How to Build a Better Me (Or advice on workout routines)

In My Humble Opinion
1

So this year my resolution is to start lifting weights. I’ve been able to stay on my diet and running from last years resolution, so this year I’m adding weight training. My problem is that I have definite goal for my weight (30 lbs. down, 15 to go) and my running (5K in 22 minutes) but I have no idea what a ‘good’ weight is for me to aim for. Just to give you a bit of background, I’m 30 years old, 6’2, and weight 205 right now. I run between 2 and 4 miles a day, M-Th. take Friday off, a shorter but faster run on Saturday, and then take Sunday off. I’m currently going to the gym to lift M-Th, alternating upper and lower body. M/Tu is bicep and tricep curls, lat pull downs, and two other chest machines. One I’m kinda pushing at an upwards slant, and the other at kinda a downward slant. Now I know that I should be just using the bar, but I’ve never been very built in my upper body, and to be honest, it’s damn embarrassing to only be able to put two 25lb weights on the bar. So I’d rather stick to the machines, at least until I get a bit more developed. But will those two machines I’m using still give me a good chest workout? Or am I wasting my time? Also, what is a good weight to shoot for? Right now I can do 3 sets of 8 at 90lbs. (glad this is anonymous). What is a good way to improve, goal to set? And I do have to set goals for myself, or I have a hard time sticking with it.

Any advice/opinions are appreciated.

2

If I was trying to increase my strength I would probably do 4 sets per exercise, reps of 10-8-6-4, and upping the weight so that in each set I can just about do the number of reps. In other words, first set of curls, set at 50 lbs, did I just barely get 10? Yes? Perfect weight, increase weight by one plate (if you’re using the machines),rest about 1 minute, and go for the next set, did I barely get 8? Yes? Perfect, and so on.

You’ll need to keep track of the weights you’re using in each exercise, and in each set, so get a small notebook and take notes. Your goal should be to increase the weights you’re using.

I would also not stick to any single routine for more that 3-6 months. Change your workout, if your split now is upper/lower body, change it to chest-back-legs/biceps-triceps-shoulders. And then change that again.

3

Atrael, check your email.

4

Who cares if you just put 25lbs on the bar? Watch next time at the Gym, alot of people do. Large amounts of weight is for building muscles. Low weights at high reps tone muscles. You sound a bit like me, tall and skinny. Adding lots of big muscles means maintenance, or soon you have boobies. Tall skinny and toned seems to keep the ladies interested enough in me. You may want to consider a toning regiment, rather than a muscle building one.

Also, when setting those weight goals, remember that muscle weighs more than fat. You may be setting unrealistic weights.

5

I’m a skinny short guy who has done weight training and martial arts. Here’s my advice:

  1. Congratulate yourself for every workout you do. Half way through a set, congratulate yourself for getting that far. Successes count, even just starting a workout is a success.

  2. Of course you feel self-conscious. Continue anyway. 90% of the population will never do what you have already done in your workouts. So what if there are muscled monsters around you. F**k 'em. Do your workout with 25 lb. plates if just to prove that you’re man enough to do it in public.

  3. Don’t push yourself too hard. If you do, you’ll strain a muscle or ligament, and that can take weeks to improve. Have a goal to have good technique – which you must learn about from a book or from a personal trainer (a few sessions will suffice).

  4. Yes, the chest machines will work. Give it time. You are not just training the muscles, but also the proprioceptive nervous system which learns how to marshall the chest muscles to work together.

  5. Expect plateaus in your development. These are temporary. Keep working out.

  6. Once every few weeks, try increasing the weights by the smallest amount possible. Stay with that weight until you can consistently do more reps than usual. Then increase the weight again. Don’t suddenly try to lift 25% more. This is a safe and ultimately effective method. Rely on it.

  7. Know this – you won’t perceive the changes that are happening unless you took a “before” photograph. But others who meet you after a year will notice the difference. This happened to me recently.

Congrats on your work so far!

6

High reps with low weights don’t tone muscles. This is a cruel myth, because lifting light weights a bunch of times won’t get you stronger or a lean body.

Personally, I like to do a two-set routine, heavy weights first. Muscle fibers are not used at random, and if you don’t tire out the more-frequently used ones first, you won’t hit the others.

FranticMad gave good advice. You didn’t mention what your lower body routine is. What is it?

Add some rows to your upper body routine, and some shrugs. The rows will counterbalance your chest work, and keep you from fucking up your back; the shrugs will make you look damn good, IMO.

Check out exrx for lots of good advice.

7

I am a doctor who has been weightlifting on a recreational basis for eight years. The weightlifting world is full of all sorts of dubious, self-righteous advice. Here is mine:

  1. Don’t worry about the details.
    • you have already won the battle if you lift weights for an hour three times a week
    • it doesn’t really matter much how you breathe or what you eat before, during or after the workout. Eat healthy, don’t waste money on expensive supplements
    • try and enjoy yourself
    • the world is full of hyper-competitive assholes. So what? Start with a low weight you can lift safely through a full range of motion, but heavy enough that you find ten reps fatiguing. Slowly increase this weight, at a comfortable pace over a period of days to weeks. Doing three sets of ten reps at your level is perfectly adequate. Nothing more complicated than that is important. If you increase the weight, you will increase your strength. If you work out with buddies, you will be more likely to lift thrice weekly.
8

Dante- Thank you for the e-mail. While the workout doesn’t give weights, it’s a great outline to start with. Although more than I really wanted to do. I wanted to start with just the “main” exercises. Hit the high points, then as I get a bit better, start including all the more detailed exercises.

bayonet1976- I started on something very close to this last night. Although I couldn’t actually increase the weight at all. It was all I could do to do the reach the numbers with each set. The military press I could actually lift less Wednesday than Monday.

NurseCarmen- That’s pretty much what I’m going for. I’m never going to be huge, but I would like to have something resembling a chest and arms. :slight_smile: I also have heard the high rep/low weight idea, and there doesn’t seem to be any strong supporting evidence for either. I think I’m going to work on higher weights at least to start, then once I get ‘in shape’ go to the higher reps with lower weight.

FranticMad- Great tips! A question though. I’m sore now. Not “I can’t lift my arms” sore, but I’m definatly aware that I lifted more than I’m used to. Especially for the first month or so, I just figured that being a little sore all the time was going to be constant, until my body got used to the idea of lifting. But if to build muscle, you have to tear the muscle tissue to stimulate new growth, am I looking forward to nothing but constant aches from now on? At what point should I just feel tired after a work out, and not sore the next day?

ultrafilter- Right now my lower body is leg extension, leg curls, calve raises, and squats. Since I run every day, I’m trying to be carefull with my legs. I just want to tone them some, and gain muscle that I won’t by running. I work my abs and back every day. Usually with the machines, although Saturday is straight sit-ups. Should I still do rows if I’m using the machine? It’s the one that you sit down and push backwards on. And shrugs are where I hold the weight at my sides, and just rotate my shoulders, right?

Dr_Paprika- Thanks for the encouragement. Although I’m not sure about the enjoying it part. The biggest obstical that I have to overcome is that I really don’t enjoy exercising. I hate running, and I’m no more fond of lifting. I look at it more as something that just has to be done. I’d much rather sit at home all day, but I have to work, just like I’d rather sit on the couch, watch tv, and enjoy a big bag of ruffles with dip, but I know that’s not healthy for me. So last year was cutting out all the crap from my diet, and starting an exercise program, this year is expanding it and continuing my diet. I’ve lowered my cholesterol a bunch, but my LDL (I think that’s the one) is still low, at 32. Doctor says it should be above 40, and aerobic exercise is the best way to raise it. Since it was 20 last year, I’m guessing that I’m doing something right.
I do want to thank everyone for the encouragement. I’m lucky in that the gym I go to isn’t filled with huge sculpted bodies. It’s the facility in the military building next door, so lots of civilians like me in there. It still is hard knowing that what I can lift is so small an amount. I’ve heard that as a good guideline, you should be able to bench your own weight…is that a good goal to set for myself? Not in the next month…or even 6 months to a year, but ultimatly?

9

After a couple weeks. Make sure you have a post-workout meal with carbs and protein. Stretch before and afterwards.

Rows are for your upper back, which is different from your lower back. Don’t work your abs or back every day; they need at least 48 hours to recover, just like every other muscle.

Shrugs are where you hold the wait at your sides, and shrug, as if to say “I don’t know”. Look 'em up on exrx–they’ve got an animated demo for every exercise they list.

**

Benching your own weight is a good start. :smiley:

Seriously, that’s pretty good. I can’t find any fault with that.

10

First off, don’t work your back every day. That’s an injury waiting to happen, especially for a beginner.

I’ve heard of various success stories for working abs anywhere from every day to once a week. It depends on if you’re after growth or strength, and how your body responds to training. Only you can tell.

Exrx is a great site, and if you want to find out how to do any exercise they have little video demonstrations here.

Dr_Paprika is right. Don’t worry about drop sets, pyramid sets, blah blah blah. Just get in there and lift. Use a weight that you can handle and maintain strict form! I can’t emphasize that enough.

Not to toot my own horn (since it wasn’t my workout I sent you, but someone elses), but the exercises I gave you are all “main” exercises. Squats, Deads, Lunges, Curls, Rows are all compound exercises. That said, listen to your body and do what works for you.

11

** Atrael**

I will just add my 2 cents…

I have been lifting for almost 2 years now… although I have had to take the past two months off due to an unrelated injury…

I am just getting back, this is my second week…

when I started I had very little strength… There is a tricep machine where you lift the weith from behind your head, and I could barely lift 30 lbs. after about a year I was at 170 lbs for 10 reps…

I started with friends of mine who had been going for a while, so I jumped right in to thier routine, and it worked VERY well…
The main thing was to shock the muscles every once in a while, using different workouts and different reps…

I switch my reps and weight every 4 weeks or so.
1st 4… 3 sets of 15… lower weight
next 4, 3 sets… 12-10-8 higher weight increasing after each set
next 4 3 sets 10-8-6
Then I will go 1 week of Maxing out Warm up with a set for 10, and then raise the weight and do about 8 sets of 1-2…
Then I start over.

and using different workouts, for example… bench…
1 week I will use bar, the next I will use dumbells, and the next I will use machines…

If you keep with the same workout, your body will get used to it and not develope as quickly…

I would also eat and drink plenty of protien.

Don’t worry about not using a ton of weight… I started out benching 25 lb. dumbells… not 25 lb. plates on a bar, but dumbells… and slowly worked my way up to about 80…

The weight will come in time…

btw, THE MOST important thing is proper form… I don’t understand why some people in my gym use more weight but cheat… There is one guy who benches about 250 for 10… ok great… but he never brings the bar closer than 8 inches from his chest… there is only about 5 inches of movement in his reps…

12

Does he have a really narrow grip, too?

13

No he has a normal grip… He does every excersize like this… I mean he is big… but he is sloppy…

If you name an excersize, he does it wrong… He just uses as much weight as possible, and never goes for a full rep… with anything… back, shoulders, triceps, legs… etc…

14

ultrafilter- Yes, After I lift, I go home, run my 3 miles, shower, and then it’s dinner time. Ok, so now I have to find the rowing machine…I’m sure there’s one in there someplace. And no more than twice a week for my back, basically, right?

Dante- I guess what I was trying to do was keep the time aspect down. I really want to get through that part fairly quickly. I’m stingy with my free time, and since I really don’t like to exercise, I usually try and get the most for the time I can give. Although I’ll try and work in the lunges and a few other things next week. Figure I’ll start easy, and work to more complicated as it takes me less time with the lifts that I get used to.

merge- Thanks for the tips. I like the idea of switching every 4 weeks. Although right now, I doubt there’ll be much between a ‘light’ weight, and my max. On that 4th week, did I read that right as 8 sets of 1 to 2 reps each? how long a rest between? Usually I switch between machines between reps. On rep on one machine, a few seconds to catch my breath, then a set on a different machine…few seconds rest…back to the first for the second set…and so on and so on. Also, how do you check your form? I can’t really see myself…I’m not working out with anyone…is there something about my body that I need to concentrate on feeling?

When I first started exercising, I did push-ups…I had gotten up to 40, but I wasn’t going very far down…the were more like neck ups…so rather than pat myself on the back, I started over, by going all the way to the floor with each one…it meant I could barely do 10, but it was much more conductive to toning myself.

15

No more than once every 48 hours for any muscle. Twice a week is a good goal.

When I say “rows”, I mean with a significant amount of weight. Not the aerobic rowing machine.

Lastly, for maximum benefit, you need to eat within two hours of lifting. You also might find it a bit easier on yourself if you run and lift on alternate days.

16

Yes, after the 4th Week I do Max sets… 1-2 reps… I basicaly will go with a very heavy amount of weight and see how much I can add on…

If my normal 10 rep bench is 185, I will start with 205, and add about 5 lbs. per set…
Don’t do this without a spot… or at least a smith machine… I started to notice great gains after starting to Max…

You will pretty much know when you are in form… just don’t cheat… when doing curls make sure you don’t let the weight drop after each rep… go slowly up and down… actually that applies to all excersizes… It is very easy to cheat…In my mind I want to cheat…
I don’t want to bring the bar all the way down to my chest… but you have to ignore whats in your head sometimes…

17

TAKE NOTES! Your improvement will be gradual and you won’t see the changes if you don’t have something to refer back to. Some of my most ‘depressing’ workouts - tired, not feeling like I’m lifting much - tended to actually show I was lifting MORE that I had been previously.

There’s a TON of great information in this thread, and very little I can add. In my experience, I’ll stretch, work Abs and back and side muscle groups, then do Bench Press, Military Press and Decline press. I’ll then do a iso-lat stuff (Rows, shoulder press, etc.) and finish up with working biceps and triceps.

-I’ll also make sure to change excercises to not get bored.

-Figure out what your body responds to. I can’t run. Period. It kills me. I also doubt (at 6’6" 260 lbs) that I’ll ever be able to bench press my weight. Put me on a Bike tho’ and you won’t catch me.

-Hey, check out a spinning class. You’ll never work so hard, and if the instructor’s any good, you won’t feel it the next day.

-Drink lot of water.

-Try not to sweat the weight you’re lifting. The people that care about that suck. You’re doing this for YOUR health, not theirs.

Set realistic goals. Absolutes (I want to Drop XX lbs. in YY time.) don’t work. I took a week off working out and LOST 2 lbs. I also have a slight stomach that’ll probably never go away. I guess I’m okay with that, I’m not Ahnold Schwartzenegger, and I’m not Naida Comeneche (both really poorly spelled), I can’t expect to work out the way they do.

18

Pain can result from both good training, and bad training. In my case, some pain came from using weights that were too heavy for my muscles to manage, and my joints hurt.

To be honest it’s hard to tell sometimes whether pain is normal or not – but if you experience sharp pain during a workout, stop.

I take a break every few weeks, and a month off every few months. This lets me heal fully, and to figure out whether I’ve injured myself.

19

I disagree with those who say you shouldn’t be sore after a workout if you have been training for 6+ months or whatever. Even the guys who make body building their profession are sore after a workout. If those muscles aren’t sore, you didn’t work them hard enough, period. Now, the recovery time should improve as you get further along in your training, yes, but soreness should and always will be there.