Hey, im new to this message board. I’m 17 started lifting about 2 months ago and weigh in at 150 pounds and im 5"10. I’ll get some pictures up soon but for now what would u recommend i do in terms of a schedule…As of now i do the following 5 day cycle.
military press, lat machine, standing bicep curls, preacher curls, lateral raises, military press machine
Day 3: Rest
Day 4: Hams/Quads
Squat Machine, leg presses, hamstring curl, leg extensions for quads
Day 5: Rest
Repeat…
As of right now, my max bench is 150 pounds (my bodyweight.) and my max squat is around 170-180. Does the schedule i follow look good to increase my strength and/or mass? If not, what can i do to improve my gains? As of now, I’ve put on 3-4 pounds of lbm.
My diet consists roughly of the following. I eat a dish of oatmeal in the morning followed by an apple around 2 hours later. For lunch I get a foot long bmt hero from subway. When I get home from school I eat a couple slices of pizza and then proceed to the gym. After my workout I eat a banana and within an hour or so have dinner which is usually a dish of spaghetti with meatballs, steak, chicken, or fish. An hour before I go to sleep I have a protein shake.
You need to eat a lot more than that to grow. Use the search and check out the Skinny Bastard Diet and the POW Diet. Massive Eating is good too, but you may not want to get that strict about your food intake right now. However, read it just to calculate how many calories you need. Oh, and you need a good post-workout drink. Pick up some Surge or whey hydro and mix it with maltodextrin, grape juice, gatorade, etc. You need simple sugars and carbs after you work out.
Your training results will increase markedly when you stop viewing your body as a collection of parts. View it as a whole, and look at what lift you are doing, horizontal pressing, horizontal pulling, vertical pressing and pulling. knee flexion, knee extension. Hip fflexion, hip extension. Barbell pressing, then switching to a machine is virtually the same, as far as the muscles are concerned. All things being equal, a simpler routine will have you light years ahead than any secret program. Even the best “specialization” routines have a window of effectiveness. The bulk of your time should be training simply. Avoid all of the mistakes that those in their 30’s wasted literally years with next to no gains with. Unless you are not against just training for trainings sake.
You need to get rid of the pizza an back off on the bread. There is an excellent article in one of the back issues of T-Mag about appropriate foods to eat. Do a search to find it.
On your excercise regime, you are not doing enough for your hamstrings, glutes, and lower back. Add in some deadlifts and stiff legged deadlifts into your routine. But go slow on the deadlifts. The lower back is usually weak in most people and the most easily injured area.
What are your rep/set schemes? You’re probably overtraining.
Keep the Squats, ditch the Leg Press, Leg Extensions and Curls. Replace the last three with Lunges (or Step-Ups), Semi-Stiff Leg Deadlift and One-Leg Back Extensions.
Ditch the lat pulldowns, do chinups. Likewise, get rid of the Smith-machine militaries. Your Back/Shoulder/Arm day should look something like this:
-Superset of Military Press & Chins
-One Horizontal Pulling movement of your choice
-One Bicep movement of your choice
-Hell, as long as you keep this day at least 48 from your squat session, you can do deadlifts here as well. (at the beginning of the workout)
Regarding your strength/mass question. If you have a good, simple program based off of the ‘money’ exercises, combined with proper nutrition, you’ll gain strength and size.
Now, about your diet: It’s a trainwreck. Refer to the previous comments made.
Read Berardi. Read everything he’s written. Then, when you’re done, go back and read it again.
focus on 50 grams of protein per meal at the minimum. if you have a chance to capitalize and eat more than 50 grams of protein per meal, then go for it. just try not to eat more than 80 grams per meal.
also, i agree, do deadlifts. squats, deadlifts and bench presses are the best 3 exercises you can do right now.
focus on getting to a certain weight, say 180lbs. yes, thats a hefty goal, but when you get there you’ll feel good about yourself, then you’ll be able to do a cutting cycle and look real good. good enough to go out on the beach and steal other guy’s girlfriends away from them.
Chrismcl
Are you kidding 50 g of proetin for a school kid who eats 7 time per day at a body weight of 150lbs. thats is nuts. 350g of protein (or 540g if he goes up to 80g?!?!) he’s not Jay Cuttler! lets be realistic. He is a student, with probably no money. if he cleared 30g per meal it would be a good start!
What would you guys recommend for a pre-workout drink/meal? Keep in mind I don’t have the kind of cash to be buying grow/surge/powerdrive or any other supplement to consume before working out. I need a food that I could eat that would be worthwhile and give me the nutrients needed to have a worthwhile workout.