trying to pack on a bit of muscle

[Rusty Shackleford]

being the weakling that i am, ive been trying to do some stuff to get a bit stronger.

i recently acquired 2 15lb weights and i ahve been doing about 2 sets of 20 every day(with the occasional break) and about 20 sit ups a day. i also do some jumping jacks to get blood flowing since i cant really do anything besides sit at my computer in this heat.

ive been doing this for about 2 weeks. how long do you think it could take before 15lbs, which is currently tough to lift in repetition, to become light?

[Widerstand]

If you want to build muscles, is do it less frequent and more intense. If you're lifting weight, lift so much as you can for five to ten repetitions before failure. Rest one day inbetween work outs. And of course, eat surplus!

For starters, I suggest you do exercise your whole body - it's best, really. Push ups (chest / biceps; triceps if you do diamond push ups too), pull ups (back / biceps) and crunches (abs) are a great way to get started without weights. Since you have weights, I suggest you also look into doing weighted lunges (legs), romanian deadlifts (back), squats (pretty much your whole body?; these are fucking awesome, honestly). And of course your bicep curls (assuming that's what you do right now). I'm assuming you have dumbbells; if not, most of the previous fails... If you do, check out this, for more fun stuff to do with them: http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/dumbbellexercises.html

[leftace53]

Its good that you do some jumping jacks before weights, combining cardio with weights is more effective fitness wise.
Like UN said, for muscle mass you want more weight less reps. Definitely work out your entire body - I've seen some dudes with ripped upper bodies, and lanky little chicken legs. Legs are often thrown out because frankly they are tough and annoying shit to work.
Nutrition wise, I always give the same advice for muscle mass gain. Eat two bananas about 1/2 hour before work out. It gives you all the energy you need to go through your work out fully, without the pain of cramps or feeling heavy. After working out, lean protein/protein shakes - these aid in muscle growth. Don't go overboard with the calories, but yea definitely start eating more because you are working out more - remember that there are different types of calories, such as calories from protein and calories from carbs and fats, and just eat healthy in general.

[Widerstand]

Nutrition wise, I always give the same advice for muscle mass gain. Eat two bananas about 1/2 hour before work out. It gives you all the energy you need to go through your work out fully, without the pain of cramps or feeling heavy. After working out, lean protein/protein shakes - these aid in muscle growth. Don't go overboard with the calories, but yea definitely start eating more because you are working out more - remember that there are different types of calories, such as calories from protein and calories from carbs and fats, and just eat healthy in general.

Sounds pretty good, yes. Another decent way to do it is to work out before big meals (no more than 2 hours before), eg Lunch or Dinner. That way you will make most of what you eat, and you will also naturally feel more hungry, ergo eat more. But yes, be sure you get some carbs before working out. Bananas do that really well, apples too. Basically, all fruit sugar is good.

If you want to go through the hazzle of going over where your calories come from (and trust me it's annoying as shit, but I encourage you to try anyway), try to keep something like a 30:30:40 protein:fat:carbs ratio for an overall healthy diet. Maybe slightly less fat and more protein if you want to build muscle mass.

If you're not Vegan, eat lots of Eggs, Quark and Milk. And oats. Eat fucking oats ALL THE TIME. You could try whey protein instead of protein shakes, too.

If you happen to be Vegan or want to spice up your diet, try around with different Soy products. Generally, Tempeh has the highest protein amount. Anyway, check out this link for more high protein food: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/kristi4.htm

[Autumn Red]

I really recommend pushups. They may seem basic, but they are simply an amazing exercise for your arms and chest. First off, Set a goal. I know I can push out a 30 nose to ground burst, but then its important that I stop immediately. When you do start to feel tired, there is absolutely nothing wrong with (pardon the sexist term) "girl pushups." The only difference between traditional and doing them on your knees is where you are concentrating your body weight. While doing traditional pushups, you're holding about 60% of your body weight on your arms, and the other 40% on your feet or toes. When doing them on your knees, you hold about 30% of your weight on your arms and the rest on your feet or toes. Doing them on your knees is better than not doing any at all.

At the moment, I do about 100 pushups in the morning before school and about 150 after school. I've really worked hard to get to this point, considering only a year ago I could barely even do a pushup.

Cheers to good health!

[Rusty Shackleford]

well, im not planning on anything extreme, not yet at least. just getting fit enough to be able to carry shit around and at least have a chance at self defense.

ill definitely start eating more eggs and trow on some more weight on the dumbbells.

maybe in a few weeks ill look into the more intense stuff.


also, being the computer-nerd type i developed shitty wrists. so would laying on my back and pushing up the dumb bells straight up help with that? maybe ill just tough it out and do 20-30 push ups.

god, i bet some fash are laughing at this :laugh:

[Aloysius]

Probably.
I've been climbing a lot of stairs lately, 'cause my high school has four fucking stories. I think I need to focus on just eating healthy right now, get that down, then the heavy exercise.
I want to be at my peak if I'm help in the imminent revolution.

[Rusty Shackleford]

removed.

[Autumn Red]

If you're serious, stop drinking pop and absolutely avoid fast food restaurants. When I stopped drinking root beer (I got a case every week) I cut down like 15 pounds. Every pound of fat is roughly equivalent to something like 3500 calories, so I had something like 53,000 calories (26.5 days worth of calories) just sitting on me somewhere.

But of course, you're more focused on muscle and not cutting fat.

If you're looking into self defense techniques, I'd have to suggest Krav Maga. Even though its primarily used by the Israeli military for bashing in Palestinian faces, it has become a worldwide martial art. Look up the videos on youtube, they're simply amazing. I've been doing Krav Maga for about two years and it's really great if you're looking for a martial art that actually teaches you how to defend yourself, instead of teaching you a sport like what Taekwondo has become.

[Bubbles]

I would recommend you rest more then one day between exercise in the beginning. And if you train every other day, you better split up your muscle groups so your muscles have the time to build up.

And about self defense. Ordinary boxing is probably cheaper then Krav Maga. If you got a serious threat against your life making you in need of self protection get a hidden personal record, and carry pepper spray or a screw driver, gun or something. If you're prepared to poke someones eye out like in Krav Maga, you might just play as dirty as you can anyway... Or stay out of trouble and train martial arts because it's fun. :)

For wrist training do grip training and knuckle push-ups. Many of the epic exercises posted by United Nation like dead lift, and pull ups are good for your grip. But even some biceps curls are gonna take on your forearms when you go heavier.

Note that learning how to do 100 pushups aint gonna make you big, it's gonna give you endurance. But it's nothing wrong with that.

Check out http://rosstraining.com/blog/ for cheap tips to train at home. But he's focusing much on training to become a good at martial arts which doesnt mean youre doing body building training focusing on putting on mass. Putting on to much mass as competing boxer etc can put you in a different weight class. Some good tips though and ideas though if you wanna start of laying on some mass at home.

Buying weights is expansive as hell. One barbell costs more then one years gym training where i live. So i prefer go training in the gym.

[ellipsis]

Stop sitting at your computer. Go outside. 20 sit ups a day while your torrents download isn't going to do shit, especially if you are doing regular sit ups. Sounds like right now you are only lightly working two muscle groups, abs and biceps. Also get a manual labor job. I wrote about free ways to get in some PT (physical training) on my blog (http://therevolutionscript.blogspot.com/2010/02/physical-training-pt-for-free.html) if your interested.

Also there are lots more exercise related threads in this forum (http://www.revleft.com/vb/tan-and-exercise-t133123/index.html), does this really need a new thread? I would like to keep the signal to noise ratio in the forum to a maximum, as it is suppose to be a resource, all relevant/similar information should be in new threads, IMO.

Also the sports and fitness forum in chit chat. Maybe this should be moved there? it seems really off-topic in DIY if you read the forum description.

[Rusty Shackleford]

this can be deleted. your everyones recommendations were good. as for the manual labor job, that would conflict with my schooling right now.

but i was thinking of doing that next summer. :thumbup1: so yeah. trash if you(mods) want.

[Aloysius]

I wrote about free ways to get in some PT (physical training) on my blog (http://therevolutionscript.blogspot.com/2010/02/physical-training-pt-for-free.html) if your interested.

This is good. I'll have to do these.
I need to get my bike fixed though...The place the pedal screws into got stripped 'cause the idiots that made it did it backwards.

[Bitter Ashes]

2 minutes of pressups
2 minutes of situps
1 and a half mile run

Do that once a day and keep a record and watch it improve. Tried and proven army basic fitness. Job done.

[ellipsis]

so how did things turn out Rusty?

[Rusty Shackleford]

seen a slight improvement, muscularly... but at the same time i packed on some fat ><

i failed to maintain a program but i have been on my feet more and more. once my money issues get resolved i will be trying to change my diet.

[ellipsis]

freeganism=awesome diet. and you live in California so you should take advantage. I hardly pay for food any more and eat great.

[Rafiq]

Depends on how old you are.

If you are done growing, then most of the suggestions here are good.