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MR_BOGAN
Mysterios Dirty Dancer
Joined: Mar 06, 2008
Posts: 2667
Location: The great trailer park in the sky!
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 Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 3:22 pm Post subject: |
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^I'm looking to build upper body strength. I don't want a routine to complex because it will be hard for me to stick to it.
I don't have access to a gym or weights at the moment. |
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beef_bourito
Phoenix
Joined: Jan 13, 2008
Age: 21
Posts: 1856
Location: Ontario, Canada
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| Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2009 3:45 pm Post subject: |
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| if you're just looking to build upper body strength then i'd suggest throwing in some chinups. if you don't have a bar, they're easy to make and cheap to buy. chinups will strengthen your lats and biceps, so it'll balance out your push-ups. bigger lats also give you that "V" shape, and they're, in my opinion, the best looking muscle on a guy's body. the best aesthetic improvement that rowing has given me (other than weight loss of course) is my bigger back, it's what i look at most in the mirror. |
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MR_BOGAN
Mysterios Dirty Dancer
Joined: Mar 06, 2008
Posts: 2667
Location: The great trailer park in the sky!
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| Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 3:12 am Post subject: |
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^yeah opposite problem as you, I need some fat to build muscle.
What would probably do the best is working with rings like some gym people do.
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MR_BOGAN
Mysterios Dirty Dancer
Joined: Mar 06, 2008
Posts: 2667
Location: The great trailer park in the sky!
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| Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 3:25 am Post subject: |
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| anna-banana wrote: | hey guys I think I've found a solution, I've put on 2 kilos recently and it must be the first few kilos I managed to gain since puberty.
the answer is- granola with full fat milk  the one I recently got addicted to is 500kcal per 100 grams, it's chocolate or fruit (actually fruit is a bit more caloric) and it's so good I've been eating like 3 bowls of it a day for the last moth.
I still look like a malnourished 12-year old boy, but working on it :p |
Cool you may get a curvy butt then. 
I wonder if drinking cream might work.
This sux I'm going see if I can do some research on the net. |
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beef_bourito
Phoenix
Joined: Jan 13, 2008
Age: 21
Posts: 1856
Location: Ontario, Canada
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| Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2009 8:38 am Post subject: |
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| have you had your thyroid checked? you could have hyperthyroidism which makes it really difficult to gain weight. |
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MR_BOGAN
Mysterios Dirty Dancer
Joined: Mar 06, 2008
Posts: 2667
Location: The great trailer park in the sky!
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| Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 3:53 am Post subject: |
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no I havn't. Some of my family are just the same as me so I think it is genetics. My BMI is 19.7 so I'm a healthy weight.
I think I'm an Ectomorphs body type. I was reading that their are not many of us the human population because whenever there have been famines we are the first to die off. 
Here is a link I've found.
http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Build-Muscle-for-Skinny-Guys |
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DWill
Sea Gull
Joined: Dec 20, 2007
Age: 22
Posts: 202
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| Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 4:56 am Post subject: |
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| Guido wrote: | Putting on weight is bascially as simple as "calories in vs. calories out". Burn off more than you consume and you won't gain weight. Eat more than you burn off and you will.
Go to www.fitday.com and you can start a profile and start tracking what you eat. You can establish your BMR (basal metabolic rate - which is the calories you burn on a daily basis through your normal activities).
From there, if you are looking to put on quality weight, start lifting heavy. That means compound movements using free weights such as squats, bench, deadlift, pullups, and overhead lifts.
Consume 500 calories per day over your maintenance calories. Try to consume 1gram per pound of bodyweight of protein. You should gain 1 lb of quality mass per week. If not, then bump up the calories even more. Keep doing that for a few months and you'll notice some profound changes.
I managed to go from 140 lbs (which I had been stuck at for about 9 years) to over 190 lbs in about 7 or 8 months and I was a LOT stronger. I'm now at about 210 lbs and much stronger and just as lean (bodyfat percentage-wise) as I was when I weighed 140. |
Best advice so far! Do not forget cleans/rows as well, and dips are also nice. If you are really serious about getting some muscle you should invest in some form or resistance exercise equipment or join a gym. Most of the equipment you'd need for a simple yet effective weightlifting program can be picked up for pretty cheap.
If you do decide to join a gym/buy some weights/resistance equipment a simple way routine to start with would be something like this
Squats
Bench press
Deadlift
and
Squats
Military press or some other overhead exercise
Rows or cleans
If you're starting out you'll probably want to do 3 sets of 5 reps or 5 sets of 5 reps for every exercise except for the deadlift which should be 1 set of 5 reps. You should switch off between each workout after taking a rest day in between (do the top workout, take a rest day, then do the bottom workout, take a rest day, then do the top workout again and repeat). Its a fairly easy program, as its only 3 exercises per day, 3 days of the week. After a few weeks of that you may want to start working in dips and pullups/chinups, as those exercises really build up your upper body. |
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beef_bourito
Phoenix
Joined: Jan 13, 2008
Age: 21
Posts: 1856
Location: Ontario, Canada
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| Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 5:07 pm Post subject: |
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why would you only do one set of deadlifts? you shouldn't be doing any less than three sets per exercise. also i'd suggest something closer to 8-10 reps if you're trying to build muscle. when you do fewer reps at a high weight you're going to build strength but you won't really build much muscle. lots of athletes (i'll use rowing as an example again, i'm most familiar with rowing training as far as sport-specific training goes) will start the off season by balancing out their bodies to avoid injuries (not applicable to you), then they go into a bulking phase, which involves doing 4-5 sets of 8-10 reps per exercise, then they go into a strength building phase toward the end of the off-season (unless you're a lightweight, in which case your bulking phase doesn't last as long as the heavies) where they will do fewer reps (1-5) at 85-100% of their one rep max, same amount of sets.
if you're trying to build muscle it's useful to do the same as above, start with a bulking phase and then build strength. this way you build muscle, then you make it strong, with that extra strength you can lift more weight and build more muscle, then you strengthen it again. bodybuilders will often cycle like this, although they usually also have a cutting phase thrown in where they try to cut fat without losing muscle, not sure what they do for weights during this time.
also, make sure you let your muscles rest for at least 48hrs between workouts, maybe more depending on how long it takes you to recover. larger muscles also generally require more recovery time than small ones (i.e. your quads will take much longer to heal than your biceps). it's ok to do weights two days in a row, but don't work the same muscles, so don't do squats two days in a row. |
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Postperson
The Daughter of Indifference
Joined: Jul 10, 2004
Age: 52
Posts: 4314
Location: Uz
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| Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 5:22 pm Post subject: |
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| donuts, ice cream, soft drinks, beer, chips, nuts, cakes & pastries. |
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Heartcooksbrain
Deinonychus
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Joined: Jan 23, 2009
Posts: 343
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| Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 8:19 pm Post subject: |
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| MR_BOGAN wrote: | no I havn't. Some of my family are just the same as me so I think it is genetics. My BMI is 19.7 so I'm a healthy weight.
I think I'm an Ectomorphs body type. I was reading that their are not many of us the human population because whenever there have been famines we are the first to die off.
Here is a link I've found.
http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Build-Muscle-for-Skinny-Guys |
If you truly are an ecto morph and want to gain good weight you need to constantly keep your diet in check, and I mean constantly... and it goes same for your workouts. It can be grueling but it has to be done. If not you might notice you lose weight, or gain it back every day or two. Ectomorphs respond best to compund lifts. Lower reps with heavier weight are recommended for size gains. It is different for all of us, though. Find which works best for you would be the best advice. Make sure everything is geared perfect towards your body type in regards to training and diet. It is very crucial you do so if you are a true ectomorph. I recommend once you are comfortable with doing sit ups add weighted plates to them. 20 +lbs would be a good start, and do crunches too. If you have a pullup bar you can use a dip belt to add hanging plates, or put dumbells between your thigh region and do hanging leg raises and twists. This has helped my abs explode just in a few weeks.
I think I read that you don't want to workout legs. In order to get good upperbody strength/size legs also are a huge factor in triggering growth. Check out this site http://bodybuilding.com/fun/bbinfo.php?page=BodyTypes it might help. It has lots of information for ectomorphs. |
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Heartcooksbrain
Deinonychus
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Joined: Jan 23, 2009
Posts: 343
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| Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 8:44 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm a true ecto, so I'll tell you what does best in triggering growth for me. I'm not saying this is a must, but it is something that REALLY helped me and I think it might help you. Dead lifts were the best for my lower back growth, middle back, and back of the leg. They do some good work for upper back too. Squats, traditional back squat was always good enough for me for upper back. Powercleans are also great. Practice form with just the bar and small weight for good form. Barbell rows help my lats big time. KEep benching. Close grip bench were good for triceps too, but I've recently added skullcrushers to my routine and they have killed the heads of the tricep which close grips didn't hit. They are my fav tricep exercise now. I like doing dips too. Have you tried barbell shrugs? Those also made my shoulders and upper traps explode in just weeks. They're huge now! Along with babrbell bicep curls, you could try closegrip bicep curls which work out a different head of the bicep than normal. |
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beef_bourito
Phoenix
Joined: Jan 13, 2008
Age: 21
Posts: 1856
Location: Ontario, Canada
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| Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 10:27 pm Post subject: |
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| one thing i would suggest if you've never done weights, or if you've never done any of the big lifts (squats, bench, deadlift, cleans, etc) is that you get someone, a friend who has a lot of good experience with them (and not just your big friend who works out a lot, i've seen plenty of big goons with terrible technique), personal trainer, whatever, to teach you how to do them. cleans are especially unforgiving of bad technique and you can easily hurt yourself if you don't know what you're doing. |
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MR_BOGAN
Mysterios Dirty Dancer
Joined: Mar 06, 2008
Posts: 2667
Location: The great trailer park in the sky!
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| Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 3:58 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm doing 3 sets of pressups and 3 sets of situps every second night. I really can't be bothered doing big work outs. |
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wolphin
Phoenix
Joined: Aug 16, 2007
Posts: 502
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| Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2009 5:16 am Post subject: |
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Carbo-loading is great for ensuring your calories match your usage, but it's not enough. Carbs are for burning. You want to eat enough carbs so that you're primarily burning carbs during your workouts. If your body fat is low, you want to eat more carbs to bring that number up by adding body fat (not muscle). But eating more won't help you build muscle or lean weight.
You need to make sure you're getting plenty of lean protein and unsaturated fats. You should mostly stay away from saturated and trans fats, but anything unsaturated (like olive oil) is going to be the kind of dense caloric input you really need. Milk is the only real saturated fat I'd consider worth adding.
Trying to build muscle without lean protein is a waste. "Protein supplements", powders, etc are nice, but seriously they do not replace lean meats. If you're vegetarian, there are other options, but nothing quite so easy & direct as lean meat.
But beware of changing the fat/protein composition of your diet rapidly or to excess. you can end up with ketoacidosis or some such, or at least throw your digestion way out of wack. You need to talk to a dietitian before going off what would be a "normal" eating style. |
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beef_bourito
Phoenix
Joined: Jan 13, 2008
Age: 21
Posts: 1856
Location: Ontario, Canada
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| Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2009 8:54 am Post subject: |
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| protein supplements actually can replace whole meats when talking about protein requirements. whey protein is a complete protein, meaning it has all the essential amino acids, which means as far as protein is concerned that's all you need. they also make it easier to get a lot of protein into your system since they have so much packed in a small portion. whey protein also has a lot of other healthy aspects to it, but people mainly use it because it's absorbed quickly and it's a complete protein. it also has the highest biological value of any protein we know of (meaning more of it is absorbed into the body than any other protein, making it the most useful) so it's the most efficient and most effective way to get protein, whether you're building muscle or not. you can't form a diet on supplements alone but protein supplements are definitely a great way to add protein to your diet. |
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