Whats your total caloric intake currently?Look at those weightgainer labels closely also,alot of them tend to have a ton of sugar in them.Post your current daily and calories and the label info on the weightgainer also.These kind of ?are hard to answer as everyones metabolic rate are going to differ to a degree.If your shooting for high protein intake 200grams for 4500 cals is pretty low.Im cutting at the moment eating only 2158 a day and getting 280g protein out of that.
Question for all you guys eating six meals a dayā¦how do you all find the time to eat that many meals in a day? My schedule consists of school at 7 am until 2 pm then work 4 pm to 10 pmā¦
I have a nice diet I found but eating that many times seems kinda tough due to my scheduleā¦=/
-Cook your food and bring it with youā¦
-Buy can canned foods (tuna,Veggie,ETC.) and bring it with you.
-If you eat out ,eat someplace reasonable ,like Subway chicken subs,or buy protein drink.
I just entered the Trim spa contest this week, the challenge is to improve the way your body looks; lose fat, gain muscle, whateverā¦its a 3 month challenge.
Top winners get some really good prizes and such.
If anyone wants to sign on, go to [ trimspa.com ] and read further detailsā¦
Man that sounds cool. Good luck with that shit Eugene.
I recently started taking CEE, havenāt noticed anything drastic, but I definitely feel thicker. In a month or so Iāll post some results if you guys are interested in it.
pretty good stuff.
for delts, i suggest starting with laterals (not the rear delt flyes, but the standing ones) to pre-exhaust your delts. after 3 sets of those, go for arnold presses.
here is my delt routine:
- lateral raises - 1 side at a time, 2 warm up sets, 3-4 working sets of 10-15 reps (iām not in bulking mode at the moment)
- standing dumbbell press - 1 side at a time, 4 working sets of 10-12 reps. great for core stability
- rear delt flyes - 3-4 working sets of 12-15
- upright rows - 3 sets of 12
i used to begin with the presses. switching to pre-exhaust mode has worked wonders for my delts. btw, i do shrugs on back day 'cuz your traps are more a part of your back than they are your delts.
i sometimes use the pre-exhausting principle when training arms. start with the most concentrated focus (one arm press downs for tris and concentration curls for bis) and finishing with an excercise with the broadest focus (close grip bench presses or dips for tris and standing barbell curls for bis). pre-exhausting makes the target muscle work much harder towards the end.
iām not a fan of flat bench pressing :lol:. gives you a droopy look. incline is the best. i do agree with your using dumbbells then switching to the bar with pressing though. the change in stress is very noticeable.
:rock:
I take in between 4 and 5 thousand calories a day. Cytogainer is my weight gainerā¦itās very clean. 54 gms of protein, 612 calories in water, over 900 in 2 cups milk, 80 gms of COMPLEX carbs, not sugar, 3 grams creatine, 2 grams glutamine in each serving. IMO itās a great shake right before you go to bed (not if ur cutting of course) and PWOā¦(ur body needs a lot more than just protein after a good workout) I also wake up between 6 and 7 to drink a shake, go back to bed, wake up at 9 get ready and eat breakfast at 10. Iāve put on another 7 or 8 lbs this past month with this kinda diet. And Iām actually taking in over 300 gms of protein a day.
To those people having a hard time eating 6 times a day hereās what I do on days I work doubleās at the restaurantā¦
6 am: wake up drink shake go back to bed
10 am: breakfast, go to work
2-3 pm: lunch
6 pm: shake
9-10 pm: dinner
12-1 am: shake, bedā¦wash rinse repeat.
Now on days Iām not at the restaurant the second shake is PWO and I can sometimes squeeze in a few extra meals. Protein powders make for the most portable anytime snack ever.
As for pre-fatiguing muscles before heavy compound movementsā¦I myself donāt believe in it. Heavy compound movements require you to be fresh. I always warm up with isolated movements with light weight but always hit the heavy compound movements right away (bench press, squats, deadlifts, military press etc) By doing this you can get a better idea of the progress youāve made in strength overall. And bench pressing is for the outter pectoralis and frontal delts and tricepsā¦itās a strength and mass builderā¦not actually great at all for chest development and neither is incline barbell presses eitherā¦incline pressing puts more weight (stress on teh rotator)on ur shoulders, thus the lighter weight. For chest development crossovers and flying motions are a must, with pullovers to finish and tie everything together.
thatās why you train in phases because youāre not always on a strength building phase. if that were the case, youād always be big without shape or definition and thatās why pre-exhausting works. it puts a different kind of stress on your body. when iām in my strength building phase, i do the same thing you do. warm up with an isolator using very light weight and then begin with compound lifts.
with incline pressing, i donāt find that it stresses my shoulders all that much. i still stand by it being the best for overall chest growth/development due to the fact that most pecs develop on the lower end quicker so if you prioritize flat benching, you wonāt have great symmetry.
i agree with you that crossovers and flyes are definitely important. i myself do these in every chest workout, but you still need a pressing excercise to have the accompanying mass that makes it look better. if you look at the routines of most pro-bodybuilders and ask people in your gym who you think have great physiques, theyāll tell you that incline pressing is just as integral to building a great chest as crossovers and flyes are.
btw. i read in Menās Health a couple of months ago that barbell presses (whether incline or flat) activate the most muscle fibers in your chest. more than flyes or any other pec excercise.
:rock:
With those shakes do you eat anything with them? The protein stuff Iām taking has 75g of protein and 378g of carbs. Do you think it would be necessary to eat anything with this?
Also that Cytogainer stuffā¦how does that taste and where do you go to buy it? I might consider going out to pick that up after I get finished with my current stuff.
i personally donāt know how these weight gainers are supposed to work. now i donāt need to gain weight 'cuz i was never skinny, but when i read articles and ask more experienced bodybuilders as well as nutrition/supplement store owners, they tell me that our bodies are only capable of digesting/absorbing up to 40g of protein every 3-4 hours. so really, why do they put 75g or even 80g of protein in a serving for these weight gainers?
one common rule regarding protein consumption is that you should have something along the lines of 1 lb and something of protein per pound of bodyweight. now if youāre skinny, itās probably safe to assume youāre under 200 lbs, yeah? now if youāre to take that weight gainer with all that protein in it + the meals you have to eat during the day, youāre gonna end up consuming more than that 1 lb of protein per pound of bodyweight and thatās gonna be a waste of protein 'cuz your body will not digest it.
thatās what logic leads me to state anyways :lol:. thatās why i say i donāt know how theyāre supposed to work. iām confused :lol:. iāma have to inquire.
:rock:
Iāve been doing some research on ways to gain mass and the three most important things seem to be training, eating, and resting. It was recommended to work out intensely no more than 4 days a week. Right now I lift weights roughly 6 days a week. So what do you guys think about just training 4 days with weights, and resting the others? Or doing a little bit of cardio or something. Oh I forgot to mention, Iām not trying to get cut, I just want to gain mass right now.
How many days a week do you guys weight train?
6 days is excessive for anyone. Iād move to a four day schedule, while concentrating on a specific body area (chest and tris, back and biceps, legs, etc.) once per week. That should give your body ample time to heal and grow.
As far as gaining weight goes, just eat. Eat and eat and eat. For people who tend to gain weight easily via fat, itās probably best to consume protein shakes to get your calories. For those who are hard pressed to gain weight - Protein works, but so does eating ādirtyā (on your workout days)- Dirty is eating whatever as long as you get your calories. Many people canāt eat dirty - they gain too much. But as long as you keep hitting the weights, you should be fine.
Itās a bitch for me to weight gain. Partly because I donāt have an appetite to eat a lot half the time. I also canāt eat a lot because I have a small stomach. Any way to increase my appetite?
Donāt get me wrong. My workouts include all of those as well. Here is my chest split right now as designed by my trainer:
Flat barbell press: 8, 6, 4 with 70, 80 and 90% of my max, then drop set to 70% for as many as I can get and 2 forced reps (as soon as i get 4 reps no spot at 90% we bump it up)
Crossovers: 3x15
hammer incline: 8, 6, 4
incline dumbell flies: 10, 15, failure
hammer wide chest press: 8, 6, 4
pullovers: 3x15
My recovery time is improving pretty rapidly as Iāve gotten pretty used to the split right now so weāre going to four set two of those exercises next week.
This split will change of course every 6-8 weeks but we will keep flat first but change the rep range, mainly because my flat bench press is prolly my weakest point. Itās just under 1.5x my body weight and Iām wanting a 1.75 or 2x BW by next summer.
Now pressing exercises are very important for chest development but if I was concerned moreso with shape and development and not strength, I would press with dumbells as you get a better range of motion (provided you use proper form, wide at the bottom, almost touching shoulders with weight and squeezing/bringing the weights together at the top)
As for weightgainersā¦most are pretty dirty so as to put ANY kind of weight on an individual. They usually have a ridiculous amount of calories and protein and sugar and everything else, they mix REALLY thick for an obscene amount (my first weight gainer had 2200 calories and mixed to a THICK 35 or 36 ounces) Cytogainerās not like that. Itās like a healthy meal basically but with a ton of protein (54 gms) with good branching and 80 complex carbs and creatine and glutamine as well. I take 3 servings a day and have put on over 40 pounds this past year while maintaining a fairly average to low BF% (12-13%) So I swear by it, but to each his own. If I could eat more food I would have less need for it, but I am very busy and canāt cook and refuse to eat canned tuna 3 times a day.
And to answer doujinshiās question, I like cytogainer cuz it mixes as easily as a regular protein shake and drinks easy too. I donāt eat with the shakes cuz it usually fills me up and eating anything on top of that would just be excess calories/protein/carbs. THE TRICK IS drink them between meals. Drink a shake and then have a FULL MEAL 2-3 hours later.
Lifting for 6 days isnāt excessive if youāre juiced out of ur mind and maybe takin HGH too. But for the rest of us, 4-5 days is adequate. I lift 5 days so i can isolate shoulders a little better and have an entire day just for arms. I also do calves on monday and thursday and abs on wednesday and friday/saturday.
Im guessing you eat perhaps 2 meals a day, you need to slowly increase this to about 6.
For one week try to eat 3 meals a day then the next week try eating 4 and so on untill you work you way upto 6.
You stomach actually grows to fit your demands, so at the moment you stomach is small and you will find it hard to eat alot, slowly build up your eating diet and eventually you will find that you get hungury more often.
I hope that works for you dude.
Well since the SRK Menās Health thread apparently died i figured Iād post the status of my weight loss endeavors here. I have currently lost about 90 pounds, i started this past May. I should be to the 100lb loss mark by the end of next week at the latest, and then I want to lose 5 more at least to make it an even 225.
Start Weight: Approximately 330Lbs
Current Weight: 237Lbs
Itās pretty crazy though, i need new clothes lol. Iām proud that i actually did it, and it hasnāt even been hard. I could probably have done it at a quicker pace but i feel good about the pace iāve done it at, and like i said itās been easy, i havenāt had to kill myself to make the progress so itās been great the whole way. I mean I am by no means a small person now, but iām so much smaller than i used to be at 330 that there are so many advantages, like fitting in school desks and stuff like that.
If anyone is contemplating making a serious effort to lose weight but you dont know if it will be worth the effort, trust me, it is worth it. Go for it!!!
āIf i can changeā¦and you can changeā¦Anybody can change!!!ā -Rocky IV LOL
my current chest workout has only 4 excercises. iām not trying to add mass anymore. i just get depressed when i see nice blazers and it looks good 'til i try to close them :lol:.
-
incline barbell press or incline dumbbell press - 2 warm up sets, 4 working sets of 12-15 reps
-
incline or flat dumbbell flyes - 4 sets of 12-15 reps
-
hammer strength flat bench press (the one where youāre upright as opposed to lying down) or hammer strength decline bench press - 3 sets of 15 reps
-
cable crossovers - 3 sets of 15 reps
my rest period in between sets is between 30 seconds to a minute max. more calories burned, higher heart rate and i really tax the pecs.
i work out 4-5 days a week.
sometimes i go 5 straight then 2 off.
sometimes itās 2 on, 1 off, 2 on. depends on what i have to do or how iām feeling.
my current schedule is as follows:
day 1: chest
day 2: back
day 3: off
day 4: legs
day 5: shoulders
day 6: arms
day 7: off
if i have to combine body parts due to time constraints, this is what my plan looks like:
day 1: chest & biceps
day 2: back
day 3: off
day 4: legs
day 5: shoulders & triceps
day 6: off
i donāt recommend putting chest and triceps together because you will either overtrain your triceps or you wonāt be able to maximize results due to some fatigue. i like to have opposing body parts together. that way you get more in terms of rest and recovery, and thatās where your growth occurs.
reason iād put shoulders and triceps together is because you only use your triceps in one shoulder excerciseāthat being military presses. or arnold presses if you wanna call them that. with chest workouts, depending on what you do for your chest, your triceps will act as a secondary muscle anywhere between 1-3 excercises. all that plus the actual tricep workout. yes, i talked about pre-exhaustion, but 3 excercises is a bit much for that :lol:.
i think something that hasnāt really been touched on is the importance of getting to know your own body. everyone reacts differently so itās critical that you tailor your workouts according to how your body responds to the varying stimuli. as long as your technique and form are correct, experiment with different excercises, weights, number of reps, etc. thereās still so much to learn.
:rock:
My five day split for now is this:
Monday: Back
Wednesday: Chest
Thursday: legs
Friday: shoulders/traps
Saturday: arms
One thing about ur second split that I see kal el, is that you do chest and biceps together and then back the very next dayā¦a day in which the load is heavy on ur biceps again. Almost like uād be working biceps two days in a row. And arnold presses and military presses are two completely different things and I do them both on shoulder dayā¦arnolds are rotating shoulder presses.
As far as getting to know ur body. Thereās two kinda muscle fibersā¦red and white. Finding out which one you have more of can completely change ur way of liftingā¦Iāll give you an exampleā¦my trainer benches 350lbs maxā¦not THAT great considering heās 260 with years of trainingā¦but he CAN bench 225 almost 30 times. Heās a different kinda strong. Iām completely the oppositeā¦if I want to get my max bench up, I just about max every week for a month or two at a time and it will skyrocketā¦but if I donāt max and do sets of 10 or 8, 6, 4 for too long, I stagnate.
cool.
i see what youāre saying.
i think iām more of a fast twitch fiber guy. i donāt have as great a max as some people, but i can press a certain weight more than they can.
about doing chest/biceps then back the next day, again, itās also a matter of how your body responds. for some reason, when i work out my back, i donāt feel it much in my biceps. i guess you can say that iāve learned to zone in on the back muscles so that the majority of the work is done by them as opposed to putting additional stress on my biceps.
that said, i will change it up and maybe put legs in after chest/biceps to give my biceps some ample recovery time if iām doing that split. maybe iāll get better results.
is the only difference between a military press and an arnold press the fact that you rotate when doing arnolds? if so, then donāt you still primarily work out the same muscles, i.e., front delts and triceps (with a variation in the emphasis)?
i wanna get a trainer, but itās expensive :shake:. i really want to do lots of core work outs to condition my central nervous system to just blast the weights. i wanna try plyometric training as well.
:rock:
arnold presses have a broader range of motion and IMO incorporate more stabilizers and requires a degree of balance to use proper form. IMO arnolds effectively remove triceps from the lift, partly at least. I do military and arnold pressesā¦IMO the best way to do both is get ur heavy militaryās out of the way first with barbell/dumbell/machines/whatever. Then grab fairly light dumbells and attempt the arnolds with an extremely slow and controlled motion. Upright rows and then ur raises and u should be pretty taxed.
There are more advantages to putting back and chest a day apart than just cuz you want to work biceps on chest dayā¦I feel a lot stronger on chest day if my back feels good and strong too. If I really want to pound out the heavy weight on bench I squeeze my shoulder blades together trying to put as much of my rear delts on the bench as I can and slightly arching my back, bring it down slow and explode up putting some of my back into the liftā¦exploding, not squirming. Everybodyās differentā though. Friend of mine trains arms everytime they arenāt sore and he put two inches on his arms with the quickness.
Have any of you guys taken Superdrol? Can you give me some feedback on it?