But… how “clean” is eating clean? Cause like for example, in my uni the other possible food i can get are pasta (little meat mostly pasta), pizza, chinese food (the fried rice and stuff), noodles, muffins, sandwiches. (what is the best choice among them??) I dont think eating anyone of them is eating “clean” and also, night times i cant possibly eat steak everyday… are stuff like meat pies or lagsane, beef curry with veggie considered “clean” for night times??
As for my work-out, without a barbell… how is it possible for me to increase my lifts by 5lb each week? since barbells comes in 2.5kgs difference. Is working out at the “chest press machine or the leg press machine” the same as bench press and squats??
And for a side-note question, im just curious… since its that hard to get that much calories in. How come people get fat?? I am estimating they have to eat something like 3500 - 4000 calories just to get fat since an average person’s daily calorie needs are around 2700 cals…
Sorry for all the trouble!!!
1 more thing… i was reading for the workout i am preparing tomorrow… but i cant find any videos other than the powerclean one at http://www.uwlax.edu/strengthcenter/videos/video_index.htm
but that video… arent really that clear tho… it looked as though that guy tripped in his first set or something or is it meant to be like that?? This is also the closest thing i can find to a standing military press. Twisting Dumbbell Military Press Exercise Video
Because my gym only has dumb bells… i am assuming its the same thing if i were to do the exercise in the same manner as a barbell yah?
I would go with the beef curry with veggies, if the beef isn’t fried. You don’t have to eat steak every day, any lean meat would be good for dinner, like chicken or turkey. You could also have seafood. Honestly, your primary concerns with evening meals should be avoiding carbs and not just pigging out.
As far as your workout questions, 2.5 kg is just about 5 lbs. A workout on a machine is not the same as a free weight workout. Machines only allow one fixed pattern of movement, and they do not work your stabilizer muscles. You won’t get the same benefits for machines that you will with free weights, especially if you do leg presses instead of squats. For the standing dumbbell military press, stand up straight with a dumbbell in each hand, palms forward, and push straight upwards.
Oh, and the reason that people get fat is that they eat lots of calorie dense, nutrient light foods, like twinkies, which are 150 cals of pure sugar each. It really doesn’t take that much to get to 2800 calories a day of food that won’t be used to build muscle, and even a 100 calorie a day surplus can add up pretty quickly.
oooh okok, thanks alot dude! cleared up alot of my questions there. Sometimes i am just stumped on what to have for dinner, cuz i have to cook for myself… sometimes it would be rather troublesome to cook meat. Would be alot easier just having boiled vegetables or just a meatpie in the oven with a few nuggets. BUT for the sake of this training. I shall follow the diet closely for this month.
And for my dumb bell weight question… ok that was very poorly phrased by me… must have sounded really stupid. I meant. because the gym only has a max of 25kg dumbbell. Sigh…thats what u get from a free gym that comes wiht the apartment i guess…
Would it be possible if I were to do more reps with every increasing week rather than increasing the weight…? Or do i have to get a barbell??
btw i am still confused about the power clean though. hope someone can help me out with this.
Ah so people get fat because of mainly eating snacks?? The common myths of eating normally (3 meals a day, with rice/noodles with 2 servins of meat/veggie not fried) would NEVER get you fat afterall yeah?? Basically, as long as you eat lesser rice/no fried stuff/snacks i doubt anyone can possibly go past the 2800 calories zone.
You’re apartment gym doesn’t have a barbell and weights
You’re broke and trying to eat clean is difficult.
It’s hard to powerclean a dumbpell
In reverse order
3) Powercleans with a dumbpell suck. Power Snatches might be easier- the exercise is pretty much the same, only it ends with the weight over your head, instead of racked on your shoulders. It’s somewhat more intuitive.
2)Eating perfectly clean is ideal. Sometimes it’s not worth it. Looking at someone’s diet, it’s easy to be like ‘you should do…’, but when it comes to putting that into practice, the recommendations are not always simple to do.
Before switching to Lasagne in the evening though, I’d do hamburger. Protein and fat, and usually cheap.
Do you live overseas?
3)From what I understand, the dumbbell weights are still challenging for you. When you DO outgrow them, it’s probably best to shell out the cash to join a gym (your uni have a gym?). Until you can do that, yes, a good progression would be to do progressively higher reps. Once again, this is a battle between what is ideal and what is practical. Ideally, get to a barbell. Practically… do what you can.
Not even snacking all day, just a lot of bad food choices and lack of activity, which slow down the metabolism and destroy muscle. It also varies by ethinthity. 3 servings of noodles a day with limited protein intake for a total of 2700 cals a day would make me, a caucasion, blimp up, while people of asian decent normally handle a higher carb intake better. If you’re really interested in learning more about nutrition, read some of Berardi’s articles on the site, or get his precision nutrition program.
I wouldn’t increase your reps. If you want to get big, you need to put more stress on your muscles, but it works much better for hypertrophy if you stay in a lower rep range with heavier weights.
You just don’t need that much muscle mass to move 25kg, but you need alot to move 150kg. Higher reps will make your muscles more efficent, but not that much bigger. If you haven’t trained much before, you’ll see some growth, but not anywhere near as much as with strength training.
Ok just done today’s workout. Man today’s one was tough. First time i sweat so much during a weight lifts workout. heres the workout schedule.
Squats:
warmup: 10kg 3 sets x 5 reps, 15 kg 3x5
Working set: 25kg (52lb) 3x5
Standing military press:
warmup: 10kg 3 sets x 5 reps, 15 kg 3x5
Working set: 20kg (44lb) 3x3
Power Snatches :
warmup: 10kg 1 sets x 5 reps, 12.5 kg 3x5
Working set: 15kg (32lb) 3x5
Chinups:
2x5 (couldnt do anymore… my shoulders were totally exhausted…)
I couldnt do the standing miltary press 3x5 as well. everytime i reached 3 i could never do the 4th one. As for the power snatches i am not sure if i am doing it right, everytime i reach shoulder length it doesnt have the momentum to go up any further, and i have to push it by myself. and it feels like a mitliary press again.
Also, when i am doing the miliary press…my thighs are shaking like mad, i think its from the squats before. i guess its normal yah?
Been thinking about the barbell problem the whole day. I decided that imma just continue to work out with this 25kg first and see how it goes for a few months. Its really expensive to go my melb uni when i have a gym just below my house, my parents would probably think i am mad.
By the way you are spot on, i am an international student living alone… so i have to cook everything by myself, and my budget is rather tight.
[quote]ninjaboy wrote:
I wouldn’t increase your reps. If you want to get big, you need to put more stress on your muscles, but it works much better for hypertrophy if you stay in a lower rep range with heavier weights.
[/quote]
isnt hypertrophy more reps with lower weights?? like around 10-12. I was reading it up cause i didnt know the meaning of hypertrophy. But after reading it up further. isnt hypertrophy equivalent to getting toned or ripped??
Is it possible to have a visible 6 pack while gaining muscle?
I’m “skinny fat,” I guess. If I eat perfectly clean and by the plan, will I be able to burn enough calories in the gym to have a 6 pack while putting on muscle?
I’m gaining muscle right now, but I have a thin layer of fat covering my abs, the top 4 are visible if I pull down my skin.
If your ‘power snatch’ isn’t getting higher than your shoulder, use a smaller weight, and get it up there. Otherwise it’s a dumbbell power clean, with a jerk at the end. Not necessarily bad, but… not what your program is.
Hypertrophy means ‘make the muscle bigger’. There are a couple of ways to do this, the one you’re doing right now is making the individual muscle fibers stronger and bigger.
Hypertrophy, in your case, is best created with surplus calories. Eat hearty.
About the overhead pressing- it could be your legs are shaking because they’re heavily worked from the squats. It could also be that your body is inefficient in moving weight above your head, and to assist that movement, your nerves cause every muscle in your body to contract (legs go ramrod straight, hands death grip the d-bells) and your body bends back a lil bit to acheive an easier plane of motion.
Try not to bend back. The rest is safe, and has to do with a natural process of developing maximal or near-maximal tension (your last rep or two before failure).
[quote]bmitch wrote:
Artem wrote:
Is it possible to have a visible 6 pack while gaining muscle?
I’m “skinny fat,” I guess. If I eat perfectly clean and by the plan, will I be able to burn enough calories in the gym to have a 6 pack while putting on muscle?
I’m gaining muscle right now, but I have a thin layer of fat covering my abs, the top 4 are visible if I pull down my skin.
Its possible but not optimal… you’ll be limiting the amount of muscle you can gain because you’ll only be eating a little over maintenance(like 200 cals.) But with bulking you go like 400-500 cals over and while yes you do gain some fat you gain more muscle this way [/quote]
There is no set limit to how much you must go over when bulking. If he’s gaining strength and size 200 calories over maintenance, then stay at 200 calories over maintenance. If he is gaining strength and size 400 calories over maintenance, but gaining more fat than he would like, than drop the calories a little bit.
Nobody can tell someone else how many calories in surplus someone else should be doing because everyone is different. It’s up to the specific person and his goals to figure that out, and figure out how his body responds.
Dips (finally managed to grab 5kg with my legs)
2x8
How does it look??
Added a abs exercise
I dont know how the counting works, i just keep on doing till i cant do anymore.
As for my diet, i practically repeat everything as before. no difference.
Thanks otep for getting rid of my queries!! now i shall focus on this rippetoe’s programme for another 2 months and see how things go.
Other than that, i will start increasing 5 lbs to my weights next week. So it should be 2.5 lbs per dumbell yeah? i think i gonna push it to 5 lbs per dumbbell, if its possible. Also one thing i would like to confirm is that, when i am doin the programme for the last set of every exercise should i do the exercise for as many reps as it takes till i get muscle failure?
that last set is done to failure, or 5 reps, whichever comes first.
No, fuck that. Get in five reps. If you have to rest-pause it, do that, but get in those five reps. But don’t do more. If you CAN do more, come back and bump the weigh tnext time.
Those bell swings were the second most useless exercise I’ve ever seen. Man up and do some leg raises for your abs, if you wanna do something for your abs.
haha really?!?! man i just saw that as the only dumb bell abs exercise on the website lol didnt expect it would be so crap. i wonder whats the worst lol.
ok then will do the leg raises as abs for each workout then. and thanks for the advice about the 5 reps.
My diet and workout is so far so good yeah i guess? no more tweaks? How many months or years should a person follow this programme by the way? Or should he just follow it all the way
