Q

Hi there. I feel really great reading your matter about bodybuilding on web. So I have decided to follow your tips. But there are a few things I am concerned about. My "height" and my "weight". I need your help and believe that you won't mind helping me. I am 20 years old. What shall I do for gaining height and losing weight? If jogging, how shall I jog (slow or fast) and how many miles per day? In bodybuilding, from how many kgs or pounds shall I start lifting (light or heavy)? And for how many days shall I continue to lift same weight. And when should I increase weights. (Please, in detail). If you would reply by adding any detailed website for making yourself clear I would be more thankful to you. I would be looking forward for your kind reply. Please mail me soon with reply.

Cool dude

A

Hi,

If it's fat you want to loose I suggest a light jog or cycle on an empty stomach first thing in the morning for around 30 minutes.

The diet is probably the most important aspect of your training and your ratio for carbs/fat/protein should be 40/20/40. When dieting start to decrease you carbs and have a majority of them in the morning and try to avoid them before bed.

Remember when lifting it's quality not quantity. Do not worry or try to copy these guys who are benching 200 kg. Just lift a weight which allows you to do the amount of reps required while trying to minimize cheating. You can change your rep range weekly rather than going all out every week and around 2-3 sets for each exercise more sets for the larger muscle groups e.g. back, chest and legs less for the smaller.

Now on to the workout. I recommend a three day split for a beginner for example:

Monday- Chest, biceps
Wednesday- Back, triceps
Saturday- Legs, shoulders

Monday-
Dumbbell flyes- 2
Incline press- 3
Decline press- 3
Hammer curls-2
Concentration curls-2

Wednesday-
Pull-ups-3
Bent over rows-3
Seated rows-3
Triceps pushdowns- 2
Skull crushers-2

Friday-
Leg extensions- to failure (pre-exhaust)
Squats- 4
Stifflegged dead lift- 3
Lunges- 4
Seated calve raises- 2
Calve raises on leg press- 2

About the reps do one week doing 12-15 reps. The next week doing 10 reps and the next two weeks doing 6-8 reps then repeat. You should be going up in weight every couple of weeks. If you are not doing this there is probably something wrong with your diet. Remember all this is pointless without using proper form so pick form over weight.

Hope this helps
John

Q

Hi, I am going regularly to the gym for about 4 months but I have gained only little. I train for 2 hours daily in the evening. My schedule is:
MONDAY: Shoulders and Biceps
TUESDAY: Chest and Triceps
WEDNESDAY: Shoulders and Biceps
THURSDAY: Chest and Triceps
FRIDAY: Shoulders and Biceps
SATURDAY: Chest and triceps I do an average of 5 sets with 8-10 reps for each exercise. For chest I do: 1. Bench Press, 2. Incline, 3. Decline press and corresponding flyes. I also do lats on chest days (5 sets). Biceps: 1. Barbell curls, 2. Incline curls, 3. Dumbbell curls, 4. Preacher Curls etc. I do abs regularly. Is my schedule too heavy for the muscles to recover?

Please do advise me.
Ashish Kumar Bhaskar

A

Hi, the first thing is you are overtraining. This is the biggest mistake people make when starting off. They think the longer you train the bigger you will become. You should keep your workouts to around 45 mins-1 hour tops. You also overtrain certain body parts as you work them several times a week which does not give them time to recover which you mentioned. You work your Shoulders, Biceps and Chest three times a week which is definitely overtraining and you left out your legs and back out which are two of the biggest muscle groups. I would recommend a three day split with the workouts lasting no longer than an hour and altogether around 9 sets for large body parts e.g. legs, back and chest and around 6 for smaller body parts e.g. biceps, triceps, shoulders.

Monday- Chest/Biceps
Wednesday- Back/Triceps
Friday- Legs

Stick to this workout plan and along with a good diet you should see gains.

Q

Hello

I was wondering if u could give me some help. I have started to work out recently. I am 16 years old my arms are 14.3 in but I wanna become ripped. so could u give me a workout plan and some supplements I should take. I am currently taking creatine I've taken it for 3 weeks and put on 4 pounds of muscle.
Thanks

A

Hi,
The first thing is you cannot build muscle and get ripped at once. Putting on mass works by consuming more calories than you burn off and becoming ripped involved taking in fewer calories than you burn off which is the reason you cannot do both at once.

For becoming ripped you need to watch your diet carefully and lower your carbs and start introducing cardio to your workouts.

The best time for cardio is when you first get up in the morning on an empty stomach. If you do still want to burn fat remember you will not put any more muscle on but you may lose too much muscle if are not careful. You can carry on with the creatine to keep your strength up as you will start to notice a slight drop in strength but I would also recommend glutamine and increasing your protein intake to maintain as much muscle as possible.

For a cutting up routine I recommend a three day split:

Monday- Back/Traps/triceps
Wednesday- Chest/Biceps
Saturday- Shoulders/Legs

Monday
3x Pullups
3x 1 arm rows
2x Dumbbell shrugs
2x French press

Wednesday
3x Cable cross-overs
3x Incline press
3x Pullovers
3x Dumbbell curls
2x Hammer curls


Saturday
2x Side raises
3x Bent over laterals
3x Upright rows
4x Squats
2x Stiff-legged deadlift
4x Calve raises on leg press

For reps use 10-12 using good form.

johnlemare@hotmail.com