wetnwildnik

Yes, I think you are right somewhere, I have read that more we use the muscles less sore they get with time. I think that is the reason it is hard to get soreness in arms. What you do with squats I want to do to my chest and upper back as these are the muscles I do not use in my somewhat laid back life style. So, they are sore like hell after every workout which last for 4 days. I will try adding some push ups sometime in my workout to take care of this. Mmn I squat 3 times a week so inevitably I end up working through some soreness. It can seem brutal when I first start, but honestly it usually goes away by the time I'm done warming up. If it's just your average DOMS, which it sounds like, I would consider working through it. If I waited to be completely recovered every time I'd be a lot less consistent. That said, you'll get a lot more soreness when you start working out than after you've been at it for a while. I'd take it easy at first but don't necessarily rearrange your routine because of soreness.

Hi Guys, I am back on this forum after a long time. I am still in the loop where I am trying to build muscles but have not been much successful in last one year. Trying to figure out where I am wrong, and first thing came to my mind is that am I overdoing the whole stuff. It starts from soreness in my muscles after each workout, I am not sore,until 24 hours have past, in the muscles I did my workout for. After that they remain sore like hell for next 24-48 hours, I feel pain if I press those muscles.. is it normal or do I hurt myself? Since I remain sore for 2-3 days after a workout, I workout 3 times a week (arms + chest, legs, back + shoulders) so that I do not workout on the sore muscles. Any comments on this?

I was looking for the posts to see what precautions I shall take while increasing my diet for bodybuilding. I think information is too much scattered and difficult for me to gather. So I am starting with this thread to discuss the digestive problems with which body builders suffer. I would like to listen to everybody's bad experiences and what they did to get out of them. Since, I have started with weight training I am seeing too many ups and downs with my digestive systems. Something is wrong somewhere with my diet while it looks fine too me. I have no idea why I suffer from bloating, constipation and do not feel hungry many times. I am posting my diet plan for all of you. 7:00 AM Shake- Soy Milk, 1 Scoop hemp, Cashews, Banans 10:30 AM Small bowl of curd with cashews and almonds 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM Workout 1:30 PM Lunch- 3 chapatis + vegetable(2 small bowls) 4:00 PM Salad- 1 cucumber + 1 Tomato + 1 Fruit(aaaapple, papaya etc.) + 1 scoop hemp protein powder 9:00 PM 4-5 bowls of cooked Daal I keep adding oatmeals to my diet now and then but it remains like stated above. I am trying to gain weight. I am 25 yrs of age and weight 170 lbs.

I think we can work out for abs daily with 1-2 abs excercises. I am also trying to make my core stronger. I do 2 abs excersices in every workout session. If they get sore next day then I skip a day. My only problem is that it pains me a lot in stomach when it is squeezed while doing crunches. I am not able to increase my reps but I always do 3 sets with 10 reps each.

Want to update you people of some of my weight lifting stats Deadlift: 125lbs Benchpress: 135lbs Squats: 125lbs May look very small but in last 5 months I have doubled my figures.

Hi All, I am back 6 weeks after my first post in this thread. As adviced by you people last time, I introduced mass excercises in my workouts. I limited my workouts to 4 excercises in every training session with increased number of sets. I have got some gains in terms of weights I lift. I see some changes in me after 5 months of training, I can see muscle shapes forming up everywhere on the body but it is not at all visible. People say that I have become more lean. I still feel that I am far from what I want to look like. It looks like I am gaining muscels very slowly. Some of my friends told me that you do not workout properly. According to them, it is normal to have sore muscels next day after workout and only then body develops. It does not happen to me always. My arms and shoulders arent getting sore these days. Also I am not able to increase weights for arms and shoulders workouts. How important it is to get your muscels sore after every workout? One of my main concerns is my weight which has remained fairly constant at 174 lbs. As a software programmer, I found that I can still maintain this weight if I eat 1200 cal/day. My job does not require me to have more calories or may be my metabolism is extremely slow. So I have decided to lower down my calories to 2200 cal/day. I think I do not need more than this for building body. I have also increased cardio to loose more body fat. My diet is a healthy diet than being a high protein diet. I need to know how important it is to have high protein like 1g/lb? I am returning back to India next week. My challenge will be to change my diet as many of the things I am eating in the USA will not be available in India esp. the high protein food sources. I would not get soymilk, tofu, hemp protein and flax seeds easily or they would be quite costly.

hey veganmaster, I will surely go thru your posts: I am mailing my current plan and I would like to have some feedback from you people. 6:30 AM Shake- soymilk, cashews(handful), sunflower seeds(handful), 4 strawberries, 2 banana/1 Mango, 1 spoonful Peanut butter. 8 AM Baby Lima beans(Microwaved) or meatless soybean dogs (light life). It has 36 gms of soy protein and Multivitamins supplement 10 AM Sandwich with boca burger patty, 3 slices of tofu, tomato slices, onions and 1 almond cheese slice. Workout -- 12:00 PM 1:30 PM 1 glass soymilk, Lunch - 2 tortillas, cooked beans or vegetables 4 PM 1 Apple/1 Cucumber, Handful of almonds, 1 small bowl baby carrots 6:30 PM 1 glass juice, Kashi Go lean honey roasted almond cereals in soymilk (500 mg omega 3) OR a shake as prepared in the morning 9 PM Dinner - 2-3 bowls of cooked beans, 1 tortilla (optional), juice or some fruits.

Here is one very good site to see the nutrients in any food. Looks like it covers the US markets very well. Here is the link: http://www.nutritiondata.com/

yes bronco, I have started following that program. I will keep posting my progress. I have some questions on diet now. I am eating almost similar to what people have posted here. I have a problem in keeping this much food ready with me. I eat 3 out of my 5-6 small meals in office. Each morning preparing this stuff is a fight for me. For eg. baking tofu for my 11 AM sandwiches makes me late. Result is I skip a meal and eat less or lot in the next meal. I think everybody is working here and faces this problem. I need to know what you people do to prepare your meals. Does anybody here is packing the stuff at night? What kind of stuff? Some shortcuts to save time.

Um, why not? why should he stick to just a few? I don't know much about this but has anyone ever waken you up in the middle of the night and asked you to do a calculus exam? I think that's what he's doing with his body getting into a hardcore training so directly. Perhaps some conditioning training will help him better at this stage. Yes, I used to do calculus questions at 3:30 AM in the morning. Its true, but it was during the preparation of my engineering enterance exams because I can concentrate better at that time.

hey Jeff, As such I know I am weak on chest but I lift 35 + 35 + 45(barbell) = 105lbs on chest. I made a mistake here; I meant 35 pounds on each side of barbell. I made it to 40 lbs each today with 2 reps. I have a colleague who is 42 and visits gym with me sometimes on Friday. His warmup on chest starts at 135 lbs, which is my current target and he goes upto 280 lbs . I dont know whether I get motivated or demotivated.... hey xjohanx, I am gonna follow the suggested routine .... I will soon post the one with excercises I will do. Can I keep my weekends for doing 45 min Cardio? I am not sure of my days of workouts but I will keep the resting period in between, looks like it has a great importance. I gotto know about HST from a post of daywalker. I am thinking of shifting to it after 8 - 10 weeks. What do you say? Here is the link to it http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_II.html

My job makes me to sit all day long and I have got lower back problems because of that. Now, when I am lifting weights I havent tried deadlift and squats. I dont want to mess up with my back at all. I do squats with dumbbell in my hands and lounges are another good way to keep the back strong. If you start sprint like athletes do in race tht they start from a bending position, you can make your lower back stronger.

Hey Richard, I tried 40 and the result was I called for help to get it off. . that is where I have realised I am lacking strength also. Same with chin ups. I am not able to increase it above 2. Exploring the website more I have found that I should go for slow cardio. Right now I do HIIT cardio for 15 min with intervals of 7 mph and 2.5 mph each for 2 min. I have decided to do 45 min cardio at 4.5 mph so that I shall not burn more muscle mass than fat. I will be doing it 3 times a week. What do you people say about it? Yes, 3 months and I don't see any change in me. I hate my mirror and pics of you people. JK. I know its a very short time but every curve is a great motivation. . I appreciate guidance from you people to improve my schedule. Keep me posted. Thanks.

Thanks lean and green. I am happy that I am not suppose to eat so much of protein because I was finding it impossible. I have almost doubled my diet since I have started workouts. What I am finding difficult is to gain muscle mass at the moment also the strength; I lift 35 lbs on bench press and for the last 1 month I am not able to increase it. I have three questions: I like my schedule. May I shift to wholebody schedule? I do weight training continuously for four days. Does that matter? May I concentrate more on cardio? I want a fit figure and I like to be fat less with increase in size of arms, shoulders and chest. My thighs are quite heavy and there is a mismatch with upper body which I dont like.

Okay, I have started getting it. An apology for writing myself as a vegan. I am a lacto-vegeterian or whatever we call .. but I take milk products. I have stopped junk food for the last 3 months. Infact, dont have time to take coffee since my morning coffee is replaced by shake. My calories are basically coming from the shakes which are made of cup of soymilk, 1 banana/mango, 3 strawberries, handful of cashews, handful of sunflower seeds, 1 spoonful of peanut butter and wheys ( I am planning to stop wheys now, I think I am allergic to them). Other than this I eat 1 meal of tortillas with vegetables and curd in lunch, meatless soy meat in breakfast and cooked pulses in the night with wheat bread. My snacks mainly consist of a cucumber and an apple ( to get dietary fiber). I am very fond of chocolates and cakes so I eat them once a week but in controlled amount. What I have got is 90 minutes for gym. I would like to stick to gym than playing. Do you want me to stick to whole body workout? I want to loose body fat and gain muscle mass so please give me more suggestions on cardio.

I have been through all the meaningful and crappy stuff on this website and finally decided to start with my own topic. I have tried many things I got to read here but have not got any results out of them. I want you people to provide me suggestions which will really help me to reorganize my weight training. I started weight training around 3 months back. I started with training 1 set of muscles each day. My lifestyle does not allow me to train myself more than 4 days a week thats too with very irregular schedule concentrated on fri sat and sun when I am out of my job. I am 5'10'' and 170 lbs. I have never done weight training before this. My aim is to stay fit, reduce fat (I do not look fat and people are amazed at my weight) and make my upper body stronger and increase muscle mass. Diet I am an Indian vegan. I have been a vegan all through my life and basically eats typical north Indian vegetarian diet which basically consist of milk and bread with butter in the morning and tortillas/chapatis with curd and cooked vegetables/curry(as people call it around the world) at lunch and tortillas/chapatis with curd and cooked legumes/pulses for the dinner. This provided me merely 40 gms of protein a day and around 1600 cals. Rest is contributed by tea and junk food. I have changed this diet to add to high protein shakes made with wheys, fruits, soy milk and lots of nuts. I am taking now around 2500 cal/day. So I have now 5 meals a day. ( I even tried eating every 3 hours but I made my stomach upset). I still think my protein intake is not very high. Training schedule Day 1 -- Arms Warm up - cardio(12 min) and stretching Concentration curls -- 15 lbs x 12, 20 lbs x 10, 15 lbs x 10 Close grip bench press -- 25 lbs X 6 x 3 sets Dumbbell Bicep curl -- 15 lbs x 35, 20 lbs x 10, 15 lbs x 35 Lying-Supine Two-Arm Dumbbell Triceps Extension - 15lbs x 10, 20lbs x 8, 10 lbs x 10 Preacher curl -- 10 lbs x 8, 15 lbs x 8, 10 lbs x 8 Standing Bent-Over One-Arm Dumbbell Triceps Extension - 30 lbs x 12, 20 lbs x 15, 20 lbs x 15 Standing One-Arm Dumbbell Triceps Extension - 15 lbs x 10 x 3 sets Day 2 - Shoulders Warm up - cardio(12 min) and stretching Arnold alternate Dumbbell Press - 30 lbs x 10 x 3 sets Side Lateral Raise - 15lbs x 8 x 3 Smith Machine Behind The Neck Press -- 15lbs x6x3 sets Front Dumbbell Raise -- 10 lbs x 8 x 3 sets Dips - 10, 10, 8 Some more exercises for back Day 3 - Chest and upper back Bench Press -- 25 lbs x 10, 35 lbs x 6, 25 lbs x 8 Inclined Bench Press -- 20 lbs x 6 x 3 Cable Crossover -- 20lbs x 10 Decline Barbell Bench Press -- 20lbs x 6 x 3 sets Dumbbell Bench Press -- 30lbs x 10 x 3 sets Decline Dumbbell Bench Press -- 25lbs x 10 x 3 pull ups -- lat machine exercise for upper back on one fitness m/c Day 4 -- Abs, calves, lower back, thighs Decline crunch - 10 x 3 Narrow Stance Leg Press - 90 lbs x 10 Lying Machine Squat - 85 lbs x 8 Walking Dumbbell Lunges -- 35 lbs x 15 steps x 3 sets Seated Leg Curl -- 85 lbs x 8, 100lbs x 6, 85lbs x 8 Seated Calf raise machine - 100 lbs x 15 x 3 sets I have reached a plateau here and not able to increase weights.