Newbie advice

[dalboy]

Hi people.

OK I am looking to build up overall muscle. I am 27, a short **** (5'6) and weigh 10 stone. I am slim, but have noticed recently a "slight" beer gut developing! Over the years I have never been able to put on a lot of weight, but maybe its all starting to catch up. I can actually see muscle around my abs though. I have stopped going to my local gym of 3 years as I had no motivation and I am now doing it from home. My diet was wrong as well.

Anyway I'd though I'd post my routine and diet for any extra tips from you guys and to see if I'm doing the right thing.

6 week Routine:

Tue: Back & Chest

Chest:
Bench press flat,
flies flat
press-ups (inverted).

Back:

Deadlift,
bent over row,
clean & press

Thu: Legs & Shoulders

Legs:

Barbell squats,
barbell stepup
barbell lunges

Shouders:

Military press
seat dumbell press,
side raises,
front raises.

Sat: Arms, calves & abs

Arms:
Triceps: kick backs, over head extension, reverse dips.
Biceps: Alternate curls, hammer curls, straight bar curls.


This takes me about an hour each session. I do it all at home with just a bench and free weights. Each time I finish with an ab workout.

I am now in my second week.

Diet:

7am - shake (see below) + toasted wholemeal slice
10am - half tin of tuna on toasted wholemeal + orange juice.
1pm - either - Pasta salad meal from m&s, jacket potato with cheese, chicken breast with rice, chicken with noodles or rice, + banana on most meals
4pm - nut snack.
6.15pm - shake
7.15pm workout
8.15pm post workout shake (see below)
8.30pm - either jacket potata, rice, pasta, steak, baby potatoes, turkey breasts, chicken breasts, pitta bread, salad with every meal (i hate most vegetables apart from peas) salmon, home made cottage pie, meatballs with pasta. NO microwave meals.

Also couple of litres of water a day.

I have cut out all fizzy drinks, crisps, chocolate, biscuits, coffee etc...

The shakes are made up of:

Pre-workout: Banana, porridge oats, 40gms of whey protein powder, with water, plus low fat milk.

Post-workout: 40gms protein powder, 5gms L-Glutamine powder + water and low sugar orange juice.

I have cut alcohol consumption to 1 day a week (saturday night)

Basically I just want a second opinion on what I am doing is right to achieve my goals as fast and efficiently as possible.

I havent been keeping a calorie count either.

Any extra tips on stuff I can add in / remove etc...?

I also have a treadmill at home and a free standing punch bag - I was told not to do run on the treadmill for what I want to achieve but a fast walk instead. Does this sound right? What about the punch bag?

Any help really appreciated,

Thanks
Dal

[comanight2]

learn to love the veg wee man (i beat you by an inch in height :P, i know your pain!)

I think running is great so ill stay out of the treadmill debate, and you dont have to use the punch bag either but, it burns of extra cals!

Calorie counting is a necessary evil unfortunately . . .

Food Focus - Permanent Weight Loss is your best friend for it, after you get set up you can track your meals in less than 15 mins per day.

As for how much to eat and what to eat...thats up for debate and theres a lot of different opinions but generally everyone agrees on about 1.5g of protien per lb of bodyweight for optimal muscle gain.

I take a lot of my info from John Berardi and this article is a favourite Bodybuilding.com - John Berardi - Massive Eating - Part I!

good luck man, hope it works out for you

[dalboy]

Thanks pal. Will read it over.

My shakes come in about 50g of protein with all the ingredients. Thats 100g on non training days and 150g (!) on training days. I need to reach max about 210g a day. I've added up all what I would have consumed by the end of the day and it equates to pretty much 210g.

Does the shakes sound about right?

Sorry if this sounds a bit stupid.

[comanight2]

yeah that sounds about or thereabouts right. Youll never get it perfect but you should try and be as close as possible!

Word of warning though a lot of people recommend not taking more than 80g from shakes - I dont agree with that - but you should try and get as much as you can from whole foods none the less.

But hey, its just the start, so dont stress too much about perfection as much as eating as well as is possible and always getting your butt to the gym. Worry about the more advanced stuff later.

[dalboy]

Anyone else have advice on if I'm doing things right / wrong?

Thanks

[Monkfish]

Just a few quick comments mate:

• I would get a pull up bar and work those into your back routine if possible, great for width and overall back development.
  
  
• For triceps, remove kickbacks and add some dips. These can easily be done between two chairs and are better for mass and overall development.
  
  
• Diet looks spot on, but only you can judge if its enough to build muscle. You're training a lot so dont ignore your body if it wants food... just make sure its clean nutrition
  
  
• In terms of cardio, if you're bulking you dont want to do too much but i would certainly recommend doing some form. Intervals are your best bet, try sprinting on the treadmill for 30 seconds, then jogging slowly for 2minutes 30 seconds. Repeat this four times and see how you get on, then play with the sprint/rest/repeat numbers.
  
  
• Boxing is excellent, try doing a minute's boxing and two minutes of rest. These short, sharp bursts put ur systems into overdrive, getting good results in a short amount of time.
  
  
• Look up HIIT and the theory behind it on the forum for more info.

Good luck!

[dalboy]

Thanks a lot for that MonkFish.

I do actually do dips as well.

Should i do the boxing before or after my workout, or on non workout days?

[dalboy]

Guys had one more question - Should I be looking at my calorie amounts as well? If im reading right im supposed to be consuming about 2800kcals a day. When I do my calculcations, its coming in about 2100. I weight 140lbs...slim but not skinny / underweight.

Am I reading too much into it? My main goal is to obviously build muscle.

Thanks

[Gaz Man]

In order to build muscle you need to be in a calorie excess. Like LionHair said read the stickies, loads of useful info & links in them.

Make sure you add up everything. For instance if you had a bowl of tinned tuna steak the cals would be about 225. If you then added a table spoon of olive oil and a table spoon of full fat mayo that won't look like much extra, but you would probably be adding another 200 cals. (I'm not saying mayo is good for you it's just calorie dense).

[dalboy]

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