Gym - Some good NSC advice required

[Wilko]

As NSC is the fountain of all knowledge I thought I would get some advice from fellow gym goers. I have been going for years but for cardio mainly to keep fit.

However I have decided I fancy putting on a bit of muscle cause I am a bit of a skinny goon. Some top tips would be welcome, how heavy, reps etc?

I know that you have to cater for your own build and I am one of those that does not really put on weight but also really struggle to gain muscle mass, some top tips on diet to bulk up would be good too.

Yes, I know I could just google all this but thought NSC may be a good place to have a chat y'get me x

 

[Simon Morgan]

Prepare for "don't go to the gym!"/"waste of money"/the sun shines out of my arse-type responses on this.

Personally though, the way I was always told to do it when I got free personal sessions was: Focus on particular parts of your anatomy at a time eg lower body one day, upper body one day, arms one day. Doing everything ultimately isn't hugely effective. The best way to do it reps-wise was 12, 10, 8 then 6, preferrably upping the weight every time. Only you will know how much you can lift. I was told this was the best way of doing it rather than doing loads of reps with a light weight/1 or 2 with a stupidly heavy one.

Diet-wise, I'm not really sure but you will probably have to eat more food (obviously things like pasta and fish)

Hope this helps

 

[Taybha]

pick a gym that isnt full of skinny birds who choose to wear barely f*** all do nothing but strut around the place checking themselves out in the mirrors and taking up all the time of the trainers who are supposed to be there to help the fat ones but tend to give anything over 10 stone a wide birth,its taken me ages to find a good gym with good trainers that are approachable and give good advice. When you start a program the trainer has made up for you try and keep to it for 6 weeks and compare your stats to when you began,after this sort of time get your trainer to make you a new program

 

[Wilko]

Prepare for "don't go to the gym!"/"waste of money"/the sun shines out of my arse-type responses on this.

Personally though, the way I was always told to do it when I got free personal sessions was: Focus on particular parts of your anatomy at a time eg lower body one day, upper body one day, arms one day. Doing everything ultimately isn't hugely effective. The best way to do it reps-wise was 12, 10, 8 then 6, preferrably upping the weight every time. Only you will know how much you can lift. I was told this was the best way of doing it rather than doing loads of reps with a light weight/1 or 2 with a stupidly heavy one.

Diet-wise, I'm not really sure but you will probably have to eat more food (obviously things like pasta and fish)

Hope this helps

Good advice

I won't listen to the 'waste of money' thing as I joined the gym 4 years ago and have been at least 2/3 times a week without fail to do cardio so I have no probs with motivation.

I have been dooing 3 sets of 8 reps at a weight where the last 2 or 3 reps are really hard to do. Not sure if that is a good rule.

 

[Simon Morgan]

Good advice

I won't listen to the 'waste of money' thing as I joined the gym 4 years ago and have been at least 2/3 times a week without fail to do cardio so I have no probs with motivation.

I have been dooing 3 sets of 8 reps at a weight where the last 2 or 3 reps are really hard to do. Not sure if that is a good rule.

Exactly. It is for some people, it isn't for others, why won't people get over it?

I've always found the 12,10,8,6 rule a good one, as it steadily leads you to increase the weights you are lifting, probably better than doing 3 lots of 8 I would say...

 

[Wilko]

Exactly. It is for some people, it isn't for others, why won't people get over it?

I've always found the 12,10,8,6 rule a good one, as it steadily leads you to increase the weights you are lifting, probably better than doing 3 lots of 8 I would say...

Will give that a go, cheers mate.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

Lift heavy, eat clean, eat lots - gaining muscle mass is a lot about diet and eating 1.5g protein for every lb body weight.

Buy this book: Amazon.com: Starting Strength (2nd edition) (9780976805427): Mark Rippetoe, Lon Kilgore: Books

for the basics and form guide, and base a suitable routine around squats/deadlifts/military press/bench press/bent over rows/dips/pull ups going three times a week and rotating the routine, day 1 leg day, day 2 upper body day, day 3 leg day and then reverse that for the next week.

You need a proper gym, which is difficult in Brighton as all of the gyms are for girls, but Riptide on the seafront has squat racks / power racks and is OK if not full of meatheads.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

I think its generally accepted for muscle gain that you should be doing 3 sets of 5 reps, working to exhausion by the last rep of the third set.

If your doing more then 5 reps per set then you're training your body for resistance rather than for muscle gain.

 

[Billy the Fish]

I'd imagine there will be alot of conflicting advice on this thread so I'll keep it short and sweet.

Don't get too bogged down with the technical stuff at first, 3 sets of 8-10 reps will be fine, the key is to go to point of failure, although simon morgans 12,10,8,6 is good as well.

Get a decent routine that you are comfortable with. The proper gym monkies will have a split routine where they exercise each muscle once a week but that means going to the gym four times a week, it just depends how much time you have. I find that when you start you get better results doing each muscle twice a week, or just do two full body workouts. Recovery time is important though, at least two days. Whatever you do don't neglect your legs and back.

Diet is important and in order to build muscle you need to eat more calories than you burn, if you don't you'll never get bigger, protein intake is important as well so get a decent protein shake that you like.

Read body building magazines, there's loads of info about diet and excercises, muscle and fitness is good.

I've got an excercise chart that a bloke form the gym did me ages ago (he's a 20 stone monster so he knows a bit). I'll e-mail it to you if you want, even if you don't use it It'll give you a few ideas on the type of thing you should be doing.

 

[Wilko]

I'd imagine there will be alot of conflicting advice on this thread so I'll keep it short and sweet.

Don't get too bogged down with the technical stuff at first, 3 sets of 8-10 reps will be fine, the key is to go to point of failure, although simon morgans 12,10,8,6 is good as well.

Get a decent routine that you are comfortable with. The proper gym monkies will have a split routine where they exercise each muscle once a week but that means going to the gym four times a week, it just depends how much time you have. I find that when you start you get better results doing each muscle twice a week, or just do two full body workouts. Recovery time is important though, at least two days. Whatever you do don't neglect your legs and back.

Diet is important and in order to build muscle you need to eat more calories than you burn, if you don't you'll never get bigger, protein intake is important as well so get a decent protein shake that you like.

Read body building magazines, there's loads of info about diet and excercises, muscle and fitness is good.

I've got an excercise chart that a bloke form the gym did me ages ago (he's a 20 stone monster so he knows a bit). I'll e-mail it to you if you want, even if you don't use it It'll give you a few ideas on the type of thing you should be doing.

Cheers, that would be good. I think my problem is I do not eat enough, I have a small appetite anyway so obviously not putting in enough calories to then burn off. Good advice all round.

Confussed about how many reps to do now though!

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

Just try and up your protein intake - chicken, fish, nuts (not too many), milk and instead of having 3 large meals have 5 smaller meals and a protein shake directly after leaving the gym.

I used to have.

Oats w/glass of milk for breakfast.
Granola bar/nuts and 2 pieces of fruit for mid morning snack.
Tuna salad for lunch.
gym & protein shake.
2 chicken breast and brown rice.
Peanut butter & honey on toast for evening snack.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

Oh and don't use machines (apart from jogging and cross trainer) as all they'll do, is teach you bad form, and shear your joints by forcing them into unnatural positions/movements. Free weights are the way to go.

 

[Wilko]

Just try and up your protein intake - chicken, fish, nuts (not too many), milk and instead of having 3 large meals have 5 smaller meals and a protein shake directly after leaving the gym.

I used to have.

Oats w/glass of milk for breakfast.
Granola bar/nuts and 2 pieces of fruit for mid morning snack.
Tuna salad for lunch.
gym & protein shake.
2 chicken breast and brown rice.
Peanut butter & honey on toast for evening snack.

Cheers, would you advise a shake before gym too? Also, what is your opinion on all the creatine (spl?) products on the market, do they really do anything?

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Prepare for "don't go to the gym!"/"waste of money"/the sun shines out of my arse-type responses on this.

These people are fat

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Cheers, would you advise a shake before gym too? Also, what is your opinion on all the creatine (spl?) products on the market, do they really do anything?

The problem i find if you start going down the shake route it gets REALLY expensive. I tend to only have them after a really hard work out

 

[ali jenkins]

DONT use ceatine, its good while your on it but as soon as you stop then you loose your muscle mass really quickly and it will turn into FAT!

Everything has been covered really, but most good gyms will be able to work out a plan to suit you for free!!

To find out what weight you should liftwork out the MAXIMUM weight that you can do one rep on and half it!

 

[Wilko]

DONT use ceatine, its good while your on it but as soon as you stop then you loose your muscle mass really quickly and it will turn into FAT!

!

I think that has happened to Ricky Hatton

 

[Stat Man]

You can get ton's (is that a weight lifting pun!?) of advice from this place
RossTraining.com Index page

 

[Acker79]

DONT use ceatine, its good while your on it but as soon as you stop then you loose your muscle mass really quickly and it will turn into FAT!

Muscle does not turn into fat. They are completely different molecules.

 

[Napper]

Low reps mate. 8 - 10 , the final reps should be virtually failure.

Don't train all muscles at once , instead hit them seperatly for example

Mon - Bi's and Tri's
Tue - Shoulders
Wed - rest
Thur - Chest
Fri - rest
weekend - Legs and Back

You can combine muscle groups ie back and biceps, all about what works for you.

Each muscle group aim to do 3 excercises to target it.

And importantantly up your protein intake, protein shakes are good and up that meat intake but keep the fat intake low. Aim to eat 5 healthy protein filled meals a day.

Follow this and you will be ok.

If you are thin then you are a blank canvas and will do well.

A spotter is good to help.

Keep increasing the weight where you can but stick on those 8 - 10 reps