Need exercise, weight training. getting into shape advice

[DestinyKnight]

Originally posted by: Sukhoi
Protein - http://www.bulknutrition.com/?products_id=62

I like the double chocolate. Get a 5 lb container and if you like it then keep the container and get 10 lb backs to refill it with.

Creatine is an iffy issue. I personally don't like the idea of it, and don't use it. It just makes you retain water, and I want true strength.

If you have $$$ you can can also get some casein protein. It's long-release and supposedly good to take right before you go to bed. Reviews on there say vanilla is better than chocolate for it.

Hmm... so using creatine is up in the air...should I or shouldn't I? I guess I'll have to decide that for myself.

 

[DestinyKnight]

Originally posted by: Legend

I've heard about how people that don't eat meat regularly have problems digesting it. Has chicken been an issue your entire life, or just recently? If it's a recent problem, I'd try gradually eating it. If it's some sort of lifetime allergy, lean beef is also good. Tacos with whole wheat tortillas, burgers...if you make it yourself with lean beef, it's actually healthy. What makes beef unhealthy is because recent farming methods lock cattle up into pens and they binge eat grains all day. They get loaded on saturated fat. Lean beef cuts that saturated fat down.

This is more of a recent problem for me, and I'm sure it is because I don't regulary eat meat anymore. I could probably slowly reintroduce it into my diet. It's just going to be rough the first couple of weeks.

Whey protein is a must. You've got to get about 1-1.5 times your lean mass in grams of protein per day. Say you have 130 lbs of lean tissue, then you need about 130-195 grams of protein a day. That's a lot. A few scoops of whey protein of day helps a lot (that alone is 60 grams).

So, do I only use the whey immediately before and after I work out, or can I supplement the protein in my 5-6 mini meals with it as well? is there a limit to how much of this stuff I want to consume in a day? How many grams of protein should I shoot for in each of these small meals?

Also, on my off days, how should I eat? do I still try for 1-1.5 X lean mass of protein a day?

 

[Legend]

Originally posted by: DestinyKnight

Whey protein is a must. You've got to get about 1-1.5 times your lean mass in grams of protein per day. Say you have 130 lbs of lean tissue, then you need about 130-195 grams of protein a day. That's a lot. A few scoops of whey protein of day helps a lot (that alone is 60 grams).

So, do I only use the whey immediately before and after I work out, or can I supplement the protein in my 5-6 mini meals with it as well? is there a limit to how much of this stuff I want to consume in a day? How many grams of protein should I shoot for in each of these small meals?

Also, on my off days, how should I eat? do I still try for 1-1.5 X lean mass of protein a day?

Use the whey all the time. I've read articles saying that protein absorption is critical right after workout. Make sure you get carbs with that protein in order to optimize absorption.

As with any proper diet, you should get variety. I personally take 3 scoops of protein a day. 1 after eating cereal for breakfast, 1 during my 3:00 snack at work (with a piece of fruit and a little bit of nuts), and 1 in the evening. Whey is make from milk. It's completely safe (if you aren't sensitive to dairy), but variety is always a good thing.

I'm not a huge fan of calorie counting and counting grams of protein. I just kind of guestimated that 2000-2500 would be what you would take in for your body size to bulk. The 1-1.5x grams of protein is a general rule.

You can get the right amount of food by just eating small meals every 3 hours with 40% protein, 40% carbs, 20% fats.

Examples:

1. Chicken sandwich and nuts.
2. Whey protein, grapes, flax seeds.

So around 20-40 grams per small meal I'd say.

You won't be stuffing yourself or anything, unless you have a small stomach which may be the case.

 

[Sukhoi]

So hold off on doing straight-leg deadlifts unless I can find someone to show me proper form?

Straight-legged deadlifts can really screw up your lower back if you do them wrong. Try following the directions on that site, and if it feels ok then go with it. For me my lower back is already kind of messed up, so I'm not going to do them until January when a serious weightlifting friend of mine gets back to campus and can show me the right way to do it.

Ok, so I should build mass for 3-4 months and then go into a "cut" cycle for a few months to trim fat? And for gains, low reps at a heavier weight? How do I know what weights I should start at ? Trial and error? use enough weight so that I "fail" on my 8th rep?

That sounds like a good plan. Here is what I did. Before this summer I had never lifted a weight in my life. I was 6'1" and 145 lbs. I started out getting a membership at my YMCA at home as soon as class let out for the summer. For May, June, and July I just did legs and abdomen on TUTH and arms and chest/back on WF. I did everything on machines because I was too much of a wimp to just go straight into the free weight section. I took August off because of a vacation, getting back to school, etc. I was about 157 lbs when I stopped in August. Since September I've been working out 3-4 days a week doing a similar workout to what I did over the summer, but almost entirely with free weights. Machines are bad. Only use them when starting out like I did, and for stuff you have no way to do with free weights (like leg press). I'm going to keep my schedule up until Christmas. Right now I'm 163 lbs and I'm hoping I can get near 168 by Christmas. Sure I have more fat than I used to (which was none), but it'll go away soon enough. Then when I get back here in January I'm completely changing everything up. That friend of mine is coming back to campus and I'm getting real serious with the lifting. I'll be going 5 days a week with chest on Monday, legs/abdomen on Tuesday, back on Wednesday, legs/abdomen on Thursday, and arms on Friday. I don't think I'll be able to make it because I'm a hard gainer, but 180 lbs by May would be incredible. Then I'm going to do a cut cycle for the entire summer. I love biking, so I'm going to try to get out for multiple long (2+ hr) rides each week along with running and other cardio.

For gaining you want low reps at high weights. I do 3x6 (3 sets of 6) for most of my exercises, and 3x5 on squats and leg press. You want a weight that will give you failure near the end of your last set. As soon as you can do all 3x6, up the weight for the last set. Then once you can do that up the middle set too. For example once you can do 30, 30, 30 lbs for hammer curls, go to 30, 30, 35 lbs. Then 30, 35, 35 lbs. The tricky part is exercises you can't really go to failure on (squats, bench press without a spotter, etc.) For those you just have to use your judgement.

When I do my cut cycle over the summer I'm probably going to go to 3x10 lifting. Higher reps at lower weights gets the muscle to tone more than increase in size.

I should add to concentrate on doing compound exercises such as bench press, horizontal and vertical rows, pulldowns, squats, etc. for mass gaining. Limit what you do isolation exercises for until you get into serious stuff like I'll be doing in the spring. Like only do one or two kinds of bicep curls for now. That muscle gets enough work doing all of your rows and pulldowns.