Exercise and Bodybuilding

[Jon Miller]

We haven't had a thread like this for a while. Anyway, I got below 20% (I think even below 17%) body fat last summer (and got off my blood pressure medication). My goal was to increase muscles/look better/decrease body fat. But for one reason or another, I haven't really done that well the last 6 months (I go between 4 hour exercise weeks and 2 hour exercise weeks... I also eat too much dessert). At least I haven't gone up in weight (I hope I haven't gone up in BF%).

Anyways, I was thinking I should cut desserts. But I was also reading that I should cycle my protien consumption (some days at 50%, then a day at 33%, repeat). This is very high for me, when I am trying to have high protien consumption, I get up to 20%... if I don't try I am down near 10% (or even lower).

I was thinking to get that high, or even to 33%, I would need to increase my consumption of soy. Is that dangerous? I have tried not to rely too much onone type of food. To get to 50%, there is no way unless I start buying that very extreme synthetic protien stuff I can get at the gym (well, some of it is whey based). Is any of that stuff good and safe? What are people's experiences with it?

I am going to do a pretty easy week to start out with, 3 weight days (~60 minutes) and 3 cardio days (~30 minutes) a week, which is about the same amount of time I shoot for now (so won't be too difficult).

Recently I have been doing Body Pump and Cardio only. My weights will return to free weights, I am thinking 4 sets of 5 exercises focusing on upper body or lower body (alternate weight days).

Jon Miller

[Riesstiu IV]

Since late December, I've been going to a local city gym that opened recently. It only costs $60 a year for local residents.

Since I'm in the proper weight range according to the BMI scale (175 ponds, 6'0"), I've been trying to focus on a little body building as opposed to weight loss. I do about 30 minutes of Cardio and an 1 hr and 30 minutes of weight machines during each visit. 2 sets of 13 reps on 16 various weight machines. I usually go around 3 to 4 times a week. I've noticed an increase in strength and a little toning of the body.

I'm considering moving to free weights just to see how much more effective they are compared to weight machines. I don't know jack about bodybuilding but I'm trying out various methods to see what works best.

Should I focus on specific areas of the body instead of trying to work out every muscle group during each visit?

[Kontiki]

Free weights are way better, and your reps are far too high for muscle building. You also don't need to do 16 different exercises, and certainly not all at once. Break it up into different body parts on different days.

[Jon Miller]

From what I read his reps aren't too high (depends on what you are shooting for). The time spent and 16 different exercises sound a bit too much, and remember to rest a particular body part at least 48 hours between using it to do weights. Generally it is best to rest your whole body 48 hours between weights.

Of couse, despite myreading and woking with it, I haven't become more toned or gained strength in the last 6 months (of course, the last 6 months I haven't done that great of job of sticking to it, and I don't seem to gain muscle all that fast anyways).

Generally, workouts can be put into the following categories:
low rep (4-8)
med rep (8-12)
high rep (12-15)

Generally people do 2-5 sets also. Generally it is better to increase sets rather then reps (and stay in the given range).

People generally pick the one that is giving them the results they want. What is recommended for different people depends on their body and what they want. Stuff like Body Pump (~100 reps) is a different beast.

Jon Miller

[Pekka]

Suplements and protein and stuff? No worries. But I'm not sure if you really need them. I'd first check the golden trinity of working out which is training, nutrition and rest. I'd check out my diet overall first before going into protein bars, because lots of people dont' really have a good diet anyway. BUt if you want muscle, you need proper building blocks for it... If you're serious, just go for the 5 meals a day routine and get your metabolism going, have a good diet (scientifically good diet) and you should really check up on your training program as well.

I go to the gym only 3 times a week but it's more than enough for me, I have 3 way program I follow. I don't like to run and it's winter, so for cardio I just sit on my ass and kind of dsiregard it. I also hate running, but I like cycling plus I got a new bike so .. that's good stuff, and I like to swim, also good for joints. I like my joints, so I hate running even more.

Nutrition, haven't been careful. Havent' counted anything fo ra looooooong time, plus I've started to cook more so I like to eat and it's not proper diet but hey, I'm not on a diet. I should have one though. Have some goals in my life again. I guess I'll start this crap more seriously.

[Jon Miller]

Well, my general meals are things like:

beans + veggies
tofu + veggies
veggie sandwich from subway (lots of veggies on it)
can of bean + veggie soup
veggie wrap

A bit boring, but all healthy.

As I said, I have been eating too much dessert recently though, and am cutting that back. Even when I was eating dessert every day though, I still made sure my calorie count was reasonable (2000-2500) and my other meals were as posted.

Jon Miller

[Tuberski]

If I remember right, getting tone is achieved by lighter weights and faster reps, while strength is built by heavier weight and slower reps.

JM, that is fairly normal for working out, you will hit a plateau in weight training.

ACK!

[Riesstiu IV]

@Kontiki - I thought Free weights being better then machines was the case. Generally, I've observed that people doing free weight exercises are well built.

What ratio or reps and sets would you recommend?

Originally posted by Jon Miller

Of couse, despite myreading and woking with it, I haven't become more toned or gained strength in the last 6 months (of course, the last 6 months I haven't done that great of job of sticking to it, and I don't seem to gain muscle all that fast anyways).

Well, before I started going to the gym I could be best described as a stick with very little upper body strength. I probably started in a worse position. My arms and legs have shown improvement and physical tasks that were once somewhat difficult for me (like holding and manipulating a steel shovel with one hand and a rake in the other) are easier now.

So would you recommend decreasing reps but increasing sets?

You're probably right about the amount of time and exercises, I'm overdoing it. After a work out my arms and legs feel like rubber bands but like I say, I don't know much and when I started my philosophy was essentially, "no pain, no gain."

[Patroklos]

I use whey and have had good results with it. Just drink a lot of water.

When I first seriously started going to the gym it was 1 1/2 years ago. I started on a deployment (nothing better to do) so for obvious reasons we use machines on the ship. I had good initial results, but sort of hit a wall.

When I got home and since then I switched to free weights and I will never go back. They are far more effective.

Recently I have been having a problem with uneven development. The right side of my chest is developing faster than the left. It is nothing noticable to anyone other than me, but I would like to keep it that way. Someone told me I should drop the weight I use but that hasn' reall helped (I have been using lower weight for two months now). Any suggestions?

[Pekka]

Your diet doesn't look right at all to me.

[CrONoS]

I'm going to a gym 2x/week.

I don't know if it's good, but I succeed to gain around 50% of muscular strength by exercising on free weight.

My exercise is simple:

I run for 15-20 minutes and 1hour of gym.

Each exercise is repeated 3 times, for a maximum of 10 reps. (generally between 6 to 10 reps) If I am able to do 10reps, I raise the weight.

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Pekka
Your diet doesn't look right at all to me.

It's pretty close to perfect, as far as eating naturally and healthily and veggeterrian (there is a bit more nuts + fruit in there, that I didn't include).

Jon Miller

[CrONoS]

on a side note; even if I'm stronger than last year, and my friend (with who I exercise) said to me the upper part of my body seems to be much more "solid". I didn't gain so much weight.

Catherine, a close friend of me, told me that even if it's was not really apparent, I was much more "muscular" than before.

Anyway what I wanted to say, even after 1 year of training. I didn't gain much weight, but people who know me well, can say that I'm stronger or more "solid" than before. What I've seems from people who were fat, or had a high level of fat; were able to gain a lot of muscle really fast.

But guy like me who are skinny and slim, is hard really hard to gain muscular weight.

[Jon Miller]

BTW, I have been focusing on health for almost 2 years (during that time I have lost ~45 pounds and gained a bit of muscle).

I haven't visited diet or body building sites for over 4 months though and would rather just have a small (short) thread here then get involved in the other again.

JM

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by CrONoS
I'm going to a gym 2x/week.

I don't know if it's good, but I succeed to gain around 50% of muscular strength by exercising on free weight.

My exercise is simple:

I run for 15-20 minutes and 1hour of gym.

Each exercise is repeated 3 times, for a maximum of 10 reps. (generally between 6 to 10 reps) If I am able to do 10reps, I raise the weight.

That was my initial plan. The thing is that after not too long I got to a point where I couldn't raise the weight (on free weights) but could still do 10 reps (or even 15).

I haven't gone up in dumbell press forever (55 lbs), but I can't even get the next heavier (60 lbs) dumbells up, much less do even 4 reps with them. That is why I went to weight machine for a bit, because I could continue to improve with that(iso-lateral press up to 187 lbs). I haven't done dumbells for a couple of months, so plan on it being difficult today.

Jon Miller