Gym Supplements And Gaining Muscle...

[dann2707]

Ok so as from last week I joined the Sport Hallam gym at my Uni.

I'm 5'6" and 8.5 stone. I plan on going 2-3 times a week however I have been to 2 evening classes (which i intend to go to next week) that were pretty intense to the arms and abs. it's literally opposite my accommodation so I have so much more of an incentive of going, infact, I'm motivated and as are my flat mates who are also members of it so we are going to push each other.

Anyways, my next door flat mate has a bit of knowledge about muscle gaining and such so he's giving me like a plan.

4 sections/areas;

• Chest

• Shoulders

• Back

• Legs

Each stage has around 4-5 exercises within to do 3 sets of 10 reps on a weight that is just rightly suited.

He says to do 1 stage everytime you go to the gym and do them one after another for example Chest - Monday, Shoulders - Wednesday, Back - Friday, Legs - Sunday etcc

Anyway, after each workout I've been having two scoops of "Pure protein" mixed with water (ran out of milk atm). I'm aiming to eat more proteiny foods too, lots of chicken

Does this seem about right?

I'm just after tips and pointers into something I've missed or general advice.

cheers for reading..

Edited November 12, 2010 by dann2707

[Dwarf Shortage]

I know of a few ways to get ripped in 4 weeks

[1a2bcio8]

Creatine is great for some people. I recommend it.

Avoid milk with your protein shake as it slows the absorbtion of the protein.

Try to use freeweights and your body rather than machines if possible. Machines are useful for targeting very specific muscles but the former are better for targeting a broader range of muscle groups because of the balance involved.

Don't jump or explode your lifting, pulling, etc. but perform controled movements so that you stress your muscles across the entire range of the movement instead of only the initial part of the jump/explosion. Basically jumping your movement unweights yourself across a part of its range. This is in the sense of building muscle though. Plyometrics (explosive movements) can be useful for sports such as trials (TRA used to practice this) but I get the impression you're interested in shaping your physique rather than improving sporting performance.

Stick to the range of 6-12 reps for increasing muscle mass or volume. Less than for more power and compact muscle and more for muscular endurance.

Make sure you work opposing muscle groups to a similar extent to avoid causing yourself imbalances.

[Simpson]

Being 5 foot 6, without meaning to sound offensive but you don't really want to "get big" I box with a guy whos about 5'6 and hench as he can get and he just "looks" stupid, for shorter guys your better off gaining lean muscle - its also better muscle really as well.

What you aiming to do? Not really sure what a "good" weight is for someone your size, But i expect you could put a stone on pretty easily? Started seriously training 6 months ago, I'm 6 foot, gone from 12 and a half stone to 13 and just bulked up all round really.

Remember teckkkkk'as is so much more important that weight - and dont listen to people who throw round figures about "the right weight" to press or whatever, just practice learn, be safe and know what your comfortable with. You can hurt yourself very easily very quickly with free weights if you do it wrong.

Main bit of advise get a partner someone dedicated and someone whos going to push you.

I do two 2 hour boxing sessions a week, a football match (sometimes training) and gym 3-4 times a week. I take "my protein" whey protein after a hard session and try to take it 2 times a day, and i use creatine but not consistantly enough for me to get any real reward, cos its like a if you take it you have to do it every day, but you can't drink on it.... and im a big piss head lol

[Simpson]

Im bored so ill give you some more advise

- The more people you can get going to the gym the better, they will know all different exercises different routines etc. and you'll get calls telling you to come gym not just asking

- Just eat as much chicken and tuna as is humanly possible, stay away from saturated fats - try to eat 5-6 small meals a day

- don't have any BIG meals, really bad for your insulin levels and motabolism and you won't absorb all the good shit

- just because you CAN press 80 DONT. Whatever exersices you do you should be doing 8-12 reps for 3-4 sets, so just because your 1st set doesn't f**k you up, the last of your last set should be killing you.

- If you want to "look good" the triceps are a whole lot more important than Bi's.

- Remember to not Generalise muscles, the triceps arn't just tri's there are different parts of it. Like with Abs make sure you do exercises which do top middle bottom and sides.

- When your starting out start low. If you go and try to go big you will hurt yourself and not carry on going.

- Pyramid training is cool do some more research into it but machines make it dead easy to do, ie. on the fly machine we start on 130lbs do 8 "slammers" like high instensity reps. Do 10 of them, then put it down to 110 - the 90 till 70 where you literally DIE its really fun, really painfull and awesome!

- Bring a drinks bottle (and a towel if you really want to be considerate) clean up after yourself on the benches and keep hydrated.

- With most exercises when you lift you should pull your abs in as well so you work them out "as you go" if you like.

- Rest days are good but still take your protein.

- Dumbells are king, you work out a lot of "associated" muscle groups, ie when you bench press you work on a lot of "stabilising" muscles as well.

- Diet and nutrition is like 60% of getting fitter.

- Dont expect to go to the gym and look better within 2 months, also remember you and your mates see you everyday so wont notice the difference at all really. Only people who you aint' seen for a while will give you that confiedence boost.

yea im going bed lol

[snowy= leicester trials]

ok heres the deal , theres no quik natruel way to gain muscle , only thing that helps is a decent diet i assume you wanan get bigger , so you wanna eat more calories eat anything and everything it all adds up and also get a high calorey weight gainer if you go on www.taurus.co.uk cheap supplemtnts i go there because tis where i live but you can order look for atlas 1500cal weight gainer tastes liek shit but if you split one searving into 3 seriving through the day extra 1500 cal aday , a real good tip is oats this was off rendall monroe the boxer when i was skinney i began training at his gym and got talking to him in the changing rooms, so i tryed this it worked i gained abit of a belly like but nothing i couldnt shed when i was cutting up, i cant tell you how much you need to train back and legs do not think that if you just go train chest cause you want a big chest it doesnt work , you need to train back and shoulders and legs your friend is right to tell you that, heres how i train

monday- back/biceps

tuesday- chest/ triceps

wednesday-break

thurs-shoulders

friday -legs

i work in drop sets so ill start light doin like 10-12 reps work my way down 10-8-6-4-2 upping the weight each time gets your realy strong and helps make you bigger.

the hardest thing about weight training mate is the eating and motivation to train but depends how much you want it , i truely hated my body before i started calling me skinney was the worst thing in the world to me.

[dann2707]

I don't want to go for a huge multiquote but thanks so much for the replies, very helpful and a lot of information to absorb!

And no Simpson, I'm not wanting to get huggggee, but just wider shoulders, bigger arms, more appealing abs. However the abs are starting to show (obviously not from 2 weeks of gym) but generally because i'm quite active throughout the year and such.

I think motivation won't be such a problem though with us all joining it and wanting to push each other - it's weird but I never realised how much this helps as it's so easy to say "nahh not gyming it today i'm tired" or whatever.

By a good weight, I meant a good weight for myself as in something that I can lift but I can also do every set of reps with and finally find it very strenuous on the last set.

[Simpson]

If you want to keep your abs do not go near weight gain... having showing abs is more about having low body fat rather than big abbs. And weight gain as he said just "gives you a belly" if you wanted to get huge you would do that, but for general tone and shape pleaaase don't.

[Andrew C]

Hey i have a few question on this subject aswell.

First of all im looking to to visable mucle rather than going for huge muscle mass but im unsure on how to go about it. Im pretty skinny already but i do have a layer of fat over my muscles which im obviously gonna have to lose. I relise a good diet is what is needed along with exercise to lose this fat. But what excercises are good for fat loss.

Also im planning on just working out at home but all i have are dumbells and a running machine , i want to work on all muscles just using the dumbells if possable so what kind of excercises should i be doing.

And my final question, im planning on doing one muscle group a day and doing about 3 exercises consisting of about 10 reps, im wanting a supplement that compliments this exercise and what im trying to achieve so would something like this Protein be what im looking for?

[snowy= leicester trials]

alright mate because you havnt big muscle mass to start with once you start training your muscles will tone anyway train 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps ull soon start looking ripped and toned just take it easy on your first proper seshions, as you can realy hurt yourself if you do to much for to long:)

and for suppliments to be honest just eat right with any decent brand protein like gaspari,bsn, juststart training ull tone up anyway.

Edited November 13, 2010 by snowy= leicester trials

[Andrew C]

alright mate because you havnt big muscle mass to start with once you start training your muscles will tone anyway train 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps ull soon start looking ripped and toned just take it easy on your first proper seshions, as you can realy hurt yourself if you do to much for to long:)

and for suppliments to be honest just eat right with any decent brand protein like gaspari,bsn, juststart training ull tone up anyway.

Ok thanks mate

I could really do with some help on what excercises to do though seeing as i only have dumbells, any suggestions?

[snowy= leicester trials]

Ok thanks mate

I could really do with some help on what excercises to do though seeing as i only have dumbells, any suggestions?

you can do exercises with dumbells at home the problem is the weight you have , ive spent thousands on my home gym , i didnt relsie it was so expensive when i started a few year back, the plastic weights are usless they never weigh what they say if you go on youtube search up scooby home training he show you what you need to do with minimum kit:)

[Andrew C]

you can do exercises with dumbells at home the problem is the weight you have , ive spent thousands on my home gym , i didnt relsie it was so expensive when i started a few year back, the plastic weights are usless they never weigh what they say if you go on youtube search up scooby home training he show you what you need to do with minimum kit:)

Ok cheers again mate

And i should be alright my weights are hard core, rusty, steel ones and go up to 8 kg so that should be enough to get me started

[Simpson]

If you got a running machine at home just do a shed load of "trudges" we do them at boxing and in the gym all the time. Slow pace long duration. I.e. between 9-10km/h for 40 mins to 2 hours. Keeps you in the fat burning zone.

[Revolver]

I started doing some weight lifting two weeks ago..

On one day I do 4 sets of 15 hammer curls and 4 sets of 15 ordinary curls where you turn the weight 90 degrees.

On the next day I do 4x15 skull-crusher type exercises, and 4x15 bench press type exercises.

My question is, ought I to have a rest day in between? Current schedule is just alternating until the weekend and slacking off saturday and sunday.

Would this shit work faster if I went for bicep-tricep-rest-bicep-tricep-rest?

I also do ab exercises in between each exercise.

[Simpson]

I

to be honest mate doesn't sound like you do enough work to tear the muscle enough that you need a rest day. Your body will tell you itself really anyway.

Doing bi -tri - bi -tri day to day would be better for you though.

[Revolver]

Hmm..

I suppose there's nothing stopping me doing it on saturdays and sundays as well.

I'll look at what other exercises I could do too.

[snowy= leicester trials]

if you wanna gain size lift heavey this is normally when you need rest days due to damaging the muscle to repair back bigger which takes 7 days the rest day is litrally just a rest day for me somthing where i can chill back get other stuff done in my life, like cutting periods where you do high rep like 10-20 reps or just to failure is for toneing hardening the muscle to be honest never normally leaves me aching all that bad the next day.

[ellingtj]

For the OP, you don't need supplements. I've been lifting weights for strength purposes for years and can out lift everyone I personally know and they always ask what I use- nothing! I don't even particularly eat that well or do the regular eating thing, but what I do do is, put as much effort as I can into each set and concentrating on keeping good form till the end of the set. I also do the last set to failure on each exercise. Trust me you may think you're puting effort in but trust me you're probably not - you need to train with someone who is much stronger to make you work. If you're working out then do just that - work! You will see gains quickly with reference to strength and appearance, easily something within a month. If you're totally new to it then you can hit a lot of muscle groups on one day, as you get stronger then you can split mucles groups into seperate days, either way you must have rest days inbetween.

[Andrew C]

Ok wored out for the first time in ages yesturday and i think iv over done it

Think i worked on my chest to much and its fcking killing me.

[ellingtj]

Ok wored out for the first time in ages yesturday and i think iv over done it

Think i worked on my chest to much and its fcking killing me.

Sounds like you did just fine then, keep it up.

[isitafox]

Another thing to note as I don't think anyone else has said, drink water, a lot of water. You want to be downing about 2.5l a day from my experience if your not already, it helps a lot. And if you want some decent low price protein have a look on myprotein.co.uk. Thats where I ended up after spending a fortune on all the different brands and found you save quite a bit of cash, plus the ground porridge oats and stuff they sell is good to throw in your shakes to add a bit more carbs and aid the bulk!