So I am complete noob in the game, and that is fine (for now), I have a long way to go. However I have been bodybuilding and actively involved in strength training, fitness training and high-performance dieting for approximately 7 years. I understand that any good forum (in the traditional sense, not the internet sense) requires that you give as much as you take.

So here I am, to answer your questions and help you achieve your health and fitness goals. If you ask a question that I cannot answer alone I will use my friends and contacts (some of who are proffessionals in this area) to get you the best answer that I can.

There are no stupid questions, only stupid people who are afraid to ask them.

Shoot.

_________________
Regards,

The Enforcer.

The game is easy to start, the referee blows the whistle. It's where you go from there that matters.

Great idea!

Ok...heres my question...

1) I have really thin arms ....is there any tips/routines you could give to a noob on how to start building up muscle? Especially the forearm and wrist area. I cant really get to a gym enough times in a week to make it worth it...so maybe stuff I could do at home? Would you recommend buying some dumbells?

Good question. This post will form the basis of, and a reference point for most of my answers, so I will go into a fair bit of detail.

Ok here's the bad news, the probelm with arms is that they don't really like to grow on thier own - ie: if you just train arms you probably won't make much progress over the long term (you might see some small gains but they will stop coming quickly).

The good news is that you can do some compound exercises which will incorporate your arms, and at the same time help you improve in other areas, building a better overall physique.

If you really can't make it to the gym you will want to focus on exercises that incorporate your bodyweight. If you can afford to buy a set with sufficient weights a dumbell or (prefereabley) barbell set would be a good idea.

For a beginner such as yourself you don't want to be making things too fancy, try to train on 3 non-consecutive days per week, or else try to train every other day.

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If you can't get to/can't afford the gym and decide to go with:
BODYWEIGHT EXERCISES ONLY:

If you decide to train without equipment your program should look something like this:

Push-ups (and variations there-of)
Pull-ups.
Bodyweight Squats
Planks.
Dips (can be done between two chairs, or any two raised surfaces, pic included for education purposes).



This would be a good place to start getting some muscle and conditioning, and certainly would be a positive first step. However it would become stagnant over time.

Complete 3 sets, stopping just short of failure (ie: you should complete your final rep with good form, and perhaps have enough left to do 1 more rep). Aim to increase your reps each week by 2-5 per set. Progression is the key to success.

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If you can afford the gym and get there, follow the princples of:
Basic Barbell Training:

However I would strongly recommend you either find time for the gym or buy yourself a barbell set and rack, in which case you could follow a basic program like "Mark Rippetoes Guide to Starting Strength" which should give you great newbie gains in size and strength. This would involve.

Bench Press
Overhead Press
Barbell Squat
Barbell Deadlift
Barbell Rows

The goal is to complete 3 sets of 5 reps for each exercise with a weight that is about 90% of your 5 rep max and add a little weight each and every session. Depending on how much detail you want on this kind of routine, you may want to read this:

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=998224

Which has all the answers you will ever need.

WARNING: Please spend at least one session with a qualified personal trainer BEFORE attempting this kind of program so that you can learn how to perform these exercises safely and with good form . SAFETY FIRST!

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As for your forearms, squeezing a ball is a good place to start. No not like that!, get your mind out of the gutter. Start with a squash ball or a raquet ball and squeeze it for 20-50 reps as your strength allows. When this gets too easy, progress to a worn tennis ball and eventually a new tennis ball. There are also grip strengh devices which will help with this exact process, they look like this:



It comes down to what suits you the best.

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If you think I am full-of-sh!t and you just want to train you arms (which I suspect is going through your mind right now), by all means buy yourself some dumbells and curl/frenchpress untill your heart is content. You will probably make some pleasing progress but overall you will be heading in the wrong direction.

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If you are a naturally skinny guy you may also want to think about adding a couple of protien shakes per day to boost your calorie and protien intake up a bit. Try to eat a healthy diet and avoid foods that are high in sugars and bad fats.

Sorry I know that is a lot to take in and if you need any clarification or want me to explain anything more fully please don't hesitate to ask. Training properly takes time and dedication and what I don't want to do is bs you and tell you that you can make your arms huge just by doing dumbell curls all day.

I hope that helps.

_________________
Regards,

The Enforcer.

The game is easy to start, the referee blows the whistle. It's where you go from there that matters.

Thanks a lot man, thats a big help!!! I think I'll start with the bodyweight exercises and move up to barbell stuff a few weeks down the line.
I'll need to remember this. Usually I just keep going till my arms are about to fall off

Great - don't neglect your squats as:

1) You don't want to end up being out of proportion.
2) They actually help to stimulate who body muscle growth through thier impact on natural hormone levels.

If you are going to stick to bodyweight for now concentrate on progression of reps and form - good form is essential work working the target muscles and most importantly safety. If you find that it is getting too easy or your sets are getting too long, you may want to consider buying a couple of 20lb barbell weights and using them to add resistance (by placing them on your back during pushups, on your lap for dips and tieing them to your belt for pull-ups as required).

Once your push-ups are getting easy don't forget about variations like making your hand position closer (great for tricep development), doing them on your knuckles and doing explosive push-ups with claps in between. If you feel you need additional help this thread will always be here.

Good luck with your health and fitness goals.

_________________
Regards,

The Enforcer.

The game is easy to start, the referee blows the whistle. It's where you go from there that matters.

This is a great idea, thanks for your help and input in advance.

I'm wanting to gain muscle but lose weight at the same time, as I'm not quite overweight but do have a layer over my stomach which I'd love to get rid of. Should I steer clear of supplements or will they boost the results I want to achieve; greater muscle, less fat? Or should I focus on losing fat first, then gaining muscle?

Thanks, Deebo

_________________
You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

Hi Deebo, there are several issues in your post that I will try to address to meet you needs.

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The first is the concept of losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time. While this is possible in small amounts for a complete novice trainee, there is stacks of clinical evidence to support the fact that in anything other than the first month or two of training it is impossible. The exception to this is steriod use, but I am not here to either recommend or give advice on that topic.

Due to this, the correct way to improve your body composition is thorugh cycling between a "bulk diet" and a "cut diet". Usually 8-10 weeks on each.

As for whether to bulk to cut first, that is really up to you, but I will tell you this. Cutting is both more rewarding and easier when you have bulked beforehand. Why? 1. As you strip away the layers of fat you will see the efforts of your bulking labours. 2. The greater you muscle mass, the higher your BMR, which means you can eat more while still losing the same amount of weight (fun right?).

So to summarise: you can't gain muscle and lose fat at the same time, you must choose whether to bulk to cut based on where you currentley stand but I would recommend a bulk if you are not carrying too much weight. If you are a bit flabby by all means cut first, it is a judgement call and it is up to you.

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The next issue is the issue of supplementation. The first thing that you will want to learn about supplements is that 90% of what you read is advertising or in some way sponsored by the supplement companies and is therefore bullshit. Supplement companies in general make outrageous claims to justify thier excessive pricing. While some of thier products are genuinely quite good, you don't need to pay for all the additional ingrediants to get the results. Here is a good starting point.

A good multivitamin: There is plenty of research to suggest that minor nutrient and vitamin deficiencies can have catastrpohic effects on mucle growth, cover your bases with a multi and you will have a good foundation for anabolic progress.

Fish Oil: A healthy fat that assists with joint support and hormone production - generally considered a must for all people who train consistantly.

A quality whey protein powder: The purpose of a protien powder is to assist you in consuming adequate food to grow on while training and to add convienience to a training diet with generally requires that you eat 5-6 times daily. This is not essential as you can achieve the same purpose with food, but protien helps get your macronutrients without going overboard on the calories. I would recommend Optimum Nutrition 100% Gold Standard as it has won countless awards for excellence, tastes great, has exceptional ingrediants and is reasonabley priced. There is endless clinical evidence to suggest that proper use of protien powder helps in increasing lean muscle mass.

Creatine monohydrate (optional): Creatine has become a staple of the bodybuilding diet over the past few years and is undoubtedly effetcive, but don't get caught up in the hype of the big brand names and blended creatines. What you want is pharmecutical grade, micronised, creatine monohydrate. Why? Because it is the only form of creatine with repeated and siginificant independant clinical evidence showing that it works. Ethyl Ester and all other forms of creatine have been shown to be no more effective than a placebo in some cases, while monohydrate has a proven track record. I would recommend Prolab Creatine Monohydrate as it is cheap and high quality. It consists of 100% pure creatine monohydrate powder sourced from Creapure - one of 2 companies WORLDWIDE who produce phamaceutical grade german quality (ie: micronised for easy absorbtion) creatine monohydrate and most of all it is cheap.

As a price guide (if you are in or ordering from America):

You should be able to get 10lbs of ON whey for about $70-80USD which will last you 3-6 months.

You should get 1000g of Creatine Monohydrate for approximately $20USD which will last you a MINIMUM of 150-200 days.

Fish oils and multis are both fairly inexpensive.

See? Effective supplementation does NOT have to be expensive! In fact by following a simple program like this you are using active ingrediant with more clinical evidence to support them than the majority of brand names, who are constantly changing thier formula to catch peoples attention (without doing the research into effectiveness first).

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I hope that help and if you need any clarification or need any further questions answered you know where to find me!

Good luck with your health and fitness goals!

_________________
Regards,

The Enforcer.

The game is easy to start, the referee blows the whistle. It's where you go from there that matters.

Wow! Thanks for the quick response, and such an in depth answer! You have really helped a lot with my question. This is a great thing you are doing for people, especially when such good advice is given for free! +rep

Deebo

_________________
You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

What does your training splits look like. I currently run:

5X5 style 3 times a week for 2 months
chest/tris, back/bis type 4 times a week for 2 months
legs, chest, back, shoulders, arms 5 times a week for 2 months

then rotate back to beginning

I do this to try and prevent myself from plateauing out. I guess my question is what is an example of an intermediate/advanced training routine(s) that you would use accomplish this?

Havocc, not my thread but I'll butt in. If you are even in the intermediate phase with legitimate lifting numbers then I would give up this rotation, especially the 5x5 style trainging. Yes, people can hit walls with their routines, but I think 2 months is too short to be on a routine and you will not see maximal gains in this manner.

I would look into a 4-5 day split routine, but be sure to have a leg day in there (confused as to whether you have a leg day in the 4x a week phase). And honestly, no matter what program you choose, note that intensity and progressive overload are the absolute keys to building muscle when in the gym. I've done 5/3/1, 5x5, body part splits and they all have their own merits, but no matter what you have to try to beat that previous best every time you step into the gym.

Listen to this man, his advice is solid.
My training split is constantly evolving. At the moment it look like this:

Monday: Upper Legs.
Tuesday: Chest and Biceps.
Wed: OFF
Thursday Back and Triceps.
Friday: Shoulders, Forearms and Calves.
Saturday: OFF
Sunday: OFF

However directing you on an appropriate training split is tricky as everyone will find that different splits give them better or lesser degrees of success. There is a strong argument for using a full-body split for a naturally trained athlete due to its effect on hormone levels and recover times, however somepeople find that this doesn't work for them.

First and foremost - if (as mentioned by the previous poster) the second part of your 3 month cycle involves no leg training, I would drop it straight away. Second if you want to cycle multiple programs, why not make them strenght, hypertrophy and endurance programs?

What am I talking about. Basically you want to find a split that you are happy with that allows you to trin on 3 non-consecutive days per week (or else 4 days MAX) and cycle your rep quantity to target certain areas of your development. Something like this:

Strength program: All exercises 3 x 5 or else follow the cadence 5/5/3 after sufficient warmup.

Hypertrophy:All exercises in the 6-8 rep range.

Endurance: all exercises in the 10-12 rep range.

It's just a thought. Anyway I have gone WAY off topic. I find that all it takes for me to not plateau out is this:

I have my four day split. I focus on intensity, form and weight. I try to make sure my lifts increase a little every week or two. If I have multiple weeks in which my lifts don't improve I rotate the exercises which I have plateud on out of my workout and substitute them for other similar exercises.

The only exercises I never rotate out are deadlifts and squats.

Example: Your bench press has been stagnant for 4 weeks, you have tried to lift heavier but found it impossible. I would take the bench press out of my routine, in the next week not perform that exercise (or a replacement) to allow a little extra recovery and then the week after replace it with dumbell bench press or smith machine press or incline bench press.

Not many people look at exercises that way, but I do and it works for me.

Good luck with your goals and if you want any further advice you know where to find me.

_________________
Regards,

The Enforcer.

The game is easy to start, the referee blows the whistle. It's where you go from there that matters.

kman,

I welcome any advice from anyone that doesn't post bullshit on a regular basis as some do on the forums....I'll stop at that. I appreciate the feedback from both of you. My lifts on deads, flat bench and squats are similar to yours in poundages.

Enforcer,

I figured you'd say something similar to that which is why I was going to go to a well known strength/conditioning coach in my area for further help (a tailored program). Also, in trying to make the post short and trying to not turn it into a havocc training advice thread I left out a lot of things.

The first program is as follows:

The Bill Star 5X5 excel spreadsheet with squats bench and deadlifts as the staple exercises. It is by far, imo, the best program for me that I've found to date. I gained a lot of strength off this program and mass.

The second program is as follows:

Day 1

4x Squats: 5 reps
3x Ham Work: 8 reps
3x BB or DB Row: 8 reps
2x Bicep Curls: 10 reps

Day 2

4x Bench Press: 5 reps
3x Military Press: 8 reps
3x Tricep Isolation: 8 reps
2x Ab/Calf Work: 15 reps

Day 3

4x Deadlifts: 5 reps
3x Pullups: 8 reps
3x Leg Press: 8 reps
2x Biceps Curls: 10 reps

Day 4

4x DB or Incline Press: 5 reps
3x Chest Dips: 8 reps
3x Side Lateral Raise: 8 reps
2x Ab/Calf Work: 15 reps

Not really a back/bi, chest/tri like I originally posted. I had decent gains off this. On the chest presses I subbed out any barbell excercise for db's to switch it up from the 5X5.

The third program is as follows:

Day 1: Legs

Full Squat 5x3,2,1
Superset: Leg Press 3-4x8-10
Superset: Hamstring Curl 3-4x8-10
Knee Extension 3x12-15
Calf Raises 3x12-15


Day 2: Chest

Incline Bench Press 5x3,2,1
Superset: DB Bench Press 3-4x8-10
Superset: DB Flyes 3-4x8-10
Pec Dec 3x12-15
Chest Pullover 3x12-15

Day 3: Back

Weighted Wide Grip Pull-up 5x3,2,1
Superset: Barbell Row 3-4x8-10
Superset: Straight Arm Pulldown 3-4x8-10
Shrugs 3x12-15
Seated Rope Pulldown 3x12-15

Day 4: Cardio

Day 5: Shoulder

Push Press 5x3,2,1
Superset: Upright Row 3-4x8-10
Superset: Incline Side Raises 3-4x8-10
Front Raise 3x12-15
Bentover Cable Side Raise 3x12-15

Day 6: Arms

Preacher Curl 5x3,2,1
Superset: Decline Tricep Extension 3-4x8-10
Superset: Incline Hammer Curl 3-4x8-10
Parallel Dips 3x12-15
Calf Raises 3x12-15

Day 7: Rest/Cardio


This has been a very challenging program the past month. I feel like I'm on the verge of overtraining with this one.

So my rotation has some similarities to the below advice you had posted


Strength program: All exercises 3 x 5 or else follow the cadence 5/5/3 after sufficient warmup.

Hypertrophy:All exercises in the 6-8 rep range.

Endurance: all exercises in the 10-12 rep range


Hope that clarified a few things.

Bill Starr's 5x5 is a solid program is an excellent reputation amongst lifters, it should work to help you achieve your goals. Since you have mentioned that you do 5x5 and that you focus on lifts like deadlifts, squats and bench - I am confident that you are on the right track. Stick to yours guns.

One final thing worth considering is you diet - what is your intake looking like at the moment and is it focused towards your goals?

_________________
Regards,

The Enforcer.

The game is easy to start, the referee blows the whistle. It's where you go from there that matters.

Want to lose 10 to 15 pounds by this summer

Hey guys
heres the deal.

I come from a very sport oriented family. My brother is built like a tank, my uncles and father are all built, and my cousins are all taller and more in shape then me.

I used to be fairly in shape, but I stopped soccer over the summer and Hockey is badly organized this year and so tons of games are canceled or Im working and so cant go. i realized I dont do any exercise! I didnt even sign up for a gym class this semester!

I now have man-boobs ish. Dont get me wrong, Im not gynormous, but i wear tight shirts and alot of them make me look good but still, u can kinda see my belly, you can kinda see my man boobs hehe. Even my girl is now commenting on it.

I did this thing where I asked some of my close girl friends whats the one thing they would change about me, and they ALL said I should be a bit more in shape.

SO I want to lose 10 to 15 pounds by this summer. Im pretty sure I can do it, but i dont really know whats the best, fastest way to do it.

Im aiming to get some nicely tuned abbs (obviously not washboard abbs, but a nice solid shape and feel), nice pectorals and decent shoulders and arms. IM NOT AIMING TO BE AN ARNOLD lol, I just want to be nicely built you know?

Can anyone with experience in weight loss give me any tips on how to stay motivated, not be lazy and lose weight significantly and preferably fast, all the while tuning my muscles?

Thanks
Mack

The key to weight loss is making is sustainable and enjoyable. The downside of this is that it means you will lose weight slower, but the upside (and it is a big upside) is that your diet can be enjoyable and easy.

You need to work out your maintenence calories this is equal to your BMR, a BMR calculator can be found here:

http://www.michellebridges.com.au/tools

Try to eat approximately 400-500 calories less than your maintenence per day and exercise as often as possible.

That should be plenty to achieve your goals.

In summary:

- Eat less than your maintence.
- Eat as clean as possible.
- Do cardio 3-5 times per week.

_________________
Regards,

The Enforcer.

The game is easy to start, the referee blows the whistle. It's where you go from there that matters.