Fitness and the Male Body Image

[Venom]

That's about right. Although full body x3 may be a bit much. Especially if you are lifting correctly. I think you would hit the over-training zone rather quickly, if you continue to add weight and sets. The rest you get after your workout is more important than the actual workout itself.

Everyone is different, but unless you fully recover from your last workout before starting another, your body will be in a constant state of playing catch up on repairs. Which can lead to over-training.

1. dont train to failure
2. add weight or reps (not sets)

when i do those two things, full body 3 x week isnt too much.

 

[mlittrell]

though Babylon Candle is somewhat right with everything, i do disagree with the whole idea that shoulders are so important (for the skinny guy/gal). if the skinny guy wants to put on weight, he/she does not work on his/her shoulders. if a skinny guy/gall wants to put on mass they should work on the three most important lifts: deads, squats, and bench. these three will blow a lifters test way up resulting in mass. the other little body parts aren't nearly as important. i gained 40 lbs in about 2 years just by doing this. no test boosters. no roids. just a good workout and a protein shake with a banana afterwards. from 110 to 150. dont get me wrong, i work on other parts also but i specifically focus on these three.

squats will hit: quads, hams, glutes, calves, abs, and maybe more, not really sure lol
deads will hit: hams, glutes, abs, lowerback, upper back, traps, maybe more
bench will hit: chest, tris, maybe a little dealts depending on the positioning

i find military presses to be an essential also

everything else i focus on afterwards

EDIT:

I go to failure but truthfully i think that depends on the person. and i highly agree with your view of supplements and ll the crap surrounding weightlifting.

 

[Biaxident]

1. dont train to failure
2. add weight or reps (not sets)

when i do those two things, full body 3 x week isnt too much.

1.) I take it you just lift for general health?

2.) So what are the maximum amount of repetitions you do?

 

[Biaxident]

Let's see what you people think.

What supplements, if any, have been used by this person? Steroids?

 

[Venom]

though Babylon Candle is somewhat right with everything, i do disagree with the whole idea that shoulders are so important (for the skinny guy/gal). if the skinny guy wants to put on weight, he/she does not work on his/her shoulders. if a skinny guy/gall wants to put on mass they should work on the three most important lifts: deads, squats, and bench. these three will blow a lifters test way up resulting in mass. the other little body parts aren't nearly as important. i gained 40 lbs in about 2 years just by doing this. no test boosters. no roids. just a good workout and a protein shake with a banana afterwards. from 110 to 150. dont get me wrong, i work on other parts also but i specifically focus on these three.

squats will hit: quads, hams, glutes, calves, abs, and maybe more, not really sure lol
deads will hit: hams, glutes, abs, lowerback, upper back, traps, maybe more
bench will hit: chest, tris, maybe a little dealts depending on the positioning

i find military presses to be an essential also

everything else i focus on afterwards

EDIT:

I go to failure but truthfully i think that depends on the person. and i highly agree with your view of supplements and ll the crap surrounding weightlifting.

the literature is confused at best when it comes to proving the whole "teh squatz grows urs ARMS cuz of the TESTOSTERONE!" if you're referring to the extra testosterone phenomena.

heres the thing. I both agree and disagree with you. If someone told me i needed to put on 25 pounds and play linebacker in the next 3 months:

i would be doing deficit snatch grip deads + front squats + bench.

However, i dont do that workout, because I simply want to look good. extra mechanical advantage on the upper lat fibers + tons of shoulder work is going to be the most efficient way to visually emphasis the shoulder to waist ratio. To achieve such a ratio: deads, squats, rows and flat bench = waste of time and effort.

 

[Venom]

1.) I take it you just lift for general health?

2.) So what are the maximum amount of repetitions you do?

1. your muscle fibers dont really 'fail'. its your nervous system that does. by avoiding failure, i carry less CNS fatigue from my previous workout to the next. I make up for that "lost adaptive pressure" because I get in an entire extra muscle stimulating workout in. meanwhile 'train to extreme failure' BOB is still nursing CNS fatigue.

2. "18" Its not that I feel 18 is in itself effective. Its that by making sure I get to 18 with that weight, the next bump up in weight will be more manageable and thus i will avoid the extreme extra soreness associated with that next set of weight. its all about managing fatigue. Also, i like to lift fast (with good form of course). "power" such as how much work you can apply for unit time is in some circles considered to be best trained by moving 60% max rep at a fast pace. So in this sense, i do not feel that high reps renders me athletically less explosive.




Im definitely NOT anti low reps if they are specific to your goals. if you are a powerlifter, then by all means, PLEASE do lower reps!

 

[Halla74]

There are a lot of strong opinions flying around.

One thing that is indisputable for any workout posted in this thread or any other, is that it will lose efficacy if that is the only workout you do. The body gets used to a certain regimen of stressors, and is thus no longer challenged by it. To train effectively for the long term, as in your whole life, you must vary your regimen from time to time, as your health and goals dictate.

And also, advice online could be coming from anyone, a 100 pound person with no muscle could be paraphrasing the best powerlifting advice overheard on a public bus the day before. Before aspiring to convince others that your regimen is the one true path to physical greatness, post a picture of your current physical condition to allow others to assess if what you are preaching is also good in practice.

Mine's in the current picture thread, I stand behind my program, but its not for everyone, and I am also open to learning from others who have bettered themselves in the gym through research, a good work ethic, and experience.

 

[Blank]

I dunno about the other stuff said in the thread, but this is how I'll tend to work out. But as a beginner, you should notice a marked increase in strength the first couple of times you work out.

When I start a specific exercise, I find a weight where I can maybe do only 6-7 reps on it at first. After a couple of exercise sessions, when I reach 10-11 reps with that weight, I'll move it up another five or ten pounds, depending on what exercise it is.

When I lift, I generally tend to work on my upper body, and when I want to focus on my lower body, I just go running since there's a lot of cardiovascular benefits, and my legs get shaped pretty nicely (I weigh like 205 pounds, so my legs are naturally pretty strong--at the gym I can do almost ten reps on the max poundage on a leg extension.)

Of course there are off days, and these definitely need to be taken into consideration. Most of the literature I've read on lifting suggests one to two days' rest between exercise sessions unless if you work different muscles, but I'm a freak and am able to lift the same muscles pretty much every day.

I know that the basis for this thread is aesthetic and people want each other to post pictures and what-not, but because I tend to be shorter and stockier, I don't look that strong or that cut, but I'm a lot stronger than a lot of people, and I'm in pretty good shape too.

 

[mlittrell]

the literature is confused at best when it comes to proving the whole "teh squatz grows urs ARMS cuz of the TESTOSTERONE!" if you're referring to the extra testosterone phenomena.

heres the thing. I both agree and disagree with you. If someone told me i needed to put on 25 pounds and play linebacker in the next 3 months:

i would be doing deficit snatch grip deads + front squats + bench.

However, i dont do that workout, because I simply want to look good. extra mechanical advantage on the upper lat fibers + tons of shoulder work is going to be the most efficient way to visually emphasis the shoulder to waist ratio. To achieve such a ratio: deads, squats, rows and flat bench = waste of time and effort.

im not trying to prove anything. im just simply explaining that if you want to gain mass, as a small guy, you do not want to do isolating moves. by gaining mass i mean gaining muscle. by gaining muscle one tends to look a bit better. the person that trains to be a linebacker is built like a linebacker. if a skinny guy puts on 25 lbs of lean mass its going to look good and not chunky.these moves will do that. when i think looking good i think well rounded. now true, shoulder presses are a compound lift. dandy. but they are only one lift. for a year i tried to put on mass doing only isolating moves. curls of all sorts, extensions, seated presses (vs standing), lots of machines, stuff like that. it didn't get me anywhere and i didn't look good. i looked weak and noodly. i started compound and have been gaining since. and i dont look like a gym rat either. i think that all depends on how you are built. if you are naturally athletic looking you will naturally build to be athletic. if you have a linebacker build, you will build to look like a linebacker. etc etc.

EDIT:

like i said, i do other exercises besides those, but they are what push my other muscles into proportion. im a huge fan of chin ups btw. my point, which i think i stated originally, is to be well rounded. the waist to shoulder ratio looks much more impressive with a nice set of what some bodybuilders call "wheels"

EDIT 2:

lol we may be missing each others points because we have two different definitions of what "looking good" means. what does looking good mean to you? for me it means looking athletic and being well proportioned in every sense. overall strength is very important to me as well as maintaining speed.

 

[Biaxident]

Heh...I started lifting because I didn't want to look like Jabba the Hut, and I got tired of being teased.

All I know is, compound(multiple joint) exercises are the base on which a balanced musculature is built. Isolation(single joint) exercises are the icing on the cake, helping you bring a lagging body part up to par.

And for those of us who look at food and gain fat, compound lifts rev up the metabolism.

That being said, your genetics play a role in how much you grow, and the appearance of your muscles. What grows easiest, and how long it takes to reach the point you want.

 

[Blank]

I'll agree, chin-ups are a really good exercise for putting on muscle and increasing overall strength and energy.

The only problem is that they tend to be hard as fuck to do and require a lot of energy until you're in shape enough to be able to do say, ten of them. If you can't lift your body weight doing a chin-up, they have assisted chin-up machines at gyms which will negate some of your own body weight, which is really helpful and makes it a lot easier to see your strength grow.

From personal experience, I'm going to say that doing chin-ups are much more effective for increasing strength than doing three separate exercises like the lat. pull-down, shoulder press, and the tricep extension. And who doesn't want a sexy back and shoulders?

 

[wolfy]

If you can't do 10 reps one way to build your chin up strength is by doing multiple sets of low reps. If for example you can do 5 reps do 8 sets of 3. Total over 24 each training session. Do them 2 times a week and never go to failure. As you are able to do more reps you can decrease the total sets.　

It's worked really well with a lot of people I've trained.

 

[Little Linguist]

I have had a crazy day at the gym today - and you'd be proud of me because I'm doing rowing as a part of my cardiovascular AND weight training exercise. Along with other things, of course.

Today I did:

20 minutes of elliptical
45 minutes of weight training
15 minutes of rowing
40 minutes stepper
10 minutes elliptical

Now I feel like.... :yawwwwwwn:

Okay, I'm not a man, but who gives a crap?

 

[mlittrell]

Heh...I started lifting because I didn't want to look like Jabba the Hut, and I got tired of being teased.

All I know is, compound(multiple joint) exercises are the base on which a balanced musculature is built. Isolation(single joint) exercises are the icing on the cake, helping you bring a lagging body part up to par.

And for those of us who look at food and gain fat, compound lifts rev up the metabolism.

That being said, your genetics play a role in how much you grow, and the appearance of your muscles. What grows easiest, and how long it takes to reach the point you want.

u just summed my last post up in a much more readable form lol

i talk too much haha

 

[Biaxident]

u just summed my last post up in a much more readable form lol

i talk too much haha

S'ok, I won't hold it against you.

 

[phoenity]

I have had a crazy day at the gym today - and you'd be proud of me because I'm doing rowing as a part of my cardiovascular AND weight training exercise. Along with other things, of course.

Today I did:

20 minutes of elliptical
45 minutes of weight training
15 minutes of rowing
40 minutes stepper
10 minutes elliptical

Now I feel like.... :yawwwwwwn:

Okay, I'm not a man, but who gives a crap?

Awesome work Little Linguist. Keep it up

 

[phoenity]

If you can't do 10 reps one way to build your chin up strength is by doing multiple sets of low reps. If for example you can do 5 reps do 8 sets of 3. Total over 24 each training session. Do them 2 times a week and never go to failure. As you are able to do more reps you can decrease the total sets.　

It's worked really well with a lot of people I've trained.

That's a great tip Wolfy. I think often it's that people lack the core strength that ties all of their musculature together, which causes premature muscle failure in the primary movers doing the work.

So someone may not be able to 10 pull ups because their core can't control the movement of their lower body. Allowing for recovery and doing many sets is a way to overcome this until your overall strength starts coming together.

 

[Kangirl]

I wish I could do a chin up.

 

[professor goodstain]

I wish I could do a chin up.

Would you believe i got a bit choked up when demi moore did a chin up in that navy seal movie. Hmm, sais alot about male body image. oops

 

[Little Linguist]

I wish I could do a chin up.

I'm getting there - I've gotten up to 41 kg on the pull-up machine!!!!! I'll be there soon!