up what I eat on work days given I di 90% of my eating there and there's only a fridge and microwave) are falling on deaf ears.
I also need the silly stuff - little backpack I jog to the gym with that'll fit my water bottle and notebook (for recording lifts), I want some VFF as I need proper footwear (i.e. thin flat sole) - same ones as you've got Freefaller except the new black/blue colour, got to go SportsDirect and get some gym clothes... good thing I have a couple of weeks left! Bit nervous truth be told but I want to be one of those people you see on BB.com's Transformations bits. Hard work and long term, but it's something I've wanted to do for a while.
/TLDR
Have a routine nearly sorted (due to shift work it's been recommended I do a 2 day split, at least at the gym and do some non-gym circuits or something at home another day)
Upper Days:
Flat bench
Chins
Military Press
Rows - BORs seem tricky, for a noob, and my inner keyboard jockey says it looks easy to cheat on, should I man up or go for the one arm db row?
Guns - standard curls?
Lower Days:
Squats
Deadlifts
Single leg work - bb lunges/reverse lunges?
Calves - er... raises? (w/something to stand on so I can get a bigger RoM)
I've been told to give reverse pyramid sets a go for this stuff, just reading up on rep ranges. I thought it seemed too little but having done some reading I've seen excellent results out of people doing 2 days splits but making sure to give it their all in the gym. I don't intend staying in my job for more than 1-2 years due to the health hazards of shift-work (foot in the door job) so hopefully I can spread it out a bit more eventually. You grow bigger when resting though so if I smash it a few days a week then recover a few days... let's hope this works out.
I also need advice on warming up. I intend on buying a foam roller but warm up sets and that kind of thing is something I have little knowledge about.
Diet-wise I'm going to hop on the IF Leangains bandwagon - I've just seen too many good results to not try it and it would work nicely with my shifts. Need to figure out my bf% though so I can get some accurate estimates of calorie intake for gym/rest day, can use a Bod Pod for £30 at a college in London to get a super accurate reading so imma do dat. Think I may need to buy a mini freezer though, as my appeals for kitchen space to store extra food (especially for cleaning up what I eat on work days given I di 90% of my eating there and there's only a fridge and microwave) are falling on deaf ears.
I also need the silly stuff - little backpack I jog to the gym with that'll fit my water bottle and notebook (for recording lifts), I want some VFF as I need proper footwear (i.e. thin flat sole) - same ones as you've got Freefaller except the new black/blue colour, got to go SportsDirect and get some gym clothes... good thing I have a couple of weeks left! Bit nervous truth be told but I want to be one of those people you see on BB.com's Transformations bits. Hard work and long term, but it's something I've wanted to do for a while.
/TLDR
Soldato
you guys will enjoy this: http://youtu.be/_-91_iXATY8
Soldato
Soldato
Refreshing to see someone new who has done their research
Man of Honour
:/
Really good so far, today's 10x3x110kg might be a little tricky as I'm in my bad gym with no spotter... Overall it seems to be a good programme though.Would you expect anything else from me?
Good benching! How are you finding smolov?
As a beginner I think full body workouts are the way forward. The amount of training stimulus you need is so small you're much better off hitting everything 3x a week.So is training each muscle group once a week enough in your experience?
To gain lean mass, and to do that I know I'm going to have to make some significant diet changes. If it is of any relevance I'm 5' 8" and about 67kg atm.
I used to be a lightweight rower so have done weights before but never gained significant mass due to the volume of cardio we were doing. I don't want to lose fitness so I usually do one 6 mile run and 1 erg a week as maintenance training. Is that likely to significantly hold back any muscle gains I make?
What is wrong with situps? Are crunches a decent alternative?
Thanks.
Without eating LOADS, your cardio might limit you. Look into HIIT, it'll keep your fitness up while minimising the negatives (Dom will back me up here, he's a rowing coach).
Situps are just bad for your core and spine, and crunches are only a bit better. Given that there are so many more functional core exercises available, it's alarming that situps are prescribed so frequently.
Standard list:
Planks
Ab wheel roll outs
Reverse crunches
Pallof press
As long as you have a rest day in between, full body could well be better. You can still do different things each day, just have an A and a B workout.
The important thing to remember about splits: You guys are bodybuilders who are advanced in their training progressions. It's unnecessary to decimate your muscles in body part splits until you've made significant physical adaptations.
1 arm DB rows are as easy as BORs to cheat on
If you're going to do bicep curls, you need to be doing a tricep isolation too.
Deadlifts on the same day as squats is going to be tricky...
Reverse DB lunges would be my choice of those two.
This is really common, but people have no idea what it's for.
Stick with a simple 3x8-12, or less reps and more sets on lower body stuff.
Warming up is as simple as raising your body temperature a little and activating your muscles. You can normally just do this by doing certain exercises first with a few lighter sets (squats, deads, etc.), but some people like to do 5 mins of easy jogging or rowing.
Diet will be one of the main factors holding back your mass development, if your not eating more cals then your using then you will not be providing the body with sufficient building materials to grow.
Example, if your body needs a minimum of 1500 cals per day just to stay the same without doing anything ( known as your base metabolic rate ), you then need to compensate for exercise, say a multiple of 1.5 given that you do 3 workouts per week + cardio that takes you to 2250 just to maintain body weight. If your looking to add mass it is advised to go 500 cals over your required amount.
For the details on diet and calculations check out this thread put together by our very own steedis
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18299646
I don't think my diet is holding me back yet, although I'm sure I'd see bigger/quicker gains if I could really tighten it up. I've seen decent gains in terms of what I can lift over the last 3 months so I can only assume I'm eating enough.
I'm very weary of putting on fat, this is something I really want to avoid and from what I gather putting on lean mass without some fat is a pretty slow process?
Thanks for the link it makes interesting reading. I don't think my diet is that bad but I ought to look at it properly.
Could you suggest some? Or does the core get enough of a workout doing squats and deadlifts?
I do some core exercises (plank, side raises, glute bridges etc.) but I'm sure I should be doing more.
Is there any truth in the idea that a FB routine is more likely to help shift fat whilst gaining mass than a split routine?
From a quick read about HIIT I should be able to incorporate that into the rowing sessions quite easily.
Appreciate the core exercise suggestions, I'll look into an ab wheel as there isn't one at my gym, but is there any alternative for the meantime? Also is there any alternative to the pallof press? We don't have a machine I can use for that. My gym is quite low tech y'see!
Sorry, but do you mean side leg raises? That is what I meant so wanted to check we were talking about the same thing! I'll stick to your suggestions above I think. Are the glute bridges worth keeping?
Yeah I suppose but I don't think I could have really done better in those three months
It really depends on what he wants tho, I went with a full body because I wanted fat loss and more mass
I do two days on, one day off, with sessions just under an hour. And a 4 day split.
There's no way that I could do all muscle groups in one session (even if my sessions were longer). Who has the energy to squat when they have just done deadlifts? You also can't possibly hit your shoulders as hard as possible if your tris are tired from benching...
And there's no way also that I could do the same routine the next day, because the muscle groups I have worked are well and truly knackered for at least 24 hours.
So even though I am a beginner, I'm quite happy working every group once every six days. It means that I get to really work them!
Work on doing planks (properly) and reverse crunches until you can get an ab wheel. Land mines are also good, but, again, you have to be doing them properly.
Side leg raises are basically irrelevant, unless you've been precribed them by a physio. I had assumed you meant something else, equally pointless
Associate
I alternated my squats and dead lifts so it wasn't too tiring I trained on a Mon, wed and Friday with 5 different exercises for chest, legs, biceps, triceps and 1 for back and the session added up to around 2hrs if I could get round everything quick including 15 mins of CV. Never had to work my shoulders but regret not working my legs as much because now my squat is lagging behind my bench and dead lift Its hard to put everything I did up as I took things out and added them in every 2-3 weeks for more versatility.
After trying a 3 day split for a few weeks I quickly came to hate it and discovered 5/3/1 but thats mainly strength orientated which I really enjoy, Into my second cycle now
Look for a routine which you enjoy, try out different ones because if you don't you might just give up which I've seemed to experience in the past?
EDIT: Diet is the most important thing you should consider, without it you will be hindering your progress so its something worth doing your research on.
I trained on a Mon, wed and Friday with 5 different exercises for chest, legs, biceps, triceps and 1 for back and the session added up to around 2hrs if I could get round everything quick including 15 mins of CV. Never had to work my shoulders but regret not working my legs as much because now my squat is lagging behind my bench and dead lift Its hard to put everything I did up as I took things out and added them in every 2-3 weeks for more versatility. After trying a 3 day split for a few weeks I quickly came to hate it and discovered 5/3/1 but thats mainly strength orientated which I really enjoy, Into my second cycle now
Look for a routine which you enjoy, try out different ones because if you don't you might just give up which I've seemed to experience in the past?
EDIT: Diet is the most important thing you should consider, without it you will be hindering your progress so its something worth doing your research on.
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Soldato
Thanks. I am not taking this lightly and am not a person to just 'dive in' to something. I am a nerd, and therefore like to understand something before doing it to avoid, as the phrase I've seen says, '***arounditis'.
I'm stealing this for my core workout.
The reason I was given upper/lower, was essentially because my shift pattern is annoying and changes each week between days and nights. For recovery/fatigue/keeping motivation, after night shifts, it was suggested I do the following:
U= Upper body
L = Lower body
I understand completely that for a beginner, things like Stronglifts are good because you're doing the big compound lifts x3 a week, but SL also typically looks like A, day off, B, day off, C, weekend off, repeat. When I have those 6-7 days off in the first week, it's feasible, but the other chunks of days off, it's not, and I guess the idea was to not overcomplicate things for me early on by swapping things about too much, and meaning I can do 2 days straight heavy lifting in order to recover from night shifts (I wake up in the afternoon a zombie) and prepare for night shifts (I stay up really late the night before).
I'm fully open to ideas about routines to work around this pattern, and have a couple of weeks to finalise things. If I have a routine for that first week off, and a different routine for those 2 sets of days off, fine. I do feel that trying to work out, for example, when I've got in from work at 10am that day and then woken up at about 4-5pm, just isn't going to happen. I feel like death and then have to get my body sync'ed back to doing days again.
1 arm DB rows are as easy as BORs to cheat on
BORs it is then.
Skullcrushers, presumably (w/that bendy bar), or bench dips.
Is this not what you do w/Stronglifts though, on workout B? My understanding is that it should be fine, up to the point where I'm lifting more impressive weight, at which point my deadlift will suffer. I hope by that point, I'm not doing the same job and can do a 3 day split. Also, while I could rotate which one goes first, my intuition is that it's easier to bail a deadlift than a squat, and the squat uses more muscles, therefore the squat should stay first.
Ta.
I will be jogging to the gym and back. It should take about 15mins. I am not completely alien to exercise, I used to jog a bit before extended cardio got boring, I cycle around a bit in a hilly area and I have ****ed about with kettlebells and bodyweight stuff. Strength wise, I can do about 8 chin ups with decent form (154lbs/11 stone-ish) and body-wise if you stripped whatever % of fat there is on this frame, I wouldn't be a complete weed. My failing has always been diet - I guess I eat about maintenance now, but I'm still carrying fat from my teenage years.
The diet part is probably daunting me the most - I really feel like I need to get all scientific about my macros and know how much I need to be eating vs how much I am, and obviously what I'm eating. I'm prepared to start buying a load of food for myself (live at home), it's just working this around what I'm given for dinner. In a way I wish I could just pay someone to prepare and put food down in front of me every day, but you only learn by doing...
I'd point out I do know my proteins from my fats from my carbs now, it's just the whole procedure of trying to ensure I'm hitting my 'x1.5' protein target and thinking of what I can eat, if I do Leangains, on gym days and rest days.
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Man of Honour
Forget about leangains and 1.5x g of protein per lbm - unless you're going to obsessively wanting to compete etc... there's just no need to be that fastidious about it. Just make sure it's appealing, varied, and something that you can follow easily without it causing you grief.
Soldato
I know, I guess I'm just impatient and want to obtain great results as quickly as is realistic (which is still long-term), probably from watching things like:
And all the Transformations on bb.com.
I haz no Jeff Willet helping me obviously, just the internets!
And all the Transformations on bb.com.
I haz no Jeff Willet helping me obviously, just the internets!
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