Note: Remeber almost every exercise has a link so you can see how its done.
First let me thanks Scooby, this man changed my preception of i need to go to gym to get a great body, i went 1year but it was so expensive i couldnt buy other things for me since im a student, i end up going by scooby im buying my own things like dumbells, weights and a pull up bar, the results have been as amazing as the gym or even better since i never pulld up on gym because machines were easier to do, i could barely do 5 pull ups now i can do more than 15. This man is one of the best people out there and his website can help milions! Most of things here are from his website, visit and favorite!
Second let me thanks to Bar Brothers also, this guy have inspired milions that you dont need a gym or weights to get in shape, although i rather work also with weights and mix both for people who cant this guys showed how you can just with your own bodyweight build great physics and get a great body.
http://www.youtube.com/user/novoic?feature=results_main
Third lets me remind you that if you want to get ready for Summer you should start know, results are not made in days but months/years depending on your Goals.
Im doing this thread to people who want to get in shape and for people who love fitness activities like me, if you dont like dont even comment.
I thought about opening a Fitness discussion here in the Forum, i think many of you enjoy doing sports, going to gym, workout at home or even just run! its amazing what workout can do for you body and health in general and how better you will feel and more confident with yourself!
What you need to get in shape for summer ? Just a set of used dumbells, a pull up a bar and a par of shoes! its that easy!
Bulking Up and Gaining Muscle
There are thousands of products, newsletters, and books out there that promise to show you the secret of how to “gain muscle fast” and they ALL want your money but I’ll give you the secret for free – gaining muscle is as easy as 1-2-3:
- Lift weights with intensity
- Get proper nutrition
- Get enough rest
What do you need to buy? A $10 used set of dumbbells from from craigslist or a garage sale is perfect, your muscles don’t know if they are lifting used rusty old dumbbells or new, expensive, shiny, chrome ones! If you cant find a used set then you can buy a new weight set
but don’t pay more than $1/lb!. You can make your own pullup bar with $5 of metal toprail from a hardware store or buy a no-mar, door mount pullup bar
.
Please remember, lifting weights without maintaining proper nutrition is a waste of time! If you dont understand my nutrition section then consider the book Bodybuilding Revealed which has the best coverage of bodybuilding nutrition I have seen (Read my review).
Gaining mass, is really simple but it takes a LOT of work. Later I will tell you about how to eat right and lifting weights but first, lets talk about expectations.
Expectations:
There is a LOT of bad information out there and people have a very warped view of what are reasonable expectations for putting on muscle thru weightlifting. Gaining muscle is a very slow process despite what the media and advertisements would have you believe. Please check out my muscle gain calculator to see what kind of yearly muscle gain you can expect – answer 5 simple questions and get a prediction of your yearly muscle gain.
How To Bulk Up And Gain Muscle
Step 1) Lift Weights With Intensity
You have to lift weights to get stronger and gain muscle. Mass follows strength, you cant get bigger without getting stronger. Here are workout plans for beginner, intermediate or advancedbodybuilders. Now lets talk about the dedication required. You muscle gains are roughly proportional to the effort you put into lifting weights – up to a point, and that point is reached when you overtrain. You cant gain 20lbs of muscle in a year by flitting around the gym now and then. If you want maximum gains, you need to work really hard - it means 5 days a week of intense lifting. Just being IN a gym an hour a day does nothing, chatting your buddies while standing near weights doesn’t make your muscles grow – you need intense, focused workout sessions. Check out my section on “Focus” to see what I mean by that.
Step 2) Get Good Nutrition
Believe it or not, lifting weights is the EASY part of gaining muscle, nutrition is the hard part. The #1 reason bodybuilders have poor results is not because they don’t work out hard enough but because their nutrition sucks. Most beginning and intermediate bodybuilders think they have “good nutrition” when they really have horrible nutrition. ”Taking” a protein shake after a workout does not constitute good nutrition! It can take up to FIVE days for the muscles to rebuild after a workout and during that time you need a constant intake of protein. That protein shake after the workout is a good start but you have to keep the good nutrition up for the 5 days after the workout and if you workout 2x a week that means you need good nutrition every single day! Your body can’t store protein up so just having a huge steak with dinner will not work if you want to maximize gain muscle, you need to take your protein in 4-6 small, even doses spread evenly through out the day to insure your recovering muscles always have the amino acids they need to rebuild. Nobody said bodybuilding was easy. If you can’t eat 6 real meals a day then protein powder
(or organic protein powder) mixed in milk or water can make a quick and inexpensive meal replacement in a pinch, remember though, real meals are always better! Just to reiterate, nutrition is just as important as lifting weights when it comes to adding muscle mass. Don’t bother tearing your muscles down unless you plan on giving them the constant supply of nutrients they need to rebuild! If my free healthy recipes dont appeal to you then consider buying this bodybuilding cookbook (read my review).
The first thing you need to know about nutrition are some numbers. I suggest that you consume 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight per day so if you weigh 180lbs, you eat 180g protein during the day. Next question is how many calories should you eat, my calorie calculator asks you 5 questions to accurately determine your metabolism and give you the precise number of calories you need in each of your 6 meals.
Eating more than this will not make your muscles grow faster, you will just get fat!!! This is really important so I’m going to say this gain. Eating more than what this chart shows will NOT make you stronger or give you bigger muscles, it will just make you FAT. This is the bulking myth – you don’t need to get fat to get strong. OK, there is one exception to this and its for very advanced or pro bodybuilders. They need to bulk and cut to continue to make gains but for 95% of people lifting weights, bulking and cutting is more trouble than its worth. As long as you are getting your six evenly spaced doses of protein as shown my this chart, your muscles will have the building blocks they need to grow bigger and stronger– eating more will not help.
Lets take a quick look at what happens if you are not careful with your diet and eat junk food. Our 140 hypothetical BBer needs 23g protein six times a day. Lets say that for each of his meals he eats a big mac which has 24g protein. Each burger has 24g protein so his muscles will grow well but man-o-man look at the calories! Remember I said that this 140lb BBer needs six 350 cal meals, well the Big Mac is 590 calories, almost 200% too much. What this means is that our 140lb BBer would gain 3lbs fat per week or 12lbs of fat per month! Can you say sumo wrestler! You really need to watch what you eat! Here are the most common nutrition mistakes made by bodybuilders:
- they get enough protein so their muscles grow but they eat too many calories so they get really fat
- they eat the proper number of calories but don’t get enough protein so their muscles don’t grow much
- they get enough protein and the proper number of calories but don’t distribute their protein intake into 6 evenly spaced small doses so their muscles don’t grow optimally
Don’t let this happen to you! If you are going to all the work of lifting weighs 5 days a week, make sure you give your nutrition the same effort so your muscles can grow.
If you have the time and devotion, you can gain muscle AND lose fat at the same time but its REALLY hard! Your protein requirements remain the same but the number of calories per meal drops so its even harder to find acceptable meals so your nutrition becomes much more strict. If you are losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time it will be very difficult to buy anything at a fast food restaurant or in TV dinner form which satisfies these requirements – you need to cook your own meals. Here are some of my favorite quick healthy meals, if those dont appeal to you then consider buying this highly recommended bodybuilding cookbook (read my review).
Step 3) Get Enough Rest
There are two types of rest you need, lets start with sleep. Night time is a very important time for building muscle. Your growth hormone spikes during REM sleep so its really important to get a good nights sleep as you want to maximize that growth hormone production. Another big reason to get enough sleep relates to dieting. If you have a caloric deficit, and dont get enough sleep you end up burning muscle instead of fat! How much sleep is enough? If you awake naturally without an alarm clock, that is enough sleep. If an alarm wakes you then you have not gotten enough sleep. Getting enough sleep can also reduce the chance of overtraining.
Speaking of overtraining, lets talk about the other kind of rest, the time between workouts. How much rest you need between workouts depends a lot on your experience level. Beginners can workout every day or every other day where as an advanced bodybuilder would have to wait 3-6 days between workouts. Please note that when I say that an advanced bodybuilder needs 3-6 days between workouts, I mean for a particular bodypart. For example if you are advanced and workout chest on Monday then you shouldnt workout chest again till Thursday at the earliest. Its fine to do legs on Tuesday, back on Wednesday though!
Summary
So remember that to gain muscle requires three things:
To maximize your muscle gains, you need to do research and learn! This website is a great place to start but don’t stop here, I’m just one person with one point of view. Look on the internet, go to your public library (best option) or buy some of the recommended books.
Losing Weight and 6pack abs :
Losing weight is easy, you only need a par of shoes. But first lets clear up some things about abs:
"Lets clear up one huge misconception right now, ab machines and ab exercises will NOT get you 6-pack abs! 95% of the work in getting 6-pack abs is losing bodyfat and no ab exercise will do that. If you have a beer belly, you could do ab exercises all year long and still never get 6-pack abs. You can have rippling muscular abs but if they are covered with an inner tube of fat then nobody is going see them."
in Order to get abs you need to:
1 - Exercise a little bit more
2 - Eat a bit less
3 - Drink Lots of Water
4 - Sleep!
"It’s not that hard and its not that complicated. The changes you need to make to lose weight and reduce your bodyfat are much smaller than you fear and they are easier to live with than you could possibly imagine! A common sense approach involving exercise and nutrition is all that is required to get ripped, washboard abs. When most people think about losing weight, what comes to mind is words like “hunger”, “deprivation”, “diet”, and “agony”. No! Losing weight properly will not result in any of these, the key is in the above two words “common sense”. Most of the fad diets out there are unhealthy, dangerous or both and lead to deprivation and hunger which eventually leads to binging and guilt – the typical unhealthy yo-yo weight loss pattern. What we want is permanent weight loss! Yo-yo dieting is way too much work, just learn to make a few simple healty substitutions and and the weight comes off and stays off for good!"
Smart nutritional choices + exercise = ripped abs
Cardio information!
The Importance of Cardio
"Here are some great reasons to do cardio:
- To lose fat and look better! – want 6-pack abs? Only way is to lose fat thru cardio and proper nutrition.
- Cardio can improve your mood and significantly reduce depression. Its been proven by study after study, cardio can make you happier!
- Perform better at school or work! Daily cardio reduces mental fatigue and gives you more energy. A recent study from the U of G showed that daily cardio reduces fatigue by 65%
- To live a longer, healthier life.
- To help gain muscle."
"Cardiovascular exercise (“Cardio” for short) is simply exercise that elevates your heartrate for an extended period of time and its more important for your general health than lifting weights. The best part is that cardio helps you lose fat, feel better, and look better! The quickest way to look like you have packed on 10lbs muscle is to lose 10lbs of fat, its a really cool bodybuilding illusion. It can take a years to add muscle but in a month you can look more muscular just by losing fat, it’s because bodyfat makes the body round and shapeless which hides the muscles."
