Starting seriously on Bodybuilding.

[Allantgy]

So lets see. On monday Ill start going to the gym yayyyyy!!!

Now lets get serious.

These are my plans:

First Ill work for five days, one area per day, leaving wednesday and Sundays for resting. Ill keep a diary to know how much weight I used and how many reps I did. And Im planing on changing the excercises or the intensity every four or six weeks, and always take at least one week for rest.

So, anyone have any advice? Should I not do something? Should I do something else?

[PMvegan]

I'd say that 5 days on/ 2 off is too many work days. I'd probably do no more than 4, ideally 2 or 3. I think I remember from another thread of yours that you want to grow. You need to shock you muscles into growth, then rest. You can't do that if you work out more days than you rest. At first, just use light weight and get used to the form and routine. A few weeks in, start adding the weight on and really taxing your muscles. Hope this helps, and I can send you my routine if you want.

[Allantgy]

Thank you PMvegan. Ill be great to check out your routine

[Gaia]

From your thread intro, you said work 5 days, but with Wed and Sun off. So that is actually 2 on and 1 off, with Saturday as a free day. If this is the case, this is perfectly doable as a beginner and wanting to get big. It is what I use to do at the start of my bodybuilding obsession (I now do 1 on and 1 off, with Sunday as rest day all around - though I "play" by usually crosstraining with some other exercise on Sunday).

 

How are you going to do your body parts? As in the body parts are Legs, Chest, Back, Arms, Delts. You will have to be creative so you let a body part rest, while doing another body part the next day that doesn't interact with the previous body part too much.

 

My routine is Chest and Biceps, Back and Triceps, Legs, and Shoulders. My arms are big enough (compared to the rest of my body) so they don't need a whole day of blasting. I train alot for my Legs and Shoulders, which get a whole day because they are my weakest body part. So take into consideration what body part for you is your weakest and strongest, and incorporate that into your routine.

[Allantgy]

Hey Gaia, thank you so much for your advices.

I was planning doing this:

Monday - Chest

Tuesday - Back and shoulders

Wednesday - Rest

Thursday - legs and glutes

Friday - Arms

Saturday - Abs

Sunday - rest

What do you think? I have lots of questions, but one that is burning right now is: How many different excersices shoul I do for example monday - chest? And another thing, my arms are small and skinny, but Ive made tough routines with them and they dont hurt...but they look a little bigger so should I keep the same weight for a little bit longer or should I try to put some more?

[gfxlonghorn]

That schedule actually looks really good. For chest I would say 4 exercises is enough- bench, incline bench, decline bench, and flies(or cable cross overs). For chest, make sure to mix it up between barbell and dumbbell. For back/shoulders, I would make it a little longer since they are pretty important muscle groups. For back I would do some variation of a row, some variation of deadlift, and wide grip pull downs(or ups), and maybe some shoulder shrugs. For shoulders I would do shoulder presses or Arnold presses,and front, lateral, and rear delt raises. For legs I would do squats(or leg press but switch em up), lying hamstring curl, lunges, calf raises and maybe some abductor machines. For arms, there is a little more choice.. anything on this page pretty much: http://www.exrx.net/Lists/ExList/ArmWt.html#anchor122387 . And again for abs, there is quite a lot, and I am sure you have an idea of what to do there.

[Allantgy]

Thanks gfxlonghorn

Ill check all the excercises with photos. Yes, actually Im amazed that there are so many abs excercises, some are easy for me and some others....

The challenge for me is that for a whole year I did lots of damage to my muscles, I was on 120Kg and now Im around 60 Kg, that was because I was a meat eater and I changed to a vegan lifestyle So, now Im trying to get back some weight and recover my muscles, specially my heart wich I feel is the most damaged.

[PMvegan]

Man, in my opinion, 5 days on is too many. When you do chest, for example, your shoulders are already getting a workout. So why come back the next day and tear them down again? Here's my shoulder/chest day:

 

o Bench Press

o Incline Dumbell Press (failure)

o Shoulder Press

o Side Raises (1 set; failure)

o Shrugs

o Dips

o Tricep Pushdowns (1 set)

 

Here's my leg day:

 

o Squats

o Leg Extensions (failure)

o Deadlifts

o Hamstring Curls (failure)

o Calf raises

 

and my back/bicep day:

o Pull-ups

o Dumbbell Rows

o Latbar Pulldowns

o Standing Dumbbell Curls

o EZ Bar Reverse Curls (3 supersets w/ dumbbell curls)

 

I usually add one or two things to a routine and may modify a few others, depending on mood. Something to keep in mind is to focus on compound movements that recruit lots of different muscle groups, like the squat and deadlift. Don't go in there and work the 'beach muscles' all day.

 

You may find that you can do 4 or 5 days on. I would say start with 3. Better to start conservatively and progress well than to add too much too soon and get burned out, or worse, injured. I'm hoping someone else will chime in here and back me up.

 

Good luck my vegan friend!

[gfxlonghorn]

Man, in my opinion, 5 days on is too many. When you do chest, for example, your shoulders are already getting a workout. So why come back the next day and tear them down again? Here's my shoulder/chest day:

 

You may find that you can do 4 or 5 days on. I would say start with 3. Better to start conservatively and progress well than to add too much too soon and get burned out, or worse, injured. I'm hoping someone else will chime in here and back me up.

For me personally, I can do chest before shoulders, but shoulders before chest is what hurts, doing chest is mostly a compound movement so everything(shoulders,back, triceps) split the work and take the brunt of the weight out along with your chest. But shoulders is just shoulders, so it isolates a muscle that would make chest harder to do. My split is just chest/triceps, biceps, back/shoulders, legs . With abs every other day. When I started working out, I did start with 3 days a week, but I was able to move up to very quickly in the 2 months that followed. Our bodies are a little bit more resilient than you give it credit for.

[chrisjs]

My only comment is that you should try to increase your intensity every workout. So if you can do XX reps at YY weight one week, next week add more weight, even if it's only 2.5 or 5 lbs, and push yourself to do the same number of reps.

[Allantgy]

Hey guys! Thank you all!

This morning I went to the gym... it just didnt work out for me... i guess Im not a morning person. Is better when I work out in the afternoon, it is like I have more strength

[Gaia]

Yes! You are getting to know your body! It likes to workout in the afternoon, when you have fueled your muscles up with protein and carbs! Also you have moved around for the half day and warmed them up, so they are ready to do what you ask of them.

 

I am with everyone else with your chest and then shoulders the next day. Looking it over, with a concentration on arms, I would do:

Monday - Biceps and Triceps (are both sides of your arm needing work?)

Tuesday - Legs and Glutes (and Calves, of course!)

Wednesday - no cardio for the legs! How about doing Abs?

Thursday - Chest

Friday - Back

Saturday - Shoulders/Delts

Sunday - Rest! and maybe Abs again!

 

This way, you start the week with arms blasting after a nice weekend of rest. And they are needed to do Chest and Back and Shoulders, but that is after the Wednesday rest.

[sydneyvegan]

If you want to work out 5 times a week then do it, Weight Training and Bodybuilding is about trying things and finding out what works for you and gets you to your goals.

At the Moment I Train 4 times a week and have Rugby Training Once a week.

In the Off season I train at the gym 5 or 6 days a week.

Why - Because my upperbody doesn't respond if I train bodyparts once per week.

If you are eating well and getting plenty of sleep it is quite ok to train 5 times a week. Also you set up your routine so that you rest some muscles whilst working others etc.

An Example Might be

Monday - Chest, Tri's, Shoulders

Tuesday - Back and Bi's

Wednesday - Legs

Thursday - Chest, Tri's and Shoulders

Friday - Back and Bi's

Saturday - Cardio, if you wish or something fun like a bike ride

Sunday - Rest

(A lot of people don't like Push, Pull splits, but they work for me....)

[Allantgy]

Thanks all of you guys really