So here goes
get ready for this. I put some effort into writing it:
Aite, before you even touch a weight, here's the basics for Gaining MASS (god i love when they write that in magazines):
*eat small meals frequently (good, healthy stuff, 5-7 times a day)
* Lift like a mo'fo... keep the reps low (6-10) and heavy.. go heavy most of the time.
* Sleep like a log.. get 8 hrs+ whenever u can!
* Body part splits help out (chest with tris, Back with bis, legs, shoulders.. each on a different day)
*keep cardio to a minimum. this is where it gets tricky... if u like your endurance, you cant really get huge, because cardio breaks down muscle fast, esp. if u do it a lot for a long time. But if u get huuge, u lose speed and a bit of endurance (u can actually gain good sprint speed if you train right). Combining the two is difficult to say the least. Only dedicated individuals (the type that weighs their oats in the morning) can get both in... some dude I know is huge but can run like a friggin zebra! I hate him. lol.
Also, if you don't watch it, you could put on a lot of fat because due to lac of cardio... unless u have good genetics, say goodbye to your abs. lol. This is where eating good stuff is important: If you eat healthy stuff only, u can put on muscle without much fat (but in college, we all know that aint possible.) that's why cardio is still necessary, but not too much. All in all, you need cardio, but too much and u don?t get huge, and little/none will make u a tub of lard.. Jus for kicks lemme tell u that the average time before the body becomes catabolic (breaks down muscle) is 45 minutes. so you have to keep most of your workouts in the span of an hour to an hour and a half maximum... if u wanna put cardio in with your body part workout, well,that's anutha story. Unless u doing five minutes on the bike, you jus askin for trouble. I Told u it was a tad complex. lol. It helps to be Asian though. Most of them guys pretty much don't need cardio to have a low body fat%. They don't really need it unless they wanna keep endurance/got bad genes. Lucky bastards!
Having a protein shake can eliminate two or three meals in the day, so you don't need to waste money on food. (Have one once u wake up, especially the morning after a hard workout, one in the middle of the day, and one to wrap up the nite b4 u sleep.) I had the unlimited meal plan freshman year so I could eat like a pig. Lol.
Rest is important. Don't go gymin 7 days a week. Recovery is SUPER important. hence sleep and eating, which rebuild the muscles
There you have it? all u need for huuugeness in a nutshell:
You asked for the break down, so here's the real deal. Get ready for
some reading:
These are my old
body part splits, with two parts (like chest and tris) done on the same day. I didnt do more than three excersises per body part. (thats madness!) i just switched up the excersises i did every week.
Chest (usually done alongside triceps for me)
1. Bench press(flat): 4 sets (excluding warm-up set) of 12, 10, 8 and 6 reps respectively. Increase weight each set.
2. Incline Bench press: 3 or 4 sets (depends on you). Same format as flat bench: increase
weight, decrease reps
3. Decline bench press (some people don?t even bother with it, so this one is at your
discretion) same format as the other two.
4. Cable flyes: (tell me you know what this is!). 4 sets
5. Dumbbell flies can substitute for cable flies.
(in place of the normal barbell bench press, incline etc, u can use dumbbells instead. This allows you to incorporate more stabilizer muscles. Go with the normal stuff for about two weeks then try dumbbells. Believe me, doing 220 on the bench doesn't mean doing 110 per hand using dumbbells.. its a lot harder doing it independently)
Triceps
1. dips: (once again, tell me u know what this is)? (if you?re a heavy guy, you may not be able to do this with your body weight, but you should be fine): 4 sets. If you are too light, try weighted dips. Use the belt which allows you to strap weights on it, then dip with that. Use a heavier weight each set.
2. tricep extensions: 4 sets, same format (increase weight, reduce reps)
3. tricep pulldowns: 4 sets, same format
4. skull crushers (generally, these are tricep extensions on a bench,
with a barbell
instead of dumbbells, using 2 arms at once): 4 sets, same format.
Since I used to do Chest and triceps together, I do pushups for a warm up set. And you can use them to put a finishing touch on your workout? abs may accompany chest and triceps.
Back:
1. Lat pulldowns: 4 sets, same format. (up weight, down reps)
2. Seated rows: 4 sets, same format
3. DEADLIFTS (aite, u mite not wanna do deadlifts on this day. Not that they'll kill you,
as the name implies, but the lift works a lot of bodyparts, including lower back and
hamstrings and quads and forearms, so you?ll be hurtin after this one) no one really knows the best time to do deadlifts. Some do it on legs day, some on back day. In fact, some guys have a whole
workout day for deadlifts alone. Ask guys at ur gym when they do theirs. I personally limit this to 3 sets.
4. Incline rows (just rows at an angle on some machine. If u don?t have that machine, don?t bother). Same format
5. Pullups, hands at shoulder width. If your hands are too inwards, you end up working
your biceps more than your lats. This usually happens to me anyway, cuz I?m relatively
heavy. If u cant do pull-ups jus yet, stick with the other exercises and build up
strength then come back to pull-ups later.
Biceps
1. barbell curl (everyone knows this one). 4 sets, usual format
2. Dumbbell curls. 4 sets, same format.
3. Preacher curls. 4 sets same format
4. hammer curls. 4 sets, same format.
5. now, if you feel like an intermediate, try drop sets on the preacher bench (I'll
explain drop sets later).
FOREARMS.
These will probably be worked during ur biceps exercise, but u can work em anyway.
Reverse barbell curls do the trick. Forearm curls work well too.
LEGS
Oooh yea, everyone loves to hate legs day. I bet no one you know likes em. My old roomie
never wanted do em, till he saw the light. Any website will tell you that squats and deads are KING exercises.
1. Squats: jus do it! 4 sets, same format.
2. Leg press: 4 sets same format
3. Leg extensions: same ol thing (try drop sets if u have a death wish)
4. Calf extensions. I do 6 sets for this.. it?s the only thing I do
high reps for.
Shoulders/traps
1. Military press, barbell: 5 sets, 12 reps to 3
2. Side lateral raises. 4 sets, same format (12 reps, 10, 8, 6) (try front lateral raises for some variety)
3. seated dumbbell press 4 sets, same format
4. shrugs. 5 sets
5. upright rows. 4 sets, same format.
ABS
Yeah, everyone want to have abs.. hehe
For abs, I jus do about 15-20 reps for leg raisesn and 20 sit ups for multiple sets. Then
the drop sets on the ab-lounge looking machine we got in our gym. Neways, its basic stuff.
Hanging leg raises: 3 sets 15-20reps
Sit ups:2 or 3 sets, 15-20 situps
(use a weight and do crunches on an incline bench if u aint got an ab machine
with attached weights)
you can do abs wheneva u want... jus slot em in some workout. jus make
sure u put em in. i've had a case of "I'll put it in next time", but "next time" never comes. lol
Let me just say here that abs are a mainly a combination of genetics (for shape) and diet (for definition). if you start using the auto fill google bar and type in abs are made.. it will fill the rest out with "...in the kitchen", which is pretty much true. a low bf level increases definition. but remember, if you're going for size, you'll have a higher bf than someone who's cutting, so dont expect to have washboard abs like he does.
DROP SETS
I hold a strong belief that Drop sets, like math, were created by the
devil to screw me over. Like deadlifts, which leave u dead, when ur done with these, you
will drop. (Don't even try em for legs or you won?t be able to walk). They generally
involve putting on a heavy weight, then doing a couple of reps (12-15), then, you drop
someweight of the machine/adjustable barbell and do more reps. Keep dropping the weight and
doing reps until all the weight is off. For all the reps after the first, try going for
12 reps/till u can go no further. Believe me, you?ll have so much trouble lifting up the empty bar
when you?re done. You?d end up with like 60 reps in one set.. sweetness.
No matter what the lift, there are general rules to follow.
Do not cheat: Don?t use "body English" when working out. Make slow,
controlled movements with the weight. If you don't, you end up using other body parts,
and not working the targeted areas. Like those guys who swing their whole bodies to lift
a dumbbell/barbell during a curl.I bet u see em. They aint workin their biceps at all. They using momentum to shift the weight. Cheating, however, is not all bad. it can help you get that one extra rep when you need it. But It can also be dangerous. If ur bouncing a heavy weight off your chest and not controlling it, you run the risk of smashing ur ribs! Which leads me to number 2
2. Always have a spotter: preferably someone who goes to the gym with you, so u don?t feel awkward looking asking some random guy, or girl. A spotter should constantly watch u, especially when doing heavy weight, so u don?t kill yourself. I've seen some accidents bro.
http://www.youtube.com/wat
3. Alternate: after using a routine for a while (a month or more),
switch it up if you want to. Do different workouts on different days. If the old routine
works fine and you're seeing gains, leave it be. But if u seem to have reached a plateau, feel free to change things
up.
4. Eat right: now this is even harder than working out and harder still when in college. Eating right is an entire article on its own. maybe i'll put it up later.
5 . When you do these workouts, The amount of sets and reps, the order
in which you do em, is all up to you. The range is generally 3-4 sets of 12-3 reps per exercise for hypertrophy and strength.
Chest is usually done with tris, while back goes with bis. Some like to change it up. And
I like to put legs between back/bis day and shoulders so I?m not doing too much upper
body. Some guys will do all the workouts twice in a week. Hey, it works for some guys. But Do not underestimate days off. That's when muscles heal/grow. If u don?t take a day off every now and then, you overexert the muscle, and may injure it. However, What works for someone will not necessarily work for you, and vice versa. 4 sets with decreasing reps works aite for me, with 2 days off in a
week. so I'm cool. Experiment and find your style, and happy lifting.
If u got any questions. Jus ask. Besides, u got the internet on ur side, and your fellow gym peoples! Ur all set! 4get the grammatical errors. Boiz don't have time. I aint getting paid ya know (For all this typing I swear I should be making a buck or two) lol.
If u wanna know some sites, bodybuilding.com is sweet. T-nation.com is king. some facebook groups are good too.
Peace out!
Regards,
Pat Utomi II
No comments:
Post a Comment