Bulking up!

[Biker]

The thing you have to ask youself is "Am I working out hard enough to need a supplement?" Weightgainers can be formulated to suit whatever your needs may be. Need a supplement that is mostly protein? They're out there. Need a mean replacement type supplement? They're out there. Taking a weightgainer supplement will make you gain weight. If you are not working out hard enough for your body to put the extra nutrition to work building muscle mass it will either be put on as fat or it will just pass through your system, unused. In which case you may as well just send the money you are spending on supplements to me.

If you are a beginner, trying to put on muscle mass, check out a local nutrition store. The staff are usually knowledgable and will point you in the right direction. Rarely will they try to sell you the jumbo bucket of the latest and greatest guaranteed mass builder ever to pass through the halls of weight training. If you are a beginner, you will probably only need a meal replacement supplement that is high in protein and whatever other additives are in it and add that into your regular diet as either a pre-workout or post-workout meal.

If you have access to a local gym, talk with the bigger guys/gals that are into bodybuilding. Most are friendly and are willing to help you out with some diet pointers. They are people who have been at the game for a while and either gotten the information from someone else or came across it on their own by experimentation with dietary supplements.

The kinds of exercises that you do will have an effect on your muscle building. Stick with heavy basic movements for a while. Benchpress, squat, deadlift, etc. Let someone else do the little pretty-boy movements like concentration curls for now. Those are shaping movements. Build some mass now and shape it later.

[falcon3624]

Like I said before SUPPLEMENTS are nothing more than SUPPLEMENTS. That's why they call them supplements and not essentials. If I was to be just getting into working out I would start out with nothing more than a good diet. That is most important thing to learn right away. Once I got my diet down then I would maybe take a supplement or 2. I have tried just about every supplement out there and there aren't many that do much of anything to tell you the truth. Like I said before I went from about 175-185lbs. to beening 240lbs. now and just on my diet and before and after workouts hitting the whey protein, glutamine powder, and some creatine powder. Gaining around 60lbs. of muscle is hard to do and most people will not see those kind of gains in 4yrs. let alone 2yrs.

I don't trust the supplement stores for information anymore either. I don't know about other places but I know around here the people don't know dick about nutrition. They have 2 girls that run the local GNC and they are both about 40-50lbs. overweight and don't know what they are talking about. Last time I went in there they were giving some horrible advice to a small guy that was wanting to put on some mass so I intervened and told him they did not know what they were talking about and told him the right routine and diet to grow...........they kicked me out and banned me from the store.......lol........whatever.

[Tom Yum]

I'm still getting myself psyched for a 300 bench later in the year!! Even if I can only get 280, its one step closer.

[falcon3624]

Originally posted by Tom Yum
I'm still getting myself psyched for a 300 bench later in the year!! Even if I can only get 280, its one step closer.

What might help to get to that 300lbs. mark is switching every once in a while between straight bar and dumbell presses. The dumbell press will really help you to develop more power because it has more isoaltion to each side and it is a more free motion. I have gotten to the point where I seldom work out on straight bar I just work on the dumbells. Some times I work on the straight bar cuz the most weight we have on the dumbells is 120lbs. but mostly I try to stay on dumbells. Tricep extension can really help out developing some power to get up that bench too because they isolate the tris alot more than bench and build them pretty fast. There are 2 points to the bench, half way it is more your tris pushing and the other half is your chest pushing, and if you don't develop both individually with seperate exercises it takes much longer to build your bench up.

[Tom Yum]

Thks. I'll keep that in mind.

[falcon3624]

No problem man, I know a thing or 2 about working out and I am always willing to give some advice. All you gotta do is ask.

[Ghost]

Falcon any chance of some of your advice.

I want to bulk up in the forearms particularly and some on the biceps any suggestions for good results would be much appreciated.

Big forearms are a big advantage in MUAY THAI

[falcon3624]

I don't particularly focus on the forearms since most bicep exercises I do standing and get the twist in at the end to work out the forearms as well. A pretty good exercise is doing wrist rolls where you have a stick you hold in both hands with a weight tied to it and roll it up and down. As far as biceps go there is a lot of controversy about what is the best exercise for that. I like doing my standard curl standing (most people will tell you to do it on a preacher bench to control your elbows from moving). The reason I do mine standing is because I go for mostly power and you get a much more free motion standing (I have found that I grow faster when doing curls standing vs. on a bench). The best thing for blowing up size on the biceps would probably be hammer curls where you would hold the dumbell straight up and down instead of horizontal like a normal curl. You don't wanna do a whole lot of weight on hammer curls though because it puts a lot of pressure on the elbow joint muscles and they are injured pretty easily.

On bicep days I start with a standard curl standing on a curl bar. Then I go to standard curls on a dumbell. Next I do longbar curls (good for blowing up outsides of biceps). Then I like to do my hammer curls and maybe some reverse curls.

[Ghost]

Thanks mate!

[falcon3624]

I almost forgot......My bicep day is the same as my back day so I get alot of work on the biceps with back exercises like lateral pull downs, reverse pull downs, pull ups, seated rows, hanging rows, etc......

It is important to keep the muscles that work together on the same days.....

My routine is kinda like this:

Monday=triceps and chest
Wednesday=biceps and back
Friday=shoulders and legs

I try to work abs everyday when possible, I try to do about 700-1000 reps on different abs exercises daily.

[Ghost]

Thats a serious ab workout you must be rock solid!?!?!

[falcon3624]

Originally posted by Ghost
Thats a serious ab workout you must be rock solid!?!?!

I work pretty hard. I usually work about 2hrs. in the gym Mon., Wed., and Fri. and then I do BJJ for 2hrs. on Tues. and Thurs. and do BJJ for about 5hrs. on Sat.

I usually run about 3 days a week if not more and run about 3-4 miles.

I'll put it to you like this about my abdominals....I have very seldom been affected by a shot to the midsection...lol

[Ghost]

Whats your abdominal work out and how do you build it up, if this is mentioned somewhere else in this thread sorry!

[falcon3624]

Usually I do 50 reps on each exercise and keep switching.

1. regular crunches.
2. weighted crunches.
3. right twists (weighted).
4. left twists (weighted).
5. kneeling crunches (this would be where you get on the tricep extension machine and take the bar and then go from kneeling straight up and down to a crunch position).
6. hanging crunches.

Usually I will either go 10-20 sets of 50 or 5-10 sets of 100.

[Ghost]

Thats cool i might use that but alter a couple of the exercises as i dont have the access to equipment to do a couple, thats useful info thanks.