Need Serious Help From Weight Trainers!!

[bboydocument]

Ok, I am sick of sitting around doing nothing about this, i really advice i want to get back into the gym and start weight training again.

i'm a 20 year old male 6'3" and only 160lbs (73kg). Yes i am tall and very slim and weak, with High metablosm. I train hard for TKD and want to start full contact combat like kickboxing or MT.

My problem is this, i want to get stronger and faster while seeing an increase in my weight(muscle) and shape, but i am clueless on how to do this!!

Now i was on this weight training program a friend made for me, but it was a WEIGHT GAIN program. This program is useless for me since i burn off EVERYTHING i gain in the cardio and training i do for TKD!! I go to the gym with this workout program he made up for me but i feel like i am wasting my time with it, i am seeing no results because i burn it all off and i still look like a weak skinny rake.

Here is the workout program my friend made for me.

Monday: Chest, Tricep, Abs
(Bench Press, Incline Flyes, Cable Crossover, Tri pushdown, Tri Extention, Tri Pushup, etc)

Wednesday: Back, Biceps, Abs
(Lat pull down, seated row, one arm row, bicep curls, one arm preacher curls, cable curls, etc)

Friday: Shoulders, Legs, Abs
(Shoulder press, rear shoulder press, dumbell press, leg press, leg extentions, leg curls)

3 sets of each * 8 Heavy reps

So yeah, That is the program i was talking about.

should i still keep this workout?
Should i lift really heavy weights so my arms and legs are sore and can't lift anymore? or should i lift what i am 'comfortable' lifting?
i'm worried about lifting till i'm sore because it makes me to sore to train in TKD the next day.

and another thing, i'm scared about burning off all that gain because of the intense cardio (running, heavy bag, skipping) i do in TKD and at the gym. Plus is it true that if you don't have body fat for the body to burn off, your muscles are next? because i don't have any body fat at all and thats what i think i found was happening. i'd go to the gym and gain like 5lbs and then burn it off the next day in cardio.


My goal is become a good fighter in kickboxing, but i can't do this with my body size and weight.

Is there a program for me that i can do to make me have power, speed, strength, endurance WHILE making me look solid at least???


Well if guys can answer those questions thanks alot, your help is appreciated! =)

[RobertG]

You might want to think about your diet before you start stressing over your lifting routine. If you aren't eating enough, then you aren't going to gain weight. End of story. If you are doing tons of cardio AND you have a fast metabolism to begin with you are going to have to adjust your diet accordingly.

I'm sure other people will chime in with all sorts of links and advice, but here's mine; this site has a ton of articles of bodybuilding, and specifically, diets for muscle gain:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/index.html

And here's a review of some specific diets, several of them for your needs (e.g. weight/muscle gain):

http://www.testosterone.net/html/body_135diet.html

But as long as you are lifting you will see gains intially (I'm gathering you are just starting to really lift) so long as you are getting enough calories (and a enough of those calories are from protein). Beyond your initial gains then you can start tinkering with your routine. But to gain you have to eat...and eat, and eat. The formula is simple, if you want to lose weight, eat less than you burn each day, and if you want to gain you need to eat more calories than you burn. Good luck.

[jcolvin]

RobertG is absolutely correct in the diet. I noticed that you did not mention that in the post. On problem is you may not be getting in enough protein and that would hinder your growth.

As far as you routine. Is there some reason you don't hit the weights on Tuesday or Thursday. The only reason I ask that is because when I used to do a routine similar to yours, the first muscle group would get a great workout, but the second would always get cheated, unless i was doing something like calves. I would suggest going one big body part a day and that way you can concentrate on making that one grow.

All training, martial arts and weights is about intensity. If you got at it kinda half hearted you will get half hearted results. You have to push yourself. Training is about finding your body's limits and blasting through them. So, if you are "maxing" on bench at 135, then start at 125 and blow throw 135. Just keep pushing yourself.

[terry]

Yep, diet is key. So is sleep. You gotta keep enough fuel in the engine. My advice would be to try to log both your sleeping hours per night as well as calories and protein intake. And while you're at it I would also throw in your cardio hours. That's 4 columns to keep track of per day, so it won't take long.

You'll probably have a time of it taking in enough good nutritious food to get sufficient calories for a 3000* calorie/200 gm protein per day program. So throw in a protein shake in between meals. At 3k calories per day you should be able to up your workouts and go for more intensity. At 3500 calories per day you'll probably have even more energy for balls-to-the-wall all-out fighting. And that's where you want your body to get used to being. If you go into competitive training you may have to get above 5000 calories per day, at that level you really will have a conflict between recovery time for weights and recovery time for cardio. But I'm not convinced you're anywhere near that.

Don't obsess about your weight though because gaining muscle takes a long time once you're on the right program. Logging your weight once or twice a month should be okay.

*This number varies based on individual. Once your body gets used to a higher level of calories you'll know when you don't take in enough fuel because you'll feel lousy.

[Ripley]

Ditto the advice about diet and sleep.
In terms of your programme, three times a week in the gym seems like a lot of work when combined with cardio and TKD. Are you spending your whole free time in the gym and exercising?
There's no need, I'd cut the gym back to twice a week, stick to basic strength builders like bench and squat. One day upper body, another day legs. Don't worry about gaining weight, at 20 yrs old, you'll burn it off anyway. With any strength routine your nerves develop first - you'll get stronger before you have any noticeable change in strength/size.

I'm 6"2' and had much the same problems up to around 30, then your metabolism slows right down...

[Disciple]

Like the other replys said, you need to eat (300-500 calories over your maintainance level daily), and 1 gm protein per pound of body weight daily. Your maintainance level would be a little hard to determine since you do so much cardio. Spread your eating into 5-6 approximately equal portions throughout the day.

Also, if you lifted intensely enough, you should be a little bit to moderately sore 24-48 hours after the workout. As long as you are lifting to muscular failure and not lifting for much longer than one hour daily, your current routine should be fine. Focus on exercises that involve several muscle groups at once i.e. bench press, military presses, pull ups, rows, deadlifts, squats. These are the exercises that will cause the greatest strength and muscle mass gain. You can then use isolation exercises to hit any of the remaining muscles, e.g. bicep curls, calf raises, shrugs, forearm curls, etc. Give each muscle group about 5-7 days to recover between workouts.

[Biker]

Judging by your physical size and your workout program, you are over training. Start with, and stick to basic exercises for a few months. Bench press, squat, deadlift, chins. Do whatever weight you can for three sets of ten reps for each movement. That is a weight that makes you struggle on that last rep of the last set. Three days a week is plenty often enough.

After doing the basics for a few months, start adding individual movements for each muscle group and break it up so that one day you do upper body, next time lower body. After a while you will be able to break it up even more than that.

You do not grow in the gym. You grow when you are resting. Get plenty of sleep and watch your nutrition as was previously mentioned.

[bboydocument]

you guys have given excellent advice

thank you all so much, it has made things more clear for me with weight gain and weight training =)

[Lizard]

I'm going to start with a combination of the chanko diet and the big diet for body builders. Those articles really helped to get me in the mood for weight lifting. Last time I went to the gym (2 days ago) I set 8 new personal bests, this time I only set 3

[Biker]

Originally posted by Lizard
I'm going to start with a combination of the chanko diet and the big diet for body builders. Those articles really helped to get me in the mood for weight lifting. Last time I went to the gym (2 days ago) I set 8 new personal bests, this time I only set 3

Bodybuilding and weight lifting is not always about setting a personal best each and every time you go to the gym. Yes, you want to push yourself each time you go. Add a little weight here, or add a rep there or decrease your rest time between sets a little. There are times when you may not be ready physically or mentally and things just don't seem to click right when you are working out. I don't know how long you have been working out, but as time goes on the gains come slower and slower. You may be stuck doing the same number of reps and weight for a particular exercise for a couple months. That's not a bad thing. It just means your body isn't ready to move on or you need to try something different to get past that sticking point. Mix up the order of your exercises, compound sets, drop sets, pyramid sets, take the movement you are having a problem with out for a little while and replace it with something else for a little while, etc. Heck, you may even need to take two to four weeks off training. You'll come back stronger than ever.

Weight training is actually more of a mental game. You need to use your mind to keep pushing yourself, to figure out what works best for you.

Good luck.

[Lizard]

Yes there is a lot of psychology there, just reading those articles helped me to lift more. Actualy I'm improving faster now than ever before. OK I'll take your advice and mix up my excersise order, what are compound sets and pyramid sets? Will using different sets (compound sets, drop sets, pyramid sets) affect how I improve or is it just to make sure my muscles don't get used to a certain type of excersise? Those extra three reps on the lateral pulldown really do make a difference.

[Biker]

A compound set is when you do two exercises back-to-back, for opposing muscle groups. An example would be doing a set of barbell curls followed immediately by a set of narrow grip dips, for triceps, and doing a few sets of those combined.

A giant set is doing two or more movements for the muscle group. Like doing a set of shoulder presses and following that with a set of side lateral raises. Same as above, you do a few sets like that.

Pyramid sets are when you add weight with each successive set, while at the same time decreasing the number of reps since it gets harder, usually with a small amount of rest between sets.

Drop sets go a bit quicker than pyramid sets. For a drop set, you do your warm-up (very impoartant) and go to a fairly heavy weight that you can do for 4 to 8 reps. When that set is done, you strip some of the weight off and start on the next set only resting long enough to remove some weight.

There are a few others but they just don't spring to mind at the moment.

Depending on how long you have been working out, you probably will only want to do one of these once in a great while to get you through a sticking point or just to mix things up and shock your body, because if you stick to the same routine for too long you will probably stop making gains. I say probably because each person is different. One guy can stick to the same routine, only changing the amount of weight that he uses and still make gains while another guy may have to mix up his routine each time he goes to the gym.

Doing those won't really affect how you make gains, they'll help get you through a sticking point with a particular movement or shock your muscles into growth. After doing the same routine for a while your body will get stale and your muscles will stop growing and getting stronger. So you need to do something to wake it up.

[Biker]

And rather than doing pull-downs, you may want to start doing pull-ups, overhand and underhand, wide and narrow grips. A wide grip targets the upper lats and a narrower grip the lower.

[Lizard]

But the lateral pull down machine uses the same muscles as a pull up on a bar would. In fact, if you put the weight the same as your body weight then you almost are doing a pull up. What do lats help with?

[Tom Yum]

Strong lats are important for hard punching and elbowing, but elbow techniques require more of the deltoid.