I am naturally a 'broad' guy before I started bodybuilding and would class myself as an mesomorph. I've been doing it for about 5 to 6 months now. For the amount of time I've been doing it, I've seen incredible changes! I have my own 'mini' gym in the garage with a bench press, pull-up bar and several dumbbells + barbells (I get lazy changing the weights for different exercises!) I only ever use natural food + boosters. Though expensive, you can't beat skinless chicken breasts! 5 to 6 meals a day consisting of high protein and fibre. If I don't have time for a meal, I'd mix some skimmed-milk with Natural Isolated Filter Whey Protein and have that. I've went from doing 10kg barbell curls to 35kg curls (35kg of weights, not including the bar or spinlocks. Same for the rests of exercises), 15kg military presses to 40kg, 2.5kg bent lateral raises to 12.5kg and the list goes on!
Slight thread hijack but since there are a few knowledgeable people here, what would you guys recommend I do? I've just signed up at a gym simply to try and lose a bit of weight, I used to go walking several times a week but the weight loss seems to have slowed down (half a pound a week if I'm lucky) so I need to do a bit more. I usually go 2 or 3 times a week and work out for about an hour - 20 mins each on treadmill, exercise bike and rowing machine. Not seen much results yet but it's still early days, do you think I need to do longer workouts/visit more often? The staff at the gym are OK but not that helpful.
meat - if you repeat the same workout over and over you will slow down results after a while. This is called the plateau effect. You should vary your workouts every month or so to get a fresh boost. Maybe push yourself to 40 mins on one machine for awhile and rotate machines. See if that helps anything. Then after a while you can go back to 20 mins each again.
Go for a jog 3x a week, preferably around 30-45 minutes. You should jog at a pace at which you are unable to talk. At the gym, I recommend you to start squatting and deadlifting. I know, I know; you are interested in simply losing a bit of weight, and not becoming the next Jay Cutler. BUT: the truth is that mass exercises like the two aforementioned employ a myriad of stabilizer and synergist muscles which, in addition to working out the large muscle groups in your legs and back, will burn a crapload of calories. And, as an added plus, you will gain a bit of strength and muscle mass to make you look more manly.
I usually reach my plateaus around every 3 months, anything under that I still get stronger on the same exercises from week to week
First of all, what does your typical day consist of, diet wise? If you want to lose weight in the healthiest and best for you way possible, you need to do weight lifting, as Decane suggested. Squats and lunges etc are very intensive, and burn a lot of calories. Whilst continuning to build your muscle, you will find that you start shedding weight, not just from the exercise, but the extra muscle will burn more fat just to sustain itself. It is quite slow, but means you keep a very good level of overall fitness, and depending on what state your weight is in now, you can see results very quickly. The exercise and higher base metabolic rate add together to create a very noticable effect. This is what I would suggest to anyone looking to get healthier, regardless of whether they wanted to lose weight or gain muscle; it is best to do both at a balanced and controlled pace. However, the faster, but not the best, method of losing weight is exactly what you are doing (lots of cardio), but with a slight twist. It is called High Intensity Interval Training. The idea is you hit a treadmill, bike or rowing machine, keep going harder and harder until you find the point at which you will feel the burn, but feel like you could hold out at this rate indefinitely. It is easier to find on a treadmill or bike. You will know it when you find it because, especially if you are like me, your legs will ache, but you will hit a limit of fatigue, and won't feel like you are losing any energy anymore. Anyway, find this speed/resistance and go at it for something like 20 minutes. Then stretch (again, obviously, as you should stretch before doing any exercise anyway) and get back on it. Do 10 minutes at your zone again, and then, for 30-45 seconds, nail it as hard as you can. Run/row/cycle as fast as you can and as hard as you can. Then rest for another minute - a minute and a half. And by rest, I mean go back to your zone speed. Hey, I never said this would be easy did I? Once the minute or minute and a half are up, hit it again at full pelt for 30 or 45 seconds. Try and do this as many times as you can, but 10 is enough really. After that, espeically if you are in a gym, maybe go for some bench presses or crunches while your legs rest for a little. If not in a gym, crunches and push ups etc can still be done. Make what is around you work for you. Then, repeat again. Might be worth stretching again, but only really if instead of doing something useful, you just passed out after round number 10 If you can get 30 (3 sets of 10) out in a gym session (I usually make mine about an hour and a half to two hours, but I really suggest no one does more than two hours of intense work out), then you are off to a good start. Continue doing this once or twice a week, and throw some weight training in on the other 3 or 4 days (I suggest taking two days off a week, but atleast 1) and before you know it you will feel much better, and even start seeing improvements. HIIT sheds weight incredibly quickly, and when coupled with some weight training you will have the toned muscles ready to go on show once the weight is gone. The HIIT schedule I suggested was off the top of my head, but should work wonders. If you want some professional (or semi-professional) advice, I would suggest signing up to the Men's Health forums or something and asking around there. It is not an easy regime by any means, but it is perfect for building a very healthy and powerful body, with little fat. I suggest sticking to weight training, unless you have a need for some cardio training (plan to run a marathon etc). However, 1 HIIT session a week is not going to have that negative effect on muscle building, so long as you are eating and working out correctly. However, if you are just desperate to shed weight, do 3 or 4 HIIT sessions a week, trying to leave a day inbetween each at all times. Working out the same muscle group(s) continuously is very bad.
just for the record , dont even think about BCAA if you cant afford to get like 40+ grams a day ( includes pre , during and post workout ) . Like other people will tell you keep to protein for bcaa after wo .
Nothing beats skipping for CV; in my opinion! Best possible exercise you can get! Outside in the fresh air and very intense! Costs about £4 for a decent, durable skipping rope as well, no need for gym memberships.
40+ grams of what per workout ? just looked and my friend's box says 5 grams through workout XD Hopefully you're not talking about protein because I easily take 120 grams a day
no , talking about BCAA. Put some time into reading on the net there are great forums . Most of the supp dont really do anything but empty ones pocket . Nothing beats hard work , good food and rest ( except roids ) .
Protein are mostly a scam, except some situation where Pro athletes need more calories a supplement to their diet, however it will only work IF your body need it. Used to take some, didn't really worked. Its not as good a meat or fresh fish... My brother is in the Football (american football, not soccer) and he need to take as many pound of muscle as he can until the new season start. He used to take protein powder, not he stopped it too. He eat better (more equilibrated died) and he took 10lbs in the last 3 weeks. Final : Not necessary!
WARNING: For those who care about their health - always read the ingredients. Avoid any protein powder that contains "Aspartame" or "Sucralose". Those companies are sticking these "Sugar substitutes" and "Artificial colours into products for the sole purpose of increasing their profits. Do some research and it might just disgust you...the poisons they put into the food these days is disgusting and do you think these corporations give a rat's ass about you or me? Just as an example, over 40,000 died from the use of prescription drugs. Aspartame is ~300 times as powerful as sugar - do the math! BTW: "Diet, Exercise, rest". There's no more simpleformular than that!:banana:
My shake do already contain carbs and about a thousand calories on training days on their own but I have other intakes (often rice/pasta) I take shakes as ADDED to my regular diet basically because of my small stomach which, if I tried to intake the same ammount with regular food, would probably blowup Anyway I don't eat much crap, I don't drink soda/beer, no mcdonalds/friends, no candies/chocolate bars I take 1 fruit in the morning with either toast with fruit jam or a bowl of cereal (the heavy cereal type not the sugary ones) with 2% milk Then at lunch it's either a 6 inch or 12 inch at subway, on gyms day I take white chicken pieces with rice, salad and potatoes for lunch. The only exceptions is on Fridays where I tend to get General Tao chicken (my weakness). Then in the afternoon (around 4PM) I take a protein shake; Mad Mass from Revolution Nutrition: if I train I'll get a second one also after Then I eat twice more in the evening, one regular rice/potato with one serving of vegetables and one portion of meat (chicken, pork or beef). My second meal is usual a fruit with left overs from previous meals or sandwitch with cold meat (Hungarian Salami would be my favorite)
Have any of you guys tryed Creatine? Its not an effect which lets you carry on training when you are totally exhuasted - some on here are making it sound like speed or MDMA which lets you dance the night away :3eyes: its not a surge or rush or anything like that. It increases the ATP which is your muscles energy reserve, its very hard to describe but it allows a couple more reps and a heavier weight to be lifted. Only 5grams a day is needed and its simply a natural product found in steak etc. It does make a huge difference to workouts and endurance. When on creatine I gain a lot of size and stength very quickly. My weights rocket up in KG at the gym. Once I have a break from it I can still lift the increased weights = job done Seriously do some research its not the monster some are making out. As for protein shakes I take these in mid morning and afternoon and after workouts. The ones I take contain BCAA's! The protein helps recovery, building mass and deffo has packed on lots of lean tissue for me!
No one is making them out to be monsters. The general consensus, and the point I am trying to get across, is that if you have the correct posture, technique, diet and are working out correctly, then the benefits of supplements are very small. They are largely just a quick fix for lazy people, and that is where the companies get their money; making people think they will massively improve their training. Very few people who take it are actually in a position where they have done everything else you are supposed to do first (perfect the diet etc), in which case the gains are even less, although still noticable. Personally, I don't think the extra difference on top of a correct diet and attitude are worth the large sums of money involved.
Profits damn 140 at 5'9 I am 5'9 and weigh 220 mostly beer belly as my legs are thin,my arms are good size,my face aint fat,maybe it is belly and man boobs damn i need some pushups.
