hilts said:
Thanks for the post mate it's not that the gym doesn't have free weights but my problem is this
i wake up at about 5am get to work just after 6am do 5 hours eat dinner get to the gym about 12, do a couple of hours, get back to work eat a bit more, chill for an hour work drive home, have tea by this time it is 8 at night, go to bed about 10 ish
i get two hours in the gym about an hour is running or getting ready, shower etc
that gives me an hour to do weights but the free weights which i am clueless on are being used so i hit the machines, i lift the most i can even till complete failure but am not getting anything out of it, don't even feel sore the day after
was hoping that someone would give me a program to follow on these machines that would show benefits but it appears i am pissing in the wind and am complaining that my feet are wet
my choice appears to be sack it and be a skinny bloke with a gut or just do the cardio and be a skinny bloke with no gut, i have lost the weight just wanted a little muscle and strength as health wise i thnk this is also important
Right then, round two!
Ok, firstly, your problem isn't related to your schedule other than perhaps making it a bit tricky to have a workout partner. If anything your ability to hit the gym at that time and have plenty of time to eat before and after is an advantage not many have. A lot of us are limited to stupidly early or stupidly late workouts, both a pain in the arse in their own way.
Secondly, for now, drop the cardio. You don't need 2 hours for the gym, and if your primary goal is to bulk up you're really shooting yourself in both your foot and your wallet. To gain weight you need to create a surplus of calories. Every time you run for an hour you're increasing the amount of calories you need to consume to get back to surplus. I work a sedentary job, so I don't need as much as someone who is on their feet lifting shit all day, for example, and I still find it a struggle to eat everything I need. Forget the gut for now. If you're fairly skinny, it's probably just disproportionate to your shoulders, chest, arms and back (like many people). Get some size on those first, then once you're a bit bulkier you can look at cutting some of that fat (which you can also do without an hour of cardio).
Thirdly, and this is the home truth portion of the post ;) You need to strap on a pair and get on those free weights!! This is where hopefully a fellow helpful Bluemooner based near you can offer to come spot you for a few sessions and get you off the ground.
You don't need to know everything and your workouts to start with will be based around a few core lifts called compound lifts. They're named as such because they elicit the use of multiple muscle groups to perform the movements, as opposed to isolation exercises which only use one or two. Sorry if this is sucking eggs a bit, but I'm not sure where you're at, and you've mentioned about it being confusing, so probably best to start closer to the beginning.
Compound lifts are fucking awesome. They should form the core of your workout. No ifs, no buts.
Examples of very important compound exercises,
Bench Press
Overhead press
Squat
Dead lift
Bent over row
Pull-ups
Dips
If you're unsure how to perform any of these, Youtube is your friend. It has literally thousands of form videos, just search for things like "Bench press form guide". Viola. Again, hopefully a fellow Bluemooner can help you out for a few sessions, but if not, hiring a personal trainer for a little while could be well well worth the investment. And you should view it as an investment, because you'll be spending a little money to allow you to finally get your workouts on track and start making some progress. The longer you feel like you're just pissing your time and effort up the wall, the less chance you'll have of doing it properly.
A very, very basic workout plan just to get your started could look something like this,
Monday - Leg day (which you'll grow to hate.. I mean love..)
Squat 3 x 8
Dumb bell lunges 3 x 8 (Left leg down then right leg down counts as 1)
Now that doesn't sound like a lot, but you'll need to allocate a good amount of time to warming your legs up, as they're big old things to get going. I do all kinds of swinging leg things and a bit of jogging. You should work up to your proper weight too so include some time for that, so say you're squatting 3 x 80kg, you would do your warm up, then 10 x 20kg (just the bar), maybe 5 x 40kg, 3 x 60kg, then go into your workout sets of 3 x 80kg. (None of that is set in stone at all, listen to your body, do what feels right).
That whole lot should take you 30/40 minutes. Workout done. Moving on.
Wednesday - Push - Chest day is best day - Triceps
Flat bench press 3 x 8
Overhead press 3 x 8
Again, allow for time to warm up. Stretch yourself out, get the blood flowing. Say you're benching 60kg. 15 x 20kg (just the bar) at a good pace, 10 x 30kg, 3 x 45kg, then into your workout sets. Overhead press the same though you won't be able to lift as much as your bench for this, so don't do mad with just the bar for warming up.
Friday - Pull - Back and biceps
Bent over Row 3 x 8 - Same again, warm up into it.
Pull ups - 3 x 8 or to failure (If you can't do 8 do as many as you can, rest, next set).
Dead lifts - 1 x 5.
If you can't perform a single pull up jump up into it and do negatives - So you're jumping to the top of the movement, and slowly lowering yourself down. You can do lat pull downs if you're really lacking in strength but only use this to get you going - Pull ups are the daddy and you'll feel fucking bad ass being able to repeatedly lift your whole body. When you start being able to knock out 10/15 with ease you need to start adding weight to yourself to increase the difficulty.
The other great thing about pull ups and chin ups is the amount you can change the difficulty just by changing your grip. Do a google and try them all yourself. You'll be amazed at the difference.
Dead lifts. One bar bell and multiple plates of rock solid manly man. This is where you'll likely be able to lift the most weight of any of your lifts, and thus where you feel the most pumped up and bad ass (or light headed, depends how much you puff ;). Dead lifts are all about form, because you can very easily do yourself an injury, but picking something fucking heavy up off the floor and putting it back down again is a very functional lift. Think how often you have to pick something up? Dead lifts hit your back, legs, glutes, traps, core. They're just mint.
Now what scared me when I first started out was all these plans saying lift this for 5 and lift that for 8 etc, but I had no fucking idea how much I could lift in the first place. All this talk of 80% of your 1 rep max - What the fuck was that? This is where Barbells and a friend come in very handy indeed. An Olympic bar (the big wide one) weighs 20kg. Now you'll be able to lift 20kg in all those lifts I've mentioned absolute minimum, so all you have to do is start there and work your way up until you feel yourself getting to a good starting point. I say a friend because in the case of something like the bench press, it's always good to have a spotter just in case. It's not necessary, but it's far from a bad idea.
If in doubt, start too light and concentrate on your form. Don't try and impress everyone else in the gym chucking a few 20kg plates on either side of the bar and struggling like fuck. They won't be impressed and you'll hurt yourself. You'll hear this a lot, but leave your ego at the door.
Once you can get out 3 x 8 of a given weight comfortably, it's time to make it heavier. However, leading me nicely into my next point below..
..Do the above until you both feel comfortable with the lifts and you have given yourself a good foundation of strength. It's not a workout to follow until the end of time, it's something to get you started. There are a billion and one different programs out there and everyone says theirs is the best, but luckily for you, you can try them all out and decide for yourself. That however, is something for the future, don't worry about it yet. For now all you need to concentrate on is getting some experience with lifting, getting over your fears of the weights room, and creating a foundation you can build on.
Now before this turns into a post that will crash Bluemoon, the other thing equally if not more important to all of the above is your diet. Without a good diet, everything I've written there is as good as useless. So, what are you eating?
