Never been to this part of the board before. It's shiny. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get some workout advice from you folks, if that's ok? I got a small set of dumbbells at christmas, and I'm looking to bulk up-I don't want to get huge, I just don't want to be skinny/slim anymore. I've been following a workout I found on the webs, but I don't think I'm doing it right. As a beginner I was just doing one set of 20 reps of each different exercise, but further reading has lead me to believe that if you want to put on muscle then less is more, and it isn't something you should do everyday. So basically, I'm confused as hell as to what I should be doing in order to put on muscle as effectively as possible. I've made sure that I picked a workout routine that exercised all the muscles (as far as I'm aware), but I get the feeling I'm doing it wrong by exercising everything, everyday, and that it may be working against what I'm trying to achieve here. So yeah-any help and advice would be welcomed and appreciated-if it makes any odds at all, I'm 34, 5' 11" and around 130lbs, and as I mentioned I only have dumbbells, so my workout has to be featured around those. Cheers. Edit: This is the workout I've been following-everything bar the Preacher curls: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/dumbbellexercises.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/du ... cises.html</a>
At 5'11", 130 lbs, "getting huge" should be the least of your worries. No offense, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around 5'11", 130 lbs. How have you not been blown away by a stiff breeze yet? Do you dress up as a scarecrow every year for halloween? Mind=blown. Take everything you think you know and throw it out the window. It's time for a clean slate. Here are a few things you should know, kind of a set of "golden rules", if you will. 1. Your diet has just as much to do with you gaining/losing weight/strength as your training. 2. You can not lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. Losing fat requires a caloric deficit. Gaining muscle requires a caloric surplus. 3. Strength training is different from bulking up (the technical name for "building muscle" is hypertrophy). There are many aspects of the two that overlap, but the principles guiding each one are different. 4. Along the lines of #2, you can not gain muscle if you don't eat more. Building muscle requires that you also put on a little chub to go along with it. This is necessary. No one walks around looking like a bodybuilder all of the time. Hell, even bodybuilders don't look like bodybuilders 90% of the time. They only look like that when they starve themselves before a contest. 5. Train hard, rest harder. The body gets stronger, builds muscle, and repairs itself while you rest, not while you lift. 6. Building muscle requires that you introduce ever-changing stimuli to your body. Lifting the same weights and same reps every workout will not get you anywhere. Now that that's out of the way, I highly suggest you try Mike's Beginner Program. It's a great program. It won't make you huge. It will make you strong, and it will make you bigger if you eat enough to allow yourself to grow. It will force you to join a gym, but there are many benefits to going to a gym. Being limited to a small set of dumbbells isn't going to do a single thing for you. (see rule #6) <a class="postlink" href="http://www.instrength.com/forum/showthread.php?t=116" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.instrength.com/forum/showthread.php?t=116</a>
Thanks for the advice-I'm definately going to be eating more (and, more appropriately), and I'll certainly be looking into joining a gym so that I can start doing Mike's Beginners Workout. In the interim though, is the workout I've been following no good? Is there any way I could change it around to make it of benefit? As for the 130lb thing, I could be wrong. I got on the electronic scales and pretty much as soon as the reading came up they turned off, so they could be fucked. Another factor is my depression (pretty much the main reason why I decided to start doing this, as it lifts my mood in a way I wouldn't have thought possible)-when I'm down, I hardly eat. When I'm ok I'm normally around the 150lb mark-not a hell of a lot, but not as bad as 130. I've just never really been able to put on weight. Thanks again.
Maybe I wasn't looking in the right place, but I didn't see a workout plan in there. All I saw were explanations of how to do certain exercises with dumbbells. A proper workout plan consists of daily, weekly, and monthly progressions of sets and reps for specific exercises. If a proper workout plan was an instruction manual, the link you sent would be the glossary. It never ceases to amaze me how many ailments and maladies can be solved through exercise and diet. Actually, I stopped being surprised by it a long time ago. What truly amazes me is the number of people who don't believe something as simple as exercise can boost your self image and cure many diseases. If you're looking for something to do in the meantime, the dumbbells are only going to be part of workout. Things like pushups, pullups (if you can find a door jamb to hang from somewhere), squats, etc are all going to play a major part in your workout. I'll see if I can't put something together. I'm at work and kind of busy right now, though.
Yeah-it's not a workout plan in that link, just something I've adopted as one until I could get more info. I've basically been doing 20 reps of each of those exercises a day, just to get my body used to working out. I appreciate your offer to help me out, especially as you're busy. I'd like to do this right, and you definately know your stuff, so thank you-your help is very much appreciated.
I'm going to second the suggestion for MobilityWOD. He yammers a LOT but the movements are highly effective at ungumming your parts. I've got my athletes performing mobility before or after every WOD now, and their performance has improved remarkably.
Ok, I have a question for the experts on this thread. What special advise is there for people who work 3rd shift (from 10pm-6am) is there, if any? Anything I should change in my diet? Work out before I go to work or after I get home? My gym is open 24 hours. I worked out for about 4 years, mostly heavy lifting, got up to some good personal goals (being able to bench 275lbs +, etc) but mostly wasted my time doing the same bland exercises and ignoring important ones. I started a new job at night 6 months ago and have only gone to the gym twice since then. I'm looking to start lifting again and don't want to fall into bad habits. Some other questions: -Is it possible to completely cut arm curls from my workout? I have long arms and proportionally slender forearms that make the motion awkward and am prone to tendonitis in that area. -My gym has lots of strongman equipment: cement logs, anvils for the farmers walk, kegs and stones. I've dabbled in the cement logs and anvils, but what exercises could I use as a beginner for the most benefit? I'm 5'11, 185 lbs with some residual muscle from being in shape from last year. My goal is to be strong all around and not just my upper body which used to be my only focus. I was never able to master the exercises with the most motion like the clean and jerk or snatch or anything. I'm also pretty unflexible so if there are any suggestions for that besides yoga I would appreciate it. Sorry for the ramble.
I guess I don't get your question. You still work 8 hours, sleep 8 hours, and do "other" for 8 hours. They just happen to be at different times of the day than a lot of other people. Train when ever you feel best about training. Yes, you can cut curls out of your workout, but be sure not to neglect bicep exercises. The reason bicep tears are the most common injury in strongman is because when it gets to the heavy weights, biceps are the weakest link. By neglecting to train them, you make yourself even more susceptible to bicep injury. If you decide to cut curls from your workout because they're painful (you're not alone in this) be sure to use exercises like all of the row variations-bent over, upright, seated, inverted-as well as pullups to strengthen the biceps. Hammer curls often don't have the pain associated with traditional, strict curl variations. Check them out. Deadlift, deadlift, deadlift, and overhead press. Then do some deadlifts. Yoga is good if you want to get flexible, but it doesn't do much for strength. If you want to gain flexibility, you can just do some stretching on your own. Make sure you don't stretch cold muscles, though. Warm up cold muscles, stretch warm muscles. Usually that means you should stretch after your workouts. A foam roller will help you out a lot, too.
I bought one of those GNC shaker bottles with the wire whisk type ball, in order to make quick protein shakes. Is there any way to throw fruit in it or would they not get mixed in well? I know it's not a blender, but is it worth trying to toss in some bananas or strawberries to the protein shake?
Not to be a dick, but couldn't you just put some fruit in the shaker and see what happens, instead of waiting for a reply on a message board?
So in squatting recently, I've noticed a pain that appears in my leg, specifically around the adductor area. It doesn't feel like much when I first start, but after getting up in sets/reps I really start to feel it, and it lasts quite some time. It first start a few weeks ago, I felt the pain, and then stopped squatting for about two weeks and then got back into it. The first time since I felt it but it wasn't painful, but I squatted on Monday and it started to hurt, and now after doing deadlifts today I can really feel it. It seems likely that it's a pulled groin-ish sort of thing, the thing that hurts is that tight thin sort of rope feeling thing that you can feel in between where the adductor longus and gracilis connect to the pubic bone, I'm not sure if it's the muscle or tendon. That all being said, what would you guys recommend? Stay off squats for a while? Ice?
I'd baby it. Work around it, and avoid any exercises that irritate it. Also, put some moist heat (or a heating pad if this is more practical in your lifestyle) on your groin for 12-15 minutes, do some gentle stretching, and follow that up with 12-15 minutes of ice. I would do that 2 or 3 times a day. Take Alieve if you need it. It takes about six weeks for tissue to heal. It takes even longer if you ignore what your body is telling you.
I have a pretty constant problem with height/weight standards. Thanks to being 5'9, my maximum weight is 186 pounds (I'm about 195 right now) I've had lots of fun with that; they give me three days notice before a weigh-in, and I spend those three days starving and dehydrating myself to make it. Wheee! Unfortunately, I keep getting bigger. I'm built pretty heavily in the shoulders, and they're getting bigger as I work out more. If I don't work out, I lose my pull-ups and do worse on physical fitness tests. But as I've been working out, I've gone from having to skip breakfast before a weigh-in to cutting weight. I haven't gotten to "wearing a trash-bag in a sauna" level, but if I gain another five pounds, I might start. The gunny is out to get me; he's a scrawny little fuck who assumes that anyone who's even close to the max is obviously a fatass chow hound. If I go over, I'm going to get mando regardless of how well I tape out. I have better things to do with my time. If only I was a couple inches taller... Any suggestions? I'm truly at a loss here, because at this rate I'll be 200 by February.
I know a lot of you guys preach resting, as that's when your muscles grow. I usually work out 3 days a week, but recently have been working out 4-5 days a week, and drinking a protein shake before and after working out. I've seen considerable gains in the past couple of weeks, maybe it's just due to consuming more calories, but could it also be working out almost every day? Of course I'm hitting different muscle groups every day, but I'm wondering if it's fine to work out consecutive days, or if it will make me more prone to injury. Also, what kind of protein powder do you guys use? I just bought a 2lb jar of MetRx chocolate powder, it has 23g per scoop. Doesn't taste terrible mixed with milk, but I would like to find something that tastes a little better.
4-5 days a week is fine, especially since you're splitting up the muscles you're hitting. If something hurts or you think you're working it too much, take a few days off. No problem with that. Currently using this protein, but only because they have 5lb for $20 special every now and then. Best tasting I've tried is ON gold standard, but it's pricey unless you find it on sale.
I've been using a 5 day a week program (Mike's Beginner Program from the old board and variations of it) for the last year and a half. In the last 6 weeks I've also added various cardio training 3 of those days. I've seen good gains and other then general soreness haven't had a single injury. Like Binky said, as long as your not targeting the same muscle group every day you should be fine. As far as protein powder, I've been using the chocolate EAS 100% whey for awhile and now it tastes good to me (not too sweet). You can also get a 5lb bag of it at Sam's Club for $32.
For a long time now whenever I walk on the treadmill I get tightness on the side of my calf that refers to my knee. Sometimes it starts in the foot and then the calf gets tight and sore. It's fucking me up because I can't go longer than a mile or around 20 minutes and I want to do a lot more. Anyone have any advice or ideas why this might be happening? Could it be my sneakers and that I need more arch support? I used to treadmill constantly when I was in my 20s and early 30s and NEVER had this problem.
It could be the treadmill, if it's not perfectly level then you're going to start building imbalances over time. One more reason to walk/run outdoors and stay away from hamster wheels.
It sounds like maybe it's a shoe issue. Did you go to a running store and get fitted (by someone who actually knows what he's doing) or just try on different shoes on your own? Your shoes are probably bringing you into pronation or supination. Treadmills are terrible, by the way. You should switch to outdoor running asap for many reasons.