Weightlifting & Fitness - Everything old is new again!

[Fl0nkerton]

Gym noob here.

I've been lifting 3-4x a week since May for about an hour a day.

Ex: Monday - Chest / Tuesday - Abs + Legs / Wednesday -Off / Thursday - Bi's + Tri's / Friday - Back + Shoulders

I'm trying to gain weight; up to 165 from about 145 in December. Currently eating anything and everything high in protein for 3 meals a day.

I purchased Protein Powder (20g / scoop) and BCAAS (7g / scoop)

Should I look into buying any other supplements? I've considered mass gainer, but I'm not so good at chugging poor tasting protein shakes 3x a day lol.

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

1 hour ago, Fl0nkerton said:

Gym noob here.

I've been lifting 3-4x a week since May for about an hour a day.

Ex: Monday - Chest / Tuesday - Abs + Legs / Wednesday -Off / Thursday - Bi's + Tri's / Friday - Back + Shoulders

I'm trying to gain weight; up to 165 from about 145 in December. Currently eating anything and everything high in protein for 3 meals a day.

I purchased Protein Powder (20g / scoop) and BCAAS (7g / scoop)

Should I look into buying any other supplements? I've considered mass gainer, but I'm not so good at chugging poor tasting protein shakes 3x a day lol.

Don’t need much, even the protein powder is really more about convenience than need.

Quality supplements imo include a good multivitamin, vitamin d supplement, magnesium, fish oil and creatine. You’ll notice most of that is for health purposes, not strength/lifting.  Creatine is the only “must” imo for a weightlifter.

Protein, preworkouts and BCAA’s are optional, but easily replaced with a good diet and large cup of coffee.

[MWil23]

The last 4 weeks I've been doing intermittent fasting 2-3 times a week and my gym numbers are through the roof...all while I've lost a solid 5 pounds, noticeable in my midsection with my belt area and decline of love handles. I'm also toning up...this is interesting stuff. 

[Sugashane]

1 hour ago, LETSGOBROWNIES said:

Don’t need much, even the protein powder is really more about convenience than need.

Quality supplements imo include a good multivitamin, vitamin d supplement, magnesium, fish oil and creatine. You’ll notice most of that is for health purposes, not strength/lifting.  Creatine is the only “must” imo for a weightlifter.

Protein, preworkouts and BCAA’s are optional, but easily replaced with a good diet and large cup of coffee.

 

Good post. If you have a hard time eating due to minimal appetite or crazy scheduling protein powder is a godsend.

 

@Fl0nkerton Take a look into truenutrition protein powders. The whey protein isolate is damn easy to mix and they have a ton of flavor options for you. I've been using them since they were called trueprotein.

[Fresh Prince]

So I plan on starting the gym soon but I'm trying to get a schedule down on my eating hours based on my two work times. This is based off eating 4 times and 2 shakes.

9-5 work time. 8am breakfast, 11am shake, 2pm meal, 430pm snack, 7pm gym-shake, 10pm meal

1130-8 work time. 7am breakfast, 10 am gym-shake, 1pm meal, 4pm snack, 6pm shake, 9pm meal.

 

Any idea what I should change as far as time goes? 

 

 

Edited September 19, 2018 by Fresh Prince

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

21 minutes ago, Fresh Prince said:

So I plan on starting the gym soon but I'm trying to get a schedule down on my eating hours based on my two work times. This is based off eating 4 times and 2 shakes.

9-5 work time. 8am breakfast, 11am shake, 2pm meal, 430pm snack, 7pm gym-shake, 10pm meal

1130-8 work time. 7am breakfast, 10 am gym-shake, 1pm meal, 4pm snack, 6pm shake, 9pm meal.

 

Any idea what I should change as far as time goes? 

 

 

No need to over complicate things, there’s no specific time you should or shouldn’t eat. The “anabolic window” and such is BS.  

It’s this easy.

1. Figure out BMR.  Google it and you’ll find a bunch of calculators.

2. Adjust BMR for activity level.

3. Add 500 calories to that.

That’s the hard part lol. After that...

1. Eat that many calories daily making sure to get about 100g of protein throughout the day.  

2. Workout regularly.  

That’s pretty much it.  If you’re not gaining weight, increase calories by 250 weekly until you do.

 

 

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

4 hours ago, Fl0nkerton said:

Gym noob here.

I've been lifting 3-4x a week since May for about an hour a day.

Ex: Monday - Chest / Tuesday - Abs + Legs / Wednesday -Off / Thursday - Bi's + Tri's / Friday - Back + Shoulders

I'm trying to gain weight; up to 165 from about 145 in December. Currently eating anything and everything high in protein for 3 meals a day.

To add to this, if size is your goal, perhaps refocusing your workouts would help.

You dedicate an entire workout to chest???  I do about 5 sets (max bench is currently in the 370 ish range, had it to 395 last year when I lifted heavier more often).  You don’t need to kill a body part to make it grow.

A whole workout to arms?  I get wanting guns, but if adding size is the concern, iso exercises for arms ain’t gonna do it.

An example of what I’m talking about. Three sets of each exercise, 4 day split. This doesn’t include warmups and such, use common sense there. 

Monday: Incline bench, dips, skull crushers, squats, anterior last raises

Tuesday: Pull-ups, barbell rows, EZ bar curls, rear lat raises, abs 

Thursday: Bench, close grip bench, military press, leg extension, hamstring curl

Friday: Deadlift, chin-ups, barbell curl, shrugs, abs.

 

Hitting each body part once per week leaves a lot of gains on the table.  With proper nutrition and rest, you should be able to hit that muscle group again 48-72 hours later, provided you didn’t fully fatigue the muscle.

Blasting a body part doesn’t do much more than negatively impact recover.  If you can’t hit a muscle again after 72 hours, you overdid it.  More isn’t always better.  In this case all “more” gets you is more recovery time, more soreness, and more injuries.

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

56 minutes ago, Sugashane said:

 

Good post. If you have a hard time eating due to minimal appetite or crazy scheduling protein powder is a godsend.

 

@Fl0nkerton Take a look into truenutrition protein powders. The whey protein isolate is damn easy to mix and they have a ton of flavor options for you. I've been using them since they were called trueprotein.

+1 on TrueNutrition if you need to supplement.  

Don’t underestimate blends either.  Whey/casein blend is the bees knees iyam.

[Fl0nkerton]

2 minutes ago, LETSGOBROWNIES said:

To add to this, if size is your goal, perhaps refocusing your workouts would help.

You dedicate an entire workout to chest???  I do about 5 sets (max bench is currently in the 370 ish range, had it to 395 last year when I lifted heavier more often).  You don’t need to kill a body part to make it grow.

A whole workout to arms?  I get wanting guns, but if adding size is the concern, iso exercises for arms ain’t gonna do it.

An example of what I’m talking about. Three sets of each exercise, 4 day split. This doesn’t include warmups and such, use common sense there. 

Monday: Incline bench, dips, skull crushers, squats, anterior last raises

Tuesday: Pull-ups, barbell rows, EZ bar curls, rear lat raises, abs 

Thursday: Bench, close grip bench, military press, leg extension, hamstring curl

Friday: Deadlift, chin-ups, barbell curl, shrugs, abs.

 

Hitting each body part once per week leaves a lot of gains on the table.  With proper nutrition and rest, you should be able to hit that muscle group again 48-72 hours later, provided you didn’t fully fatigue the muscle.

Blasting a body part doesn’t do much more than negatively impact recover.  If you can’t hit a muscle again after 72 hours, you overdid it.  More isn’t always better.  In this case all “more” gets you is more recovery time, more soreness, and more injuries.

Thanks for the help! Yeah, I'll add my workout routine for kicks and giggles. (Sorry inadvance if I don't know the actual names haha)
Mind you, my buddy takes me with him. He's been in the gym for ~2 years since he broke his ankle and gained a bunch of weight. Now he's pretty fit.

Anyway, so I usually stretch for 10 minutes. Everything, not dependent on the workout that's scheduled.

Monday: (5 sets of 10)
Flat Benchpress, Incline Benchpress, Decline Benchpress,
Pec Flyes, Chest Press, 
Flat Bench Dumbbell, Incline Dumbbell, Dumbbell Flyes
50 Push-Ups

Tuesday:
Abs: Med Ball Crunch (15 x 3), Russian Twist w/ Med Ball (15 x 3) , Planks (20 seconds x 3), Mountain Climbers (25 seconds x 3), Flutter Kicks (25 seconds x 3), Leg Raises (10 x 3), Ab Roller (10 x 3) (sometimes, this kills me)
Legs: Weighted Lunges , Kettle Bell Step Ups,
Hamstring Curls (2 variations), Calf Raises, Leg Extensions (2 variations), Leg Press, Seated Calf Raise

Wednesday: Off

Thursday:
Dumbbell Curls(10 x 5), Tricep Press (10 x 5), Seated EZ Bar Curls (10 x 5), Tricep Dips (10 x 5), Incline Dumbbell Curl(10 x 5), Cable Curl (2 variations) (10 x 5) , Cable Pull-Down (2 variations)(10 x 5), Barbell Curl Burnout

Friday:
Shoulder Dumbbell Press( 10 x 5) , Lat Pull down (10 x 5), One-Arm Dumbbell Row(10 x 5), Seated Cable Row (10 x 5), Leverage Lat Pulldown (10 x 5), Front Raise (10 x 5), Shrugs (10 x 5), Smith Machine Shoulder Press (10 x 5)

 

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

4 minutes ago, Fl0nkerton said:

Thanks for the help! Yeah, I'll add my workout routine for kicks and giggles. (Sorry inadvance if I don't know the actual names haha)
Mind you, my buddy takes me with him. He's been in the gym for ~2 years since he broke his ankle and gained a bunch of weight. Now he's pretty fit.

Anyway, so I usually stretch for 10 minutes. Everything, not dependent on the workout that's scheduled.

Monday: (5 sets of 10)
Flat Benchpress, Incline Benchpress, Decline Benchpress,
Pec Flyes, Chest Press, 
Flat Bench Dumbbell, Incline Dumbbell, Dumbbell Flyes
50 Push-Ups

Tuesday:
Abs: Med Ball Crunch (15 x 3), Russian Twist w/ Med Ball (15 x 3) , Planks (20 seconds x 3), Mountain Climbers (25 seconds x 3), Flutter Kicks (25 seconds x 3), Leg Raises (10 x 3), Ab Roller (10 x 3) (sometimes, this kills me)
Legs: Weighted Lunges , Kettle Bell Step Ups,
Hamstring Curls (2 variations), Calf Raises, Leg Extensions (2 variations), Leg Press, Seated Calf Raise

Wednesday: Off

Thursday:
Dumbbell Curls(10 x 5), Tricep Press (10 x 5), Seated EZ Bar Curls (10 x 5), Tricep Dips (10 x 5), Incline Dumbbell Curl(10 x 5), Cable Curl (2 variations) (10 x 5) , Cable Pull-Down (2 variations)(10 x 5), Barbell Curl Burnout

Friday:
Shoulder Dumbbell Press( 10 x 5) , Lat Pull down (10 x 5), One-Arm Dumbbell Row(10 x 5), Seated Cable Row (10 x 5), Leverage Lat Pulldown (10 x 5), Front Raise (10 x 5), Shrugs (10 x 5), Smith Machine Shoulder Press (10 x 5)

 

Am I reading this right?  Are you doing 40 sets on Fridays?

35 sets regularly???

[Fl0nkerton]

1 minute ago, LETSGOBROWNIES said:

Am I reading this right?  Are you doing 40 sets on Fridays?

35 sets regularly???

Uhhm,

5 sets of 10 reps of each, normally.
Unless noted otherwise. 

 

Too much? Too little? Cancel my membership??

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

4 minutes ago, Fl0nkerton said:

Uhhm,

5 sets of 10 reps of each, normally.
Unless noted otherwise. 

 

Too much? Too little? Cancel my membership??

Holy hell too much. ? 

Youre either not getting the most you can out of each rep and just kind of flapping your arms going through the motions, or you’d be killing yourself.

Generally speaking if you’re really working hard, focusing on maximizing each rep, utilizing a plan that focuses on compound movements, etc., you should probably be doing half that.

[Fl0nkerton]

5 minutes ago, LETSGOBROWNIES said:

Holy hell too much. ? 

Youre either not getting the most you can out of each rep and just kind of flapping your arms going through the motions, or you’d be killing yourself.

Generally speaking if you’re really working hard, focusing on maximizing each rep, utilizing a plan that focuses on compound movements, etc., you should probably be doing half that.

Ah, damn alright lmao.
I mean, like I said I don't really know what I'm doing haha.

 

Thanks for the help! I'll work on that.

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

3 minutes ago, Fl0nkerton said:

Ah, damn alright lmao.
I mean, like I said I don't really know what I'm doing haha.

 

Thanks for the help! I'll work on that.

No worries man, we were all there once.  

It’s better to ask than be the yahoo that just spins his wheels and never improves or is always hurt/injured.

[LETSGOBROWNIES]

@Fl0nkerton As I mentioned earlier in the thread I have a buddy I grew up with who has a YouTube channel and will pimp his stuff whenever I can becaue I know he knows what he’s talking about and he uses a lot of evidence based research as well as personal experience.

He got me off the “bro splits” a while ago.  Luckily I had given up the absurd volume years ago, but this was still a step in the right direction.  Less aches and pains, solid results, etc.

Here’s a good video to start with if you’re interested.