[quote]Aragorn wrote:
TJ_T wrote:
Easy dude… what makes you think I can’t get that body? I have the right body type with small bone structure, a really narrow waist, and the V shape, and very little fat; I also swam competitively for years which probably contributed to it. I want some more mass in the shoulders to widen them out, and more mass on my back and chest, better abs, and better definition (apparently tone isn’t the right word). Who better to ask about these things than bodybuilders… even if the end goal isn’t the same. You know how to build muscle better than any other group of people, right?
Ok, this is my 2 cents in no particular order (stream of consciousness here). I’m feeling really generous today, so I’m going to cover as much as I can. However, I’m not going to edit this, so you read and cut/paste/reformat or whatever so you can get it all.
Wide shoulders–in addition to working on your shoulders directly, you’re going to want to concentrate a lot on your back. This is because the better your back is build and the wider it is, the wider your shoulders will look and the smaller your waist will look in comparison.
Don’t fall into the trap of OVERworking your chest, as this will draw the shoulders in and help create a narrower impression. You’re going for the X frame look. Thibaudeau has lots of good articles on exercises for both back width and back thickness, both of which you will probably need some of.
You will want to concentrate the most on the lateral head of the shoulders (the one on the side), and the rear head of the shoulders (the one on your back). This will widen your shoulders and draw them back, creating a wider shouldered look and great posture.
Working the rear delts will also help make sure that you can bench more without running a big risk of injury. Strict form is required to work the rear delts by reverse flyes or whatever exercise you want. Otherwise other muscles will take over and compensate and it will be useless.
Most people have gotten enough/way too much front delt work and don’t need any more unless they’re elite level lifters. Also, the rotator cuff is extremely valuable to keeping you healthing and wide-shouldered and able to bench a lot. So put some rotator cuff work in at the end of your shoulder session and chest/back session.
No failure, and start very light weights with more reps for the rotator cuff.
Chest/Back–covered somewhat above. To get a bigger chest, you’ll need to work it, my point here is to say that you should pay attention to balance between chest and back. All chest and no back and you’ll look like a neanderthal, no matter how big or small you are. Balance leads to square shoulders and a good enhanced V look.
Bear in mind you’re probably weaker in the back as a natural imbalance most people have (of course, your swimming background may help you some here, depending). To get balanced, do just as many sets of back work as you do chest work–eg, 5 sets of 8 reps bench = AT LEAST 5 sets of 8 reps in rows.
Likewise, overhead presses and dips should be balanced with chinup and pull up variations. This is a major mistake people make. A 2nd mistake is a mismatch in the intensity of chest work vs. back work. You do, say, heavy sets of 3-5 reps in a bench exercise, you should do heavy sets of 3-5 reps in a back exercise, instead of 2-3 sets of 12 reps.
Since you most likely have imbalances to begin with (a lot of people can both bench and dip more weight than they can row or chin), this is a long term goal you should work towards.
Better Abs–there is a trap that many, many people fall into in ab training. This is thinking that they have to do a lot of reps (20-30 plus in one set) to get better abs. A couple of the previous posters alluded to this–1) Abs are made in the kitchen, and 2) a six-pack is also a function of muscle mass.
If you got no mass, it won’t matter how "ripped’ you are, you’ll look like crap because you won’t have enough muscle to separate into 6 defined areas. Question: how do you build mass for your other bodyparts? Answer: you do a variety of heavy exercises ranging from 5-12 reps a set, and gradually up either the weight used or the volume over time.
Same thing for abs. Weighted exercises for 5-12 reps will be a mainstay, even while cutting. You can throw in a couple sets of high repetition work in at the end, but your progress is going to come mostly from heavier work.
A side note: Instead of only upping your weights used, you can also change the angles at which you work to make it harder (eg–steeper incline on incline crunches), and you can also try to get more reps in each workout than the last one while keeping the weight the same. These are all forms of progress.
Further, you can simply add another set at the same or slightly lower weight every workout/week for a bit…but be sure to cut back and give your body a break every 5-6 weeks. (eg–3 sets, 4 sets, 5 sets, 6 sets, 4 sets–down week, start over–5 sets, 6 sets, 7 sets, 5 sets, etc).
All these forms of progress are equally valuable for ALL your body parts. Use them all at some time to avoid burnout A final form of progress is using the same weights and reps as previous weeks but cutting your rest times down between sets. Also, don’t try to use all of these forms of progression at the same time for the same exercise. That will kill or injure you fast.
Better Definition–mentioned above a little bit…Definition is controlled by diet mostly, but cardio as well. Accept the fact that while trying to gain muscle, you will gain some fat. This is the only way it will happen, unless you are a complete newbie to weights.
Because you a complete newb, however, and especially because of your swimming background, it will be easier for the first couple of months to put muscle on w/o much fat. Make no mistake though, eventually your newbie gains will stop and you’ll have to accept the fact that muscle gain will have some fat gain as well.
This does not mean to get to be a fat lazy ass. But it does mean that you’ll lose your precious definition for a while. Eating clean will help you a lot in keeping fat gain minimal while you bulk, but at some point you’ll have to make a command decision to either up the calories to the point you gain some fat or never make your goals.
Keys to good nutrition (each of these things are crucial to both bulking and cutting up, but for different reasons in each case)–
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eat frequently. Meaning, every 2-3 hours. No exceptions unless you’re sleeping or on a hot date. Class, work, whatever, find a way to get it done. Purpose: bulking–keep nutrients constantly flowing so you’ve got the raw materials to build your muscles with.
cutting–keep both insulin and hunger pangs in check and allow an easier psychological time with strict diet. This is also why it’s important to eat clean foods–when you’re eating this frequently, eating crap or sugar will make fat gains worse while bulking.
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fiber in the form of veggies and fruit. bulking–you’re eating a lot, do you really want the plumbing clogged?
Also keep fat gain down. cutting–fiber combats hunger and keeps insulin in check. bonus: veggies/fruit give you all kinds of good vitamins that will make a big difference in your results.
- Protein with each meal. bulking–muscles are largely protein, so you’ll need a buttload (haha). Also, helps with recovery from tough workouts. Don’t worry about your kidneys exploding unless you’ve got a prior condition.
Dumbass nutritionists have been throwing out alarmist statements that really have no place in a scientific setting. cutting–too many to mention, high protein intake combats hunger much more than fat (more “filling”), keeps metabolism revved, helps combat muscle loss (the ultimate evil while cutting, as muscle mass drives your metabolism), and allows you to maintain more intense workouts which help fat loss.
- On the training side of cutting–heavy weights (3-5 rep range) do wonders for keeping muscle mass while cutting fat. Think about it–if your body is put under constant stress that it considers threatening, it’s going to save all the muscle it can to keep itself from being crushed. On the other hand, if you use light weight sets, your body is ok with losing some muscle because it doesn’t feel threatened.
So, use both kinds of weight. Lots of heavy weight to keep newly gained muscle, and lighter “finishing” sets to help increase the metabolic demand of your workouts.
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Post workout nutrition–the only thing as important as eating breakfast. Roughly 25-30g of protein with 50-60g of sugar to start with. bulking–think of it as emergency aid for your traumatized muscles. cutting–cut the carbs down to 40-50 and keep the protein at about 25g. This will not affect fat loss. You just traumatized your body, all this stuff will be used to repair what you just busted up.
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Breakfast. If you’re trying to do anything without breakfast, you should be shot. I don’t care if you are tired. There is no excuse besides emergency or death to miss breakfast. bulking/cutting–kickstart the metabolism. You just had a 8 hour muscle wasting fast (sleep). You need food! cutting–revs up metabolism and leads to less hunger throughout the day, spares your muscle from being used up as fuel for your starving body.
Principles of training not already mentioned–1) use strict form and full range of motion (ROM). Contrary to every idiot you see out there, increased ROM leads to greater stress on the muscle and thus quicker realization of your end goal. As you are not going for a huge build, cheating on form and short ROM is not going to offer you any real benefit.
All it will do is build imbalances that lead to injury or make you lose flexibility. 2) USE COMPOUND MOVEMENTS FIRST IN A WORKOUT AND MOST OF THE TIME–compound movements place the most stress on your muscles and nervous system and lead to faster realization of your goal. They also allow you to get more done if you’re short on time for some reason.
If you are a genetic mutant or using drugs, or an elite level bodybuilder/strongman/athlete, use of a lot of isolation exercises for symmetry or balance purposes or for bringing up weak points is probably needed at some point. But you’re not, so don’t start your workouts with curls. Use the most stressful exercises when you’re the freshest–this should be common sense.
Isolation movements finish your workout and your muscles. Also, remember compound means more than one joint or muscle, so lunges, step-ups, pull-throughs, squats, deadlifts, standing military presses, bench presses, cleans, jerks, snatches, barbell/dumbell/cable rows, chins, dips are all good. leg curls are a single joint exercise and almost all machine exercises are single joint = isolation = use sparingly or at the end of your workout.
Yes, this means that biceps/triceps isolation comes AFTER bench/row/press/chins, unless you have a specific arm only workout/day. 3) TRAIN YOUR LEGS!! If you want a wider shouldered upper body, you’ll need bigger legs to support your good looking back, chest, arms, and shoulders. You don’t need bodybuilder huge legs, but they need to be able to support your other muscles.
There’s a lot of research that shows that upper body progress will slow if there is a large imbalance with the lower body. Also, you’ll look like an idiot and women will laugh. I am not joking, I’ve been in a crapload of gyms, and in every one of them I’ve overheard women laughing with their friends about the lightbulb shaped morons that strut around the gym. As I lift at my college gym currently, that means quite a lot of hot women.
- This bears emphasis–don’t fall prey to the “mirror muscle” trap. In other word, don’t just train the stuff you see in the mirror, it leads to a horrible look and potential injury from imbalances. Hamstrings are much more important than quads in your legs as most people are quad dominant and stronger hams help keep your knees healthy and injury free.
Same for glutes, actually. Besides, women like a good butt, and I’m sure you know it. the back has already been covered. 5) if possible, don’t walk in front of someone’s “mirror space” while they are lifting. Not always possible, but greatly appreciated by us/them.
- If you curl in the squat rack when there is some place else in the gym to curl, expect a swift and painful demise from serious lifters. The only place to squat or good morning is in a rack. You can curl anywhere. And if you can’t pick up from the floor what you can bicep curl, you likely have a whole lot of problems waiting to happen to you. Possible exception–you can curl more than 135 lbs and there is also no trap station with a bar.
READ THE ARCHIVES and use the SEARCH function! There’s almost 10 years of articles and research publications by some of the country’s top coaches and scientists here. If you don’t use it, you should be hung, drawn and quartered. The secrets are there.
Finally, if you don’t use this post and get your arse reading, I will hunt you down, take out your guts and strangle you with them, and then wear your skin as a coat for wasting my time. [/quote]
Awesome, thanks! That IS generous!
