Bulking up!

[falcon3624]

If you really don't want your abs to poke out and you want that flat six pack look you want to leave out #2 because it tends to build the muscles outward. Most people look at me and think I have a little bit of a gut because I do weighted crunches and the abdominals grow outward. I do this mainly for taking hits in the abdominal reagion because the more muscle you have the harder it is to hurt.

[Ghost]

Where so you hold the weight and what type of weights are they and how heavy?

Im guessing a disc held on the chest??

[falcon3624]

I use a machine for weighted crunches. I don't really focus on the weight, just whatever feels good that day.

[Ghost]

Ok but i guess i could do something simialr with a disc.

Got to go now work is finishing its 5.30 here in london.

Ill catch ya tommorow and im going to try some of them tonight ill let you know how i get on.

[falcon3624]

You get any working out in last night Ghost? How much do you weigh? Just wondering.

[Ghost]

Yeah i did get some in, tried that rope thing after making it. And did the ab stuff, im aching .

My weight is about 230 pounds.

I will keep going at it i think see what results i can get.

[falcon3624]

Wow I had no idea you were a big guy....lol....I'm weighing in around 240lbs. here lately. Do you work out alot?

[Ghost]

Not so much weights but alot of circuit training and i do quite a lot of hill training with a pack on that makes you fit and makes your legs real strong.
Got a bit of fat on the top so you should really take a 14pounds off that. I should lose that actually im trying to at the moment.

[falcon3624]

A little bit of fat never hurt though. I used to weigh in at about 180lbs. or so before I started working out really hard. I jumped up to around 240lbs. and I think I am going to stay here. I find it helps me on the mat because of the extra strength and I can use the weight to my advantage. The only thing I find is that I am still not really all that used to it and my endurance kind of suffers because of it. We have a competition coming up and I am hoping that is not going to be a factor. I am also hoping that my recently dislocated ACL joint is not going to be a big factor.

[Ghost]

I always find sprint training like 200 meter sprints and hill training go up the steepest hill you can find with a ruck sack weighing about 60 pounds or so go up it as fast as you can then go down it slowly to recover. Not more than a 200 meter hill.
I do that a couple of times a week combined with a couple of endurance runs o about 8 miles.

Best of all though is Thai sparring you cant beat that for fitness.

[Ghost]

Originally posted by falcon3624
Wow I had no idea you were such a big guy....l

Yeah that's what she said...


Anyway ...you shoudnt be interested in that

I told you......forget your Aikido training.

Just joking mate.

[Paul Wilson]

Someone

Someone asked early in the thread about bulking up your forearms.

Well you can’t direct bulking to one place. You can though perform exercises to build muscle there.

I have pretty big forearms and I only train them twice a week.

This is what I do:

Forearm curls
Forearm twists
........................
You will also use you forearms when using the EZ bar.
.........................
I will post some pictures so you can see what I mean.

[ill_proph]

The advantage of bulking up? It looks and feels kind of cool. But even the girls seem to dig lean small muscled guys.

For NHB? Kind of pointless; bulking up will just bump you up to higher weight division with other bulked up competitors. Maybe save your energy?

[Paul Wilson]

Originally posted by Ghost
Where so you hold the weight and what type of weights are they and how heavy?

I’m guessing a disc held on the chest??

You hold a or some disks on your chest. About 20kg.
And with your arms your forearms cross over each other on top of the disks so it feels comfortable.

A machine would be easier but using the disks on you chest method is much harder. Especially if you do them decline.

[Disciple]

To add forearm mass:

Hammer curls, forearm curls, reverse forearm curls, reverse bicep curls, no lifting straps for back exercises.

As far as bulking up, that's not really the en vogue way to do it these days. Today, alot of people like to add muscle slowly, 1-2 pounds per month. This minimizes any fat gain. You just have to be more exact with your diet to do this.

Weigh protein is good, but I like protein supplements with a mixture of whey, casein, and egg albumin. This slows the absorbtion. Whey protein is great for right after a workout though.

To make optimal gains I would suggest periodizing your workout. You have to shock your neuromusculoskeletal system to force it to adapt. The only problem is you can't shock it every session or you overtrain. The key is to go real high intensity one workout, then back off a little the next time. The third workout should then should be higher intensity then the first, then back off again, and so on. By intensity I mean total volume and % of 1RM. Throw in a low volume week every now and then to help recovery. This method workd great in 6 to 12 week cycles. You should hit a peak in intensity at week 9 or 12.