any of y'all into working out?

[flamesrule_kipper34]

Hi guys maybe you can help I’m in a similar situation I think to J Pold and t0rrent98:

At the start of this year I was 139 lbs (at 6’0”) after losing a lot of weight due to too much cardio and having flare ups of Crohn’s.

I’ve made a huge push to try and gain weight and get strong as I’ve never been this way in my life before, either overweight or just more recently skinny.

About Mid-May I changed my routine from pure cardio to much more weight lifting.

My schedule has been Monday/Thursday/Friday/Saturday 20 minutes of cardio on an elliptical (burning 250 calories), followed by 45-60 minutes of weight lifting the same exercises 15 reps/3 sets for each exercise on my lifting days (floor press, one-arm bent over row, get up situp (5 reps instead), goblet squat, one-arm push press, one-arm swing, standing one-arm curls) and this burns about 550-600 calories in addition to the cardio calories. Then Tuesday/Wednesday I play floor hockey (which tends to burn about 600 calories each night). http://www.mensfitness.com/training/...mbbell-workout

I’ve been focused on eating more as well, on ALL days I try to eat between 3,000-3,500 calories and getting 200g of protein (I am a vegetarian so most of my protein comes from lactose-free milk and soy products).

Currently I sit at 152lbs, I’m happy with the weight I’ve gained and other than one week where I think I tried to eat too much my pant size has not changed. My arms have gotten a bit bigger, my chest has gotten bigger and I’ve noticed for whatever reason my traps have gotten quite a bit larger. But I want to see more progress and get more success as I feel like I’ve been training really hard 6 times a week. I’ve noticed that my strength has definitely improved, whereas most of the free weights started at 15-20 lbs in May, they are now almost all at 40 lbs (one of the exercises at 35, another at 30 and one at 50 lbs).

Any tips or ideas from people? Any holes in my routine that people could see could help me see more results/success?

While I want to gain more weight I’m adamant about not putting on much more fat as I make sure that my waist line is not increasing as I’m doing my workouts so the weight I’m putting on for the most part is the type I want. That’s why as mentioned the one week where I tried to eat too much more I gained some unnecessary weight and then had to cut back.

Again any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

[Kybosh]

I think you need more squats and deadlifts and I'm also a huge fan of more compound exercises. I totally preach variations of push-ups, dips, pull-ups and squats. I'm probably a similar build to you (tiny bit heavier and shorter though) but I don't care much about mass gain. I focus my workouts more on health, athleticism, and achieving a really good strength to bodyweight ratio. I also do yoga once or twice a week.

[AcGold]

I say avoid squats and deadlifts due to the strain they put on the lower back and the potential problems they cause later in life. Just my opinion. Putting on mass is a dangerous game so be careful and don't try to gain too much too fast.

[flamesrule_kipper34]

Originally Posted by Kybosh

I think you need more squats and deadlifts and I'm also a huge fan of more compound exercises. I totally preach variations of push-ups, dips, pull-ups and squats. I'm probably a similar build to you (tiny bit heavier and shorter though) but I don't care much about mass gain. I focus my workouts more on health, athleticism, and achieving a really good strength to bodyweight ratio. I also do yoga once or twice a week.

Originally Posted by AcGold

I say avoid squats and deadlifts due to the strain they put on the lower back and the potential problems they cause later in life. Just my opinion. Putting on mass is a dangerous game so be careful and don't try to gain too much too fast.

I definitely have chronic lower back issues so with all my weight-lifting I ensure I'm cognizant of that. For all my workouts and sports activities I'm always wearing a back brace to ensure less strain.

It's hard for me to judge but is a 10-12lb increase in weight in 4 months a good trajectory? I guess I'm not in a "rush" to gain weight/size but I do want to make sure that I'm not doing things that are decreasing my results...

[AcGold]

10-12 in 4 months is a large amount for a hardgainer, will take a lot of work. My biggest suggestion is to not take this as an end goal and focus less on your weight and focus more on overall health and lifestyle. Don't take it to extremes, keep things moderate so you don't overtrain and permanently injure yourself.

I was in your exact same spot when I was 19 trying to bulk up and made a few mistakes. Lifting too frequently and too much weight was the biggest one. Bodyweight exercises and yoga(esque) stretches are essential for longterm health. You'd be better off treating this like a permanent lifestyle kind of thing over a number chasing endgame as the latter often leads to injuries and psychological issues (e.g. dysmorphia). Also, exercises where you pull are much safer than exercises where you push imo. Lifting a lot of weight over your head, squatting so much that it is straining your back and benchpressing a ton aren't really healthy in my experience. Good luck.

[Flabbibulin]

My recommendation at your weight and height would be to eliminate cardio for now. At the very least, do your cardio after you have lifted weights. You want to make sure your readily available energy (mostly from carbs) is being used to maximize the quality of your weight lifting session. Cardio post-weight lifting then aims to burn stored energy and body fat. Given your goals, I would suggest you are getting enough cardio in with your hockey. Not everyone on a bulk should eliminate cardio, but given your weight, height, and goals, I think it would be a smart move.

Also, certainly the full body workout is very popular and focuses on compound movements, but have you considered the classic Arnold approach of one muscle group per workout? This approach allows you to isolate specific areas more and gives muscle groups much more time to recover and grow. I find that full body workouts can become extremely long and taxing after a while.

Lastly, if your goal is to maximize gains and lifting strength, I would keep your reps to between 6 an 8. I would also suggest that going to failure on every set is not necessary.

[AcGold]

If you're going to max out your lifting (6-8 reps) you have to ensure that you equally work the counter muscle. So if you are maxing out bench you have to max out the rear delts and traps or you'll encounter injury and impingement as a result of one muscle pulling the joints out of their natural alignment. Then you'll be lifting a lot of weight while a joint is out of place and placing a lot of strain on the nerves, ligaments and tendons which hurts like a sonofabitch.

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by Burninator

I am already keeping track of my food, but I am not counting calories just yet. I understand the basics of gaining mass and eating more calories, it's just hard to eat more food. I think I would rather drink a protein shake with fruit and such than 2/3 a cups of peanuts everyday. But it sounds like you are saying that starting off with a protein shake might work and try to transition that into real food later?

Yes exactly. I know how hard it is to eat that much. I need to eat the equivalent of 4 meals/day plus snacks. Sometimes it can be hard to eat that much, especially on weekends when I'm at home. I found that protein shakes are a good substitute if you can't meet your daily calories. But ideally food is the way to go.

I recommend start counting your calories asap. Like start tomorrow. If there's one thing I wish I did at the start, its tracking them on myfitnesspal. You'll get an idea of just how much food you'll have to eat each day and can plan your meals much better. Tracking calories will make it so you don't eat too much and gain to much fat. You want to gain the most amount of muscle with the least amount of fat. Unfortunately they do go hand in hand. But you can minimize fat gain by finding your TDEE sweet spot and sticking to it buy tracking calories.

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by AcGold

10-12 in 4 months is a large amount for a hardgainer, will take a lot of work. My biggest suggestion is to not take this as an end goal and focus less on your weight and focus more on overall health and lifestyle. Don't take it to extremes, keep things moderate so you don't overtrain and permanently injure yourself.

I was in your exact same spot when I was 19 trying to bulk up and made a few mistakes. Lifting too frequently and too much weight was the biggest one. Bodyweight exercises and yoga(esque) stretches are essential for longterm health. You'd be better off treating this like a permanent lifestyle kind of thing over a number chasing endgame as the latter often leads to injuries and psychological issues (e.g. dysmorphia). Also, exercises where you pull are much safer than exercises where you push imo. Lifting a lot of weight over your head, squatting so much that it is straining your back and benchpressing a ton aren't really healthy in my experience. Good luck.

I agree with the bolded. One thing doctor's should be telling patients is that the purpose of exercising isn't to lose/gain weight. It's to promote and live a healthy lifestyle.

For weight gain, squats and deadlifts are 2 of the best exercises to achieve this. But form is much more important then the amount of weight you have on it. Anyone can deadlift or squat. But mastering the form takes time and too many people rush in with expectations of increasing the weight each time and end up injuring themselves. It's happened to me a couple times until I finally learned how to do them properly.

[Kybosh]

Originally Posted by AcGold

I say avoid squats and deadlifts due to the strain they put on the lower back and the potential problems they cause later in life. Just my opinion. Putting on mass is a dangerous game so be careful and don't try to gain too much too fast.

I should've added to my post that I'm primarily referring to air squats and variations of them. I do have a 60lb bar that I use occasionally, but I try to focus on technique. Deadlifts, I typically don't go above 120lbs for the reasons you're describing.

Like I said, I don't really care about mass gain. I do what I do for health and athleticism. I am however slowly working up to pistol squats...

[Azure]

Buy a trap bar deadlift if you have form issues with the normal deadlift. It will eliminate lots of the back problems.

If you have chronic back pain, fix it. In fact lifting heavy weights might be a solution. Honestly don't know why people choose to live with pain. Even air squats with open up your hip flexors and stretch out your hamstrings which will more than likely help with chronic back pain.

Seems like people think of the squat/deadlift, and they instantly think they need to be able to squat or deadlift 400lbs because some guy on YouTube is good at it. The deadlift was a fast progression for me, but the squat took me a long time to push even beyond 300lbs. And after groin issues I've reset and haven't gone past 225lbs. Form, form, form.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Azure

Buy a trap bar deadlift if you have form issues with the normal deadlift. It will eliminate lots of the back problems.

If you have chronic back pain, fix it. In fact lifting heavy weights might be a solution. Honestly don't know why people choose to live with pain. Even air squats with open up your hip flexors and stretch out your hamstrings which will more than likely help with chronic back pain.

Seems like people think of the squat/deadlift, and they instantly think they need to be able to squat or deadlift 400lbs because some guy on YouTube is good at it. The deadlift was a fast progression for me, but the squat took me a long time to push even beyond 300lbs. And after groin issues I've reset and haven't gone past 225lbs. Form, form, form.

Of everything you wrote the most important part is "form form form".

The squat and dead lift are not "bad" lifts, people just do them badly.

I still do good mornings as part of my workout. It is an exceptionally sports specific movement for me and my sport.

[stampsx2]

Originally Posted by flamesrule_kipper34

Hi guys maybe you can help I’m in a similar situation I think to J Pold and t0rrent98:

At the start of this year I was 139 lbs (at 6’0”) after losing a lot of weight due to too much cardio and having flare ups of Crohn’s.

I’ve made a huge push to try and gain weight and get strong as I’ve never been this way in my life before, either overweight or just more recently skinny.

About Mid-May I changed my routine from pure cardio to much more weight lifting.

http://www.mensfitness.com/training/...mbbell-workout





Any tips or ideas from people? Any holes in my routine that people could see could help me see more results/success?

While I want to gain more weight I’m adamant about not putting on much more fat as I make sure that my waist line is not increasing as I’m doing my workouts so the weight I’m putting on for the most part is the type I want. That’s why as mentioned the one week where I tried to eat too much more I gained some unnecessary weight and then had to cut back.

Again any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

I'd keep doing this if it's working for you but as mentioned earlier you seem quite active so not sure the extra cardio is neccessary. With the amount of cardio you're doing it's going to be a harder to put on muscle weight. It's still possible but it'll need more work.

At six feet 150 lbs if you follow the bmi index, you have a healthy weight right now.

[AcGold]

Originally Posted by Azure

Buy a trap bar deadlift if you have form issues with the normal deadlift. It will eliminate lots of the back problems.

If you have chronic back pain, fix it. In fact lifting heavy weights might be a solution. Honestly don't know why people choose to live with pain. Even air squats with open up your hip flexors and stretch out your hamstrings which will more than likely help with chronic back pain.

Seems like people think of the squat/deadlift, and they instantly think they need to be able to squat or deadlift 400lbs because some guy on YouTube is good at it. The deadlift was a fast progression for me, but the squat took me a long time to push even beyond 300lbs. And after groin issues I've reset and haven't gone past 225lbs. Form, form, form.

Air squats are one of the best exercises that exist, if not the best.

[temple5]

I figured I would ask this here.

Anyone know when the GoodLife Fitness opens on Stephen Ave?

It keeps saying FAll2014 on their website and emails to their website and calls to other locations yields nothing more substantial.

[flamesrule_kipper34]

Originally Posted by AcGold

If you're going to max out your lifting (6-8 reps) you have to ensure that you equally work the counter muscle. So if you are maxing out bench you have to max out the rear delts and traps or you'll encounter injury and impingement as a result of one muscle pulling the joints out of their natural alignment. Then you'll be lifting a lot of weight while a joint is out of place and placing a lot of strain on the nerves, ligaments and tendons which hurts like a sonofabitch.

Good point, I think I'm lacking form on my floor press. Because my right side is still stronger than my left side even though I lift the same.

Also, my traps are just surprisingly large now...again right side larger than the left.

I think I'm at a point where I'm becoming a bit tired of this workout so often in the week and also I'm wanting to even out some of my muscles as mentioned there are definitely areas that are not aligned appropriately.

[Flabbibulin]

Not sure if anyone else in the same boat, but I am always trying to find more options for high protein, low carb, low sodium snacks- particularly for late evening. Of course a serving of whey protein with almond milk is an obvious choice, but it can get boring pretty quick and I typically try to limit the amount of whey protein I take in to one serving a day. Plain unsweetened greek yogurt and low salt cottage cheese are both about as bland as it gets. I sometimes get Source greek yogurt, which is lower in carbs than others, but still packs about 20grams of sugar in a 250g tub.

Deli meat and beef jerky are packed with salt. I know jack links just came out with a low sodium beef jerky, but not really reasonable at $7 a pack. I will often cut up a roasted chicken or two from safeways and store the meat in tupperware for snacking.

Quest bars have been a go to option for me for some time, but like many people, I am a little sceptical of the protein quality and quantity in protein bars. While most whey powders will list the amino acid breakdown per serving, there really is no way of knowing if protein bars are full of useless aminos like taurine and glycine. Anyway, if there is one thing protein bars are not, it is low carb.

Anyway, any additional suggestions for high protein, low sodium snacks?

[Burninator]

Squats.

What is the proper way to do one? Most of the stuff I have read says to go past parallel (butt goes past knees). Here is the a video that I used for reference.

Spoiler!

However my gf, who has taken some fitness type classes in university, disagrees that I should be going past parallel and I am risking my knee health in doing so.

Also to note I have been going past parallel and my right knee audibly clicks sometimes. Doesn't hurt or anything, just makes a noise.

[burnin_vernon]

Originally Posted by Burninator

Squats.

What is the proper way to do one? Most of the stuff I have read says to go past parallel (butt goes past knees). Here is the a video that I used for reference.

Spoiler!

However my gf, who has taken some fitness type classes in university, disagrees that I should be going past parallel and I am risking my knee health in doing so.

Also to note I have been going past parallel and my right knee audibly clicks sometimes. Doesn't hurt or anything, just makes a noise.

I am curious about this as well, I've done parallel squats all my life until the last 6 months or so, where I've dropped my butt to the ground. I feel it is much more of a complete leg exercise this way, recruiting more involvement from my hamstrings. I was under the impression that if you could do it without any discomfort that it would be more efficient, but I don't know if that's true.

Either way, if you're used to parallel and then try going lower, drop your weight significantly as it is much more difficult to do.

[Kybosh]

You can squat past parallel but the reason a lot of people don't recommend it, is that if you have bad form you expose yourself to injury. Probably the most important thing is a rigid and nice planar spine when squatting. Keep your weight over the middle of your feet and knees should not go past your feet (i.e. try to keep your shins as perpendicular to the ground as you can). Also, don't forget your core and upper body. You need to keep everything engaged during the squat.