Beginning take 3

[pollacjw]

I am 24 and 6'. About two years ago I started lifting. I went from 150 to 183 in the course of 4 months. Then I got hit with some health problems. I got Mono that lasted 2 months, followed by regular strep infections that ultimately required a tonsillectomy (you dont eat much after this procedure). In the Autumn of 04, a month after surgery I weighed in the low 140s.

Rather then starting back I gave up my dreams of getting bigger and stronger. I stopped all of my active hobbies, climbing, lifting, hiking. I started smoking, and eating like crap and basically being a waste.

This lasted until spring of 05. That's when I started road and mtn biking. It kind of woke me up to how lazy I had become. I quit smoking, started to eat right, and ventured back into the gym. Right now I am 164#. Yeah I am still small but I wanna grow!

Any thoughts you have are welcome. Thanks in advance.

Routine
I have an A and a B routine that I alternate between. There is 3 days in between each routine. Thus if I do A on Monday Tuesday would be off. Wed would be a B day and Thursday off. Friday I would do A again. To finish the week, Sat is off Sunday is B.

Workout A

3x5 Squat (180#)
3x5 Bench Press (140#)
3x5 Dead lift (200#)
3x20 Tri Dips (off of a chair body weight)

Workout B

3x5 Squat (180#)
3x5 Military Press (95#)
3x10 Shrugs (110)
3x8 Bi Curl (with curl bar total of 60#)
3x10 Calf Raise (single leg only body weight)

My basic diet.

Meal
1) 4 eggs (either poached, scrambled, or HB) 2 whole wheat toast
2) 1/2 C (amount uncooked) Brown Rice + 1C of beans (black, kidney, etc)
3) Pork Chop 8oz, Yam (average size), 1/4C Brown Rice
4) Pasta 12oz w/meat (8oz) sauce (beef, turkey)
5) Chicken 8 oz, 1+ 1/2 bean salad (mix of black, black eyed peas, etc)
---
Snacks
1) Cereal and milk (2%)
2) Nuts and banana

I also take a multivitamin

Post lift I drink a shake of 20g protein, and 40 grams maltodextrin.
I dont use any other sups

Sorry for the length of the post.

Thanks again,

p

[bad14u]

First off, let me say congrats on getting back in the gym. Secondly I would say get out of the routine. Don't walk in the gym and do the same thing in the same order everytime...mix it up. Plus...you will want to start increasing the weight with each new set. Add 5 to 10 pounds and drop number of times you do it, if needed.

[ROCKILLER]

Youre doing squats every other day. When I do squats I can barely walk for the next 3 days. I think your split needs some work but honestly I dont know where to start to tell you what to do. Luckily there are some guys on here that can help.

[pollacjw]

First off, let me say congrats on getting back in the gym. Secondly I would say get out of the routine. Don't walk in the gym and do the same thing in the same order every time...mix it up. Plus...you will want to start increasing the weight with each new set. Add 5 to 10 pounds and drop number of times you do it, if needed.

I try to hit larger muscle groups first, so I typically start with squats, then deads, and so on. I understand doing the same routine for months and months can lead to negative results. But how does varying the order help?

I put over 1500 miles last summer on my bike. I would bike up too 4-5 times a week . I know biking puts a different type of stress on the body then lifting. That said my legs are pretty resilient. Thus far I am consistently adding weight every session (5-10lbs). You suggest adding more weight to each set, so pyramid exercises? My reps are already low. While I could up them 2-3 reps, but I may have to lower weight.

My concern about adding more wight to my squats is that it will compromise form. And thus ill have to lower reps which, are already low.

Thanks for your input.

Anyone else?

[bad14u]

Speaking from my own experience, if you want to put on muscle you are doing way too much cardio. If you add a little weight each time and progress from there you should be able to keep correct form and gain muscle. If you just throw on a lot of weight without progressing to it first, it will ruin your form and more than likely cause injury.

[pollacjw]

Speaking from my own experience, if you want to put on muscle you are doing way too much cardio. If you add a little weight each time and progress from there you should be able to keep correct form and gain muscle. If you just throw on a lot of weight without progressing to it first, it will ruin your form and more than likely cause injury.

Right now I only ride my trainer once a week or run a local trail (1hr a week). I live in Ohio, and its too cold to ride outside. Come May, or June I'll be doing a lot of cardio. And I realize that biking 8 hours a week is going to make it harder to put on weight, and I may loose some mass. Last year, after I started lifting and while I was riding, I didn't loose too much weight (168 @13% BF, to 160 @ 5%BF) after 26 weeks of riding. But thats 12 or more weeks away.

I have a question on reps and keeping them low. Should I continue with sets of 5 reps, but keep adding weight? Or should I keep the weight, and add reps?

On bigger lifts (squat, dead) I could add 10-20# each time I lift. Last week I added 10# on deads, I sure that 20# would have been possible. I suspect that to day I'll squat 190# up from 180# two days ago. My forum looks good on squats, fullrange of motion etc. Same thing with deads.

One last thing. Could I re post this in the training forum? While I appreciate your responses bad14u I was hoping for some more input.

Thanks again,

P

[bad14u]

Right now I only ride my trainer once a week or run a local trail (1hr a week). I live in Ohio, and its too cold to ride outside. Come May, or June I'll be doing a lot of cardio. And I realize that biking 8 hours a week is going to make it harder to put on weight, and I may loose some mass. Last year, after I started lifting and while I was riding, I didn't loose too much weight (168 @13% BF, to 160 @ 5%BF) after 26 weeks of riding. But thats 12 or more weeks away.

I have a question on reps and keeping them low. Should I continue with sets of 5 reps, but keep adding weight? Or should I keep the weight, and add reps?

On bigger lifts (squat, dead) I could add 10-20# each time I lift. Last week I added 10# on deads, I sure that 20# would have been possible. I suspect that to day I'll squat 190# up from 180# two days ago. My forum looks good on squats, fullrange of motion etc. Same thing with deads.

One last thing. Could I re post this in the training forum? While I appreciate your responses bad14u I was hoping for some more input.

Thanks again,

P

Bro...post it where you like. Let me apologize for the others on this board not responding...I honestly don't know why they haven't.

As for the reps and weight...do what works for you. My own experience has been that if I kept the weight the same but raised the reps, my arms would tone up but not really grow that much. Just depends on what you want to do.

[ROCKILLER]

I'll try to elaborate on what I said before, which I think you confirmed. You probably arent working hard enough. I'm not talking shit but if you honestly think you could have had 10 more lbs on there then you probably arent pushing yourself to the limit. That being said, if you do push yourself on squats and deads and such, you probably wont be able to and shouldnt be doing them agian real soon. You hit som many large muscles so hard that you need to give them enough time and food to rebuild before you whoop on them again.

[pollacjw]

I hear you rockiller. I wana go big. My only concern is going big on compound lifts could lead to injuries. I should also note that as of now I am lifting at my home gym which is kinda limited. I dont have a power cage or a spotter. I would like to go big but I also want to go safe. Whats a good way to gauge the weight I should lift at. Do you think I should go more then 80% mx?

I have been using this page http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/1rm.htm to estimate my max. I put my max at 220#, so I am right at 80%, now.

[Shibby]

I will just be blunt and say your lifting routine needs to be trashed. For bulking you need to split up the parts alot more, so you can really hit them hard. Search through this section and the training section and look for one that's on a 4-5 day split. Then if you don't like something about it, we can help you make some changes. It's so much easier to do it that way than just write something for you since we don't know you personally.

[Shibby]

Also as far as max goes, I couldn't tell you what any of my max lifts are. It's all aobut how my reps feel to me. Don't make it too complicated.