Hello There People. I am coming to the NG gym in hopes of joining it. I am of a wirey stature and I wish to tone and build muscle. I am getting sick of looking scrawning or even a little fat so I am asking good workout tips that I can do build and tone muscle in my body. I do have a gym at school I can go to. So anyone got any workout methods?

fwoarrr, Hopin' to get to buy those 45lb DBs today. I'm pumped for arm day, and since it's flooding out, I'm kind of stuck at home, so it's just DB exercises for now. BUT I WILL MAKE DUE. Hopefully there'll be a cheap bar and some plates with which I can use to deadlift at home too. ^__^

Overall, I've been seeing recent improvements in my rows, chinups, squats, deadlifts, DB rows, curls, and pretty much all DB-related exercises as well. However, my bench is still way below what is normal. I don't know, I'm 99% positive my form is messed up, because I can pull off other shoulder exercises pretty well.

Like, an arch like this: ( ?

I think it's the shoulder blades.

Anyway, arm day was today, and since it's flooding out and my county has faggy blue laws, I couldn't purchase what I wanted to, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow. >:O >:O >:O ;_;

anyway, I did:

4 sets of 8 reps of DB bench presses
4 sets of 8 reps of DB military presses (being the dumbass I am, I managed to drop a weight on my toe and split open right above the nail, hurr)
7 sets of self-supported one-arm DB row, Version 1
5 sets of self-supported one-arm DB row, Version 2
2 sets of decline DB curls
5 sets of DB curls
5 sets of shoulder shrugs
4 sets of lateral raises
50 one-leg pushups (the toe is still hurtin' so I had to do one-leg)

I dunno what I'll do about leg day tomorrow with the deep bruise and the cut I have on my big toe...I'll have to see. Oh well.

I'm trying to get ready for the army so, I've started to jog. I'm not that fat, as in a big blob of gooey goo. But I could lose some pounds. actually I don't mind working back breaking jobs, ie wearhouse, because after like 15 min of no stop work. The blood really starts to flow. And it feels nice, like vrey very warm. I've been jogging and have been able to go further. It's like the "runner high", makes the body feel almost invincible.
Once I mastered my health reconstruction. (which would probally add like 10 or so more years to my life). I would like to start dating and having crazy sex that is akin to working out. that crazy tantra stuff.

Like I still eat junk food now and then, but hardly ever. Now the funny thing about working out, is that your body changes shape. Ie. instead of having fat hand that are clumsy I can pick things up with such ease that I'm not used to it, and drop. Hell even driving a car feels funny. Most likely since I'm concentrating on running I'd be a skinny Chinaman. like already I can feel some of my bones. (the weird skull shape with the square top).

So I gots to add some meat. ie build muscle.

for those of you NGers who are obese, and feeling shy, just go for a walk. I used to do that, oh man if feels great walking home from work. at first it sucked, and you wheeze and cough out a lung. That's normal. your lungs are just weakened. But it'll slowly recover, the key is that it's the warm blood feeling that covers up the uncomfort. Like just go for a walk. walk the dog. (doesn't mean wearing roller blades and having the dog pull you!). Infact, your Video game skills get better when you have sharp reactions. (except those really hard Japanese ones that you have to push buttons that are diffrent colours!). But just experience the good feelings you get from a walk, and remember a LIGHT jog (to start), feels soo much better!

Like it's the psychologly that got to me, when I first started out. Because you know, self conscoius memories, negative self image. Totally understandable, people who scold you for having them, or call you a pussy. Fuck man, they should get a life, a grown adult making fun of another, what is this grade 6, and they are that smelly sock boy with the tooth sticking out, and the buzz cut?

But don't work out for the looks, work out because it helps you feel good! again all those hormones that come with working out, well that and a longer life span.

Benched for the first time in a while today, to be honest I think I did a lot better then I thought I would, I was doing 3 sets of 145 10 times each set and I didn't do too bad on it.

I am pretty tone in my legs and my arms, but my chest + abs are just bleh.

Will just benching and incline benching + push ups be enough to tone up my chest + abs?

Hi everyone, I need some help. Bottom line, I'm slow. I play lacrosse and football, and every time we do sprints or jogs as a team im always last or one of the last people. During the off season I can run 3 miles at my own pace no problem, but when we do the same run as a team I cant keep up. I hit the weight room frequently. I do leg lifts, power cleans, squats, lunges, etc,but even though I excel at these lifts more than everyone on my team. My speed barely goes up. I am no weak kid (I can bench 205, squat 375, etc) but I still lack speed. I spoke to a supersensitive of a program called BFS (bigger faster stronger, a set workout plan my football coach has us follow) and he told me plyometrics or something like that work well in gaining speed, but he only gave me a vague description that I already forgot, I really want to get faster, because when we do timed sprints, when i don;t finish when were suppose to my teammates have to run again until I finish at the right time, and it makes me feel bad. I was thinking of getting leg weights and run with those. If anyone can help me out it will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
TheArmyOfOne

So I found a picture from last summer of my arm and decided to make a comparison to how it is now, and that's where I can really tell that I've made some strides. Nothing amazing, but enough for me to really build off of.

Here's the before, and here's the afters. I'm pretty satisfied, though I dunno. With all the lifting I do, I figured I'd gain more muscle than I am, but oh well. I'm still probably not eating enough. :| :P

At 7/26/05 10:56 AM, MrFluffygins wrote: what a bad idea ppl dont come to NG to workout

Nobody goes to an internet site to workout, just so you know. :D

I'm thinking about starting boxing lessons for over the summer as something to do other then my day time job. We have any other boxers in here that can just give me some quick things I should know for if I start boxing?

At 4/23/07 10:39 PM, Musician wrote:

what the hell do I have to do to get a six pack?

also if you're going to suggest something please go into specifics.

Crunches only target a small portion of your adominal muscles. There is no point doing 200+ crunches every few days, would you do 200+ reps when bench pressing would you? No. What you have to do is do maybe no more then 30 reps of the following excerises. Take up t0 four seconds for each rep and make sure your form is perfect. By the 30th rep you want your stomch to feel as its being stabbed with a ared hot poker :)

some of these excerises

Work your abs for about 40 minutes about twice a week. Work them hard, you want to feel the burn right? Some of those excerises are fairly lethal so have fun

At 4/29/07 03:11 PM, fuzzies wrote: Also, I weigh 115 lbs at the moment and I eat all the time, so don't tell me to eat. :p

You do know that just shoving food in your mouth isn't the key, right? It's about what you eat, and how much, and at what times. The key to gaining muscle mass is clean eating every 2-3 hours, and especially for someone like you, who has a body type with a naturally high metabolism. This means that you're going to have to eat a lot more than someone like me, who has some muscle but is also prone to gain fat along the way (thus leading to gaining-cutting stages, etc.; but I digress). If you're exercising 30-60 minutes a day and still only eating, say, 2500 calories, that's not gonna help you much. Someone like you could use at least 3000 calories to start off with, if not more. I know of people that need to eat 5,000+ calories in a day, but that's a little much imo.

Anyway, the key to your muscle mass is in the protein. Most people suggest that you take in roughly 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight. So for you, this would mean about 172.5 grams of protein per day.

There is an argument as to type of diet will help you gain muscle mass the easiest and quickest. Some say ketogenic (high fat), some say high-protein, low-carb, others say high-protein, high-carb, et cetera, ad infinitum. For someone like you, I personally would think a ketogenic diet would do you best. Guys like Pavel Tsatsouline (professional bodybuilder who spends the majority of his time training the Russian Special Forces) suggest that a ketogenic diet is the key to gaining fast muscle mass while burning any upcoming fat (which for you shouldn't be much of an issue as it is).

The keys to what you're eating should be as follows:

Protein
- Fish (such as salmon, cod, tuna, trout, shrimp, halibut, scallops) (Fish is the primary source of omega-3 fatty acids, which are a great natural fat-burner and an artery cleaner; they sell it in pill & liquid form if you're not a fan of fish)
- Eggs, egg whites, egg substitute (egg whites contain the majority of the protein that eggs hold, while the yolk contains all of the fat and cholesterol)
- Chicken breast (boneless, skinless breast is usually the chicken breast of choice; roughly 25g protein per serving, 100-140 calories & 1-4g of fat per serving)
- Buffalo (one of the best meats you can eat if you can get used to the taste [many say it's gamey]; 0g carbs, 2.5g fat, 40g protein & 180 calories per small steak)
- Whey protein powder (2 scoops is a serving for most cases, provides ~100-150 calories and 15-20g protein per serving)
- Cottage cheese
- 1% or Skim milk
- Lean red meat (flank steak, ground beef, and/or top round cuts)

Carbohydrates
- Vegetables (such as broccoli, spinach, green beans, lettuce, etc; try to keep low on the corn & regular white [Idaho, Yukon Gold, etc.] potatoes if you can, as they are high in simple carbs. If you can't, that's cool too)
- Fruits (apples, oranges, kiwi, grapefruit, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, etc.)
- Oatmeal (flattened or steel-cut, either one should be as big a part of your diet as you can make it, and the sugary packaged stuff doesn't count :P)
- Whole-grain or multi-grain bread
- Sweet potatoes

Fats
- Mixed nuts (almonds are the nut of choice, but cashews, walnuts, peanuts and such are also acceptable)
- Flax oil or flaxseed
- Fish Oil (look for a mix of high EPA/DHA)
- Avocados
- Olive oil (your best choice in this category)
- Canola oil
- Coconut oil
- Butter (occasionally)

Believe me, it doesn't seem like it'll take much to eat 3,000-4,000 calories per day for a guy like you, but if you're basing your diet off of what I've just shown you, it'll be harder than it looks. Stick to it though, and you can gain a lot of muscle mass in a short amount of time when combined with exercise.

So... any tips? Basically all I'm asking for is a little exercise to get my forearms bigger.

A good body starts in the kitchen, as they say, but I can give you an article of forearm exercises I use.

My favorite is hammer curls. This is done with a dumbbell like a bicep curl, but holding the dumbbell vertically rather than horizontally. This focuses the majority of the stress on the forearm muscles rather than the bicep muscles.

Massive Forearms, Strong Grip

hope all that helps you. :)

Ahhh, I missed the great feeling of soreness I always got way back when.

I regret that I stopped going to the weight room for those few months. Happy I'm back in my regular swing though :)

Def gonna do boxing over the summer now :P

I gotta change my routine. I'm getting bored with my current one and i've been doing it for too long. You have to keep your body guessing or else it will just get accustomed to the stresses and strains your putting it under. I may just ask one of the gym instructors to write me out one, dunno yet though.

Trypp, you're a damned BEAST. good lawd. Puttin' me to shame over here, heh.

harumph.

this stomach pudge is being a little bitch, so i'm back to cutting. no more fruits, pretzels, or ice pops for a while. strictly peanut butter, meat, eggs, milk, and vegetables.

i think i need to restart the treadmill jogging too, cause i don't know that the daily weightlifting is cutting it. :3

Yo, i Need help xD

I will be hopefully starting the gym next monday and i also want to do some basic stuff at home. So far i have been doing about 20 pushups a day. what else? any energy shakes you guys recommend that will help me or something?

Did some gradual deadlift RMs today...managed to do 2x 180, 1x 200, and then 3x 230, followed by some light squatting (18x 110) and some marginal calf presses (18x 270).

At 5/15/07 12:14 AM, Buddhist wrote: harumph.

this stomach pudge is being a little bitch, so i'm back to cutting. no more fruits, pretzels, or ice pops for a while. strictly peanut butter, meat, eggs, milk, and vegetables.

i think i need to restart the treadmill jogging too, cause i don't know that the daily weightlifting is cutting it. :3

Don't be silly not eating ice pops, fruit and pretzels aini't gonna get rid of tummy fat. Christ man do you not realise how important your fruit and veg intake is? They're cancer (and other diseases) fightinig abilities are without peep, they are great for your skin and hair. Fruit also:

1)Gives you more energy for exercising

2)reducea risk of cardiovascular diseases

3)lowers blood pressure

4)potential to lower cholesterol

5)reduced change of developing type 2 diabetes

6)potential to slow down age process

Aso remember son - milk, eggs, peanut butter, beef are all high in fats. Don't not eat them but you have to realise they're nutritional valules too. I reckon you need to get more protein in you though. Your body burns calories 15X faster when those calories are coming from protein rich foods then from fat or carbohydrate riich foods. Intaking more protein will speed up your metabolism (the rate in which your body burns calories) and this I reckon is exactly what could be the key to you lowering your body fat % and getting rid of that tunny fat!

I eat a lot of fruits and a moderate amount of vegetables.

I always keep my fat intake between 25 and 60 grams per day, no more than that, with a large portion of it coming from peanut butter (high in polyunsaturated fats). I usually take in between 150 and 225 grams of protein per day, and the meat that I eat is all very low-carb and low-fat (buffalo has 2.5g fat per steak, 0g carbs, 40g protein; chicken breast has 1g fat per breast, dunno how many carbs, 25g protein), and I really only like skim milk for some reason. When I do eat eggs, I eat just the whites, because I honestly can't stand the taste of the yolks. Something about them is very...yecch.

I dunno, do you think I should be pushing up the protein more than what I eat, or should I just push back down the fats? Eliminating peanut butter is an easy task that can remove almost all of my daily fat intake (factoring in bread, could eliminate as much as 48g of fat out of 60g in a day), so if that would help any, i can easily remove it. as for upping protein intake, they usually say 1.5 to 2 times your bodyweight in grams of protein is what you should be eating, and since I weigh about 155, I get around 1.5x my body weight in protein. I could try and step it up, I guess.

So I suppose what I'm inquiring is: will the re-removal of peanut butter and the introduction to more protein (probably via whey powder, as i don't think i can eat much more meat than i do in one day) do the trick?

would this be a good breakfast? any suggestions? or is that good enough for every mourning?

milk with a banana in it (bended in the bender of course :D)
and an egg sandwich

can i join? i have a question thogh. i am skinny and i have no muscle, compared to my friends i am a stick and they are trees. how do i gain weight and muscle easily and safely?

At 5/18/07 01:43 PM, VirginLungs wrote: Aso remember son - milk, eggs, peanut butter, beef are all high in fats.

That's why you drink skim milk, eat egg whites and lean cuts of beef or chicken, and use peanut butter sparingly.

Whatevs, you need a little fat to gain muscle anyway. For a while I was underweight from illness combined with added cardio, and I couldn't put on muscle.

In other news, I've started yet another, more time-conserving workout to allow me to still work out without having to use up all my free time outside of work/girlfriend, or university once term starts again in September. It focuses much less on isolation, and a lot more on synergy, since I'm training for fitness, not for bodybuilding competitions.

Lots of pull-ups, deadlifts, push presses, cleans, blah blah blah. I'm hoping to make some gymnastic rings and a climbing rope some time during the summer.

Also: Playing on monkey bars is great for your grip and upper body in general, as well as your core if you're tall enough that you have to crouch in mid-air.

That's why I plan to remove peanut butter altogether. It's one of those foods, for me, that once you have a taste, you have to have it all. That's why I'm gonna remove it. I'll still incur a moderate range of fat (10-25g likely per day, rather than upwards of 45-60) and be able to keep pretty much all the protein I get. It's win-win, imo, and as well, it will help slice off the remaining pudge and allow me to really monitor my progression much better. Plus, if it ends up that I really need an added amount of fat (which i doubt, but whatever), I can just add in a little bit of EVOO with a slice of bread, and actually get more benefits because EVOO has more polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats than peanut butter.

Better definition is on the way, or one can hope. :)

ok this is my current work out and rough diet atm i would like to see if you guys can help with any improvments or suggestions

Diet:
as of yesterday im trying to stick to a diet of cereal for breakfast (or toast) lunch and dinners of several veg and chicken. with yogurt for dessert or no dessert

in terms of supplements i take a complete A-Z multi vitamin and mineral tablet and PhD Lean degree thermogenic linky

work out:
recently i have been unable to get to the gym due to uni work exams etc. this is what i used to do:
day 1: chest and arms (i dnt kno the weights for this set)
10 min cardio warm up
chest press: 1 light set then 2 heavy sets of 8 (i dnt know the weights)
peck deck: 1 light set then 2 heavy sets of 8
bicep curls: 8 on each arm at 10kgx3
assisted dips: 8 after each sec of bicep curls
tricep work: 1 light set then 2 heavy sets of 8
10 min cardio warm down
60 sit ups

day3: lower body and shoulders and back
10 min cardio warm up
leg press: 1 light (90k) 2 heavy (130k) (8 reps in each)
calf press: 1 light (40k) 2 heavy (70k)
shoulder lifts: 3x 8kg
seated row:1 light (35k) 2 heavy (45k)
shoulder press: 1 light (25k) 2 heavy (40k)
leg extension: 1 light (50k) 2 heavy (75k)
leg curl: 1 light (45k) 2 heavy (70k)
10min cardio warm down
60 sit ups

day 5:
around an hours cardio slipt up over bike, x trainer, rower
60 sit ups

now recently i have been working out at home doing:
8k shoulder lifts (3sets)
8k tricep lifts (3sets)
10k bicep curls
75 10k weight sit ups

i intend to start gyming next week and it will be a week of pure cardio work roughly the same as my day 5 work out maybe for longer. i am also thinking of getting this as well but im on the verge of moving out at uni so it would just be extra stuff to carry so i will wait until i get home.

thank you in advance for reading and hopefully giving some advice

At 5/24/07 08:46 AM, Trypper wrote: Looks to me as if you are using mainly machines for your workout, which is not the best idea. If possible, incorporate as many compound lifts as possible, such as deadlifts, squats, bench press, clean, jerk, clean and jerk, and snatch. These will all improve your strength, and give you an all round solid and powerful body.

There is nothing quite like free weights.

my current aim is to lose weight and get fit whilst muscle tone and strength are more of a long term goal. currently at my gym i am not certified to use the free weights as at the time of joining i didnt see the point of paying extra for something i can replicate on a machine. i will be upgrading to a freeweight membership when i return to my uni gym after the summer (my one back home has a few free weights which i can use). also how would i do those lifts etc. do you know of anywhere on the internet that i can look at a guide to show me how to do them cos i dont have a clue for most of them.

At 5/24/07 10:01 AM, Trypper wrote: http://www.exrx.net/Lists/PowerExercises.html

Look at the bottom right corner for explanations of the exercises. Also, why do you have to pay extra to use freeweights? That's rediculous.

its to do with health and safety its not much like under £5 but at the time i didnt think i would use it. the uni gym is cheap as though a years membership is £120ish so basically £10 a month with no restrictions

At 5/24/07 07:11 AM, Trypper wrote:

At 5/24/07 12:13 AM, Buddhist wrote: Better definition is on the way, or one can hope. :)

You need more than 25g of fat daily, I'd say at the very least 40g. I never hardly monitor my diet anymore, I know what's good, and what's not, and I just eat till I cannot anymore. :P

harumph. See, the thing with me is that I can never stay in the habit of eating every 2-3 hours. I'm so forgetful and that always messes me up. I know that's like...the main point of gaining more muscle and losing more fat, and so I guess I gotta try and get back into the swing of it.

Any tips to help me remember better? :\

At 5/24/07 09:42 AM, Charon wrote: my current aim is to lose weight and get fit whilst muscle tone and strength are more of a long term goal. currently at my gym i am not certified to use the free weights as at the time of joining i didnt see the point of paying extra for something i can replicate on a machine.

Ok, first of all, certified, what the hell? Second of all, you can't replicate free weights with a machine. Third, building muscle mass and losing weight go hand in hand. The easiest way to burn more calories is to increase your metabolism.

I can't really help you in terms of diet as my knowledge there is fairly limited but there's guys here that know heaps more about that than me so they should be able to help you out there.

Your program isn't actually all that bad. I'll just list a few things you could do just to improve it a little bit more so you can get maximal gains.

The first thing I noticed was that 'day 1' was a day for chest and arms and that 'day 3' was for lower body, shoulders and back. The one problem with this is that it means you will be working your biceps for two workouts in a row which could lead to overtraining. This is because the biceps are a synergist for almost all back exercises. The easy fix is just to mover your bicep curls from day 1 to day 3.

The other thing i noticed was that on all 3 workout days you were doing 60 situps and unless you have awesome abs you should not be able to do that many. I will admit that the following is cut and paste but it is some of the best advice I have ever read pertaining to ab workouts.

First and foremost, stay away from any ab machine you see on TV as they are simply a waste of money and barely effective.

The abdominal muscles work just like any other muscle and have to be challenged as such. If you want muscular abdominals, you have to challenge them with resistance and good form just like you would your chest, your back or any other muscle for that matter. Targeting the correct energy system is imperative. This means you should never enter into the aerobic phase of this exercise, ideally keeping it under 2 minutes at most.

Think of rolling a carpet and contracting fully on the top of the movement and squeeze. If you do them correctly, you shouldn't be able to do more than 30 crunches. Any more than that, and you're probably doing them half-azz, incorrectly or with a partial range of motion.

For the upper abs, focus on crunches which effectively work the abdominals better than sit-ups or any machine on the market.

For the lower abs, keep in mind there is very little muscle tissue there so decreasing levels of body fat (via cardio and a great diet) is the most effective way to bring out the best in this area. Hanging leg raises, v-situps and reverse curls are among some of the best exercise for this region. Always make sure your pelvis curls up to maximize lower abdominal contraction during these exercises.

As far as fat loss and getting ripped goes, cardio, cardio, cardio. Abdominal exercises alone will never burn fat from your abdominal area. You must do cardiovascular exercise to accomplish this. Cardio is best in the morning, on an empty stomach at about 70-80% of your maximum heart rate for about 30-45 minutes. This combined with a common sense diet will quickly shed body fat so you can actually see those abs you've developed.

Your workout structure is actually almost identicle to mine in that I'll have a warmup, then for each of my exercises I'll do one light warmup set followed by two heavy sets of 8 reps. I'll also do a lot of stretching both inbetween exercises and after my cooldown and you should probabally incorperate this into your program as well.

At 5/24/07 08:46 AM, Trypper wrote:
Looks to me as if you are using mainly machines for your workout, which is not the best idea. If possible, incorporate as many compound lifts as possible, such as deadlifts, squats, bench press, clean, jerk, clean and jerk, and snatch. These will all improve your strength, and give you an all round solid and powerful body.

There is nothing quite like free weights.

I hear people saying this quite often but I'm yet to hear a good reason as to why free weights are so much better. Both have pros and cons and I wouldn't say that either one is better than the other one.

First of all there are multiple machines which allow you to do compound exercises. Chest Press, Leg Press, Lat Pulldown and Seated Row are just a few which come to mind. Obviously these exercises are going to be easier as you will not need to stabilise yourself because the machine will usually 'limit' your range of motion (ROM) to a 1 dimensional plane to limit/erradicate any unstability which may be caused by poor technique or muscle fatigue.

But even though the exercise is easier this does not necessarily mean that it will be less beneficial. A perfect example of this is the Leg Press vs the Barbell Squat. Even though the Leg Press is a basic machine exercise and is much easier to perform than a Barbell Squat many bodybuilders will opt for the Leg Press over any other compund leg exercise. The reasoning is simple. Because Leg Press is an 'easy' exercise it means that body builders are able to shift massive amounts of weight, much, much more weight than they could with a squat. To cut it short, more weight lifted equals more gains.

Generally machine weights are perfect for amatures in the gym as they have a pre determined ROM so you need not worry about having perfect techinque. They are also much safer than free weights and, with the exception of the Smith Machine, will never require a spotter.

Free weights are often desired by intermediate to advanced gym goers for the freedom the provide. For example, if you wanted to you could make a full body program using only dumbbells. Also, if your using the chest press and you want to do a close grip or a wide crip chest press you wont be able to as you're stuck with the restrictions of the machine and how it was manufactured. Free weights also allow for a multitude of isolation exercises which can't be performed as well using a machine eg, very few machines will directly target the triceps or the biceps.

Free weight are also much harder to use than a machine as you need to familiar with correct technique as well as a host of other things to be able top use them safely. Because of this a lot of people will automatically assume that free weights are superior but as I have shown this is not always the case. As I have also already stated, free weights will usually require some form of stability as well so in using free weights you can also get a good ab workout as well.

Even though I'm familiar with correct technique etc for most free weight exercises I will still use a combination of both free weights and machine weights when I workout

If this turns out to be a load of incoherrent crap it's because it's late and i'm tired