Bulking up!

[Tom Yum]

Bulking up makes you feel more confident about yourself, but other than that it shouldn't be done with reckless abandon if you compete.

If you can handle the power of fighters of one or two weight classes above your own and do well, then you should bulk up. But when I say bulk up, its not just through eating more lean protein, making protein shakes and lifting. That's just part of the job. Roy Jones Jr. for instance, plowed through the professional middle weight class at 160lbs. He did the same at 176lbs, 189 lbs and now as a heavyweight at 204. This DID NOT happen for him over night, neither in one year, rather over a period of several years. Why? Because as a boxer (or other competitive athlete) you need to stay functional!

The other part is keeping the weight gain functional with very minimal fat. It takes a while to get used to your new weight. Can you remain standing after several rounds of hard sparring? If you've been lifting heavy for 3 months and eating protein like there's no tomorrow, you will not feel the same doing your 2-3 mile runs. Or doing 3 hard rounds with the thai pads. While you're gaining, I'd throw in some of plyometric excercises to maintain your speed & power and alot of footwork/shadowboxing.

[mr_clean]

question for Falcon

Hey Falcon I notice you only work out 3 times a week with the weights. At 38 I recently started working out again and am following the 'Body For Life' program of Bill Phillips (albeit modified to my own needs) and he only recommends 3 days a week of weights as well. Is your program influenced by his ideas? Is this a good program for a middle aged family man like me? This is in addition to my regular martial arts training schedule. I would appreciate yours or anyone else's feedback good or bad.
Thanks, Mr. Clean

[Tom Yum]

Mista Clean! Follow the program for a month and tell us what you think about it; any benefits, changes etc. become the Bill Philips afficianado.

[Gunjin]

mr_clean.

the 3 days a week is what I use as well. I've been in and out of the gym for years, but I have been doing the 3 days a week thing for almost 3 months now with good results.

When I was younger I would go to the gym and lift all the weight I could and did just about ever excersise I heard, read, or saw someone doing. Now though I've learned that isn't the way to go. I wanted to get big fast which never happened. That's why I left the gym only after a month.

Now with the 3 days a weeks over these past few months I have noticed gains I never realized before. I barely increased the poundage at all the first month. But gradually in time I would increase the weights maybe every two weeks doing the same amount of reps. Then just this past week I realized I was being too conservative and that I could lift more weight than I was used too.

Results that I never realized when I was younger. So patience my friend, and you will see results. Just stick with whatever program you designed for your self and go the distance. You won't get stronger in 1 day, 1 week, or 1 month (maybe). But once you make it past the second month into your third month with your regular lifting routine, the results should be there and you will find your self able to lift more.

[Lizard]

Yes the trouble is most people decide they want huge powerful muscles, go to a gym and train their hardest. Then a month later they still don't look like the hulk so they give up.

3 times a week (once every two days) is important because you need to wait at least 48 hours for your muscles to recover and grow.

At the moment I do as many different excersises as possible (so that I excersise as many different muscles as possible) would it be better to concentrate on just a few excersises?

[falcon3624]

Re: question for Falcon

Originally posted by mr_clean
Hey Falcon I notice you only work out 3 times a week with the weights. At 38 I recently started working out again and am following the 'Body For Life' program of Bill Phillips (albeit modified to my own needs) and he only recommends 3 days a week of weights as well. Is your program influenced by his ideas? Is this a good program for a middle aged family man like me? This is in addition to my regular martial arts training schedule. I would appreciate yours or anyone else's feedback good or bad.
Thanks, Mr. Clean

I am not influenced by the body for life program. I knew some people that did it and had excellent results. The reason for woking out on weights 3 times a week and working different ones is the recovery of the muscles. If you work out the same muscles everyday not only are you not going to grow you will never recover them and increase your risk of injury. There have been studies that I have read taking a person that does not normally work out and making them do an intense workout one day and then letting them recover and you would not beleive how long it was until their muscles were fully recovered.........in almost all cases it took almost six months before they were fully recovered!!!!! One of the best things I have found is working out for a couple of months and then taking about a month off. When you come back your muscles are alot more recovered and you will grow faster than you can imagine.

If I was you I would stick with the body for life program. I don't know a whole lot about it but I have read the diet some of the people that were on it had and it seems pretty sound. I know that they had very good results. I know a woman that did that program and lost almost 100lbs. and has kept it off for about 5 years. It really all depends on what your goals are and what you are willing to do to acheive them. Most people would not follow the routine that I do because it is very strenuous and time consuming, but it does work.

The important thing to remember is that with any kind of diet or lifting program is that it takes time. You might not see results the first week, and you might not see them the first month but if you stick with it you will see the results in the long run and you will be glad you stuck with it.

[mr_clean]

Hey guys thanks for the advice. I knew that Falcon would be able to tell me why they do that approach. As I have kids etc. I don't have a huge lot of personal time and actually taking my MA classes uses up a bunch of that time. If the Bill Phillips thing works out I may start taking my son with me to the gym. At 12 years old he is 5'10" tall and weighs a smooth 180lbs. So this leads to another question:

How old should kids be before they start working out and what type of program is safe?

Tahnks Mista Clean

[falcon3624]

Originally posted by mr_clean
Hey guys thanks for the advice. I knew that Falcon would be able to tell me why they do that approach. As I have kids etc. I don't have a huge lot of personal time and actually taking my MA classes uses up a bunch of that time. If the Bill Phillips thing works out I may start taking my son with me to the gym. At 12 years old he is 5'10" tall and weighs a smooth 180lbs. So this leads to another question:

How old should kids be before they start working out and what type of program is safe?

Tahnks Mista Clean

If I was gonna bring a kid that's 12yrs. old to the gym I would let them work out on some light weight. I would not get them to do anything really strenuous. I would not waste my time with any kind of program at 12. Alot of these programs out there are not good for someone that young. Maybe just reconsider his diet a little bit and try to get him a better diet and maybe a little more protein. I would not go up to the 1g per lbs. of bodyweight though because his body is still developing and that could cause pre-mature problems with his liver and kidneys. Maybe just get him some chicken or fish for some meals but I would tell him just to stick with 3 regular meals a day. I would try and do maybe a week of eating high protein stuff like chicken and fish (no more than he would normally eat in 3 meals) and then the next week just do his regular diet. He would not want to cut down on anything being that he is young so don't cut out his carbs or anything like that because I think Bill Phillips body for life utilizes lower carb levels than what a regular diet would be for a 12 year old kid.

[falcon3624]

Originally posted by mr_clean
How old should kids be before they start working out and what type of program is safe?

I started working out when I was 14yrs. old. I usually say about 14 is a good age to start working out light and then start working out a littler harder at the age of 16. I really did not start working out hard and power lifting until the age of 17-18.

[Thai Bri]

Originally posted by Lizard
Yes the trouble is most people decide they want huge powerful muscles, go to a gym and train their hardest. Then a month later they still don't look like the hulk so they give up.

3 times a week (once every two days) is important because you need to wait at least 48 hours for your muscles to recover and grow.

ps - can anyone tell this expert weight trainer what a spotter is?

[falcon3624]

Originally posted by Lizard
At the moment I do as many different excersises as possible (so that I excersise as many different muscles as possible) would it be better to concentrate on just a few excersises?

It is really important in my mind to have at least 4 or 5 excercises for each muscle group. You have to break them up into muscles that go together and try to do those excercises that day. Just for an example for chest I do flat bench, incline bench, decline bench, and butterflies. The flat, incline, and decline also works your tris so you have done 3 excercises for that too and then I add a couple different kinds of tricep extensions for them.

Try this to keep the muscles that belong together on the same days:

Monday-chest and triceps

Wednesday-biceps and back

Friday-shoulders and legs

The reason I chose these days is because I do BJJ and MT on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. You can move the days around to fit your schedule.

[Thai Bri]

Its really important to avoid exercise routines like this. Unless you either have better genetics than a prize bull or lots of tiny little holes in your boootocks.

[falcon3624]

Originally posted by Thai Bri
Its really important to avoid exercise routines like this. Unless you either have better genetics than a prize bull or lots of tiny little holes in your boootocks.

routines like what?

[Thai Bri]

Duurrrrrrr..........

[falcon3624]

What kind of routine are you talking about? Do you know what your talking about?