Small guy

[Chickensoup23]

Hey guys,

I've never been in this section of MMO-Champ so pardon me if I say retarded stuff that most might assume everybody knows, or the likely. I just turned 17 and I weight a whole 140 lbs (5'9), which is not much, but I'm not "skinny" or "bony", I'm just made small, I guess. Most of my weight is muscle (well I don't have much) as I don't have much fat.

I want to work out at home, and I was wondering if any of you had tips or anything I could do to improve my physical and health. I'm not a fan of green crap, but I don't eat much junk or such. I have some weights (10, 15 & 25 lbs) at home, and I'm looking to build mostly my arms, shoulders and chest, nothing too extreme.

I run a lot and practice many sports (Downhill biking, Hockey, Tennis, Running), and I'm just looking to build muscle, not build cardio, etc.
What can I do at home (few times a day, at night, before I go to school, etc) to get myself in (starter, at least) shape? I've been told that since I have low body fat, it wouldn't take as long to build up muscle. I don't care about seeing them, I just want them to be there. I'm not doing this to showoff, but for myself. 2012 goal!

Thanks in advance,

Chicken

EDIT: Sorry about the title. I have no clue what I was doing.

[Badpaladin]

Unfortunately with those weights you're not going to be building a whole lot of muscle. You need to hit the gym and get to doing Bench Press, Squats and Power Cleans at heavy weight with little reps. I would suggest a light warm-up of 10 reps, then go a set of 6/4/2, increasing weight as you continue. You'll also want to eat plenty of meat.

[Radux]

Technically rep amount isn't what builds muscle: Hypertrophy does.

Lower reps = higher muscle strength
Higher reps = higher muscle endurance

However, Bpally is right: you won't build very much with that kind of weight. Either hit a gym or get heavier weights. Also. Do not just build your upper body. After a while you'll have chicken legs and look terrible.

[Archangel Tyrael]

Technically rep amount isn't what builds muscle: Hypertrophy does.

Lower reps = higher muscle strength
Higher reps = higher muscle endurance

However, Bpally is right: you won't build very much with that kind of weight. Either hit a gym or get heavier weights. Also. Do not just build your upper body. After a while you'll have chicken legs and look terrible.

I'm sorry, i've friends that train hard, i've had a boyfriend that was kinda fanatic about the gym, and from what i've seen you don't really need to hit weights SO HARD to gain muscle.

You need a good posture/and the right amount of reps as well, just grabing a lot of weight won't make you turn into hulk.

I'd advise you to seek professional help, but if you can't, try checking out muscletech website, they have some really solid advice there, as well as some nutritional facts.

[Radux]

I'm sorry, i've friends that train hard, i've had a boyfriend that was kinda fanatic about the gym, and from what i've seen you don't really need to hit weights SO HARD to gain muscle.

You need a good posture/and the right amount of reps as well, just grabing a lot of weight won't make you turn into hulk.

I actually posted that. Muscle Hypertrophy (or essentially extreme muscle fatigue/failure) is the point where you want to be for optimum muscle growth. Rep amount doesn't really necessarily matter. However, the kind of muscle you build does (slow vs. fast twitch).

I promise I'm not trying to blow smoke up people's ass. As a trainer (out of work now for a little bit) for the past few years, I have a decent idea of how to train.

[Gorlakand]

You should read Starting Strength. It's a very great book for beginners. It uses barbells instead of dumbbells, so you'd have to go to the gym. But like Badpaladin said, with the weights you have, you should go to the gym anyway. Starting Strength teaches you how to do a lot of barbell exercises safely, like squats, bench presses, deadlifts, etc. It also helps you get a good diet and a good programming. I think it's the pest program out there for beginners. You should definitely check it out.

[Badpaladin]

Technically rep amount isn't what builds muscle: Hypertrophy does.

A 10/6/4/2 with 50/70/80/90 percent of maximum (could just be a realistic theoretical maximum really) would definitely accomplish this, considering it's pretty unlikely one wouldn't go through muscular hypertrophy with a progressively increasing weight. I'm just speaking from personal results from high school times when I was building mass for football. Sticking to the core Bench Press, Squats and PROPER (dear God please proper) power cleans (no jerk) can effectively get the full body growth going. I suppose one would have to isolate particular muscle groups if they wanted those larger, but the three mentioned affect a pretty large group of muscles as far as size is concerned.

[Radux]

Agreed.

My point was more along the lines of:
- You could do exactly what you said

or

- You could do, say, 5 sets of 10-20 with a lower weight, but still accomplish hypertrophy.

It would be give you different results in terms of strength vs. endurance.

[brown]

If your looking to just bulk then low reps with high weight will be best. Creatine will also help, but I don't really care for the stuff.

Either way make sure ya take your vitamins, sleep well, eat well, and I recommend a protein shake to help you reach a good amount daily. There are a lot of good exercises that don't require weights, but if you are serious about getting strong then you will need to invest in some better weights or a gym membership.

[Archangel Tyrael]

Agreed.

My point was more along the lines of:
- You could do exactly what you said

or

- You could do, say, 5 sets of 10-20 with a lower weight, but still accomplish hypertrophy.

It would be give you different results in terms of strength vs. endurance.

I never said you were trying to blow smoke up people's ass. It just sounded , the way you said, that he needed extreme weights as a ''core'' to be bulky, which isn't true. Just extreme weights won't take you far.

But considering you're a trainer, i'd like to ask something myself : In his case, wouldn't push ups be a good exercise as well?

[Radux]

Body weight stuff is awesome as a base. Hell it can still be an awesome (killer) workout for people in awesome shape.

You just get to a point where you need so many to get a good burn that you lose the time efficiency impact of it. That's where weights really help push the envelope. If you wanted to continue doing pushups/pullups though, just get a weighted vest. It'll make you feel like you're out of shape all over again.

Really, though, pushing and pulling is the base to getting some solid arms/chest/back.

Realistically you can easily get ripped by just doing body weight stuff with proper nutrition. However, gaining mass is going to be hard as hell without help of either more weight, or significantly more time.

[killzwitch]

Hi,

Firstly as a 17 yr old the last thing you should do is be hitting the gym, the travel time and expense of it is foolish at your age.

Buy yourself a simple pull up bar, these can be fitted in a door way, screwed into small metal cups, the ones that hang from the frame are also good but often cause problems with those new to using them.

Don't workout everyday, I know it can feel lazy but day on day off is very effective and it's better to work half as long and twice as hard instead of twice as long and with little effort.

Pressups should be your staple.

Wide Arm - for your chest
Just over should width - for shoulders
Triangle (made with your thumbs and forefingers) - for your shoulders and back
Shoulder width (with your arms staying parallel to your boy's length at all times) - for killer Tricep workout.

I strongly advise reading plenty of advice from a variety of sources, you don't need weights to build muscle, it's easier but only very slightly and ultimately costs a lot more than pressups and pullups.

I would advise hitting pressups and pullups + crunches, leg raises etc etc for 3 months before even thinking about the gym - you need a good strong core and basic strength in your arms before squatting etc, trust me you may want to progress fast but you're screwed if you hurt yourself and can't bloody walk.

I got myself into fantastic shape by just pushing my body around like without the aid of weights etc, it didn't take long but I had the advantage of a high protein diet and an income to supplement that, you may struggle. So perhaps some parting tips.

1. Drink water - I drink 1/2 pint an hour at least on rest and workout days.
2. Drink water - ...pretty important.
3. Give your body time to rest, your muscle fibres wont repair without rest, you wont get bigger without rest.
4. Nutrition - Learn the foods that contain protein, milk, eggs, chicken etc - if it grows in the ground, from a tree or breathed once...eat it!
5. Small meals - don't eat a fucking huge meal before bed, snack healthy throughout the day to increase your metabolic rate and lose any fat you have.

Most important keep your chin up and focus on your goal, it will be months before you see any improvement - it others will agree its awesome when you start to notice it, and it's even better when others do too.

[Abominator]

I just turned 18 and at 5'11 190 pounds at 10% body fat and have trained for 3 years I know what I'm doing. The most important thing that you need to is a tonne of research on everything, diet, form amd basically any article you can find. The first thing you need is a solid diet, your body won't change at all unless you eat enough calories or protein.

Firstly you need to calculate your basal metabolic rate which you can find many calculators on the net. Once you have that factor in how much exercise you will do a week (some calculators help you calculate this so look around) once you have compensated for your exercise add 500 calories to your total. You will gain a little bit of fat over time but most of it will be muscle. Now it's standard to consume 1-1.5g/lb of body weight of protein so you should have about 200 grams of protein a day, 60-100g of fat a day (stick to the low end if possible and make sure they are healthy fats) and make up the rest of your calorie total with carbohydrates. You can find out how many calories are in a gram of protein, carbohydrates and fat to help calculate how many grams of carbohydrates that you need. Makre sure you drink a tonne of water a day and your diet is pretty much set.

Secondly you'll need a gym membership, ask your parents if they can pay for it or get a job to support your gym membership and dietary demands as it can be quite expensive. It is important to know that you can either train for strength or for size. If you trained for strength you'll mainly gain strength and a little bit of size, if you trained for size you'll gain a lot of size but only a little bit of strength (if you strain for size you won't be a weakling by any means, you just won't be as strong as a powerlifter). Since you're a beginner you'll probably want to start with a simple 3 day push/pull split. This consists of a push day so bench press, shoulder press any exercise that involves pushing. A pull day which would consist of rows, chinups, deadlifts and any other pulling movement. Finally the 3rd day is a leg day in which you'll do you squats etc. If you do a little bit of research you should be able to find a nice simple push/pull split. If you want to train for size you'll want to stay around the 8-10 rep range and if you want strength you'll want the 3-6 rep range, You will gain weight training for either one just makes oyu bigger and one just makes you stronger. Don't think you can just do bicep curls and bench press because A) it won't workd B) it will cause muscle imbalances C) you'll look like a moron. Don't overcomplicate things as you will become intimidated and quit, just have a decet diet, train 3 days a week with enough rest in a simple low volume push pull split and you'll grow in now time.

Also with your research don't listen to any shit on BSN, muscletech etc. as most of it is a load of crap used to sell their placebo products, which brings me to the point if you want a protein shake just use pure whey protein isolate don't buy gimmicky crap from stupid bodybuilding companies like muscletech as it's basically a scam. Also I need to emphasis it is important to use great form. You need to also train to failure as thats how muscles grow, lets say you are doing 3 sets of 8 reps, you want to fail on the second last or last rep of the 3rd set if possible. We build muscle by adapting, you need to up the weight when ever you can to build muscle, just make sure your form remains good and you can bang out those reps. Also research you should find should be backed up by scientific research or by a fitness professional who isn't trying to make money of of some crappy scam.

Also doing pushups, situps and body weight exercises won't really accomplish anything in the long run as at first you'll build some strength, then get accustomed to the weight and move up into the endurance rep ranges which won't accomplish anything. Building muscle is about progressivley increasing the weight and working with intensity. If you don't walk out of the gym feeling like you're nearly dead then you need to rethink your workout.