I have been lifting for 4 months now, took supplements for 2 months and stopped due to bad mental side effects. I have been eating much more since I started lifting but feel I haven't really gained anything.
My muscles are much more toned and noticeable but I still look a little slim and weigh in between 140 and 150, but like I said the definition is really good.
My routine is like this.. Mon, Wed, Fri: 10pushups at a time x 5 (50 in total), 10dips at a time x 5, and 7 crunches at a time x 3... Tue, Thu, Sat: 30 pound barbell used here, 5 sitting curls at a time x 5, 5 standing curls at a time x5, and 5 overhead presses at a time x 5. I have been on the 30 pound weight for 2 months, prior to that was 20 pound.
So what do I need to improve here? Give me all the advice for bulking more and getting bigger arms, tell me what I gotta do and what I should change. Thanks 4 reading, peace...
You're going to need to increase the weight and probably up your calories to put on more muscle. What you have is a good start, but you should really be pushing yourself. When you do 10 pushups, is the last pushup very hard to do? Can you do them with your feet on a chair? You definitely do not need supplements at this point (or really ever).
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Keep your body lean, your blood clean and your mind sharp. -Rollins
So are you saying I should be doing my workouts harder and longer?
Say if I were to work out twice a day once at night once in the morning would that work or would it be too much and start to kill off the protein I am eating and shrink my muscles.
Yell back and tell me whats goin on ok?
Once again thanks for reading, and give me all the advice you guys possibly can. Peace..
You should goto a gym to gain mass and eat more calories than your burning because is seems like you have a high metabolism and so your burning off all the calories you eat. Eating more calories than your burn will help you gain weight and mass.
As far as weight training, Do "Low reps" with "Heavy weights". Do stuff like bench press and squats. Again, Heavy weights and low reps.
No you dont need to workout twice a day. One time a day, 3 to 4 times a week is good enough. Work your muscles hard and then give them alot of rest. Working each body part once per week to their limit and then rest them good. Thats my advice
You can overtrain by lifting twice aday.....Longer? Not necessarily. As was pointed out you want to push the muscles to work harder and the only way to do that is lifting heavier weights at lower reps.
As said, if you can do the 4 sets of 10 with relative ease with an exercise.....increase the poundage. 30lb dbl is too light now? Go to 35lbs or 40. It might mean you will doing lower reps at first but that is the point. You may only be able to lift that 40lbs once...then go back to the 35 to finish out your sets.
The body has gotten used to/adapted to that 30lb weight, just as it did the 20lbs two month prior. You have to challenge the body to work harder and to increase mass/strength. Why it is a good idea to change your routine about every 6 weeks or so.
That is what I found myself. As a 52 year old woman, I am able to hammer curl 35lb dbl twice. Sulpinating curl with 30lbs 5 times right now per set ( I do 4 sets). Concentration curls with 25s. This is to help increase strength in my case. My overall workouts started out as a strength program over a year ago, found I liked it and drifted into some powerlifting.
If you're going to change anything to build mass I;'d say change your exercises. Every 6-8 weeks as said above you should change your routine, but not just rep and set-wise, you have to change your entire exercise scheme as well.
talk to ya later
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Each Rep Is Right, Each Set Right, Each Workout Right, Each Meal Right And Each Night's Sleep Right
So are you saying I should be doing my workouts harder and longer?
Say if I were to work out twice a day once at night once in the morning would that work or would it be too much and start to kill off the protein I am eating and shrink my muscles.
Yell back and tell me whats goin on ok?
Once again thanks for reading, and give me all the advice you guys possibly can. Peace..
I'd suggest working out something along the lines of 3 days a week. The key is 1) to completely wear your self out on a workout and then rest for a sufficient amount of time, and 2) to steadily increase your weight lifted.
To gain strength and mass, go heavy weight, low rep. I prefer to do 3-4 sets of 6 reps with the heaviest weight I can manage.
Concentrate on core muscle workouts to gain mass and strength. Work deadlifts (bent leg, not stiff), clean and presses, power cleans, high pulls, bench presses, squats, push presses, and bent over rows. If you're not sure what any of these are, type them into a search engine, you should find some instructions.
Also, concentrate on your triceps and shoulders rather than your biceps. The tricep is actually a bigger, stronger muscle than the bicep. I reccomend over the head tricep curls and tricep dips. For the shoulders, shrugs, military presses and dumbbell shoulder combos.
Remember, this is all just opinion, other excercises might work better for you.
