I know at least 1/2 of the track team here had abs cause they always had to run in practice 5 days a week. Nothing can really top cardio plus some decent healthy eating. The food doesn’t even have to be really strict, just cut back on a few things.
my cardio is my martial arts since i train 3 times a week. plus the stuff i do outside of class. I’m a physically fit person.
I really don’t know what to eat…since i have never worried about it and ate everything under the sky. And have stayed in shape, i compete and spar so ya. Its not like im a fat kid starting out.
But i really dont know what kinds of things to eat for me to get a six pack.
you dont have to drop weight, muscle mass and fat are two different things you could weigh 180lbs and still have good visable abs, this is all to do with youre body fat which needs to be below 12%
I have been doing the weighted cruches for about 2 weeks now and I can see a change, havent checked my Body fat in awhile its between 6-12% though I weigh 140lbs still I want more muscle mass another 30lbs its going to take a while.
I’ve been stuck on this weight for awhile I need to get strickter with my diet.
MagnusMadness:
I looked over my diet and i’m intaking about 2000 calories a day… not too much.
My work out in a week:
Strength training (lifting weights) 3x
Interval training 1x
Cardio 3x a week
Weighted Abs 2x before a strength work out
I was looking over at bb.com and they said take your current weight… (166) times it by appox. 15 to get your maintenance calories if you’re working out…so, 2500 calories. I’m under about 500 calories, I think that would suffice for a cutting diet.
For strength training i’m doing the routine on this site:
I read somewhere that you should change up your routine every 3 weeks to keep your body guessing, now my second week is almost up and i’m perplexed to how to change my work out. Any help?
Goal:
Starting:
Tommorow
166 lbs. 15% bodyfat
End:
July 22nd
Maintaining same weight lowering to 10% body fat and a gain of 5 lbs. of muscle
Aiming for 1.5 lbs of fat loss a week.
I’m only assuming i will gain muscle because it’s the first time i’m eating about 1 gram of protein per body weight, taking creatine, and consistently working out. Beginners growth…
Supplements i’m going to take:
Glutamine - teaspoon 3x a day
Kre-alkalyne Creatine- 1 tablespoon on strength and interval training days
CLA - whatever bottle recommends
Green tea - before a work out
Reading this over, what are your thoughts?
Need to buy a bench. I’m looking for inclined and declined positions with leg holder at the bottom (or whatever it’s called). Recommendations on what brands to look into?
About to order this too.
http://www.prosource.net/product.jsp?path=-1|19482&id=14897
Anyone ever try it or heard anything about it?
2000 cals is fine…if you stop losing any weight, you may want to try carb loading a day or two…do a search for that on a bodybuilding site and get a better handle on how to do that…
As far as changing your workouts…first off, you don’t have to change every 3 weeks…especially if you are changing up your rep ranges regularly…if you aren’t changing rep ranges and want to change your routine up every 3 weeks…it can be as simple as changing the angle or the aparatus (sp?) of a certain exercise…for instance…you change the flat BB Bench Press to Decline DB Presses, you feel me? If you are staying with a certain type of workout already layed out for you, I feel this would be the best way of changing things up without totally getting away from a program. For instance…replace flying motions with different flying motions…don’t replace a pressing movement with a flying movement, get it?? Replace back squats with front squats and so on and so forth…
Ok I just clicked the link…and I really don’t like that routine…at all. If you are a beginner and want to train 3x a week…full body routines are the way to go. Alot more fun too. Notice in that workout they layed out, they do as much for biceps almost as they do for legs…and not just quads…but ur entire legs…with no calf work or core work. Do you work out at a gym with a good availability of equipment?? If not, post up what you have to work with…if you want, I wouldn’t mind writing up full body routines, rep schemes and all.
Oh and gaining 5lbs and putting on 5lbs of muscle are two COMPLETELY different things…5-10lbs of muscle is what most put on in a year. Doesn’t sound like a lot but it really is. Not saying you won’t put on some lean mass while cutting, but to put on 5lbs of muscle and lose 10-15lbs of fat would be a feat, and a body recomp from hell…lol…a person would look completely different. That would be awesome.
Oh yeah, and I’m pretty sure you should be taking the creatine everyday…most creatines call for you to take doses daily but on days you lift, take a lil more…the creatine I use for example…calls for 1 scoop in water before and after lifting, on days you don’t lift, just 1 scoop whenever.
Taste-wise, it’s okay.
How well it works, I can’t comment, I only have only used like one other kind of protein, but it definitely digests better than what I -was- using, which was Prolab.
… =D
I’d appreciate this, as I’m sure $|-|U(V)AYeL and many others would.
rep scheme and all
I own the hexagon barbells. I think that’s what they’re called, they’re the ones that don’t require adding or removing plates. They also have numbers on them.
I own a bench. Slightly inclined, but at such a low angle that it’s essentially a flat bench.
Okay, rep scheme and all please:-)
I need a new set of dumbbells too now that I think of it. Ones where you put on plates to change weight or are the hexagonal fixed number ones better?
Yeah yeah, i’ve like memorised bodybuiliding.com lol… i’m just going to increase my calories by 500 one day from carbs… should keep my thyroid running properly. 
I have a full gym facility it’s got everything! so I would LOVE it if you could write me a full body work out with rep schemes! However, when i do work out i’m out of the gym in 40-45 min. so if i can finish it in that time then that would be great!
lol… Fuck, eh? I guess i’ll just aim to lose about 5 lbs. of fat first then i’ll start bulking :annoy:
Creatine everyday? Okay done and done.
I’m going to be posting here more so everybody, call me ‘shu.’ Typing out my name must be a handfull lol…
Dumbbells versus plates.
Here’s the way I look at it, I want my workouts to go as fast as possible. Putting on and removing plates gets OLD FAST.
On the flip side, there is a financial difference. If you do some math, you won’t regret it.
I’d already own a bowflex if I had the space. Money is almost negligible (assuming the bowflex lasts a lifetime).
Anyone here got a bowflex?
About the reps and schemes, I went to a site called that had the words “home grown” thinking it’d be perfect for me, but it wasn’t. It mentioned all types of cable work outs. I’d really appreciate a giant list of what to do.
That’s what I was thinking of, since plates are cheaper than getting a bunch of dumbbells and get the job done the same, I thought I should get those. If the hexagonal dumbbells are somehow better, I won’t mind dishing out a little extra cash to get them.
Why don’t you guys just join a gym? :S
Edit:
Easy for me to say considering my gym is in my university =p
Shu, I’m gonna write out full body routines 3x a week…45 minutes heh?? You will be supersetting a LOT… get ready to sweat.
Denjin…give me a minute…I’m gonna have to get creative with ur limited equipment…can you do pull ups where you are?? And do you have a way of getting under a bar to do squats?? Does it have the thing on the end of the bench to do leg extensions and leg curls?? Cuz If I write something out, you will be working out legs like everything else. But I do need to know…how many days a week do you want to workout?? What kinda split do you want?? I’m pretty good with full body routines, upper/lower splits, body part splits (boo) and can write a decent push/pull/lower split…
About the dumbells vs plates and all that jazz…I really recommend getting a gym membership…I think it’s a better atmosphere, where you are surrounded by other people with similar goals who may be more experienced (motivation) and the only distractions are other people lifting. And they usually aren’t that much a month…like 30 or 40 dollars at most places…sometimes even less. Say you spend a couple hundred bucks on workout equipment…that could be almost a years membership at just about any gym…
Thats what girlfriends and wives are for:rofl:
I have my old lady prepare all my meals every 2 days when I diet down for a show!
can anyone tell me wut to spefically eat or make a foodplan for me. i really am a dumbass in terms of food to get abs. i really want to get abs. i have no idea wut foods to eat.
Wow. Good woman. You’re a lucky guy, man. I saw a True Life special about prepping for a competition, she puts up with a lot.
Yo, man, changing your diet is a lifestyle change.
"Hey, let’s all go McDonald’s!"
thinking: (Am I really going to derail 7 guys’ plans just so I can eat healthy?)
I know, there’s salads at McDonald’s, but you get my idea.
As a starting point, see if you can make yourself eat no/less chips. I’ve heard pizza is the world’s worst food in a lot of ways, can you give that up?
It isn’t so much as eating the proper foods that’ll kill you, but it’s giving up all the other stuff.
I have a strong anti-gym sentiment. I’ll just hand you my top reason: I like working out alone.
Also, I’ve been. So I can’t buy the “You can’t trash it 'til you try it” mindset.
Yo, when I do squats, my back goes on FIRE. I’m certain that my form is off, but I have had the hardest damn time fixing that. One of my buddies looks like a short Romie (dude on the boards), so I’d ask him for help. Despite his advice, I can’t un-curl my back. The solution I figured was I’d start doing lunges. My ass goes on fire. Good enough I figure.
I want as short a workout as possible. I currently average about an hour. Also, I would like to workout as infrequently as possible. Those two things don’t go hand in hand, so I figure 4 times a week? Towards the end of the hour, I feel like commiting suicide so that’s why I gotta keep the workouts short.
I do not have pull-ups as an option.
I don’t know what leg extensions and leg curls are.
My current leg work is the tip-toeing thing and the squats.
MagnusMadness, here’s the mix of stuff I currently do:
Toes on bed: pushup
Push ups
Flies
Benching
Barbell Behind Neck Press
Barbell Upright Row
Barbell Military Press (I do these seated)
Dumbbell Front Raise
Leg lifts
Knees to one side: crunches
Crunches, standard
Dumbbell Side Bend
Barbell Lunge
Barbell Rear Lunge
Barbell Side Lunge
Curls
Hammer Curls
Concentration curls
Shrugs
When’s the most critical time to drink a protein shake? or solid protein like chicken/fish?
I wish I could, closest to me is $50 a month and I don’t have a lot of dough to dish out. :sad:
Matt’s 15 Rules of Weight-training…(i.e. What I believe about training)
What I believe about training:
Virtually everything youve ever read from a bodybuilding magazine is heresy and should be regarded as not worth the paper it was printed on. The programs written by the so called superstars of the bodybuilding world were actually ghost written by some guy in a cubicle who doesnt know a thing about proper training, programming, exercise phys, or periodization. If, by chance the program was actually written by the superstar you can rest easy as long as you are one of the most genetically gifted people in history AND you are on such a ridiculous amount of drugs that you have to tan to hide the yellowing of your skin due to liver failure.
The fact is that big, strong guys are a dime a dozen, and many of them get that way in spite of their training knowledge than because of it.
I know what Im talking about in the world of training not because Im the biggest or the strongest (although, at 270lbs and an 800 squat, 600 bench, and 700 dead lift I can hold my own), and not because I know the most about exercise phys (though I can hold my own there too), but because I have trained with and become friends with best. I have trained at Westside Barbell Club, with the Metal Militia, talk on a continual basis with the best strength coaches in the nation and world-wide, and the training methods I prescribe have been tested in the gym on literally hundreds and hundreds of regular, everyday athletes and shown to work. Period.
So heres what I can stand before you today and say with great conviction what I know to be true about training:
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I believe in general that the majority of people dont work hard enough. If theres one thing we can learn from the old Eastern Bloc countries, its that they worked harder than us, and that primarily, is why they always beat us in the Olympics. Work hard in the gym (even if your program sucks) and you will be rewarded.
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I also believe that most people dont put near enough emphasis on lower body and core work. The key to getting big is full squats and dead lifts. If you are looking at your routine and you see that you are training upper body 3 or 4 days per week and lower body once, you have a serious problem. The majority of athletes should live and die in the squat rack.
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And for that matter, EVERYONES program should be centered around these exercises: Full Squat, Dead lifts (or cleans or both), heavy barbell rows, bench press, and Standing Barbell Military/Push Presses. Add pull ups, barbell curls, dips, heavy abdominal work, and some core work (back extensions, reverse hypers, or glute hams) and that should make up 95-100% of the total number of exercises you do. The most effective training is simple and hard.
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Training a body part once per week (and one body part per day) is one of the worst ways to train. It will create a rut in your training that you cant dig out of.
Training a bodypart twice per week has always been shown to be superior to once per week training of a muscle. The problem is with the influx of “Weider Principles” and other bodybuilding trash that’s posted in the magazines, the masses have been stuck in the one-bodypart-per-day-per-week rut for years.
No strength athletes train a bodypart once per week. Most olympic lifters, powerlifters, and strongman train their backs at least four times per week, and last time I checked, they weren’t lacking in back width.
The simple fact is that training using an upper/lower split or a push/pull split or 3 full body days will provide double or triple the training stimulus than training a muscle once per week and thus, if done correctly will lead to much, much greater growth and strength gains.
- Training to near muscular failure has shown to induce identical hypertrophy gains than training to all out muscular failure. The reason you guys cant train a muscle more than once per week is because you are destroying it when you do train it. Learn to hit or miss that last rep and then call it done. Dont do ridiculous amounts of forced reps, negatives, etc. until you literally cant move the muscle. Take it to near failure and then your muscles will recover enough so that you can train them again in 3-4 days.
Understand that there is a huge difference in training to near failure and not training hard. I would never advocate to not train hard. Actually, quite the opposite try to squat for 5 sets of 5 reps using only 10lbs less than your five rep max. Thats absolutely brutal. But when you get done, dont go to the leg press machine and keep pounding out sets and stripping off weight until you literal cant do a single leg press with only the sled. Thats absurd, and you cant recover from it in 3 days.
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Squat at least below parallel every time. Are you kidding me? I cant believe some people are still quarter squatting and saying that riding a squat all the way to the ground is bad for your knees. Learn the facts. Stopping at or above parallel puts much more strain on your knees than going ass to grass. Plus going all the way down in an Olympic style back squat will put more mass on you than any other exercise. Period.
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Isolation exercises are absolute crap. 90% of your routine should be made up of full squats, dead lifts or cleans, bench press, standing overhead press, heavy barbell rows, pull-ups, dips, and core work (abs, glute ham raises, back extensions, reverse hypers). Isolation exercises and machines are the worst thing that ever happened to the weight training world.
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Quit using pyramid rep schemes like 10,8,6,4,2 ? Instead, your time would be better served doing boring (but effective) gut busting sets of 5x5 or 4x8-10 using the SAME WEIGHT for each set. They WILL produce better results than the pyramid scheme. BTW, check your ego at the door when you do these.
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Ill quote my good friend, Glenn Pendlay (the best S&C coach in the nation) for the next one:
“Most athletes do too many exercises. Many times they look over other peoples programs like they are at a buffet. They pick a little of this and a little of that from a variety of programs, and end up with something useless. People think you have to train each muscle with a different specific exercise. Many guys in college athletics would do better if they would just randomly slash off half of what they are doing, and then work twice as hard on the half that is left.”
- Another of my favorites from Glenn:
“Im so sick and tired of hearing people who just started training who say they cant gain weight. Jeez Ive heard this crap so often. Every day it seems I have some stupid kid ask me about how to gain weight… in restaurants, at the grocery store, you name it. For some reason there seems to be a sign on my back or something. Usually I know its worthless to talk to them, sometimes I actually waste my time. Talked to a kid at the golden corral a couple of days ago. took almost an hour when I should have been enjoying my all you can eat steak night… 3 days later I see him in the gym when I just happened to go in to talk to a friend who I knew was there… kid was there doing preacher curls. said hi to me, then said well I talked to my friend about what you said and he said he tried it once and overstrained so I decided to do this thing I read about… on the other hand about 6 months ago I talked to this 6’ tall, 150lb kid who wanted to know about getting stronger. Kid had done well in judo, won some titles, also after that had done cycling, turned pro then quit a year later, quite a good road racer. He actually did what I told him I guess, about 3 months after I saw him the first time I saw him again, he weighed about 185… He wanted to try Olympic weightlifting so I let him train with the team I coach. Now hes weighing 204 and clean and jerking about 300lbs, 54lbs gained in 6 months. No drugs. Olympic squat from 175lbs to 385lbs, front squat from 150lbs to 330lbs. hell be a good lifter, has a good work ethic. Needs to be 240 and fairly lean, will compete eventually in the 231 pound class. Will take about another 12-15 months I suppose. Why is a kid like this the exception and not the rule? Why will kids do the same old thing for years in the absence of results, and not try anything new? What the hell is wrong with people. There is a gym in town, I know the owner so I go and talk to him sometimes, there are all these kids in there, skinny little ****s, doing curls. They never progress, you see the same faces one year to the next, same bodies too.”
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Ultra slow reps or TUT is, for the most part completely worthless. Will it work? Yes. But the total amount of work that one can complete is much lower when utilizing slow reps. Just go natural. Dont try to be super fast, and bouncy, and dont try to go ultra slow. Just do it naturally and controlled.
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The burn, the pump and the feel have nothing to do with the effectiveness of an exercise. Yes, even I have been caught on upper body days looking at myself in the mirror when Im all blown up, but that has nothing to do with the effectiveness of the last exercise. You do hammer strength bench presses and flys for sets of 20 and Ill do heavy barbell bench presses and deep dips. One of us will feel the pump more and the other one will grow.
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Likewise, delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) also gives no clue as to the effectiveness of a workout. It just means A) you have a ton of micro trauma in a muscle or B) a lot of lactic acid/ waste products. Congratulations.
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Core stability training is not done on a swiss ball or a stability board. Its done by pulling heavy dead lifts, standing overhead presses, full squats, heavy barbell rows, heavy farmers walks, Atlas stones, tire flipping, reverse hypers, heavy back extensions, glute ham raises, and heavy abdominal work.
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A good gym has nothing to do with how nice the machines are or if they have a pool or tanning beds or even if its air conditioned. A good gym smells like a mix of body odor and liniment and supplies their members with a big box of chalk.