-- Weightlifting & Nutrition Thread -- v9.0 Optimized

The best weight gainer is food…lots of cals made up of carbs, protein and fats…as far as putting on fat vs. Lean Body Mass (subject of much debate among people who don’t know what they are talking about…)

When you are bulking and gaining weight…it will not ALL be skeletal muscle…EVER. You will put on some fat and some water…that’s just the way it is…and when you lose weight to cut…you will lose some of that fat, water, AND muscle…(if on steroids, loss in LBM is minimal) Now HOW much fat you put on when you are bulking is dependant upon how RAPID the weight gain is…you can only build muscle so fast, so diets that are stupidly excessive in calories will yield a greater increase in fatty deposits and water retention.

Here’s an example…if my maintenance cals are 2500 cals a day (we are assuming healthy meals spread out evenly) Then a clean bulk might consist of 3500 cals daily…if I was to up my cals to 4500 daily then I am more than likely going to make the same gains in LBM while putting on more fat and water…thus giving me a thicker (smoother) appearance and I will prolly be stronger too ( greater size = mechanical leverage advantage, regardless sometimes of the quality of the size)

So children…those weight gain 2500 gold weight gainers at GNC that are like 40 dollars for a 4 day supply of shakes with cals exceeding 2000 calories a serving…are a big waste of money. Go eat something, ANYTHING. And then eat again in 3 hours…until you go to bed…then wake up hungry and start the cycle over…now ur gaining weight.

YES.

when i lost about 20 lbs this past year, i was wondering why my arms looked smaller and i was initially weaker. my gym buddies explained to me that when you lose bodyfat, you also lose some muscle and some strength.

YES.

nowadays we’re just inundated with quick fix strategies that we tend to overlook what really works best. not saying that protein shakes are useless, 'cuz they do have their place in the grand scheme of things, but really, you gotta go back to the basics. work hard, eat right. do those and whatever gains (or losses) you were looking for you’ll be sure to achieve.

:rock:

good going juicemonkey, i had to chuckle at how you stick your arse out when you pose! looks funny! i’m no judge, but with bigger tris and quads i rekon you would have come top 2. POst a pic of yourself in normal clothesl ike a t-shirt, it’s hard to gauge how big you are reltive to normal people when you’re onstage or just in trunks.

heh, I know nothing of dieting, I just know how to go to the gym and lift, and how to play racquet/basketball…anyone want to divulge in their dieting plan?

speaks dramaticly with a british accent and sips cup of green tea

oh all those work schedules and working techniques are making me hungrier …
body builders , would share your healthy cooking tips and healthy diet for the muscle , non-fatty too .

green tea is good :slight_smile: , burn off 80cals a day :slight_smile:

i’ve been doing cardio in the morning before breakfast …
joggin at the tread mill for 40 mins :slight_smile: . in fact i don’t take breakfast . i take lunch and dinner .
and goes weight lifting at the afternoon :slight_smile: .

Yeah I guess I’m not as educated on nutrition as I wanna be… well I’m a sorta-lean (not fat and not ripped) 185lb @ 72" height right now… what would be a realistic weight gaining goal between now and December?

chicken breaaaaaaaasssssssssssssst

200lbs might be a good goal…if you hit that early set a new goal.

My test prop and tren ace came in last week, I accepted delivery today and start tomorrow, I’m very excited about this cycle…not only am I working with good compounds and adequate dosing this time as well…I started dieting earlier on though…got from 215 down to around 195, abs coming out already so I’m guessing I’m around 12-14% bodyfat…(no, I’m not a huge guy heh)

I have my diet already planned out as well as already made adjustments to my workout regimen and can’t wait to start. Goal this time around will not be weight gain, I will be cutting for the majority of this cycle…so I won’t really put on much size…and strength gains will be minimal I’m guessing…so any size I do put on or gains in strength I see will be an added bonus. I’m going to try and get well into single digit bodyfat percentage so I’ll let you guys know how that’s going as the cycle continues…everyone wish me luck.

someone mentioned earlier that the best ‘thermogenic’ solution was an ECL stack.
now i know ephedra is banned; but i managed to find this.

http://d-n-e.com/1-b10082782.html
Ephedrine HCL

but i’m a bit confused on the caffiene and aspirin part.
I was told that i should take 25 mg (1 pill) twice a day and roughly 200mg of caffiene. is 200 mg correct? but where / what for of that caffiene should i take? what about the aspirin? what serving?

does the serving vary from person to person, or is it pretty set for all?
thanks

i’ve dropped 40 pounds …

eer to be really precise … i actuallt lost 20 kg ,if in pounds …
44 pounds :slight_smile: exactly

so i am now … 180 pound at least …

and i still look …umm my lower abs seems to be flabby abit >___> .
what can i do to get those off ?

HCL? Garbage.

200mg of caffine would be found in a large cup of coffee. And aspirin is aspirin.

Ephedra free products suck.

to be exactly, how many oz’s would you consider to constitute a large cup?

and do you know of a better ephedra product?

when taking it, do you just take it all at once?
1 ephedra pill, 1 asprin, and drink a cup of coffee?

I just got a membership to Bally’s and wanted to post my workout, and get some feedback. First, my goals are to lose body fat and get some definition in my muscles. I don’t want to gain weight or bulk up, but I do want to be more than just toned, I guess lean and ripped would be nice. I’m 200 lbs. and 6’ right now (although the height probably won’t be changing, unless I shrink).

My goal with my diet now is to limit calories to around 1500 - 1700 a day, which puts me at a deficit of 800 - 1000 calories a day. I’ve been doing this for a month or so, and I’m doing well with it. I’m eating mostly whole wheat cereals/breads, tuna, peanut butter, salads, lowfat milk, noodles, etc.

The lifting I’m doing is all on Nautilus type machines, except for the dumbell curls.

DAY 1

Crunches (Forward) 3/25
Crunches (Left Side) 3/25
Crunches (Right Side) 3/25
Leg Raises 3/20
Curls 3/12
Dumbell Curls 3/12
Incline Bench Press 3/12
Biangular Bench Press 3/12
Pec Flys 3/12
Seated Rows 3/12
Vertical Rows 3/12
Shoulder Press 3/12
Biangular Shoulder Press 3/12
Lat Pulldown 3/12
Binagular Lat Pulldown 3/12
Tricep Extensions 6/12
Cardio 30 minutes (Elliptical ski runner thing)

DAY 2

Crunches (Forward) 3/25
Crunches (Left Side) 3/25
Crunches (Right Side) 3/25
Leg Raises 3/20
Cardio 1 hour (Elliptical ski runner thing)

I alternate day 1 and 2, and I don’t take any days off. Also, I add some swimming on days when I feel up to it.

Thanks for any advice.

Jim

That’s a horrible training schedule and an even worse diet.
Do some homework first, I have no interest in helping someone who has no idea what they’re doing.

That’s easily the worst workout/diet I’ve ever seen.

Id have to agree, also im not clear on what he wants, adonis_minus_20 you say you dont want to bulk up but want more than toned? that is like answering a question with both yes and no, im just going to guess that you want to lose weight?

you workout is insane, im too busy to give you a full on answer but you want to be training 3 times a week, your also doing way to much in one session, break things down into areas of your body.

you really need to research calories in foods that will help you plan a better diet, I could go on but its long, im sure magnuss will help you out.

I’ll be the first to say that I don’t know what I’m doing, that’s why I wanted to get feedback here. This is what I came up with on my own. Please elaborate on what I should change, I’m open to advice (I’m asking for it). I guess I was ambiguous on what I want to accomplish. My first goal is to mainly lose body fat, that’s why I’m doing a lot of cardio work. I’ve lost around 25 pounds since the beginning of the year, so I’m happy so far. Also, I do want to develop more than just being toned, but I guess I should concentrate on losing weight first.

So I’m doing too much in one session and should break it up by body parts on different days. I was thinking that if I could do all of it one session at a time, that that would be better. So just 3 days a week for the lifting, but is there anything wrong with doing the cardio work every day? I want to drop body fat.

With my diet, my main goal is to keep the calories down. Is that a bad way of doing it? When I get down to where I want to be with my weight, I was going to modify it, e.g. add more calories, more protein, etc.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Edit: Here’s a modified idea based on your feedback. I was thinking of still doing the every other day thing, either lifting and cardio, or just cardio (always with the crunches). What do you think? Does this make more sense?

DAY 1

Crunches (Forward) 3/25
Crunches (Left Side) 3/25
Crunches (Right Side) 3/25
Leg Raises 3/20
Curls 3/12
Dumbell Curls 3/12
Incline Bench Press 3/12
Biangular Bench Press 3/12
Pec Flys 3/12
Tricep Extensions 6/12
Cardio 30 minutes

DAY 2

Crunches (Forward) 3/25
Crunches (Left Side) 3/25
Crunches (Right Side) 3/25
Leg Raises 3/20
Cardio 1 hour

DAY 3

Crunches (Forward) 3/25
Crunches (Left Side) 3/25
Crunches (Right Side) 3/25
Leg Raises 3/20
Seated Rows 3/12
Vertical Rows 3/12
Shoulder Press 3/12
Biangular Shoulder Press 3/12
Lat Pulldown 3/12
Binagular Lat Pulldown 3/12
Cardio 30 minutes

Jim

First off, WHERE ARE YOUR LEGS??? Regardless of whether u want bigger legs or not or hate training legs, you just absolutely have to, for an optimal hormonal response.

You should try upper body, lower body splits…that would more closely resemble what you are already doing, and I’ll try and put something together with exercises you are already doing…4 days a week in this fashion, Upper/lower/off/upper/lower/off/off. Do these exercises IN THIS ORDER. Rest intervals should be 60-120 seconds between sets and sets will be 3 sets of 8-12 reps

Day 1: Upper/horizontal movement plane
Biangular bench press
Dumbell Rows
Incline Bench
Seated rows
Superset**
**barbell curls and tricep extensions (I prefer overhead extensions)
Abs: 3 sets of weighted crunches
3 sets of leg raises…that’s enough.

Day 2: Lower
Back Squats
Stiff Legged deadlifts
Hack squats
Leg Curls
Calf Raises (if you only do one exercise for calves let it be one in which ur knees are locked in order to activate all three heads)

Day 3: Upper vertical movement plane…
Shoulder Press
Lat Pulldowns
Biangular shoulder press
Biangular lat pulldowns
superset dumbell curls with lying overhead extensions
Abs:
Weighted crunches and Leg raises.

Day 4: Lower
Deadlifts
Front Squats
Hyper Extensions
Leg Press
Calf raises

Also…Don’t do cardio every day…30 minutes a day 4 times a week is plenty…you have to realize…ur goal is not to lose WEIGHT as fast as you can…but to lose as much fat and keep as much muscle as you can. Your diet needs some work too…protein should be high, carbs moderate, and small amounts of good fats…lots of grilled chicken, fish, and lean red meat are a few good sources of protein and for carbs you should stay away from sugar and get them from oatmeal, brown rice, wheat pasta (occasionally) black beans, sweet potatoes etc. Eat 5-6 times daily…this will really ramp up ur metabolism as well. Hope this helps some…this is just a start for you.

Telling him what he needs is of no use, he needs to understand why he’s training/eating that way. Go read everything you can find about training and nutrition.

yes magnus has pretty much answered you dude, Id like to add his very right about training your legs, not only will it help you in your gains, but you wont look stupid with a big upper body and small legs.

If your having problems eating 6 meals a day, id try filling some with meal replacement powders this is just to help, you know like you get stuck at work or somewhere and cant get no decent food.
eating hard food is better of course

thats the only supplement I would bother with, anything else is just a waste of time and money, and when you go gym likely some idiot will go on about this and that ignore them, do what works for you.

You dont need to be in the gym longer than an hour really, dont be fooled that lifting loads will make you muscles huge it wont, the more rest you get the stronger you will get.

Its hard when you 1st start out I understand, you’ve been seeing some results already so that helps, you will find your body gets used to what your doing after a month or so, you should change you progam round alittle to keep shocking your body or else you could reach a stalemate.

well good luck.