Poll: ***The all new gymrats thread***

Do we archive this thread and start a new one for 2010?

  • Yeah good idea.

    Votes: 11 78.6%

  • Nah I'm happy with this one.

    Votes: 3 21.4%
  • Total voters
    14
Status
Not open for further replies.
Ive just started going to the gym to try and give me some muscle. Ive always been really skinny, do lots of long distance running, but ive always wanted some muscles in my upper body, nothing too major just dont want that skinny scrawny look anymore. Currently im 6ft1 about 10 stone, 20 years old.

Ive been doing bis/tris/back one day, stuff with dumbells and similar for chest/shoulders another day, then cardio 3rd then whatever 4th and repeating. Also been doing abs workout every day. Should I be making use of other stuff like barbells/machines. Also, food wise does it matter too much as long as i get a good amount of protein in after a workout and carbs?
 
kicks66 said:
Ive been doing bis/tris/back one day, stuff with dumbells and similar for chest/shoulders another day, then cardio 3rd then whatever 4th and repeating. Also been doing abs workout every day. Should I be making use of other stuff like barbells/machines. Also, food wise does it matter too much as long as i get a good amount of protein in after a workout and carbs?
Click to expand...

Have you taken a read of GordyR's guide to bodybuilding? If you haven't then that would be a very good place to start. However if you've already done that then it might be helpful if you list what your routine is and roughly what your average diet would be.
 
I wouldn't be training abs every day. The rectus abdominus (responsible for 6 packs) is only one muscle. You wouldn't train any other muscle every day as you won't allow it time to recover and grow. There are plenty of other exercises that will work your core other than crunches and situps. Make sure you train legs too but as suggested have a read of the sticky :)
 
semi-pro waster said:
Have you taken a read of GordyR's guide to bodybuilding? If you haven't then that would be a very good place to start. However if you've already done that then it might be helpful if you list what your routine is and roughly what your average diet would be.
Click to expand...

Yer ive had a good look through it. Currently:

2000m row with 2:00 splits as warm up.

bicep/tricep/back: 3x10 of all of these
Tricep extension with dumbell
Curl with dumbell
Rope pushdown
Bar curl
Bent over row
Seated row

Also do 5 reps at each grip using that bar thats bent in several places so you can do different grips.

shoulders/chest: 3x10 of these:
Arnold press
Shoulder press
Bench press
Fly

Im using 8kg dumbells in each arm at the moment to give you an idea what sort of weights im using.

Also do a abs workout each day with 1.5 min plank, 30 sit ups, 30 twisting sit ups, 30 leg raises, 1.5 min side plank.

Usual diet is something like

Cereal and toast for breakfast
Eggs and toast for lunch
Gym session
Raisins and ham sandwich
Rice/pasta dish for dinner.

Think thats everything. Any criticism/suggestion would be helpful.
 
kicks66 said:
Yer ive had a good look through it. Currently:

2000m row with 2:00 splits as warm up.

bicep/tricep/back: 3x10 of all of these
Tricep extension with dumbell
Curl with dumbell
Rope pushdown
Bar curl
Bent over row
Seated row

Also do 5 reps at each grip using that bar thats bent in several places so you can do different grips.

shoulders/chest: 3x10 of these:
Arnold press
Shoulder press
Bench press
Fly

Im using 8kg dumbells in each arm at the moment to give you an idea what sort of weights im using.

Also do a abs workout each day with 1.5 min plank, 30 sit ups, 30 twisting sit ups, 30 leg raises, 1.5 min side plank.

Usual diet is something like

Cereal and toast for breakfast - Have porridge and eggs here.
Eggs and toast for lunch - Replace this with some nuts and yoghurt, if you cant cook a meal (see post workork out meal for ideas). A sandwhich with wholemeal bread and tuna would be fine here if you dont have time.
Gym session
Raisins and ham sandwich - here you need a post workout meal, Chicken/salmon/red meats, brown rice or humous(god knows how you spell that :P) and loads of green veg.
Rice/pasta dish for dinner. - Add more meat in here, chicken breast or some beef mince for example.

Snack on some fruit through out the day and also eat yoghurt, nuts, whole milk, cheese for snacks between these meals.

You wanna be aiming for 1g per lb of bodyweight in protein, this will provide your muscles with plenty to grow.
Calorie wise, about bodyweight (lbs) x 18 should give you your target calorie intake for growth per day.

Think thats everything. Any criticism/suggestion would be helpful.
Click to expand...

SQUATS
Deadlift
Bench press
Military press
Pullups
Dips
Power cleans/Hang cleans
Bent over rows

These are in order of importance. Look up some push/pull programs and you will be able to sort out a plan using these exercises.

These are the main exercises you need to get bigger, upper body and lower body.

1 or 2 isolations AFTER these exercises at the end of your session, no need to do abs as the above exercises will hit them.

By training legs you release the most growth hormone, this is what tells your muscles to grow. More GH = bigger muscles.

Your body also grows in proportion to other muscles, training legs will aid upper body growth.

Added comments to your diet through your post.
 
Last edited:
Have hardly posted in here lately.

Had big crash in go karting (side on) which seemed to badly bruise my ribs, plus have been ill for the last 4 days.

What a great start to xmas, but I did drag myself into work on thursday and live it up at the xmas party where the amber nectar worked better than any crap drug out there :D:D

Ready to kick off again tomorrow/Tues , with Deads, Squats, and some benching ready for a nice break back into it :D
 
Well I've had enough of the powerlifting team I was training with so I'm going it alone as none of them no anything about a good diet, their lifting meets turn into drinking sessions, They have had nearly a week off training to get drunk. Sounds like I'm being a bit boring but training is important to me.
 
When you do a sets do you do them like this

8 reps
rest
8 reps
rest
8 reps
rest

Or like this

8 reps
rest
New exercise
8 reps rest
New exercise
rest
8 reps
new exercise
rest
First exercise
And so on...


Which way is the best way? As ive been doing the second way.
 
Either way can work it just depends on what you're doing - the second way sounds a bit like supersetting except that would normally be alternating between just two exercises rather than the four you seem to have there if I'm reading it right.

Some exercises I tend to superset as a matter of course now (squats and step-ups for instance) and others I don't but go with what works for you - there isn't necessarily an absolute "best" here as our bodies respond differently to training.

burtieb1: That sounds a bit disappointing but I'm sure you've made the right decision.
 
My training this Saturday was awesome. And my new regime is really starting to pay off, I could actually stomach to look at myself in the mirror! LOL! I won't get SPW to pass a commentary however :p

I felt good this Saturday, you know when you just get on with it and feel strong and relentless amount of strength? Deadlifts were straightforward at 180 for reps, 30kg dips again felt straight forward and 120kg bench for reps weren't excessively difficult.

I'm just startign to get into my training again and unfortunately it's the Christmas break, but at the same time it'll be nice to have some time off and recover and just not worry about food, diet or exercise.
 
Pretty poor chest session today :(
Think I'm going to take a week off over the holidays just to refresh and maybe start in January with a completely new routine, problem is I will be going home for 2 weeks at the end of January so is it really worth starting a new routine for 3 weeks and then having a 2 week break. Maybe I should just continue with my routine until my holiday and then start fresh afterwards.
 
Illness a couple of weeks ago lost me 11 pounds - which is a fair whack considering I'm not the tallest. Only got back in the gym this week and definitely felt the loss, sure xmas will help me put it back; sadly I think the composition of that weight may be somewhat different to what came off!
 
Week 3 of this Am foot pre season routine

4 sets of 8, 7, 6, 5 on compounds.

7 Reps should be interesting, don't think I've ever aimed for a 7 rep set :D
 
Freefaller said:
I'm just startign to get into my training again and unfortunately it's the Christmas break, but at the same time it'll be nice to have some time off and recover and just not worry about food, diet or exercise.
Click to expand...

Me and Stu are aiming for strongman again in Feb/March :cool: Get ready!!

I squatted 100kg last week for 6 and felt no pain at all, so another 2 months of conditioning and we should be ready to go.

The log is still unused!!!
 
Saw a guy trying to curl the bar in the smith machine today :( It made me sad. Managed a good back/bis session today and have started doing chin ups again managed ~3 with slow negatives so hopefully can work that back up to ~6 then maybe to 10.
 
Hopefully I can make it to the next strongman meet in February (providing I'm back from Uni), if not I'm all over that like a bad rash once I've finished the year in the summer :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom