DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Weightlifting update #3

Well as some of you may remember when I started lifting about 3 months ago I wanted to get bigger.

Well I haven't gotten any bigger at all and I have been going at it 5 days a week for 3 months. My muscles seem to be a little more tone but I haven't noticed any size increase, my buddy says my arms are bigger but I don't see it. I haven't gained any weight at all either.

The only real noticable difference is my strength and endurance. When I first started lifting I couldn't do but maybe one dip. Now I can do 3 sets of 15. Also when I benched I could do a set of 10 reps then it gradually decreased to 8 and then maybe 5 by my third set. Since then my bench has increased 70lbs (yes 70lbs i'm no expert but I think that's amazing) and I can do all three sets with 10 reps.

I really need to change my diet or something because it is really frustrating wanting to get bigger and lifting this long and not really noticing appearence wise. Changing your diet is an extremely hard thing to do though. You get accustomed to eating a certain way for so long and then you have to change it. I try to eat alot healthier now but fast food is just way too convenient which makes it harder. Plus having to eat six small meals a day would get really friggin expensive.

Oh well it's gotta be doing something right. It can' happen in only 3 months I guess.

Don`t eat 6 small meals a day....that causes your metabolism to increase...

Unfornuately to increase muscle mass...you must eat foods in high protein....fish ..shrimp....chicken....eggs....(egg beaters) low in cholestrial.....High protein will also cause weightloss....So the bad thing is meat and potatoes...big portions....you will gain weight in your gut.....but will increase muscle mass....

Once you have acheived your goal...Then back to good eating small portions more often.....keep the high protein...cottage cheese ...tuna... shrimp...chicken...eggs....you`ll lose your gut....but keep your muscle mass....

And three months not nothing for bulking up....Have you ever noticed your top body builders are older....takes time to gain that muscle....be patient....It`ll show in another three...6 months typically to see improvement....

Nice job for what you`ve done.....don`t get frustrated.....

Have you tried weightgainer?

Available at your local GNC.

I'm willing to bet that your workout needs tweaking..

Try lifting more weight, even if you can only do a couple of reps. When you do sets of more weight with less reps then it tells your body that you need to be bigger, and you gain muscle mass.

Of course, diet is important too. Not so much for bulking, just make sure you eat lots of protein.

When you do sets of 15 and 10 then you are telling your body that you need more endurance. Your muscles will gain vascularity but may not gain as much muscle mass.

Just rub toilet paper on the places you want to get bigger.

First off, good job for keeping at it for 3 months.

Without getting too much into the physiology of it all, or explaining "why" you haven't gotten the results that you've personally wanted, try these suggestions.

First - get a body fat test and/or some girth measurements with measurement tape. My guess is that those two measureables mean a lot to you, and you'd want to track them about every 6 months. (http://www.exrx.net/Testing/Circumferences.html)

Second, assuming you eat a healthy diet, you shouldn't need to tweak it too much, just eat a little more if you want to gain more size/mass. Don't necessarily listen to the marketing and gimmicks, with your training frequency, your diet should consist of anywhere between 12-20% protein, or about .4-.5 grams x your body weight (ex. 150 lb. guy x .5 = ~75g protein consumed throughout the day). Try and find this through natural sources - nuts, poultry, fish (with some red meat and eggs mixed in moderately......don't want that cholesterol to creep up on you Also, it's normally cheaper this route, rather than going through supplements.

Third - switch your routine up. After 3 months and from what you've stated, you have the muscular endurance to begin more of a structured program, progressively overloading the weights during your sets. Since you're a guy and I know darn well that the chest workout is most important to you, try this out, and let me know how it goes:

Flat bench - barbell
Warm up - 50% of your 1 rep max for 10-12 reps, stretch
Set 1 - 65-70% of your 1RM x exhaustion (or about 10-12 reps)
Set 2 - 70-75% of your 1RM x exhaustion (or about 8-10 reps)
Set 3 - 75-80% or your 1RM x exhaustion (or 6-8 reps)
Now, put ~40% of your 1RM on the bar, lower the bar at a 5 count, raise the bar at a 10 count. Should be able to squeeze out 6-7 super slow reps. I like to include these into a regimen to maintain the muscular endurance.

Incline bench - dumbbell
Follow the same regimen as set 1-3 from above, this time with dumbbells. Your next workout for chest, go with dumbbells on the flat bench and barbell for incline. Make sense?

Add another 3 sets of (pick one) - peck deck, dumbbell fly's, cable fly's

Finally, end your workout with dips or push-ups, to exhaustion. A good one I used to do with clients was 10 push-ups, rest 10 seconds, 10 push-ups, rest 10, and so on, until complete exhaustion.

Now take the above program and apply that to your other muscle groups. Remember to try and balance out your "push-pull" muscles - ex. you should mimmick the above chest workout with a back workout of similar nature.

By the way, I'm not necessarily a "Johnny-musclehead" giving you a personal workout or one I got out of a magazine, but am a certified personal trainer through the National Strength & Conditioning Association.

As I mentioned in another thread, going to the gym 5 days a week is a waste of time and you are proving this theory. You will NOT see the results you are looking for by beating your body up so much.

You are literally hurting yourself and your body by thinking that more is better. Until you take the time to research how the human body works, you'll keep going in circles. I would suggest reading up on trainers like Mike Mentzer that stress high amounts of weight for lower rep's and training NO MORE than 2 days a week if the goal is to add muscle mass. I know, it seems counter-intuitive, but it works and works well.

I totally agree. 5 days a week gives your muscle ZERO recovery time...and that's not good.

If I were you, I would ask a trainer (assuming that you go to a gym instead of working out at home). You need a program that is individualized for your body type.

Always allow 48-72 hours recovery time per muscle group.

Well truthfully, I am not a large man at all, and I played high school sports for 4 years, and worked out in college.

Some people's frames just aren't built to gain large amounts of muscle, mine included.

Ya I would get stronger, and I could bench 200 lbs. at my peak but I NEVER was big. I was always just skinny with some muscle.

I gave it up about 3 years ago, so now I am fat and outta shape, but it was more me just being lazy and not seeing the results I wanted after 6 YEARS!

You would be surprised how many guys that you see in the gym daily that are on something more than just protein and working out....

Cleveland, good work sticking with the program. I've been lifting off and on for over 10 years and it can get frustrating when you feel the gains you're seeing aren't matching the time and effort with the iron. I feel I know a thing or two about strength and mass gains through articles I've read (quite a few) and personal experience in the gym. My first suggestion for you would be to not get discouraged. Everyone with the proper diet and lifts can can get good gains. A place that I like to visit to read articles is bodybuilding.com. Good site with a lot of articles covering most everything you need including a massive forum with all experience levels. (Below is a link to free articles on another site I read, can I link them for Clutch? If not, sorry if I violated in TOS refs)

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/bbinfo.php?page=MassGainDiets

^ For instance, this is an entire page of articles on dieting for mass. You're diet is IMO the most important element of your routine. You said it is hard to do, but that CAN'T be your attitude with this. This is the most important thing and if you want to see the gains you must control this area of your life, bar none. Get your diet down, write out written schedules if you have to, read the information and formulate the eating routine.

Once your diet is tweeked to enable your body to do what you want to do (in this case bulking) and you STICK TO IT, you will be in good shape. There are also a lot of different philosophies on lifting for strength and mass gains such as 5x5, Rest-Pause training, high volume training and the like. There is a ton of info online about lifting for strength and mass gains. I would start implimenting some of those programs and see how your body responds to them. But again, get your diet right before you do anything, that is the most important element. That should be your first research and action plan.

Lastly, are you taking any suppliments? There are two cornerstones that most bodybuilders swear by. Protein powder and creatine are staples of most lifters' diets. I would suggest at minimum picking up a high carb protein mix and creatine (some of the protein mixes have creatine in them). I like Optimum Nutrition Whey and Dymatize Whey brands myself. Although for bulking, you could also look into Muscle Milk. Just a tip, you can get a lot of items cheap on the web using Ebay and googling other nutrition sites. I wouldn't suggest walking into GNC and laying down 100 bucks, because you could probably get the same thing online for 30%-40% cheaper.

I only work one specific muscle group a week.

Chest on wednesdays and I don't do chest again until the following wednesday.

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Weightlifting update

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This reminds me.... where's Titletown at?

Probably walking around in his aviators and wife beater chugging a gallon of water so he can pimp smack some school kids.

I'll will be back later to read over the rest of what you guys said and probably have a few more questions. I'm actually going to lift right now. Today is shoulders.

Clutch -

You will gain strength by "progressively overloading" your muscles. Meaning, on almost each set, you should be increasing the weight. If you are working in the 3-6 rep zone for strength, even a 5 pound increase per set will help. Additionally, if doing the heavy weight (3-6 reps), you need to adjust your rest periods - about a 90 second rest in the 6 rep zone, and about a 2-3 minute rest for anything lower, even if you "feel" you could do it in 60-90 seconds.

Good article here from the ACSM on weight training, although with some scientific words, let me know if you need any clarification:
Here

Just keep working at it and the results will come. As others mentioned your muscles need time to heal. Never ever work the same muscle group two days in a row. Lifting gets better results when you do it three times a week. If you prefer to work out six days a week thats fine. Just alternate between upper and lower body each day, then rest for one day a week.

You should just do curls on just 1 arm for like 6 months, then you might see a difference.


Keep at it, your body first has to transform the current mass before it will build new mass.

Thanks for all your guys' input.

A fellow Dawg helped me out with a new routine so i'm going to start on that Monday and see what it does for me.

I've been in the same situation too. Well its been by design though. I was always full aware of the "bulking phase" and then it being followed up by a "dropping phase". Thing is, its just so hard to go through the bulking phase. I felt chubby, fat, depressed, slow, bulky, bloated and piggish. And then the dropping phase seemed to drop the fat and some muscle too. It's like I spent way too much time getting somthing and in the end, it wasn't worth the trouble.

I've been trying to add muscle while still staying trim. I'm 5' 10" and 155 pounds. Last year this time, I was 175 pounds. I've dropped over 25 lbs. of fat and replaced it with about 5 lbs. of muscle (in my estimation). I would like to gain more muscle but don't have the patience to go through the bulking phase (especially with Summer coming up).

Any ideas on how I can maintain my tone, gain muscle, and not get flabby in the process?

Chief I've been here with you. I'm in high school now and for football we lift three times per week (Monday Wednesday Friday) and do just cardio on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Like someone else above said go for lower reps high weight. For bench we'll do about 4 sets, on the first one trying hard as hell to get 6-7 reps and then going down from there. Then for other machines go with the same approach, higher weight lower reps. Do that, rest every other day at least ( you have to give your muscle cells time to repair and double, which is achieved by resting) get some protein supplement or weight gainer (I use Muscle Milk, also would recommend Weider Muscle Gainer) and sleep well (which really is essential in body building). Do all that and you'll gain weight, trust me I've been doin this for about one month as well and have actually seen results and whatnot for the upcoming season.

Hopefully any of that offers you help you could be seeking, chief.

2 days upper body 2 days lower body and 1 day just cardio and running.

This is a question for whoever has a workout routine...

What happens when you drink so much that ur drunk the next day..hah...do you still continue with your routine of working out while u r hung over? how do you solve this lil issue?

I had so much to drink last night and now i feel like crap so last thing on my mind is working out....

Drink a lot of water to get the poison out of your system and try to warm up real good with Cardio to get your heart and blood pumpin. Get a real good sweat going to clear your pores.

KING

Man i been drinkin water all day......i drank hellva lot yest....everclear at that

Looking back i wish i didn't..still feel like i'm drunk...i got home around 7am

I think you would be best to sleep it off and get back into your routine on Monday

KING