Thought I'd keep this rolling thanks to the moderate interest in what I've been writing and the positive feedback. Also I just wanted to put the thought out there that I'm open to suggestions on what topics to write on and happy to answer people's questions on anything to do with fitness, weight loss, muscle gain, nutrition, supplements etc. The last two posts that I've come out with have focused largely on the topics of weight loss and nutrition to that effect. So in the interest of covering all bases, I thought I'd share some of the knowledge that I have when it comes to muscle gain. First of all, if you believe the stories of people putting on a stone of muscle in a matter of weeks, you're being fooled. I doubt that even an aggressive course of steroids could achieve that kind of muscle gain. Gaining that muscle weight is hard, and don't let anyone tell you different. It takes a lot of time and effort, and to achieve the best results, you can't just rely on a workout. You have to change up your lifestyle, what you're eating and drinking, your supplement choices, and your mindset. You have to be willing to accept that gains take time and that you can't just give up after a few weeks because you're not seeing the results that you wanted.
So I'll start with the workouts. I went through a phase of trying to put on muscle (A pretty stupid idea seeing as I still had a long way to go with weight loss, and I wouldn't really get much definition). Regardless of that, it definitely worked, people apart from myself even started to see a difference and that's how I feel that my method to this is some valuable information to share. With regard to my workouts, I started looking up big compound exercises, and researched some workouts that others had used, then I kind of just mix and matched them. From Terry Crews, to Arnie, to the Hodge Twins (Look them up on Youtube, they are honestly the most straight talking, useful source on muscle gain) I really did put in the hours to find out what formula could work for me. I split my week's training into 4 separate days, with another 1 consisting of cardio. Each day I'd target a different muscle group. I'd separated them up into Back and Arms, Chest and Arms, Legs and shoulders, and core. I decided not to opt for the generic 'chest and tris' and 'back and bis' because I felt that I could get more results out of just doing isolation exercises on my triceps and biceps on any given day. I'll list the workouts by day below this paragraph. I found that it was better to split all of these groups up as it ensured that I didn't over train. I aimed to work out and absolutely annihilate the target muscles in the space of 45 minutes, which I found to be more than enough time to do so. One of my pet hates are people that spend 3+ hours in the gym and think that they're getting amazing gains out of it, and I just want to scream at them "YOU'RE OVERTRAINING!!!". Over training is the worst thing that you could possibly do in the gym alongside getting your posture wrong. It is so so detrimental to your muscles, because after you've drained all of your energy reserves you start to pull the energy to go on from your muscles, and actually begin to burn it. So please, don't tire yourself out and ruin your training due to being ill informed. Anyway, on to the breakdown of the workouts.
Back and Arms -
Clean and Press - 4 Sets
Lat Pulldown - 4 sets
Hammer strength row - 4 sets
Barbell Row - 3 -4 Sets
Dumbell Pullovers - 4 Sets
Tricep Dips - 4 Sets
Bicep Curls (EZ Curl Bar) - 4 Sets
Chest and Arms -
Bench press - 3 sets
Wide grip bench press - 2 sets
Guillotine Press - 2 sets
Press ups (Hands on med balls) - 4 sets
Tricep Pulldown (Cables) - 4 sets
Hammer Curls (Dumbbells) 4 Sets
Legs and Shoulders -
Squats (Barbell) - 4 sets
Deadlifts - 4 sets
Military Press - 4 sets
Shoulder press (Dumbbells) - 4 sets
Calf Raises - 4 sets
Front raises - 4 sets
Core -
Plank
Deadbugs (Lay on your back, bring arms up above you, retract legs into a bent position, lower arms and legs simultaneously)
Resistance Twists (Cables)
Killer Twists (Med Balls)
Weighted swiss ball crunches
Mountain climbers
Inverted sit ups (weighted)
Side plank
Also, when doing a heavy day; I find it best to do all exercises to failure, until you literally cannot push out that last rep. Of course in the interest of safety you'll obviously need a spotter in some exercises, whether its someone who accompanies you, or a random good Samaritan from your gym. Now onto nutrition, its important when looking to gain muscle that you engage in a high protein diet, the best natural sources of protein can come from nuts, eggs, tuna, chicken and other meats.
I separate chicken from other meats as its probably the leanest and best source of protein in my opinion, plus its damn tasty. Also, look to buy some protein shakes for building muscle, but also for recovery - after trying a few different brands I found that Maximuscle's own Promax worked best for recovery and building as it has a high concentration of glutamine within it. If you're interested in buying supplements, I have a friend who runs a small supplement business - from creatine, to protein, to fat burners - he's got it all. He's also a PT and is great with nutritional and exercise advice and what not. He's on twitter and his tag is @Lingard_ ; if you do decide to buy from him; tell him that I sent you please. Also, creatine can help with muscle growth but be careful and cautious whilst using it as excessive consumption can be detrimental to your kidneys - and you kinda need those! Well, you could survive with one...but nobody wants to be short of a kidney! On that note, I shall bid you farewell for now! More posts coming very soon!
Remember, if you have any questions or suggestions for topics on this blog, or any feedback at all, please feel free to follow and tweet me @_Bazinga_Punk_ .
Keep testing the limits!
Alex
No comments:
Post a Comment