Working out infoz for newbz.

[Rush]

Is there a Club Fitness anywhere around where you live at? Or hell, even a YMCA?

Also, sometimes colleges allow non-students to pay to use their facilities as well, and you know there will be some hot 19 year ass around there.

[Ironhawk]

Originally Posted by DamonSRI

Ironhawk is that Dan Gable in your avatar? Nice...Talk about a workout beast.

Yessir, '72 Olympics

[DamonSRI]

I think there is a Ymca in Chinatown. Club Fitness sounds like a good option too.
Thanks guys.

Iron did you wrestle alot in school?

[Grooverider]

Originally Posted by Darph

No, I'm not an internet warrior.

ps- You really need to get laid because you have some serious issues with over-aggression. I.e. Insecurity.

When people justify their positions on internet forums with things like "P.S. I have a black belt in blahblah" it just makes me laugh. If you don't think that makes you look like an idiot.. well, I can't help you.

Your armchair psychoanalysis is about as valid as your workout information. I'd wager that my physique is significantly better than your own by chance.

[Cynno]

Working out is the fucking easy part.

Dieting sucks ballz.

[Seths]

Any suggestions for shaping the lower part of your abdominal muscle? Everything else has good definition but I can't seem to get that part of my body to tone up and display the muscle underneath. From navel to waistline, upper part of the abs muscle is well defined, and obliques are fine.

[Ironhawk]

In short: Leg raises and a lower body fat %.

[Ronne]

So now that this has been necro'd, I'm having an issue with my lifting. In short, my bench sucks, and it's not getting any better. I can't figure it out, I've been doing doing bench/flys 3 times a week for almost a year now and am still nowhere near benching 225. I can rep 185 6-8 times for a couple sets, but anything approaching 200lbs just ruins me.

Kinda bugging me, every other aspect of my lifting I have seen gains except my bench. Up to a 405 dead lift, 315 squat etc, but my bench still sucks ass.

My 'huge' friend keeps telling me it's because my arms are too long (75" tall, 82" reach), but that sounds like crap to me.

[Ironhawk]

Do you have a spotter when you bench? Are you doing the same routine every week because you can't increase your weights for fear of suffocating yourself under the bar? If so your body won't get any stronger and is probably just used to lifting the same weight.

I would:

-Change up the weight you use/do pyramid sets.
-Bench with free weights
-Do decline and incline as well (if you're not)
-Make sure you work your triceps hard as well since bench isn't just a chest exercise (duh, i know.)
-ensure that you're pushing yourself (If you don't have a spotter you're less liable to do this...and for good reason I guess)

All this stuff is just guesswork for me. It's hard to offer tips if I don't know what you do/don't do normally. Plus, what works really awesome for me may do nothing for you =/

[Ronne]

I do flat bench on monday/friday, warmup at 135 for 10 reps, then 2 sets of 8-10 at 185, then 2 more sets of 10 at 135. Incline/decline on wednesday, usually 3 sets on each at 165.

And yea, I have no spotter, which has always been a problem. I'd love to start doing snatches, but having never done them I'm not quite comfortable doing it without a helper who knows how (don't need to fuck my shoulder up any more than it already is).

[Ironhawk]

Those are pretty high reps. Your warmup is great, but I'd bump up your weight and lower your reps to 6-8. I'd also do more sets and fluctuate a little less extreme on the amount of weight. Off the top of my head I'd do something like:

x=weight

x @ 10 reps (warmup)
xx @ 8 reps
xxx @ 8 reps
xxxx @ 8 reps
xxxx @ 6-8 reps (pretty much as many as you can do or 8)
xxx @ 6
xxx @ 6 (if you can)
xx @ 8
xx @ 8 (if you can)

This is how my weight/reps go up and down on dumbbells. It's just one technique though. I use free weights because I also do not have a spotter and the likelihood of injuring yourself is a lot lower than straight bench.

I don't have much time and I like to keep these posts short because attention spans get bored.

[Lyrical]

Originally Posted by Ronne

I can't figure it out, I've been doing doing bench/flys 3 times a week for almost a year now and am still nowhere near benching 225.

There's your answer right there.

1- You need to give your muscles and your nervous system time to recuperate. Intensity is key and not frequency. When we were in high school, we used to bench press five days a week lol. My pecs would be so sore that I thought my chest would fall off. As Mr. Olympia Lee Haney said, "You must stimulate the muscle and not annihilate it." Cut down your chest workout to every five to seven days, and you will see a big improvement. When I cut down from five days a week to just one a week, my bench shot up 110 pounds in just three or four months.

2- If you are trying to raise your weight, I'd stick with just sets of six. As champion powerlifter Chris Confessore once said, after warming up using pyramids, try to do two sets of six with a challenging weight. If you can do it, then add five pounds the next week (or five day workout cycle). If you can't do two sets of six, stick with the old weight until you can. If you can add 15 pounds a month, over the course of a year that is 180 pounds to your bench. The trick is to slowly move in the direction you want and not in big increments.

3- Assistance work is also important. Are you doing your military presses, triceps pushdowns and close-grip bench presses? These exercises work the muscles that you need to bench more. If they are underdeveloped/undertrained this will hurt your bench.

4- Again, you seem a little preoccupied on volume. That approach is so 80's. I think it was Mike Mentzer that said it the best. Getting stronger and bigger is like nailing a hammer in a piece of wood. Ideally, you want to hit the nail in the wood with just one hit, as opposed to hitting it over and over again.

Once you go to your top set of benches, there is no reason to drop back down and do lighter sets. All that does is invite overtraining. And if you aren't making gains, you are overtraining (or not eating right or getting enough sleep).

[Lyrical]

Ronne, I suggest something like this. Realize it takes more restraint to go slower, but it pays off in the long run.

Week 1:

135 * 10
155 * 7
185 * 6
185 *6

Week 2:

135*10
155 *7
190 * 6
190 *6

Week 3:

135 * 10
155 * 7
195 * 6
195 * 6

You can do this until you hit your goal of 225 for reps. Keep trying to raise the weight by five pounds a workout. As your last two work sets get higher in poundage, make sure that your middle warm-up set gets higher. You don't want to jump up in too large an increment, or you risk injury.

Recognize that if you do this for all of your bodyparts, that in a month you will want to lay in bed. This is called progressive overload. So when you start to feel tired all the time, cranky and listless, take a week off and come back. You will come back to the workouts stronger from the week layoff, because your body will overcompensate. You can't be afraid to stop working out for a week when you are training this hard.

Also, if you are trying to add strength/muscle, I would cut out declines and flyes. Based on your poundages, you are still a beginner. You first want to build the muscle with basics, then you can work on shape. You have to build a decent strength base before you start doing the shaping moves. It is too much strain on you muscles and nervous system.

In the beginning, you need to just work the heck out of the basic movements. Don't let people tell you its because of long arms. You can still get better by training smarter.

P.S. Your friends may call you lazy and ask why you are doing so little work. But after you add a hundred pounds to your bench, they'll be asking the secret. The trick is to do less sets, work out less, but be super intense. You have got to push that same weight for two sets. When you first start, it will seem easy and you'll want to add sets. Please don't. As your bench goes to 195, 210, 220 and up, you'll be thinking how tough just two actual worksets is.

[zilkoril jr.]

Okie, I have a question for the workout gurus present.

I'm in college, so I have free access to just about anything. I don't want to bulk up or anything. I just want to gain some essential muscle, nothing overwhelming.

Also, I play soccer.

Retarded, I know, but I am clueless. Sit-ups in my room?

I'd appreciate anything you can tell me to do.

[arkk91]

Originally Posted by Lyrical

Ronne, I suggest something like this. Realize it takes more restraint to go slower, but it pays off in the long run.

Week 1:

135 * 10
155 * 7
185 * 6
185 *6

Week 2:

135*10
155 *7
190 * 6
190 *6

Week 3:

135 * 10
155 * 7
195 * 6
195 * 6

You can do this until you hit your goal of 225 for reps. Keep trying to raise the weight by five pounds a workout. As your last two work sets get higher in poundage, make sure that your middle warm-up set gets higher. You don't want to jump up in too large an increment, or you risk injury.

Recognize that if you do this for all of your bodyparts, that in a month you will want to lay in bed. This is called progressive overload. So when you start to feel tired all the time, cranky and listless, take a week off and come back. You will come back to the workouts stronger from the week layoff, because your body will overcompensate. You can't be afraid to stop working out for a week when you are training this hard.

Also, if you are trying to add strength/muscle, I would cut out declines and flyes. Based on your poundages, you are still a beginner. You first want to build the muscle with basics, then you can work on shape. You have to build a decent strength base before you start doing the shaping moves. It is too much strain on you muscles and nervous system.

In the beginning, you need to just work the heck out of the basic movements. Don't let people tell you its because of long arms. You can still get better by training smarter.

P.S. Your friends may call you lazy and ask why you are doing so little work. But after you add a hundred pounds to your bench, they'll be asking the secret. The trick is to do less sets, work out less, but be super intense. You have got to push that same weight for two sets. When you first start, it will seem easy and you'll want to add sets. Please don't. As your bench goes to 195, 210, 220 and up, you'll be thinking how tough just two actual worksets is.

LOL with that light of a workload he'd be best off doing this workout Monday and Friday. Overtraining while training like a powerlifter is alot harder to reach since it is much less strain on the CNS than a traditional bodybuilding workout.

If someones only trying to get their bench #'s up, 6 is the high end of the rep scheme. Monday could be 5x5 and Friday could be 5x3.

Also, doing the same working weight twice is pointless. You'd never get the 6 reps on the 2nd set if that truly was a 6 rep max. For someone who is only benching 185, starting him at 135 isn't far from his max. He needs about 3 warmups. 95x8, 130x6, 155x4, 185x6(working set). Move onto another exercise.