Turned 19 Today

muppet101 · June 17, 2012, 11:56am

Want to look like a beast by my 20th birthday.

Hello there.
Name’s Sid.
5ft 9’
167 pounds.
Bodyfat- over 20% I presume. I really couldn’t tell.
I’ll get a picture in by tomorrow, have tons of people over today to be able to click one.

So I’ve been working out on and off for a maybe a year now. College, exams etc etc kept coming in the way and I couldn’t stick to my workout regime and failed to see too much improvement.
Last summer, I dropped from a 189 pounds to 163 in about 2 months time and then put all that weight back on when college started, hit 176 pounds.
Now I’ve been working out somewhat regularly for a month and managed to hit the current bodyweight.
I’m tired of being a wuss and not being able to stick to my workout regime for long enough to see any major improvements. I think it’s about time I took a stand. So I’ve decided to take this year seriously and work out and take care of my body like a mad-man. I want to be in the best shape of my life on my 20th birthday. I could really use some help.

Diet seems to be the major issue for me because I’m an Indian and almost everything we eat is rice-derived and it’s very difficult to keep the carbs on a low.

My workout regime looks a bit like this.
Day-1 Chest x Triceps.
Day-2 Back x Biceps.
Day-3 Legs x Shoulders.

And then I go back to day-1. Usually a day’s gap between each workout.
Been really lazy to get my ass off the couch and do some cardio, going to start uphill running tomorrow morning.

Chest/Triceps- Bench Press, Incline Press, Pec Fly, Pushups, Cable Push-down, dumbbell Tricep extensions, overhead cable tricep extensions.
Back/Biceps- Lat pulldown, close-grip pull down, seated cable rows, bent-over dumbbell rows, dumbbell curls, hammer curls, preacher curls.
Legs/Shoulders- Squats, lunges, Leg Press, leg extensions/curls, Shoulder press, lateral raises, front raises.

Am I doing something wrong here?
Do you guys have any advice for me?
I’m hoping to put on a good amount of muscle mass in a year’s time. Will I have enough time to cut and lose some fat by that time too?
Hope someone’s willing to help me out.

muppet101 · June 17, 2012, 12:09pm

Ugh.
Missed out a few stuff.

Rep range on most of those exercises are pretty much the same. 8-10 reps x 4 sets.
My diet’s a big mess right now, going to start from scratch tomorrow and then write that down to show you guys.
Used to deadlift last summer, 198 pounds.
Haven’t been doing much of that this time round.
Bench press-110.
Squats-132.
I know these numbers are nothing compared to what some guys on here pull but I guess we all have to start somewhere and I really want to stick to what I’m doing right now for the long run.

chobbs · June 17, 2012, 12:40pm

cancel out all the extensions…for sure do dips, and some sort of floor press

fr0IVIan · June 17, 2012, 12:45pm

[quote]muppet101 wrote:
Want to look like a beast by my 20th birthday.
Hello there.
Name’s Sid.
5ft 9’
167 pounds.
Bodyfat- over 20% I presume. I really couldn’t tell.
I’ll get a picture in by tomorrow, have tons of people over today to be able to click one.

So I’ve been working out on and off for a maybe a year now. College, exams etc etc kept coming in the way and I couldn’t stick to my workout regime and failed to see too much improvement.
Last summer, I dropped from a 189 pounds to 163 in about 2 months time and then put all that weight back on when college started, hit 176 pounds.
Now I’ve been working out somewhat regularly for a month and managed to hit the current bodyweight.
I’m tired of being a wuss and not being able to stick to my workout regime for long enough to see any major improvements. I think it’s about time I took a stand. So I’ve decided to take this year seriously and work out and take care of my body like a mad-man. I want to be in the best shape of my life on my 20th birthday. I could really use some help.

Diet seems to be the major issue for me because I’m an Indian and almost everything we eat is rice-derived and it’s very difficult to keep the carbs on a low.

My workout regime looks a bit like this.
Day-1 Chest x Triceps.
Day-2 Back x Biceps.
Day-3 Legs x Shoulders.

And then I go back to day-1. Usually a day’s gap between each workout.
Been really lazy to get my ass off the couch and do some cardio, going to start uphill running tomorrow morning.

Chest/Triceps- Bench Press, Incline Press, Pec Fly, Pushups, Cable Push-down, dumbbell Tricep extensions, overhead cable tricep extensions.
Back/Biceps- Lat pulldown, close-grip pull down, seated cable rows, bent-over dumbbell rows, dumbbell curls, hammer curls, preacher curls.
Legs/Shoulders- Squats, lunges, Leg Press, leg extensions/curls, Shoulder press, lateral raises, front raises.

Am I doing something wrong here?
Do you guys have any advice for me?
I’m hoping to put on a good amount of muscle mass in a year’s time. Will I have enough time to cut and lose some fat by that time too?
Hope someone’s willing to help me out.
[/quote]

the split looks more or less ok.

chest/tris - I’m assuming you’re doing pushups for pump work on your pecs? take them out and burn your pecs out on pec flyes, otherwise the pushups will sap your strength for tricep work.

back/bis - BB/Tbar/Vbar row heavy first, do DB rows second (still heavy but concentrate more on feel), seated cable rows should be last unless you have some kind of injury you need to work around.

legs/shoulders - need to stick a lighter deadlift variation in on squat days, and alternate quad-dominant squat days with hamstring-dominant deadlift days. also need to include rear deltoid work somewhere, try face pulls and/or rear delt flyes on your back or shoulder days.

you have an off day between each day so sprint/run hills/push a prowler or car, or work on form for whatever lifts need form work. personally I wouldn’t take any days off.

I’m Filipino-Chinese, white rice was a staple in my diet until I started preparing my own food. don’t use your ethnic background as an excuse to eat poorly.

my progress pic shows a 30 pound gain, 17 pounds of which are muscle, and I had weighed as much as 212 lb at just under 27% body fat (measured in a Bid Pod). I’m now around 20% body fat. so, yes you can put on some muscle and lose fat in a year. you just have to put the work in on a daily basis.

fr0IVIan · June 17, 2012, 8:29pm

[quote]chobbs wrote:
cancel out all the extensions…for sure do dips, and some sort of floor press[/quote]

there is nothing wrong with isolation work.

dips are ok provided you can do them comfortably.

why floor press? there is no benefit to floor pressing for a newb that full ROM pressing won’t have.

mbv8 · June 17, 2012, 1:08pm

I’d suggest starting with a template based on squats, deads, and bench. Those exercises give you the biggest bang for your buck. Doing other stuff is really gravy and almost doesn’t really matter if you’re pounding away on the big three.

To lose weight, you need to be in a calorie deficit, not necessarily low carbs. You may be interested in Martin Berkham’s Intermittent Fasting (google it); literally the most pain-free way in the world to drop fat, often while adding strength. I can say that because I know: ~175 to 147, largely over the course of 12-16 weeks.

fr0IVIan · June 17, 2012, 1:18pm

[quote]mbv8 wrote:
I’d suggest starting with a template based on squats, deads, and bench. Those exercises give you the biggest bang for your buck. Doing other stuff is really gravy and almost doesn’t really matter if you’re pounding away on the big three.

To lose weight, you need to be in a calorie deficit, not necessarily low carbs. You may be interested in Martin Berkham’s Intermittent Fasting (google it); literally the most pain-free way in the world to drop fat, often while adding strength. I can say that because I know: ~175 to 147, largely over the course of 12-16 weeks.[/quote]

again, there is nothing wrong with isolation work. it allows you to hit the target muscle with more volume and helps you learn how to establish MMC.

I would not encourage a newb to learn how to do anything diet-wise besides actually eating enough calories to grow in the first place, unless he was obese and this is not the case. if he does lift with enough intensity and do conditioning work as I mentioned above on his off days, fat gain should be mitigated anyway.

chobbs · June 17, 2012, 3:46pm

[quote]fr0IVIan wrote:

[quote]chobbs wrote:
cancel out all the extensions…for sure do dips, and some sort of floor press[/quote]

there is nothing wrong with isolation work.

dips are ok provided you can dote comfortably.

why floor press? there is no benefit to floor pressing for a newb that full ROM pressing won’t have.[/quote]

No offense to the OP but if you cant bench your BW at least ten times, let alone 1…I do have a problem with isolation tricep work

fr0IVIan · June 17, 2012, 3:56pm

[quote]chobbs wrote:

[quote]fr0IVIan wrote:

[quote]chobbs wrote:
cancel out all the extensions…for sure do dips, and some sort of floor press[/quote]

there is nothing wrong with isolation work.

dips are ok provided you can dote comfortably.

why floor press? there is no benefit to floor pressing for a newb that full ROM pressing won’t have.[/quote]
No offense to the OP but if you cant bench your BW at least ten times, let alone 1…I do have a problem with isolation tricep work[/quote]

if he were benching more than once a week, then I would also be wary of an excess of volume in tricep isolation work on the first day of pressing. however, given that he has three days of rest between chest/tricep day and his shoulder day, then another two days of rest before he hits chest/tris again, I don’t see a problem with it at all.

now, if you were to suggest a different split entirely that makes OP press more frequently, then I would agree with you. but in the context of this split, there’s nothing wrong with tricep work.

spar4tee · June 17, 2012, 8:53pm

OP would you display an example what you consider a beast to be i.e. the destination you have in mind?

chobbs · June 18, 2012, 12:34am

[quote]fr0IVIan wrote:

[quote]chobbs wrote:

[quote]fr0IVIan wrote:

[quote]chobbs wrote:
cancel out all the extensions…for sure do dips, and some sort of floor press[/quote]

if he were benching more than once a week, then I would also be wary of an excess of volume in tricep isolation work on the first day of pressing.

common ground established

florelius · June 18, 2012, 5:08am

When you say you want to look like a beast what do you mean by that?

muppet101 · June 18, 2012, 12:34pm

[quote]
fr0IVIan wrote:
the split looks more or less ok.

chest/tris - I’m assuming you’re doing pushups for pump work on your pecs? take them out and burn your pecs out on pec flyes, otherwise the pushups will sap your strength for tricep work.

back/bis - BB/Tbar/Vbar row heavy first, do DB rows second (still heavy but concentrate more on feel), seated cable rows should be last unless you have some kind of injury you need to work around.

legs/shoulders - need to stick a lighter deadlift variation in on squat days, and alternate quad-dominant squat days with hamstring-dominant deadlift days. also need to include rear deltoid work somewhere, try face pulls and/or rear delt flyes on your back or shoulder days.

you have an off day between each day so sprint/run hills/push a prowler or car, or work on form for whatever lifts need form work. personally I wouldn’t take any days off.

I’m Filipino-Chinese, white rice was a staple in my diet until I started preparing my own food. don’t use your ethnic background as an excuse to eat poorly.

my progress pic shows a 30 pound gain, 17 pounds of which are muscle, and I had weighed as much as 212 lb at just under 27% body fat (measured in a Bid Pod). I’m now around 20% body fat. so, yes you can put on some muscle and lose fat in a year. you just have to put the work in on a daily basis.[/quote]

Well yeah, I can’t blame my ethnicity for my poor eating but it has played a pretty big role.

Pushups because my trainer insisted I have them in my routine and they’re the go-to chest exercise. I think I can do about 25?
I work my back based on feel, I don’t lift heavy unless I can actually feel my back working to lift the load and not using my biceps instead.

[quote]
chobbs wrote:
No offense to the OP but if you cant bench your BW at least ten times, let alone 1…I do have a problem with isolation tricep work [/quote]

Ah, okay. How long does one naturally take to get to benching BW?

[quote]
spar4tee wrote:
OP would you display an example what you consider a beast to be i.e. the destination you have in mind? [/quote]
I know this is a long shot, but Goldberg.
I don’t care too much about having washboard abs as long as I’m big and strong.

Do you guys have a better routine in mind?

chobbs · June 18, 2012, 1:05pm

[quote]muppet101 wrote: